NCIS: New Orleans - Knockout - Review: “Trust in the Word”
3.22 - “Knockout”
Directed by Gordon Lonsdale
Written by Chad Gomez Creasey & Greta Heinemann
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount
“Knockout,” opens at fight night. It’s Navy vs. Marine and guess who’s there? Mayor Hamilton. The fight ends and Navy Petty Officer Jonathan Rudd is victorious. Before he can celebrate, Navy Chaplain Henry Morgan stumbles into the arena. He’s been stabbed multiple times. He tells Jonathan, “Trust in the word,” before passing away.
OH MY GOSH! Can I tell you all where I heard the NCIS: New Orleans theme song? On a movie called THE LONGEST YARD. Yes, the one with Adam Sandler. It was on TV the other weekend and I had to do a double take when I heard the song!
Anyways, back to the show. LaSalle and King are in jail visiting Percy. She seems to be in good spirits. Pride promises that he, “Isn’t going to let you (Percy) rot in jail.” He’s pulling in favors, but Hamilton is holding him up every step of the way.
Percy tells LaSalle that she’s holding up and that they shouldn’t worry about her. Her eyes say otherwise. That, and I think Christopher LaSalle is in love with her… We’ll have to talk about that another time.
King gets a call. He and LaSalle have to head out, they have a case.
They head over to the crime scene, where they promptly run into Mayor Hamilton. He asks, “How is Agent Percy is doing?” He knows they have been to the jail. He even eggs on Pride to take a swing at him. He says he can go sit in the jail alongside Percy. What. A. Jerk. He also introduces Pride and LaSalle to, Mr. Stone, his new private security guard. Yikes! Pride tells Mayor Hamilton, “If you want to come at me, come at me! Don’t be a coward.” LaSalle breaks Pride and Hamilton up before things go too far.
Sebastian and Loretta fill LaSalle and Percy in on the victim, who is Navy Chaplain Henry Morgan, out of Belle Chasse. Morgan was stabbed outside of the fighting venue and made his way inside to find Navy Petty Officer Jonathan Rudd.
LaSalle and Pride head upstairs to talk to Judd. He tells him the Chaplain’s final words were, “Trust in the word.” Judd tells them that he’s from Clearwater, the same housing division and area that Mayor Hamilton has his dirty fingers sunk into. He says that Chaplain Morgan was more than his Pastor, he was “like a father” to him. He also, taught Rudd to “fight in the ring, with honor.” He says that Morgan, “Saved my life.” Morgan was involved on the Navy base and in Clearwater. Judd says that Morgan should have been at the fight, but he didn’t make it, until he had been stabbed. He says that Morgan called him before the fight and was talking about Clearwater being under “a new threat.” Judd feels responsible for Morgan’s death. Poor, guy!
Pride thinks Mayor Hamilton is behind the “new threat.” He was after all, responsible for removing police protection/patrols from the area. LaSalle has to step up and tells Pride to “work the case” and follow the leads. Good thing LaSalle is there, otherwise Pride would have socked the Mayor in the face by now.
The team review what they know about Clearwater and Mayor Hamilton’s involvement. Pride thinks Morgan’s death is linked to the “new threat” in Clearwater and he’s sure Mayor Hamilton is behind it all.
Sebastian shares that Morgan was stabbed outside of the building the fight was held in, but he was just outside of camera range. They don’t have any evidence nor do they have any way to connect his death to the Mayor.
The team is alerted to shots fired in front of Chaplain Morgan’s church. Pride, LaSalle, and Gregorio head down to investigate. Judd is beating the crap out of a guy and screaming, “He killed him! You killed Chaplain Morgan!”
Commercial break. I’m having a hard time typing Chaplain Morgan… I just want to type Captain Morgan instead.
Pride is angry with Judd. Judd says he came to the church and found Carlton Boone, the leader of the Public Enemies gang inside. Pride says, “They don’t run in Clearwater.” Judd tells him that since the police have left, the gang has taken over. He says that some of the church parishioners saw Morgan and Boone arguing the day he was killed. Pride tells him, “That’s not exactly a smoking gun.” Judd informs Pride that Chaplain Morgan was the only person standing in between Clearwater and the gangs.
Pride tells Judd to back off. He reminds him, “Trust in the word.” That’s what Chaplain Morgan would have wanted.
LaSalle and Gregorio interrogate Boone. Oh! Carlton Boone is Arjay Smith. I loved him in Perception. Anyways, Boone says that he went down to the church to light at candle for Chaplain Morgan. He says that the church was destroyed when he got there. He admits that he and Morgan fought. Morgan wanted to broker peace between the Ward Warriors and the Public Enemies. Boone says that he wasn’t interested in peace, but that they respected the Pastor. He tells them that one of his men went missing a few weeks ago. Allegedly, it wasn’t the Ward Warriors, it was a “new player,” someone who, “wanted to take down the entire neighborhood.”
Pride’s ears perk up. He knows Mayor Hamilton wants to take down Clearwater and buy up all of the properties possible. LaSalle tells them that they need more in order to nail Hamilton.
They need more to connect the Mayor to the Morgan’s death. Gregorio talks to LaSalle on the side. She thinks he’s extra worried about Percy. He denies it.
Uh oh! Things are not looking good for Percy. They are moving her to general population! She’s a federal agent and she’s arrested “a dozen people in there.” This is a really dangerous situation for Percy. Whoever gave the “okay” to send her here wanted to send a message.
