NCIS: New Orleans - Overdrive - Review: “Ready, Set, Rob!”
3.9 - “Overdrive”
Directed by Gordon Lonsdale
Written by Ron McGee
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount
The episode starts off on a racetrack with two cars hauling tail around it. Uh oh! One of the drivers has a major car malfunction and he can’t slow down. His car crashes and flips multiple times before finally coming to a stop. Things do not look good for that driver.
Pride pays Gregorio a visit at FBI HQ in NOLA. Hannah Leon with the US Attorney’s Office is down from DC and is working on the Javier Garcia case.
Gregorio brings up Sebastian and wants to know how he’s doing as an agent. Pride informs her that he isn’t part of the team just yet. He still has a lot of training to do, which has left them shorthanded again. Gregorio offers to help, but Leon shuts her down. They are too busy with the Garcia investigation and the sooner they make their case on the cartel leader, the sooner he’ll be out of New Orleans. Gregorio looks devastated. As Pride is walking away, Gregorio tells Pride to tell everyone, “Hi!” Leon knows something is up with Gregorio. Wonder what type of history these two have together?
Also, anyone else notice a COMPLETE shift in Gregorio’s personality? She’s all soft and has a vibe that screams, “I miss everyone! Take me back!” Even her hair and makeup seem different to me. She’s coming off as way more likeable and not the rude agent we first met at the beginning of this season. I get that her character is growing and she had softened up a bit during the last episode, but this is a MAJOR shift!
Anyways, back to the episode, the victim of the car crash is Corporal Jarrod Connors, who was just 28 years old. Percy reports that he was an experienced driver and that only he and his girlfriend, Dana Wells were on the track at the time of the accident.
Russ Connors, the Corporal’s father, is a mechanic on one of the race teams and believes that this was not an accident. He thinks his son was murdered.
Meanwhile, LaSalle is on his phone… Again! Melody brings more drama then those kids on Vanderpump Rules! LaSalle needs to figure out if that baby is really his or not and if she’s lying to him, he needs to kick her to the curb before he gets in too deep.
Pride is starting to get frustrated with LaSalle’s drama. They are already an agent down and his behavior isn’t helping.
Corporal Connors died of blunt force trauma. Loretta will know more after the autopsy. Sebastian is on the scene and he’s all about being an agent. Loretta still needs his help in the lab. Pride reassures Loretta that he won’t leave her high and dry. Sebastian will still be able to assist her after he becomes an agent. Interesting… Do you think he’ll become a full fledge agent? I’m not convinced yet, but we’ll see!
Christopher apologizes for being on the phone. He has determined that the racecar the victim drove did not break before crashing. Suspicious!
Mr. Connors, the victim’s father takes back his statement about his son being set up. He blames it on grief. Something is definitely going on. The victim’s girlfriend is also acting weird. These two know something!
Percy wants Gregorio to help. Pride tells her it’s unlikely, as she’s helping the US Attorney with the cartel case.
Loretta doesn’t think the car accident was an accident. The victim had a stab wound that he had stitched up himself. It appears that the victim might have gotten into a fight prior to the race. Maybe the person he fought with messed with his car?
Pride thinks that Loretta is upset with him over the Sebastian wanting to become an agent storyline. I was wondering if Sebastian had told her and how it went down.
LaSalle and Percy found over 100k in cash from the victim’s garage. Uh oh! A burst dye pack leads Percy to believe that the money is from a bank robbery. She wants Gregorio to check the serial numbers for her. Percy seems to really miss Gregorio and has been reaching out to her a lot since she’s been back at the FBI.
Eek! Melody is at NCIS HQ and it looks like something is about to hit the fan! A large man punches LaSalle in the face and claims that he’s Tucker’s father. Raise your hand if you’re surprised that Melody was using LaSalle for one reason or another. One more! Raise your other hand if you thought LaSalle was really Tucker’s father. Even though I can’t see your hands, I can assume they are all down and not raised. Melody has been shady since the beginning!
Surprise, surprise, Tucker isn’t LaSalle’s son. After dropping that bombshell, Melody runs out of HQ and LaSalle tells Percy to let the man (who just punched him in the face) go. The man threatens him as he leaves the building. Wonder if this will come back to haunt LaSalle?
LaSalle is all torn up about the situation. Pride gives him Pride-like advice and gently scolds him for not arresting the man. He doesn’t think that Christopher is thinking straight. Neither do I.
Gregorio has pulled through with a lead. The money Percy and LaSalle found in the victim’s garage was from a bank robbery in Biloxi, Mississippi.
As Gregorio is on the big screen filling in the NCIS team, Hannah comes over. She doesn’t look too happy. Gregorio cuts out quickly.
The team is focusing on how the Corporal was connected to the bank robbers.
LaSalle visits Sebastian, who is pulling an Abby from NCIS. He has the racecar all pulled apart and has figured out that the Corporal’s death was definitely a murder. Someone tampered with his car, causing the fatal crash.
Christopher receives a text and immediately takes off. Melody is allegedly leaving and she apologizes to him. We’ll see how that goes down… I’m not feeling overly confident that she’s done screwing with LaSalle’s head and heart, what do you think?
Percy and King head over to the track to talk to the victim’s girlfriend, who is an Advanced Coordinator for her team of drivers, mechanics, etc. She is acting very strange. Claims she doesn’t know anything about her boyfriend’s death. I call B.S. What about you?
Her affect is very flat. She reminds me of the girl in the first Magic Mike movie. That is not a compliment.
