NCIS - Enemy Combatant - Review: “Brotherly Love”
14.8 - “Enemy Combatant”
Directed by Tony Wharmby
Written by Jennifer Corbett
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount
The episode starts with new parents driving their baby around late at night. They have soothed her to sleep by driving around and blaring hip hop music (FYI – I totally plan on being that parent). Uh oh! They got a flat tire. The baby starts to cry after the music stops and they have to pull over to fix it.
I’m a bit confused, why have they have called a tow truck if the husband is fixing the tire? Did I miss something there?
Anyways, there are headlights heading their way. They think it’s the tow truck. Uh oh, turns out that it isn’t the tow truck, instead it’s a vehicle headed directly at them. The husband jumps out of the way as the car goes off the road.
And that my friends, is how an episode of NCIS starts!
After the intro we head over to Bishop’s apartment. She has flowers on her kitchen counter. Interesting! Wonder who those are from?
Bishop hears someone in her apartment. She pulls her gun and charges into her bedroom. Ha ha! The intruders aren’t intruders at all, they’re her three brothers.
Bishop is saved from her brother’s interrogation by a call from Gibbs. There’s a dead body.
Torres and Bishop show up to the crime scene together. They car pooled, but weren’t on a date together, allegedly. Quinn isn’t buying it. I think it’s too obvious.
The victim is Commander Derrick Reza and he was a Navy Chaplain for an Interfaith Association. Ducky’s timeline shows that he was dead before his car crashed. Someone placed a brick on the gas petal and purposefully sent the Commander’s dead body off the road and into a boulder.
Back at HQ, Bishop’s brothers are hanging out and trying to figure out who their sister is dating. They grill McGee, thinking he could be their suitor’s potential new beau. Ha ha! I like the comic relief they are providing in this episode.
Reza worked as an Imam. He was also a member of several charitable organizations. It doesn’t look like this guy would have many enemies.
Ducky is talking to the victim. Ducky is the best. He is so smart. Imagine hanging out with him for a day.
The victim’s family do not want an autopsy. Ducky is honoring their wishes. An examination of the body at the crash scene has shown that blunt force trauma was the cause of death.
Bishop and McGee are talking to the last person Reza spoke with on the phone. He reported that Reza was in great spirits and that, “he lived to serve the community.”
Bishop and Quinn are at the Interfaith Church. The Commander was well liked there as well. It’s reported that he was spending a lot of time with a young woman at the church recently, a young woman in her twenties, who wore a head scarf.
Back at HQ, Bishop’s brothers interrogate Torres. He tells them that they are, “barking up the wrong tree,” and that that Bishop, “isn’t his type.” Torres tells the team that Bishop is hanging out with MI6 Officer, Clayton Reeves from work. I think Torres is full of it.
McGee is upset that Bishop is dating someone and that she hasn’t told them yet. Abby is cool with waiting, NOT! Ha ha! Abby is so funny.
The Commander has a lot of classified files on his computer. The documents contain info about Guantanamo Bay. Why would he have these files?
The team digs into the Commander’s background and finds out that he served at Guantanamo Bay for two years. They also find out that several of the documents on his computer contain info about a specific detainee named Amir Hassan.
Reeves joins the team and drops a knowledge bomb on them about Amir. He was arrested after attacks in London. Reeves looks pretty excited to work with Bishop. His forwardness makes me think that he isn’t Bishop’s new love interest.
Quinn and Torres find out that Commander Reza had a calming effect on the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Some of the other soldiers didn’t like how close Reza was with the detainees. It isn’t clear how Reza got his hands Amir’s files.
Ha ha! Bishop’s brothers pull a Gibbs and turn off the elevator while riding with Reeves. They accuse him of dating their sister. Reeves denies it.
Abby and McGee have torn apart the Commander’s car. They have retraced his moves the day of his death. They had to painstakingly due this because he, *insert gasp* disliked technology more than Gibbs and didn’t own a cell phone. Turns out that Reza had visited a bank, his home, and a hotel. Abby and McGee found out that Amir’s sister was staying at the hotel that Commander Reza visited the day of his death.
Gibbs and McGee talk to Amir’s sister. She claims her brother is innocent and that people on the inside, “don’t want the truth to come out.”
Bishop and Qasum, a translator for NCIS, confirm that Amir’s sister is telling the truth after listening to hours of translated tapes. Someone altered information and Bishop can prove that Amir was set up. Several translations were altered to make Amir look like a terrorist or an accomplice to a terrorist.
Bishop and the Qasim, head to Guantanamo Bay to talk to Amir in person.
Amir tells them that he isn’t a terrorist. They tell him that Commander Reza was trying to get him out of Guantanamo Bay. They also share that Reza had been murdered. They are trying to find out if Reza’s murder was connected to his actions of trying to release Amir from Guantanamo.
Gibbs finds out that several years ago some of the translations were conducted by private contractors. Evidence shows that some of the private translators lied and made up information to keep detainees locked up.
Qasim convinces Amir to talk after telling him about his similar story. Bishop saved Qasim. Now it’s their turn to save Amir. Bishop vows not to leave Guantanamo Bay without Amir.
McGee finds the defense contractor who interrogated Amir. He was going by a fake name. His real identify is Ronald Ayers, who is one of the leaders from the Interfaith Church that Commander Reza worked at in the States.
Uh oh! Ayers holds Reeves at gunpoint. Don’t worry, Torres comes to the rescue.
Gibbs and Quinn have Ayers in the interrogation room. Ayers said that he wasn’t trying to kidnap or hold Reeves at gunpoint, he was just scared, due to the Commander’s death. Gibbs wants to know who altered Amir’s translation tapes. Ayers said the defense contractor he worked for forced him to change the translation files. He eventually quit because of this and he feels terrible about everything that went down, including Amir’s wrongful detainment at Guantanamo Bay. He admits to giving Reza the computer files on Amir. He said that he was, “trying to right a wrong.”
Bishop is feeling guilty as she confesses to sending people to Guantanamo Bay. She says that it, “doesn’t feel like justice.” She’s worried that there are more innocent people like Amir being detained at Guantanamo. Qasim reassures her that she has freed Amir and that is a very powerful and good deed.
McGee tells Abby that she’s crazy. Bishop and Gibbs would never hook up. I agree, McGee. I agree.
Commander Reza stopped by the bank the day he died. He was looking into money being withdrawn by Gareth Bainbridge from the Interfaith Church. Uh oh, looks like Gareth had been taking money out of the account and pretending to donate it to local charities. Instead, he pocketed over 250k.
Bishop has a heart to heart with Gibbs. She admits that she is dating Qasim. Gibbs responds with, “Took you long enough!”
Ooh! Ooh! The reveal! Bishop is dating Qasim! The brothers all break out into big smiles and hug Qasim. The scene ends with everyone laughing when one of Bishop’s brothers says, “Thank God, we thought it was Gibbs!”
*******
My Thoughts:
Overall, this was a pretty good episode. The actors playing Bishop’s brothers did a nice job. You could definitely feel the “protective brother vibe” from each of them, but with a healthy dose of comedy.
The show touched on a pretty serious political topic with class and thoughtful writing. Amir’s release at the end was fantastic. It’s important for television shows and movies to show that people can easily been wrongly convicted. It’s also important to show that those convictions can be overturned and that truth can prevail.
I also thought the team worked really well together during this episode. Everything just flowed very naturally. Did you get this vibe too?
What did you think of Bishop’s reveal at the end? I like her and Qasim dating! I think they are going to be an awesome couple!
Let me know what you thought of the episode with a comment below!
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