NCIS: New Orleans - Dead Man Calling: “Buried Treasure”
4.4 - “Dead Man Calling”
Directed by Mark Zineburg
Written by: Greta Heinemann
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount
We start this episode on a walking tour of New Orleans. The guide is telling the group about Confederate Sailor, Cornelius LaRue, who mysteriously fell to his death from the top of America’s first pharmacy in the late 1800s.
As the tour guide is telling the group that Cornelius was murdered, something terrible happens. Another body falls from the roof of the pharmacy, leaving a sailor dead on the streets of New Orleans. Time to call in the team!
Percy heads to the scene to the backdrop of some amazing music. LaSalle tells her that he tried calling her, but she brushes him off. He offers to help her and Gregorio with anything they need in their new apartment, but she tells him that they’re good. Ugh, stop it, Percy!
Pride knows something is up.
Gregorio reports that the tour group saw Petty Office, Third Class, Jacob Anderson, travelled to New Orleans from Norfolk, VA on emergency leave three days ago. She’s waiting to hear back from his supervisor on more details.
The team tells Gregorio about Cornelius. She doesn’t want anything to do with ghosts. Glad to have an excuse to leave, she bolts after someone who claims to be a spirit guide tries to get close to the body for the third time.
Loretta reports that Jacob died on impact. He has defensive wounds from a recent fight. Was his fall an accident or intentional?
Pride wants more info on the victim. Percy and LaSalle’s behavior is getting in the way of the team.
Pride joins Sebastian on the roof. It is filthy and full of evidence. Footprints indicate that there were two people on the roof. Sebastian explains everything to Pride as he is holding on to an old HVAC unit attached to the building. He’s nowhere near the edge, but he’s not having it. Pride tells him that he’s going to need to get over his fear of heights sooner rather than later. Sebastian half-jokes that his fear of heights is the reason Pride sent him to check out the roof. He adds, “Either that, or you just hate me.” Ha ha!
It appears that Jacob was surprised by his attacker. Pride wants to know why Anderson was up there and who pushed him off. But, before anything can be solved, the victim gets a phone call from his sister, Brandy Anderson.
Pride heads over to talk to Brandy, who reports that she and her brother came down to New Orleans due to her grandmother becoming very ill and passing away. Brandy reports that her grandmother’s house was recently broken in to and she wants to know why her brother isn’t answering her calls.
After receiving news that the house is clear from NOPD, Pride breaks the bad news to Brandy that her brother has passed away. He enters the house, which has been trashed. Brandy wants to know if the break in was related to her brother’s death. She shares that her brother and grandmother were very close. She says that their grandmother didn’t have any money or anything worth breaking in and stealing.
Before they leave, Pride finds something strange in one of Brandy’s grandmother’s rooms. It appears someone was holding a séance. Brandy has no clue why her grandmother or Jacob would have something like that going on in her house nor does she know who could have held it.
Back at HQ, Percy is still being a brat to LaSalle. The mood quickly changes when LaSalle asks Gregorio if she’s afraid of ghosts. She’s totally freaked out by them!
Back to the case, Jacob’s supervisor reports that he was a good sailor. He did indeed take time off to be with his ailing grandmother. Everything checks out, minus the reason he drove to the old pharmacy and was pushed off the roof.
Sebastian has found a clue! He found the fingerprint of a “con artist psychic” who is on probation for ripping off tourists. His name is Otis and he works in a haunted mansion. Turns out he’s “the creep from our crime scene,” per Gregorio and Percy.
The team heads out to pick up Otis. The mansion is super creepy. LaSalle is giving orders and Percy is second guessing them. She needs to knock it off. Their weird tension is putting the team at risk. Meanwhile, Gregorio is too scared to go inside. Poor Sebastian has to watch this entire scene play out in front of him.
HA HA! Sebastian tells Percy, “Don’t worry, it’s alright! I have my proton pack!” Sebastian for the win.
The house is super creepy. Percy and LaSalle head through the first room, where Percy mutters, “Torture chamber, how appropriate.” Ugh! Stop it! LaSalle asks, “What is that supposed to mean?” But we don’t hear her response, if she even gave one.