Pride tells Loretta what’s going on in the case. He thinks the threat to Clearwater that Morgan was worried about is coming from Hamilton.
Sebastian found a camera in the Chaplain’s office. Morgan was recording something, but the camera has been completely trashed and Sebastian can’t retrieve anything off of it. Also, the data card is missing. Pride thinks whoever took it thought the footage was worth flipping the church and killing for.
Loretta found fiberglass in the victim’s lungs. That means that Morgan and his killer were in a different location before he was killed. They manage to use the evidence to find the location, an old bank owned by Audubon Industries, the same company that Mayor Hamilton owns. Surprise, surprise!
Gregorio, Pride, and LaSalle hit the bank. They find fresh tire tracks and a man spraying down a table. Pride pulls his gun on the man, who promptly runs away. The man attacks Pride. They fight until Pride has him on the ground. Out of nowhere, a black SUV drives in with the windows down. There are multiple gunmen shooting at Pride, Gregoiro, and LaSalle. The injured man gets up and runs toward the car. He gets away as Pride and the team open up on the vehicle.
They have a BOLO out on the vehicle. Gregorio thinks they were pros. The guy cleaned the scene with bleach and wiped the evidence out. LaSalle tells King that he should have waited for him and Gregorio. King is, “sick and tired of being a step behind.” Pride realizes he has the suspect’s blood and DNA on his arm. They’ll run it through the system and try to find a match.
Ahhh… The bad guy hops in a car with Mayor Hamilton, who’s pissed that he made such a mess of everything, including the murder of the Chaplain. The Mayor tells him to finish the job and he doesn’t want any more mistakes. The man driving the car tells the Mayor that Audubon is going to be a problem. The Mayor assures him it isn’t and he says that he’ll handle NCIS.
LaSalle gets a call from Percy. She’s freaking out. He knows someone “pulled some strings” to get her moved to gen pop. He tells her to get safe until they can get her out. Percy heads out to the yard, where she promptly attacks a guard. She is immediately thrown in the hole, which is a segregated unit for the toughest offenders. She will be in solitary confinement and safe, for the time being.
Pride feels guilty. Loretta tells him to focus on finding Chaplain Morgan’s killer.
Boone has news. He’s been followed and a group of guys tried to ambush him. He barely made it out and headed directly to NCIS headquarters. Sebastian has news. “The data card was ejected an hour before Chaplain Morgan died.” There’s a good chance the bad guys think Boone has the card, which is why they were following him and trying to find him. I wonder if Morgan’s final words are a clue to the location he hid the data card? I bet they are!
Patton has a lead. He has found the identity of the Chaplain’s killer. The man, Warshak, is a former Israeli Special Forces Specialist. Guess who’s is responsible for paying him? Audubon Industries!
Oh no! AUSA Karen Izzo, just showed up and said that Patton has been accused of committing federal (or was it international) cyber-crimes. She orders him to get his hands off the computer. She tells him to surrender his tablet or he’ll be arrested.
Izzo tells Pride they have evidence of him being a part of a sting operation about a horse racing operation. She claims she received an anonymous tip. Pride tells her that they both know it was Hamilton. Everyone else in the case is part of NCIS or dead, all except Hamilton.
Izzo forbids Patton from working on any future cases with NCIS or using, “any web connected device,” until her investigation is done. Pride accuses her of being in the Mayor’s pocket. She threatens to arrest him. Patton interrupts and says that he’ll leave.
Sebastian is angry, so is the rest of the team. LaSalle says that he is ready to, “Go to the war with the Mayor.”
Pride wants to know if the Chaplain said anything to Boone that would have hinted where he hid the data card. They are heading back to the church to look again.
Meanwhile, Patton heads over to the morgue. He wants to keep working. Loretta says no at first, but then lets him get on a computer. I hope this doesn’t end badly for him!
Over at the church, Pride, LaSalle, and Boone are looking for clues. Pride says, “We’ve gotta have faith!” Pride asks Boone about the Chaplain’s last words, “Trust in the word.”
Pride pulls apart a Bible and finds a flash drive. His excitement fades when Patton and Loretta call with bad news. The Mayor’s hit squad is outside the church! Pride tells Loretta to call 911. He says, “We need backup, FAST!”
Gunfire breaks out. Pride, LaSalle, and Boone hide behind church pews while the bad guys shoot at them.
Boone gets the lights on, temporarily blinding the bad guys, who are wearing night vision goggles. In a matter of minutes, Pride and LaSalle take out all of the bad guys.
Pride brings Sebastian the flash drive. Chaplain Morgan was spying on the Mayor’s bad guys talking about Clearwater. He catches the Mayor’s new security guy on camera when he accidentally drops a pipe. The decide that it’s time to go after the Mayor’s guys. No more waiting.
Boone speaks at Chaplain Morgan’s funeral. The service is beautiful. The Mayor and his security/bad guys are there too.
After the service, Pride and Mayor Hamilton exchange terse words.
Pride watches as and gives Christopher and Gregorio the signal to follow the Mayor and his bad guys. They aren’t going to arrest anyone today. They are going to find the evidence they need to pin down the Mayor once and for all!
*******
My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this episode! The Clearwater storyline is fantastic and well-written. I want justice for Pride like none other and I really want Percy to get out of jail. I’m worried about her!
What did you think of the episode? Leave me a comment below with your thoughts!
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