NCIS: New Orleans - End of the Line - Review: “Guilty?”
3.15 - “End of the Line”
Directed by Edward Ornelas
Written by Chad Gomez Creasy
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount
“End of the line” opens with a street car employee getting to work. She’s checking the street car when she sees a woman across the street who has been brutally murdered. She has been hung up and her eyes have been cut out.
Sebastian is helping Loretta’s youngest son, C.J., move a mattress. He’s struggling because it’s heavy. Loretta’s son makes fun of him. Ha ha!
Ooh! Did you know that Loretta was married before? Sounds like things ended pretty badly. Loretta and Sebastian get a message, there’s a dead body.
LaSalle and Gregorio are at the scene. According to the profiler, the murderer was trying to make a statement. Pride says that the victim was Chief Karen Decker. LaSalle says that she was killed somewhere else and moved.
Loretta sees the murder victim and is visibly shaken. She demands that they get the body down right away. She has seen something like this before and she was hoping to never have to see it happen again.
Decker was a counselor in the military and a few weeks away from retirement. She received one call the day of her murder. Patton found the place the call, which came from a burner phone, was made.
Back at the morgue, Loretta is having flashbacks of a previous case with the same brutal outcome. She is extremely jumpy. Sebastian scares the crap out of her and says that there weren’t any clues from the crime scene. Loretta thinks that she’s crossed paths with the killer before! Poor, Loretta! She’s really upset.
LaSalle and Gregorio head over to the place the call was made. Gregorio thinks she can use her match making skills to set up LaSalle. He’s not buying it.
It appears that the person they are trying to find just left. They find medicine for psychosis at the scene. They also find blood and lots of it. Was Chief Decker killed here? Looks like that could be the case.
Pride checks in with Loretta. He tells her their suspect is Jack Gordon, who was just released on patrol. She said that if he’s the killer, there’s a good chance that she’s next on his list. Oh no!
Pride brings Loretta back to NCIS HQ. He’s really worried about Loretta, as are Gregorio and LaSalle.
Jack Gordon a.k.a. “Jack Knife,” just got out of prison for murder a week ago. His first victim was his high school sweetheart and the roommate of Chief Decker. Interesting! Decker testified against Gordon at his hearing twenty years ago and said that he was unstable. Loretta testified against him as well. She said that he was on amphetamines when he was arrested and couldn’t remember where he was the night of the murder. Gordon called Decker repeatedly before the murder. C.J., Loretta’s youngest son is on base with Danny. Pride tells Loretta that she needs to stay at HQ until they find Gordon.
Gregorio and LaSalle head over to Devon Mitchell’s office, he was the lawyer who helped Gordon get a deal instead of being put away for life.
Gregorio is trying to help LaSalle get a date. She tells him that if he isn’t going to go for the woman at law firm if he won’t. Get it, Gregorio!
Mitchell reports that Gordon always maintained his innocence and wanted the case reopened. LaSalle asks if Gordon might be targeting anyone else. Mitchell gives them the name, Todd Borger. Borger admitted that Gordon was violent and jealous during his testimony. He could be the next victim. Yikes!
Loretta and Pride are walking down by the water. She’s worried that she swayed the jury, she’s worried that he might not be guilty. She’s afraid that her behavior may have impacted the case. Wonder if that’s because of stuff going down with her ex-husband?
LaSalle and Gregorio talk to one of Gordon’s old colleagues. He says that he was tricked into testifying that Jack was violent. He said that although Jack suffered from serious mental health issues, he was dealing with them and that Jack loved his wife. His old co-worker said that he didn’t think that Jack would ever hurt her. Interesting! Did Gordon really commit the murder or was he innocent?
Ah, Loretta’s divorce happened right before the trial. Both Loretta and the first victim had suffered abuse. Perhaps that’s why she empathized with the victim more than normal. She tells Pride that she’s worried that she projected her feelings about her husband onto Gordon, which is part of the reason he went to jail for twenty years. I think Gordon might be innocent. What do you think?
Eek! Gordon is outside and watching Loretta! HOLY CRAP! With thunder booming and lightning striking, Pride sneaks outside and arrests Gordon for killing Decker. He shouts that he didn’t do it.
Pride has Gordon in an interrogation room. Gordon says that he didn’t do it. He didn’t murder his wife. Gordon says that he needs his meds. Pride tells him that they are on the way. Gordon is crying and yelling, he says that he wants Loretta’s help. He wants her to know that he didn’t kill his wife or Chief Decker.
Loretta is worried. She thinks that she missed something during the first trial. She needs to find out of Gordon is guilty or innocent of both murders.