Poor Gregorio! She’s terrified. Luckily, she and Sebastian find Otis. Unluckily, he takes off and Gregorio gets trapped in one of the scary rooms. Nightmares for days, I tell you. Nightmares for days.
The chase ends with LaSalle tackling Otis and Gregorio screaming Sebastian’s name.
Back in an interrogation room, Pride and LaSalle interrogate Otis, who has several of Jacob’s grandmother’s personal possessions on him. Gregorio and Percy watch from behind the glass. Gregorio admits that she believes in ghosts and psychics.
Otis admits that Jacob and Brandy’s grandmother approached him about holding a séance to help reveal a big secret. He says that he just wanted to make a few bucks, but that all changed after she passed. He says that, “She started talking to me.” Otis admits that he has “faked it” for several years, but this was real. Meanwhile, Gregorio says this case is “cursed” and she starts praying.
Whatever Jacob knew, got him killed. Pride says that they need to, “follow facts” and solve the case, just like any other case.
Sebastian shares that he can track Jacob’s time spent from the moment he arrived in New Orleans to the moment he passed, thanks to the GPS on his cell phone. Percy suggestions that she and Gregorio should check it out. Pride squashes that immediately and tells Percy that she and Christopher are going to investigate. He adds that whatever is going on between the two of them is spilling over and impacting everyone. They need to “work it out” before it completely tears them and their team apart!
Loretta has found a clue on Jacob’s body. Before she can tell Pride about it, she tells him that Loretta believes in ghosts. He can’t believe it. Leaving Pride in shock, she tells him about the evidence that she found. Turns out Jacob had an unknown bacteria strain in his lungs. The origin of this bacteria may lead the team to find his killer.
Pride admits that LaSalle and Percy are struggling. Loretta knows something is up with them too. Pride is worried that his supervisors are trying to break up the team and he doesn’t want to give them any reason to do it.
LaSalle and Percy are in the cemetery, chasing down one of Jacob’s last known locations. Christopher brings confronts Sonja. He wants to know what’s up. She finally admits that, while she can accept that they are “just friends,” she is having a hard time going back to that. Aw! LaSalle tells her it’s going to be okay, they are still Country Mouse and City Mouse after all. She says that is what, “led to it or almost did, anyway.” She ends the conversation with, “Maybe it’s time to retire the mice.”
LaSalle wants to keep talking, but Percy has found something related to the case. She has found Cornelius LaRue’s grave. I have so many questions, but LaSalle doesn’t let me down! He asks, “Why would Jacob Anderson come here?” With confusion in her voice, Percy adds, “Just to get pushed off the same roof 150 years later.”
Pride finally admits that LaRue and Jacob’s deaths may be connected. He still doesn’t believe in ghosts. Gregorio and Pride still don’t know what LaRue’s death had to do with Jacob’s death or why they both died in at the same location in the same way.
Ha ha! Sebastian’s got jokes! He’s pretending to be a ghost. Anyways, he has intel on the bacteria. Turns out it’s a mold that was common in the 1800s. Sebastian hasn’t found the location of the mold yet. He tells Gregorio and Sebastian to be careful, the killer is still out there. Percy and LaSalle need to continue to track Jacob’s last stops, which all conveniently match up with the LaRue ghost tour.
Percy and LaSalle head to the Edgar Mansion, where they run into Otis. He’s pretending to help NCIS with their investigation. He says he’s just trying to find out what Jacob was doing there the day before he died.
Otis is hearing voices. They lead him to an old photograph at the mansion, which now belongs to Tessa Edgar Prescott and Tate Prescott. In the picture, their great-great grandfather is shaking hands Cornelius LaRue, who looks just like Jacob Anderson.
Pride asks Brandy about LaRue. She says she doesn’t recall her grandmother ever talking about LaRue. She says that her grandmother always said that the city never gave their family their due credit. Pride tells her that rumors started spreading across New Orleans, alleging that LaRue jumped because he had the yellow fever. His wife felt differently. She always thought that her husband was murdered.
Interesting! Brandy and Jacob’s grandmother was creating a family tree. She figured out that her family members are actually direct descendents of Cornelius LaRue. Interesting!
