NCIS: New Orleans - Powder Keg - Review: “New Percy”
4.20 - “Powder Keg”
Directed by Mary Lou Belli
Written by Talicia Raggs
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount
This episode starts out with an action-packed police chase. There is a car with three bad guys. They have guns and they’re desperate to get away from the cops.
Meanwhile, over at Sydney Halliday, from the episode in South America, shows up at Pride’s bar.
As Pride buys her a drink, the car chase ends up at the bar’s front doors, literally. The bad guys get out of the car and race into his bar with their guns drawn.
The bad guys take everyone in the bar hostage. They make everyone put their phones and wallets on the bar. Pride tries to keep the situation calm, but things aren’t looking good.
Outside, more police arrive and helicopters swarm overhead. The bad guys inside, Boomer, Red, and Curtis, are incredibly agitated.
Officer Wallace Leroi shows up and tells Captain Estes that Curtis, one of the bad guys, killed his partner, Detective Franklin.
Pride asks if he can barricade the back door. He says he wants everyone to get out alive. Curtis heads to the back room with him.
Back at HQ, Sebastian is on his seventh cup of coffee. Gregorio tells him to calm down. He’s missing the donuts that Percy usually brings in on a Saturday. Aw, Percy!
LaSalle bursts into HQ and tells them that Pride and everyone in his bar are being held hostage. The team races over to the scene of the crime.
In the back room, Curtis tells Pride that he’s been set up. He says that he was Detective Franklin’s confidential informant (C.I.). He says that when he went to his place to meet Franklin, he had already been shot and killed. Curtis tells Pride he was trying to get out of living a life of crime.
Pride tells Curtis to give him his phone. That’s the only way he can try to clear Curtis’ name and keep everyone in the bar safe.
Outside, Gregorio and LaSalle speak with Captain Estes and Officer Leroi. LaSalle and Gregorio want NCIS to take point. Captain Davis, from S.O.D. comes in and tells them that they are going to take the lead. He invites Gregorio and LaSalle to stay on, as his guests.
Gregorio and Pride decide that they aren’t standing down. Sebastian points out that Curtis’ handler sounds fishy. How did the death get called in immediately? LaSalle sends Sebastian to the scene where the Detective Franklin was shot and killed. He sends Gregorio back to HQ to investigate.
Captain Davis calls the bar’s landline. The bad guys don’t answer it. Sydney Halliday sees an opportunity and attacks one of the armed gunmen. It backfires, and she ends up tied up and Boomer points a shotgun in Pride’s face.
Captain Davis calls again. This time, Boomer, the leader of the crew, answers. Captain Davis asks what Boomer wants. He says he wants a way out or people are going to get hurt.
Curtis passes Pride his cell phone while he looks after an injured Halliday.
Boomer demands a helicopter and wants to be flown to Mexico. Captain Davis tells him that isn’t happening, as they can’t land a helicopter in the streets of downtown New Orleans. Also, a helicopter wouldn’t be able to fly them all of the way to Mexico. Boomer tells him to figure out a way to get him and his crew to the airport and have a plane waiting for them.
Pride shoots off a quick text to LaSalle. It says, “It’s Pride. Curtis was Franklin’s CI, says he was framed. Please check.” LaSalle doesn’t tell Captain Davis or anyone else but the NCIS crew about the text.
Captain Davis tries to get some hostages out, but Boomer isn’t having it. He wants a plane. Bottom line.
LaSalle questions Captain Davis about Leroi being on the tactical team. After all, his partner was just killed. Captain Davis isn’t hearing it. Captain Estes tells LaSalle that he can try to work with Pride, but he has to figure out how to reach him. He doesn’t know about the secret text conversation.
Uh oh. The media have showed up. This makes everyone nervous.
Gregorio and Patton are going over Boomer, Red, and Curtis’ files. Curtis has only been convicted of burglary, unlike the other two with much more serious crimes. Patton has more information. It appears that the final text sent to Curtis from his handler’s phone wasn’t actually sent from the Franklin. It was someone else luring Curtis to the scene of the crime. The clues are pointing to Curtis being set up, but why? Was he going to snitch on his crew? Or is something else going on that we don’t know about yet? Either way, they have a new lead, the name Riley.
Outside the bar, LaSalle tells Captain Estes that he knows something, but it’s not worth mentioning yet. Captain Davis joins them. They have a plane at the airport for the bad guys. This should help with negotiations.
One of the band members who was playing while the bad guys charged into the bar has a heart condition and is having a difficult time. Boomer won’t let anyone help him.
The police call the bar again, which gives Pride the chance to talk to Curtis and Halliday. Pride asks him about the name Riley. Curtis tells Pride that Riley is his girlfriend, but that she’s been out of the life for a couple of years.
Curtis tells Pride that there was some kind dust up at his girlfriend’s work last week. She was mugged after leaving a shift. Pride thinks Curtis’ old handler may have gotten involved with the situation that way.
The musician with the heart condition collapses. Pride drops Curtis’ cell phone to provide aid. Boomer sees the cell phone and flips out. He quickly realizes that Curtis is working with Pride. Yikes!
Pride tells Boomer that he’s an NCIS officer. This makes Boomer even more angry. He blames Pride for the Clearwater incident and his family not having jobs.
Curtis tells the crew that he didn’t kill his handler. He says that he was set up.
