NCIS - Home of the Brave - Review: “Once a Marine, Always a Marine”
14.7 - “Home of the Brave”
Directed by Alrick Riley
Written by Gina Lucita Monreal
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount
We start the show in a supermarket. Let’s be honest, these type of openings never pan out in Law & Order, so I’m not overly hopeful for this sweet couple, who just happen to be recreating their first date.
Uh oh, they go to check out and guess what? No one is there. They walk around to the other side of the counter where they find a man kneeling over a dead body.
Aw! McGee is talking to the goldfish. Adorable.
Tony’s dad brings the team sans Gibbs together. He said he will be joining Tony and his amazing daughter in Paris for Christmas. Tony and his daughter will be living in Paris indefinitely.
Tony’s father shares that Tony has asked him to lease out his apartment. DiNozzo Senior will be the landlord. There’s only one catch, the fish need looking after.
Looks like McGee, Abby, and Bishop all want Tony’s old apartment. Who do you think is going to get it? I think it will go to Torres.
Dead sailor. The apartment talk must be put on hold for the time being.
McGee and Bishop make it to the convenient store first. Quinn and Torres are right behind them and guess what? Everyone is talking about the apartment.
The victim, Troy Willis, is a sailor who worked in security at the Navy Yard. He’s been shot. The only evidence is a footprint.
I like Gibb’s haircut. Quinn is acting like a weirdo.
Torres and Bishop check in with the first officer on the scene. She reports that an armed robber shot seaman Willis. An employee working the nightshift, Victor Medina, called 911, but he bolted before the police arrived.
Back door is locked. NCIS investigators don’t wait for the owner to show up, they kick it in. In the back, they find a bloody rag and a gun. It doesn’t look like a robbery any more.
Quinn is still being a big weirdo. The team notices. Quinn says that she has a dream about Gibbs. The team tries to guess what kind of dream Quinn had about Gibbs. Turns out it was a sexy hot dream. Gibbs breaks up the gossip.
Medina, the night clerk, is a former Marine. He got in a bar fight awhile back, but has been clean ever since. Medina told the 911 dispatcher that the victim, Troy Willis, was shot by someone wearing a mask and driving a white sports car.
Side note, Quinn can barely contain her awkwardness standing next to Gibbs. It’s pretty funny!
Anyways, the blood, the weapon, and the fact that Medina fled the scene don’t add up to a robbery. I wonder what really went down?
Abby is running ballistics.
This just in, the police caught Medina at a bus stop. They are holding him for the NCIS crew.
Ducky and Jimmy are in the morgue with Troy Willis’ body. Quinn joins them. Jimmy has had the same dream. Ducky says, “Let’s move on should we?” Hee hee hee!
The victim was shot, but has rib injuries from CPR. Maybe Medina isn’t the murderer?
Abby has an update. The gun is definitely the murder weapon. It isn’t registered and there are no prints. The bullet is Swiss made. Abby can’t wait to get back to Tony’s apartment!
DiNozzo Senior is allegedly helping Abby track down the owner of the shoes. McGee doesn’t by it. When Senior asks Gibbs if he has any advice on how he should pick one person for the apartment, Gibbs makes a Gibbs face and says, “Nope!” Ha ha!
The same police officer from the scene says that she was just getting ready to fill out Medina’s paperwork because she didn’t think Bishop was coming? That’s weird. I bet she’s involved.
Bishop talks to Medina. He says that a masked gunman entered the store, he wanted the money in the register. The sailor charged the guy, the gun went off, the masked man ran out. Medina says that he ran off after the gunman. That’s why the door opened so many times. He threw himself on the car, but the gunman wouldn’t stop. He called 911 and ran back inside to help the sailor. He said that he also locked the gun in the backroom, so no one else would get hurt. He says that the couple walked in to the store, so he left the scene. If Medina’s story is true, Bishop wants to know why he is in Pennsylvania.
McGee and Quinn have an update. Medina’s story is checking out.
Uh oh… An immigration officer stops by NCIS HQ. He has issued a BOLO for Victor Medina and wants to deport him.
Quinn is pissed. She thinks it’s BS that Medina is going to be deported. He was a solider in the US Army. Can they do anything to fix this situation that their BOLO caused?
Medina is riding back to NCIS HQ with Bishop and Torres. He asks for his compass, said it was a gift from his dad. Medina was heading to Ohio to see his mother. He knew he was going to be on ICE’s radar, so he wanted to say goodbye to her. Bishop tells Torres to turn around and that they are going to Ohio. Torres, with the help of some singing, turns the car around.
Back at Tony’s apartment, McGee and Senior are hanging out. McGee says that he is just taking some measurements for Delilah, just in case they are “lucky enough,” to get the apartment. Senior changes the subject. He has figured out the make of shoe. They are rare and Italian.
Abby has done some research into military members who have been deported by ICE. She is pissed. Gibbs is too.
Abby has used the shoe details, plus the white sports car detail, and *wave your magic wands* she has come up with a list of three subjects! Abby. Is. Everything.
Meanwhile, in Ohio, Torres is being a jerk wad. Medina is getting ready to tell his mom what happened when Torres interrupts and says that Medina is deploying. Bishop plays along. Medina’s mother is upset. Torres is suddenly the good guy. He agrees that they should stay for dinner.
Gibbs confronts Quinn about her strange behavior. She brushes it off.