Sebastian and Gregorio are heading to the source of the mold. Sebastian doesn’t believe in ghosts. He says, “I need proof for something to exist.” Gregorio shuts him down asking him to prove that love exists. I’m really liking this Gregorio and Sebastian combo!
Gregorio and Sebastian head to an old archive, the last place Sebastian stopped before going to the roof. This is where he inhaled the mold spores. Uh oh! They are not alone! I repeat, they are not alone!
While someone stalks them in the shadows, Sebastian finds proof that LaRue’s son changed his last name to Anderson. Before they can investigate any further, an anonymous bad guy shoves a tool into the switch box and lights the building on fire! Yikes! Luckily, Gregorio and Sebastian get out in time.
The bad guy left behind tire tracks. Sebastian is trying to find a match.
Turns out Cornelius LaRue went to medical school before coming home to enlist. The only picture they have of LaRue and Edgar is one of them shaking hands. “Almost as if they are shaking on a deal,” quips LaSalle. He is so right! Percy hypothesizes that they started the pharmacy company together, which is now worth millions. Could this be the reason Jacob was killed? Was he close to finding the evidence needed to prove that his family is the rightful owner of half of the pharmacy business?
Sebastian has identified the tire tracks. They belong to an expensive car that belongs to Tate Prescott and Tessa Edgar Prescott.
LaSalle and Percy head off to the Edgar Pharmacy Museum. They are looking for clues to connect the Edgars to the LaRues. Percy spots something! The same picture of Edgar and LaRue shaking hands is on display in the museum. That picture was taken from the same roof that Cornelius and Jacob were pushed off of 150 apart!
Pride and Sebastian head to Tessa Edgar Prescott’s place. She says that she has an alibi, but doesn’t have anyone to prove it. Sebastian checks the garage for the Mercedes with the matching tire tracks, but it’s gone. IT’S HER HUSBAND!
On the roof, Percy starts to look for clues that would prove Edgar and LaRue’s partnership actually existed. Unfortunately, she is met by Tate Prescott, who is pointing his gun at her.
Turns out that Jacob had proof that Edgar’s family stole the business from the LaRues. Tate Prescott wasn’t sure what the evidence was, but he wasn’t going to let it come to light, so he pushed Jacob off of the roof.
LaSalle, who is on the street, asks Percy what’s taking her so long. Prescott tells her to lie and say that she hasn’t found anything and that she’s coming down.
She looks over at LaSalle and says, “Nothing’s here, City Mouse.” NICE! LaSalle rushes up the stairs and saves Percy! Oh my gosh! Prescott almost falls off the roof. Percy and LaSalle make a human chain to save him. Prescott declares that, “it isn’t worth it,” and he lets go, falling to his death.
The team figures out what Jacob knew, the information that he went to his grave with. Jacob was on the roof looking at the mosaic made out of tiles, which is conveniently located directly in front of the pharmacy building from 150 years ago.
Percy thanks LaSalle for saving her. She does not want to retire the mice anymore. Aw, good! Now that the mice are on good terms again, they can fall in love and live happily ever after, right? I mean did you SEE that look LaSalle just gave her?
Pride breaks open the mosaic and finds an old metal box. Pride says that the boxes were common for the opening of new businesses. Ahhh! Pride found the proof! He found the contract between LaRue and Edgar, outlining their partnership. The business belongs to the Edgars and the LaRues, now the Anderson family.
Tessa Edgar stops by to see Brandy. She asks if they can talk. They certainly have a lot to catch up on!
The show ends with Gregorio visiting Otis. She says that her father, who has passed, has been bugging her and she needs his help. She’s too embarrassed to talk to him out in the open, so they sneak off as excellent music closes out the final scene.
*******
My Thoughts:
This episode was fantastic! I loved that it showed a different side of Gregorio. Sebastian continued to slay. I really like the two of them working together!
Thank goodness, Percy and LaSalle finally managed to work out their issue; although, I do not think under any circumstances are they done being PerSalle. I mean, I swooned as Christopher looked at her at the end, didn’t you?
I’m glad the team is back up and functioning. Also, looking over my reviews from last year, you’d never believe it was possible, but I really like Gregorio’s character now!
What did you think of this episode? What do you think is next for the crew?
Leave a comment below and be sure to check out my other reviews and interviews right here on SpoilerTV!