One of the drivers and possibly one of his team members are pissed off they lost their spot in the upcoming race. The victim’s girlfriend says she’s getting it fixed. She’s annoyed and wants them to shut up. I do to.
Pride lays it out there. He tells Dana, the girlfriend, that they know about the stabbing and the money. She won’t budge, she’s keeping the secret to herself.
LaSalle heads home. Melody is packing and getting ready to leave. LaSalle wants to know why she lied to him. Melody tells LaSalle that she was just trying to get away from Darryl and find a good father for Tucker. She says that Darryl is an abusive man and that she doesn’t feel safe around him. She tried to get a restraining order, but couldn’t because nothing bad had happened, yet.
Christopher tells her not to worry about Darryl any more. Uh oh… What is Christopher going to do now?
Hannah and Gregorio are talking about the cartel case. Hannah thinks Garcia is laundering money through restaurants in New Orleans. Hannah wants this case figured out A.S.A.P. so she can get back home. Gregorio says that she’s not sure if she’s ready to go home yet.
Hannah is surprised by this confession and calls, “Tammy,” a.k.a. Gregorio out on it. Turns out that Hannah and Gregorio used to be together, as in a relationship together. Gregorio broke things off because she wanted to focus on her career.
Hannah walks away and she appears irritated. Good thing she left, as Gregorio just came across a major break in Pride’s case and she can’t wait to tell the team.
Back at NCIS HQ, Gregorio is filling in Pride and Percy about four other bank robberies with similar MOs as the robbery in Biloxi. It looks like every time the race circuit is in a new town, a robbery goes down. They still aren’t sure who hacked the victim’s car though and how everything is tied together.
Gregorio is still acting strange. I’m telling you, to me, it seems like her entire character has had a major attitude shift. What do you think?
Turns out that the victim did not participate in the bank robberies. How is he involved then? I guess we’ll soon find out!
Pride wants to put pressure on the father. He wants to know what he’s hiding and so do I!
Christopher is hanging out outside of a hotel. Surprise, surprise. Tucker’s birth father is there. LaSalle tells him to stay away from Melody and Tucker. The man takes a swing at LaSalle, again. LaSalle throws him against the hood of his truck and tells him to stay away before getting in his truck and racing away. That did not look good and there were a lot of witnesses at the hotel. I think LaSalle is going to get into trouble for this one!
Things are not looking good for the victim’s father. He has priors as does most of his team. The father looks scared and says that he had nothing to do with the robberies. He confesses that Dana, his son’s girlfriend, admitted to him at the hospital that she had been the getaway driver for the robbery crew. She wanted out and planned on telling Jarrod everything over the weekend. It looks like someone in the crew didn’t want her spilling her secrets and took Jarrod out before Dana could tell him anything.
Pride wants Dana in custody right away and sends Christopher after her. Uh oh! It’s too late. Dana is missing and there’s blood in her trailer.
Video shows that the guys behind the robbery were the people who kidnapped Dana.
Patton has hacked Dana’s cell phone. They think one more heist is going down and it’s happening today.
Pride tells Christopher they need to talk. Pride knows what happened at the hotel today. He tells Christopher that Darryl wanted to file assault charges against him, luckily witnesses backed LaSalle’s story that Darryl swung at him first. King tears LaSalle a new one, but then gently tells him to get it together and figure out what’s important to him.
Gregorio and Hannah are closing in on nailing Garcia in the cartel case. Before we can find out anything more about the cartel case, Percy and Pride call Gregorio’s phone. She drops what’s she’s doing to help out her old team. Again, completely out of character for Gregorio in other episodes; however, her behavior in tonight’s episode is consistently off and softer.
The robbers are going after a Federal Reserve truck and they are holding Dana at gunpoint.
Pride, Percy, and LaSalle are in pursuit of the robbers, but the bad guys are too fast! They have hacked the Federal Reserve van and brought it to a dead stop. Before they can get away with the robbery, the NCIS crew pulls up just in time for the robbers to start shooting at them.
Percy and LaSalle follow the getaway car, driven by Dana. She signals to LaSalle while driving. Luckily, LaSalle and Percy stop the robbers in their tracks and they save Dana.
Gregorio and Hannah have a heart to heart. Gregorio wants to stay in New Orleans.
We cut over to LaSalle’s place, where he is packing up Melody and Tucker. Melody’s ex shows up and is promptly arrested for open warrants and assaulting a federal officer. LaSalle tells him that he’s going away for a long time.
So, LaSalle totally forgives Melody. He tells her that it’s okay she came to him for help and that he is glad she gave him a glimpse as to what his life would be like as a father. The episode ends with him kissing Tucker on the head and smiling as Melody drives away.
*******
My Thoughts:
This was a good episode, but some of the scenes and plot twists didn’t flow as well as they normally do. I thought Dana came off as a little bit unemotional and it was hard for me to believe that she loved the victim or that she was terrified of her former heist crew. Maybe it was just me?
I’m glad Melody is out of LaSalle’s life. Talk about going easy on someone who lied through her teeth! LaSalle is a nice guy.
Gregorio’s character was completely off tonight. It started last week and became even more apparent tonight. Perhaps the writers are making her a lot more likeable before bringing her on as a full time NCIS agent? Maybe it’s just her character’s natural progression? Her previous relationship was dropped in a strange fashion too. Not sure if they needed someone she could confide in and that’s why they revealed that she used to date Hannah? Or was it because they are showing different sides to Gregorio that we haven’t seen before?
What did you think of the episode? Leave me a comment below!
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