NCIS: New Orleans - Quid Pro Quo - Review: “Operative Offenses”
3.19 - “Quid Pro Quo”
Directed by Mary Lou Belli
Written by Kate Sargeant
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount
“Quid Pro Quo,” opens up on base. A soldier is panicking and grabbing his head, all while saying, “Make it stop!” He pushes past a group of soldiers and jumps off of a worksite/building. With a sickening thump, he hits the ground and dies.
Pride, Sebastian, and LaSalle are searching an open where Javier Garcia’s car was bombed. They are look for as to who killed Javier Garcia. So far, they have nothing. Wait for it, Pride finds a clue! Possibly a piece of the detonator! Sebastian is on it!
Pride gets called to Belle Chasse for the solider who jumped off the building, they have to put the Garcia case on hold.
At the scene, LaSalle tells Pride and Sebastian that Petty Officer Robert Campbell threw himself off of the building they were working on and he fell to his death five stories. Gregorio reports that Campbell’s friends and colleagues said that he was a happy guy and didn’t seem suicidal at all.
Loretta says that his death was indeed caused by the fall, but there is one strange thing… His eyes are jaundiced. He could have had a preexisting condition that caused jaundice.
Lieutenant Commander Lopez, Campbell’s boss arrives at the scene. She said that she didn’t have any reports about Campbell’s behavior prior to his jump. Pride asks her what they are installing at the site. She reports that the crew is installing high speed fiber optic cable.
Something seems fishy about this death and the building project, not sure what’s going on… But it isn’t adding up. Pride and I are on the same page. He thinks it’s strange as well.
LaSalle has something. Petty Officer Bryan Howard checked into the infirmary last night. Gregorio, LaSalle, and Pride visit Howard. He has pressure in his head and his eyes are jaundice, just like Campbell.
Something at that work site is making them sick!
Uh oh! They had King Cake delivered to them with a note welcoming them to Belle Chasse. There is a dead mouse in the box. Whatever is in that cake looks like the cause of the illness and Campbell’s death.
Loretta and Sebastian are checking for the specific type of poison that was used in the cake. So far, they haven’t found a match. Additional soldiers are getting sick and Petty Officer Bryan Howard is getting even sicker.
Pride orders Sebastian to get over his fear of poisons and to work side by side with Loretta until they figure out what is making the soldiers sick.
Patton can’t get a hold of anyone at the bakery where the cake was made. He does have record of someone from Angelo Brocato’s Bakery dropping the cake off at the work site, but it wasn’t addressed to anyone specific, just the unit.
Gregorio and LaSalle head to the bakery. They meet an employee who has just showed up for his afternoon shift. They are all surprised to find that the bakery has a CLOSED sign up. The bakery is locked in the front, but a door is open in the back. Gregorio and LaSalle head in to check things out. I have a bad feeling… how about you?
Uh oh! Looks like someone poisoned the baker and fought with him before his death.
The killer, “forced the baker to poison the cake: and then killed him to, “cover his tracks.” Uh oh! Commander Lopez is missing.
EEK! Patton has video of Lopez visiting the bakery a short time before Gregorio and LaSalle arrived. Why did she visit the scene? Is she guilty? It almost seems like that would be too obvious, what do you think?
Sebastian and Loretta have news, and it isn’t good! It isn’t poison! It’s a virus! Per Loretta, the cake was injected with, “Microscopic, single strand RNAs.” It’s a SUPER virus, like Ebola, hemorrhagic fever, and other super viruses all rolled into one.
The virus can be spread by touch or by ingesting it, like in the cake. It cannot be spread by air. King is worried, he tells them they are on lock down until they are all tested. The same needs to be done for Belle Chasse.
NOOOOOOO! Loretta is sick! Her nose is bleeding! AGHGHHGGHGH!
The morgue is secured in an airtight lockdown and it appears people form the CDC are spraying everything down. Pride visits Loretta. She thinks the infection happens at the crime scene. There are seven people infected so far. She instructs Pride to have the people at Belle Chasse burn all of their belongings, ASAP!
Oh no! Loretta thinks she only has ten or elven hours before she succumbs to the illness. NO!
Sebastian is working in a different part of the lab, away from Loretta. He thinks he found the virus responsible for making people sick. It appears to be stolen from overseas. The good news is, there is most likely an antidote and the killer probably has it on him/her, so they don’t get sick. All of those most likelies and probablies are not promising.
Sebastian tells Pride that he needs to go to Belle Chasse and get on the base. He wants to test the blood of people who are getting sick at a slower rate, on the chance that he can make his own cure. Pride isn’t having it. It’s too dangerous! OOOH! Sebastian says, “IT’S NOT YOUR CHOICE!” Actually…
Aw, Sebastian is worried about Loretta. He says, “I can’t lose her!”
Pride agrees to let him go on base, but in a hazmat suit and the whole works.
Interesting! Commander Lopez and her crew were up to more than laying optic fiber cable. They are doing something top secret and it’s something they don’t want the Chinese government to know about.
Gregorio and Patton might have found the killer’s car. They are searching for it, but they do not want the case to be broadcast all over the news. They are afraid it was cause mass panic. Pride says that they have to, “keep things contained,” and in order to do that, he has to go to the “last place he wants to go,” a.k.a. to the Mayor’s office.