The owner of the shoes, who lives in a giant mansion, says that he threw the pair of shoes that implicate him away over a year ago and that he was hosting a broker’s open the night of the murder. The fancy relator has multiple guns and by multiple, I mean loads. He also has tons of bullets and no idea if any are missing.
Authur Jankowski, the man who ran away from Quinn and Gibbs is a convicted identify thief. He’s already spent three years in prison, which apparently didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest. His latest victim is Mason Moffett is a bestselling author. Jankowski has been stealing Moffett’s royalty checks and boy oh boy, is he looking guilty!
The third potential suspect (shoes + white sports car combo) is Howard Lane, a hedge fund manager with an airtight alibi.
Gibbs sends McGee and Quinn after Jankowski.
The ICE officer is pissed that Medina isn’t back yet. Gibbs tells him to calm down, but in a Gibbs sort of way.
Back in Ohio, Medina’s mother has cooked a big meal for everyone. Torres is feeling really bad about the situation and is like, “Sure we can stay a little bit longer.” Now Bishop is all, “We gotta go!”
Medina says that the bar fight he got in, was actually him sticking up for a girl whose drunk boyfriend was being super aggressive with her. After the fight, the girl and her boyfriend lied about the fight. Medina caught the blame.
Medina says that he hasn’t been to Mexico since he was a boy and that he doesn’t even speak Spanish. Man… What a terrible situation! He says that he needs to tell him Mom the truth.
Tony’s dad decided to draw a name for the apartment. It’s too hard for him to pick someone otherwise. He recruited Jimmy and Ducky’s hat for the drawing.
Abby is tracking Jankowski’s car right now. It turns out that he didn’t just steal the author’s identity, he wants to be him too. Scary! I’ve experienced something similar first hand. Someone stole my work, posted it on a website, and then pretended to be me. It was nothing short of terrifying!
Abby found Jankowski, because, Abby!
What do you know, Torres won the apartment! I totally called that one!
Quinn and Gibbs have Jankowski in custody. He looks familiar. I’m going to IMDb him in a minute.
Turns out Jankowski is not their guy.
Bishop and Torres are still with Medina. They’ve stopped at a diner. Medina says that his mom is calling and excuses himself to take the call. Torres broke protocol by giving Medina back his phone. I think this is going to end badly for Torres, what do you think? At least he still has the apartment.
Bishop wants to know what was up with Torres’ change of heart. He says that he has family and friends like Medina. They could have been him. He doesn’t want to be the one to turn him over.
Oh shoot! A gunman enters the diner and eyes up Medina. Torres runs after him. Bishop and Medina are close behind. I wonder if Medina will run?
I’m trying not to laugh, but the guy with the gun just pushed a stack of tires over on Torres. That’s kind of funny. I’m one of those people who like when stuff like that happens, as long as no one gets hurt, you know? If someone gets hurt, it’s no longer funny to me, even if it’s fictional hurt.
Bishop shoots the gunman. Torres looks up and has a strange look on his face. I bet Medina ran away. That said, he seems like a real standup guy, so who knows? I don’t want to assume the worst. But, it’s super unfair that he’s even in this situation, you know? What do you think?
The man that Bishop shot turns out to be a professional hitman named Carl Dixon. Dixon was trying to shoot Medina, but we don’t know why.
Ooh! Abby figured out who the killer is due to a giant magnet being in his car. Stick with me here, the magnet in the white sports car demagnetized Medina’s compass, causing it to no longer point north. Only one of the three suspects has this fancy magnet in his car and guess who it is? The first suspect, the realtor, who was allegedly at the broker’s open.
OH SNAP! They ask the realtor about HIS SON! Turns out the son has a list of bad deeds. Looks like he has graduated to robbing convenient stores. The father was covering up for his son. Got rid of his shoes, got rid of the bullets, this guy was really trying to erase any and everything that could tie his son to the scene.
Gibbs asks if he knows Dixon, THE HITMAN! The realtor hired Dixon to take out Medina, the only witness to the murder. They are tracking a payment made to Dixon and they are pretty sure it will lead them right back to the realtor.
Quinn and McGee go to arrest the realtor’s son. Turns out Quinn is already over Gibbs because he read ellipses out loud. I guess if that works for her, go on with it, right?
Medina didn’t run away. He’s a good person. Abby fixed Medina’s compass, that makes him happy. He says that it’s a privilege to live here and not one that should be taken for granted. Aw!
Gibbs comes in the room and says that he has a lawyer who could possibly help. He wants to help Medina.
The ICE agent takes Medina away. What a load of crap.
Gibbs says, “Semper Fi,” to Medina. Medina responds back, “Semper Fi.” Once a Marine, always a Marine.
Torres is in Tony’s apartment, well his new apartment, when McGee pops by to pick up his love book. Torres is flipping through it. Uh oh, is Torres going to give up the apartment to McGee? What do you think?
Aw, Torres and McGee have a heart to heart. Torres says that he likes being a good guy and that, “Home is a privilege,” and he hands McGee the key to Tony’s old apartment. Looks like Medina really left a positive impact on Torres. Torres says that he isn’t ready for this apartment yet, but he knows that McGee is ready.
Torres walks out, leaving McGee with a big smile.
My Thoughts:
This episode made me sad. Sad that good people have to face bad consequences. Sad that bad people do not have to face those same consequences (some of the time).
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