NCIS: New Orleans - Rogue Nation - Review: “Fireworks”

NCIS: New Orleans - Rogue Nation - Review: “Fireworks”
4.1 - “Rogue Nation”
Directed by James Hayman
Written by: Brad Kern
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount

We are back in New Orleans and it feels so good!

“Rogue Nation” starts out with a party bus and live music. Everyone’s having a great time until a van full of masked men cause a semi-truck to get into a major accident and then open fire on the semi-truck’s drivers. The bad guys hop in the truck and speeding off. They even manage to hit a car and cause it to explode during their escape. Talk about an epic opening scene!

Ooh, yes! It’s time for that, “Boom, boom, boom, boom! Bang, bang, bang, bannng!” I can’t help it, that music always puts a smile on my face and it’s been way too long since I last heard it.

After the intro, camera cut over to HQ. Percy, Sebastian, Gregorio are filling out paperwork and they are crabby. Percy and Gregorio have clearly grown much closer in the six weeks they have been on lock down a.k.a. without Pride and without a new case. Gregorio is looking for a place to live, but everywhere is too expensive.

Unacceptable! Country Mouse (LaSalle) enters HQ while on the phone. He’s using his flirty voice and he’s talking about dinner plans. Is LaSalle dating someone other than Percy? It appears to be so and I don’t like it, not one bit! Percy looks uncomfortable too. City Mouse, get it together!

So, while Pride’s away, they have a temporary boss in town, Supervisory Special Agent Paula Boyd. She doesn’t understand how they stay fit while eating junk food (i.e., donuts, etc.) all day. Um, that’s because she doesn’t know about Pride’s cooking skills and all of the delicious food he makes for his crew! They don’t eat donuts every morning when Pride’s in the house!

Looks like the team finally has a case! They head out to the scene of the semi-truck accident and shootout. Supervisory Special Agent Paula Boyd quickly asserts that she fills in when there are messes to be cleaned up. LaSalle and Gregorio aren’t pleased.

At the scene of the crime, there are murdered Marines and civilians, hence why NCIS was called to investigate. Boyd tells the crew how she straightens out teams in trouble. I have a feeling she’s pretty tough and incredibly smart.

LaSalle and Gregorio are having a difficult time dealing with Boyd. She does things different from Pride, which is hard to handle.

The team needs to find out why the truck needed armed guards escorting it on its trip. Sebastian tells them the truck had some secret safety mechanisms installed and the only way to get around them was to take it.

Loretta comes to the scene, only to be informed by everyone that Boyd follows the rules and proper protocol to the extreme. Loretta is not happy about it. Me either.

Pride’s bar is fixed! Wow! It looks great! Aw, he’s hanging out with Patton. I wonder if he’s still suspended? Pride’s bar is reopening and he has a “great band lined up.”

Patton asks Pride, “What’s next?” To which Pride scoffs that he isn’t signing, “HQ’s Personal Improvement Plan.” He adds, “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

While he understands Pride’s POV, Patton tells Pride he is partially at fault, but he saved lots of lives and helped get Hamilton thrown in jail.

Pride isn’t ready to give in yet. He’s worried that he almost killed Hamilton. He’s not sure how he got to “that place” and he doesn’t “ever want to go there again.”

Patton gets a text. He has to go to work. As they head outside, they see Pride’s car has been vandalized. When Pride brought Hamilton down, the city lost jobs.

Percy and LaSalle are going over what they know and it’s not good. The bad guys stole nuclear waste. The DOE has been transporting the radioactive waste on the public highway. Boyd comes in with the same intel and tells the team that terrorists are to blame. Even though the team protests, she states that she’s handing the case over to the FBI.

The FBI takes over HQ. An FBI agent shares that there has been ISIS chatter. They believe that the terrorists are building a dirty bomb. The team thinks that New Orleans could be the target, the FBI thinks they are going after a bigger target.

LaSalle gets everyone energized. He prompts them to keep investigating and tells them that he’s going to go talk to Miss Loretta, with the hopes of bringing Pride into the investigation on the DL.

Percy and Gregorio follow up on a lead. On the way, Gregorio asks her about LaSalle. Percy denies that anything is up with them. Yeah right! They totally love each other, they aren’t fooling any of us! Gregorio, who is eyeing up the apartment, tells Percy, “I’ve got your back.”

The lead ends up pulling out a machine gun and shooting at Percy and Gregorio. Yikes! Percy saves Gregorio’s life by killing the bad guy.