Pride is in the Mayor’s office. He warns him of mass hysteria. Uh oh, the Mayor asks, “How’s Loretta doing?” He’s being a jerk! The Mayor says, “Everything is about us since Garcia!” He doesn’t want Pride to take him down. He wants whatever Pride has on him in regards to the Garcia case. If Pride doesn’t give up the info he has on the Mayor, the Mayor said that he’ll let the media know what’s going on. I hate the Mayor. He is blackmailing Pride.
Uh oh! They found the car from the video Patton and Gregorio found. Bad news, Commander Lopez and two other people are deceased, burned beyond recognition. The bodies are sent to the morgue, where Loretta has identified them using their DNA. She tells Pride that he’s not going to like what she found. The two people in the backseat were Marines. Loretta is getting sicker by the minute. Pride wants her to rest. She wants to keep working.
Turns out the two Marines were part of a “biological response” team heading toward Belle Chasse. When it rains it pours! Both Marines, Lin and Fletcher, who are deceased somehow just checked in to the base at Belle Chasse. The people who killed them have assumed their identity to get on base! This is terrible!
Sebastian is at Belle Chasse waiting for the response team. He has no idea that they are killers and not the biological response team members he was expecting. Loretta is super worried and getting worse by the minute.
Sebastian meets the imposters at the base. They can’t get a hold of him via cell phone, so they rush to the base and call the base police to lock everything down in the meantime.
NO!!! Loretta just fell over and started coughing. Luckily, there are people in the morgue with her. TAKE CARE OF MY LORETTA!
Phew! They are doing just that! They appear to be doctors and they are intubating her as the team arrives at Belle Chasse.
The fake Marines are giving Sebastian a hard time. I think he’s on to them! He pulls out his cell phone, but he’s in an area without service. He grabs his gun and says, “Crap!”
The team and someone they are working with on base drive to the hanger were Sebastian is, they have deduced that he is there because it’s the only place on base without service.
They think that the murders were committed just so the bad guys could get on base. The fiber optic cables were run in order to create the first “ship activation” center east of California bases. Per the team, the Chinese government see more “ship activation” centers as a threat.
Sebastian has followed the bad guys into the building. It looks like they have already killed two men and they are trying to do something to the computers. Sebastian and the two men get into a shoot out. Sebastian is holding his own! The bad guys escape and head out in a white van. They have to captured the bad guys, not kill them, because they hopefully have the antidote.
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They kill one of the guys who comes out shooting. They need them alive for the antidote! The other man kills himself with a pill inside the van. Did the people at Belle Chasse miss the DON’T KILL THEM, WE NEED THEM FOR THE ANTIDOTE message!?! What the heck!
Sebastian and Pride are at the lab. He is desperately trying to separate the antibodies in the bad guy’s blood. The team has good news! The two bad guys were uploading the data they stole from Belle Chasse to their handler. There’s a good chance that he/she has the antidote, just in case! They have tracked his location and secure him before he can swallow a cyanide pill.
Pride demands the antidote. Sebastian has a plan. He pretends to inject the bad guy with the virus, well I’m hoping he’s pretending. Pride takes the needle and threatens the man with it. He isn’t playing!
Just before Pride plunges the needle into his neck, he tells them the antidote is under the card table. LaSalle grabs it and sends Sebastian back to the morgue with it. Before he leaves, Pride asks if he was really going to inject the guy with it, he says for Loretta, he would. DANG! I assumed he was bluffing and didn’t really have the virus! Sebastian goes into beast mode when it comes to Loretta!
Pride and Gregorio are questioning the suspect when someone shoots a bullet through a brick wall and kills him. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE? They run outside and find a warm bullet casing. It’s a special bullet from another operative. The only problem? It’s a bullet with US technology. Gregorio says, “Whoever did this had to be homegrown American.”
Sebastian visits Loretta. He loves her and I love them. She hugs him and says, “Thank you.” Sebastian responds, “Any time.” Loretta tells Sebastian that she is proud of him for facing his fears.
Pride and Gregorio are back at HQ. Pride looks tortured. Gregorio reports that everyone at Belle Chasse is recovering. Gregorio points out that it’s strange that the public never found out about anything as Pride is looking over the Javier Garcia case files. DON’T DO IT, PRIDE! DON’T GIVE IN TO THE MAYOR!
Gregorio has disturbing news. The partial print on the bullet used to kill the Chinese operative matches the partial print Sebastian pulled off the detonator used to blow up Garcia’s car! WHAT IN THE WORLD! The Mayor HAS to be all over both of these cases, doesn’t he? Gregorio says, “The same person killed both people.” The person who killed them is working for the Mayor and he’s, “up to a lot more than they thought,” per Gregorio. She follows up with, “No wonder he’s trying to threaten us.”
Pride visits the Mayor. He has a file and hands it over to the Mayor. Aw, snap! It’s EMPTY! Get it, Pride! GET IT! The Mayor is pissed, Pride says, “gloves are off,” before sliding on his sunglasses and walking out of the Mayor’s office.
*******
My Thoughts:
Oh my gosh! Talk about intense! What a terrifying episode!
I was super proud of Sebastian! He slayed this episode.
Also, can we talk about the Mayor?!?! He’s in deeeep! It’s only a matter of time before a final show down with him and I can not wait! I’m curious though, why didn’t get thrown out of office after the sex tapes came out? He had one too, right? Maybe I’m remembering wrong? If he did have one, why wouldn’t he be thrown out of office or be forced to resign?
Leave me a comment below with your thoughts!
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