Pride tells LaSalle and Gregorio to dive into the old case. They need to pull his wife’s body and bring it to the morgue.
Sebastian brings Loretta a box of evidence from the first case. She asks Sebastian to identify the hair from Decker’s body. Although it belongs to Gordon, they need to figure out if it was placed there by someone else or if Gordon left it there after murdering her.
Gordon’s medication has kicked in and he is much calmer. He tells Pride that he needs Loretta’s help to prove that he didn’t kill his wife or Chief Decker. He thinks he was set up. Gordon says that, “someone else liked Janet,” and perhaps they killed Karen Decker, because they thought that someone was going to figure out who really murdered Gordon’s ex-wife. Pride wants to know how that is possible. Gordon tells him that the Innocence Project gave him the flies for his case. He tells Pride that there’s a picture of his wife in the file that was taken the day of her murder. She was wearing a necklace with a purple gemstone. He tells Pride that he didn’t give her that necklace. Gordon says that he studied all of the crime scene photos and the necklace was never found. Perhaps the real killer took the necklace?
Sebastian has found something major! While the hair found on Chief Decker belonged to Gordon, it was placed there by someone wearing gloves. Eek! Looks like Gordon really was set up!
Gregorio and Pride are starting to think that Gordon was set up, but they need evidence.
LaSalle brings Loretta the body of Jack Gordon’s ex-wife. Sebastian is there to assist. LaSalle heads back to HQ to figure out what happened to the necklace.
Sebastian video conferences HQ. They figured out that the killer grabbed the necklace around the first victim’s neck and pulled it off violently, leaving a mark on her neck.
Patton is tracking down the necklace. He figured out that it was sold by a jewelry store on Canal Street. The store is on the same route as the street car that Jack Gordon used to drive and the same street car that the first victim used to ride every day to work.
The team wonders if the killer could be Jack Gordon’s old co-worker. They quickly come to the assumption that a better fit would be the lawyer, Mitchell Borger. His office is next to the jewelry store and it would make sense for him to kill Decker, as he knew that Gordon could reach out to her as soon as he was out of jail, trying to right his wrongful conviction.
The team heads out to find Mitchell. It’s too late! He’s at the morgue and he’s just knocked out Sebastian. Loretta rushes in when she hears his body hit the floor. Mitchell Borger points a gun at Loretta and tells her that she should have just let things be. YIKES!
Mitchell takes Loretta at gunpoint into another room. He demands that Loretta delete all of evidence on Jack Gordon’s case and on both victims. Turns out that Gordon went to Decker, who then went to Mitchell about the case. That’s why he killed Decker.
Uh oh! Pride and LaSalle show up to the morgue. He starts shooting. Thanks to Loretta’s quick thinking, she throws acid in his face, which allows Pride and LaSalle to shoot and kill Mitchell Borger. Loretta is terrified. Pride hugs and comforts her.
Sebastian and Gregorio are back at NCIS HQ. He wants to know if getting his butt kicked on a regular basis is typical for a new agent. If not, he’s thinking about heading back to the lab or buying additional life insurance. Gregorio and Patton reassure Sebastian that he’ll be okay. LaSalle isn’t there because he’s on a date. Gregorio spills the beans that he’s changing his dating practices and that he’s going out to breakfast. I bet it’s with the lady from the law firm, the one Gregorio noticed had instant chemistry with LaSalle. Ha ha! Gregorio says that she’s profiled the perfect woman for LaSalle. As she names off the characteristics, they all come to the same conclusion, PERCY! As many of you know, I’ve called that ship sailing for quite some time. Percy and LaSalle would be adorable together! What do you think?
Gordon and Pride are riding a street car. He says that he loved his job as a street car driver. Pride offers to help him get his job back. Gordon says that re-entering the world as a free man is a scary thing. Pride says that he, Dr. Wade, and a half-way house can help him readjust.
Gordon says that he never blamed Loretta. He says that she helped save his life. Aw! Pride recommends that Gordon volunteer for the Innocence Project with Loretta. He thinks it might help him heal.
The episode ends with Gordon visiting Loretta. He thanks her. She asks him in for tea. He says, “Sure,” and shakes her hand.
*******
My Thoughts:
What an amazing episode! The writers nailed it! They kept us guessing up until the very end and they helped an innocent man seek justice.
The focus on Loretta’s character was also nice. It showed her vulnerable side and gave us a glance into her past.
How about that ending? I totally cried! I love that Gordon and Loretta were able to meet and start the healing process.
What did you think of the episode? Leave me a comment below!
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