Meanwhile, Miss Loretta goes to visit Pride and she brings the acting mayor. Loretta tells Pride that the city might be the target of a terrorist attack. She tells him LaSalle asked for his help. The acting mayor gives him permission to help the team as a civilian.

The team is glad to have Pride back, but as Percy says, “Well, looks like we’re going rogue again.”

Sebastian and Patton tell everyone, they only have a day or two. Captain Estes from NOPD is also helping.

Pride stops by HQ. Looks like he and Boyd have a past. She tells Pride that he put together a great team and that they deserve, “Someone who really wants to be here.” Ouch!

Pride hooks his computer up to Sebastian, who is over at Pride’s bar. Patton figures out how the terrorists knew where the trucks moving the nuclear waste was and when to hit.

There’s a possible lead, Pride thinks the terrorists have moved the radioactive waste underground, which would be why it’s undetectable by the FBI (the waste leaves a trail). The good news is, that team finds the location where the terrorists have constructed the dirty bomb. The bad news is, that the dirty bomb isn’t there. The terrorists have it and could detonate it at any moment.

Pride heads back to HQ and asserts himself like the boss man that we all know he is (#GetItPride)! DHS Agent Lamont (Tim Guinee plays this role and has been in loads of shows and films) listens as Pride lays out what’s really happening. He tells them that he believes the threat is “homegrown” and that the attack is going to happen in New Orleans. Everyone in HQ responds to his instructions. Pride handles the entire scene like a BOSS!

Gregorio has info. The man Percy shot was part of a terrorist group called, “End Nukes.” They are a classified by the FBI as a “radicalized domestic terrorist group.”

Uh oh! Sebastian has figured out where the dirty bomb is and how the terrorists plan on impacting maximum damage to the city. They have loaded the dirty bomb onto a barge shooting off fireworks for a city-wide celebration. If the terrorists pull this off, everyone will die.

Pride and LaSalle head out to the barge. Pride is worried that if the FBI uses a show of force, the terrorists could detonate the bomb early.

Risking their own lives, Pride and LaSalle swim to the barge. The terrorists have loaded the bomb, but stop to have a shootout with two of NCIS’ finest. LaSalle takes out one of the terrorists and then covers Pride, who tips the fireworks toward the bad guys and manages to light him on fire. The city has been saved! Yay!

The next day, DHS clears out of HQ, as does Boyd. Pride has signed the “Personal Improvement Plan.”

Gregorio has news for Percy. She brings her back to the apartment where Percy shot and killed one of the terrorists. She tells Percy that together, they can afford the baller apartment. The landlord has lowered the rent, due to the death, bullet holes, and blood. Percy agrees and they hug it out.

Later that night, we head over to Pride’s bar. The new interim mayor stops by and thanks Dwayne. Just when everything looks like it’s falling back into place, an angry group of men approach Pride. One of the guys yells, “You cost us the shipyard!” and punches Pride in the face.

The episode ends with a guest performance from Jimmy Buffett and the team celebrating the closing of an intense case.

*******
My Thoughts:
First and foremost, I wanted to apologize for my delayed posting of the NCIS: New Orleans reviews. As many of you know, I had surgery in September with some unfortunate complications. I’m feeling much better and I’ve been slowly getting back on my feet and catching up on all of my writing projects. To see what I’m currently working on and to read some exciting news, head over to my Twitter page (www.twitter.com/kellyanneblount)!

Okay, back to business! You all know I LOVE this show! I really enjoyed this opening episode. The case was intense and the NCIS agents had to “go rogue” in order to solve it. I liked how their knowledge of their city instantly trumped DHS and the temporary boss.

The only part of the episode that didn’t work for me were the two attacks on Pride. The slashing of his tires and the physical attack outside of his bar. Would a group of men really attack Pride for “costing them the shipyard” when in order to make that happen, they would need to relocate all of the residents of Clearwater? But… the times we are living in continue to shock me, so maybe this behavior is a better reflection of what’s going on then I’d like to admit?

Oh, guess what I realized over the weekend! Vanessa Ferlito a.k.a. Gregorio is in Spider-Man 3! She talks to MJ outside of the theatre of the show she temporarily stars in. I don’t know about you, but I always love spotting actors and actresses from my favorite shows when they were up and coming! How about you? What are your favorite early roles for the cast of NCIS: New Orleans?

Leave a comment below to let me know what you thought about this week’s episode!

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