Pride manages to calm down Boomer, but it doesn’t look like it based on the camera that the tactical just dropped in through the roof. Luckily, Pride convinces Boomer to give him his cell phone back. Pride texts a message to LaSalle, who relays it to Captain Davis and Captain Estes. He tells them that they are going to let the sick man out. They tell the snipers and media to stand down.
LaSalle tells Captain Davis and Captain Estes that they think Curtis may have been set up. He also shares that he thinks their friend’s death may have had something to do with Curtis’ girlfriend, Riley. Captain Davis kicks him off the scene.
LaSalle calls Sebastian. Turns out he got kicked out of the scene as well. He was able to get several high definition pictures of the body and the crime scene before being sent away. Sebastian tells LaSalle that Gregorio is following up at the club where Riley works to see if she can figure out how Curtis’ girlfriend is involved.
Gregorio speaks with Lorna, who works at the same club as Riley. She says that she’s been covering Riley’s shifts for a week. She also says that Riley left after Curtis’ handler, Detective Franklin, came and spoke with her at the club. Lorna is worried about losing her job. They aren’t supposed to speak about their rich club members. Gregorio convinces her to spill the beans. Riley told Franklin that she saw someone put something in one of her regular’s drinks. Shortly after, Dezzie, her regular customer, was in a car accident. The next night, Riley was mugged and Lorna hasn’t seen her since. Lorna tells Gregorio that Dezzie works for the city or the government. He barely survived the car accident he was in. He is a major VIP at the club. That’s all Lorna can tell Gregorio.
Curtis tells Pride that Dezzie comes in once a month and tips Riley really well. He thinks that he’s a lawyer. Pride asks if it’s Desmond Whitney, the State Attorney General. Pride says, “He’s been waging a war on corruption.” It looks like a dirty cop is trying to take Dezzie out.
Boomer is getting anxious. The bus that’s going to transport them to the airport just arrived.
Captain Davis and his team have a plan to take out the bad guys as they are transported and arrive at the airport. LaSalle asks them if they plan to attempt to take everyone in alive. It doesn’t seem like it, based on Captain Davis’ response. LaSalle tells him that he thinks a police officer killed Detective Franklin. This makes Captain Davis even more angry. They almost come to blows, but Captain Estes walks LaSalle out of the room.
The bad buys need cover to go with them on the bus ride to the airport. Pride says he’ll go and to leave everyone else behind. Boomer tells him that isn’t good enough, they need more people. Halliday volunteers as well.
Outside, LaSalle and Captain Estes talk as the hostages pour out of the front doors. Pride, Halliday, Curtis, Red, and Boomer head toward the bus. When the doors open, Pride sees Captain Davis behind the wheel.
Pride tells Halliday that the bus driver is an NOPD Captain.
Captain Estes tells LaSalle that he’s heading to the airport. LaSalle tells him he’s going with and that he thinks Curtis was indeed set up.
Back at HQ, Gregorio, Sebastian, and Patton have a massive breakthrough. The fingerprints on the gun used to kill Detective Franklin are indeed Curtis’; however, they are perfect and not smudged at all, like the kind you would have access to if you were a police officer. This helps prove Curtis’ innocence, but it doesn’t help them figure out who killed Detective Franklin.
Patton has another lead. There’s footage from a nearby gas station, while it doesn’t have footage of the killer, it has something else just as important, a time stamp. The two people in the video turn around when they hear a gunshot, which happens at 11:24AM. The text that was sent from Detective Franklin’s phone, came through at 11:25AM. There’s no way he could have sent the text if he was already dead.
Bad news, Loretta has Riley in her morgue. She is dead, due to an alleged heroin overdose. She shows no previous signs of drug use. Something isn’t adding up here. Loretta also notes that the heroin was extremely pure, which will make it easy to trace the strain.
In the bus, Pride receives word of Riley’s death. He tells Curtis that she died of an overdose. Curtis tells Pride that Riley didn’t use drugs. Pride tells him not to worry, that they’ll find the person who killed Detective Franklin and Riley.
Captain Davis stops the bus at the gate leading to the airport. There are snipers everywhere.
Sebastian calls with news. Captain Davis led a raid several months ago, which resulted in acquiring the heroin that killed Riley. He had access to the drugs. LaSalle tells Captain Estes to tell S.O.D. to stand down immediately and that Captain Davis is the killer.
Captain Davis stands up and gives the word for his team to start shooting. Pride, Curtis, and Halliday duck. Red has been shot, everyone else seems to be alive and not injured. Boomer stands up and accuses Pride of playing him. He tells Pride that he’s going to die and points his shotgun at him. Before he can pull the trigger, Captain Davis shoots Boomer three times and kills him. He turns his gun on Curtis next and says he’s, “cleaning house.”
Halliday attacks Captain Davis and pushes him out of the way before he can shoot Curtis. Pride shoots and kills Captain Davis.
As they get off the bus, Pride tells them that “the killer is on the bus” and that Curtis isn’t guilty, he was set up.
Halliday rubs her neck and says that she had easier days in Fallujah.
LaSalle smiles and asks, “I’m sorry and who are you exactly?”
Pride introduces Sydney Halliday and says, “She’s been making the habit of saving my ass.”
Halliday and LaSalle shake hands.
Back at HQ, Sebastian walks in with a box of donuts. Turns out everyone brought in a box in to work. Ha ha! Now they have close to forty donuts and strudel. The team puts Sebastian on coffee duty.
Pride is putting his bar back together when Captain Estes stops by to give him an update. He tells Pride that Curtis is not being brought up on any charges and that he’s placing him in protective custody until he can make sure that he’s safe.
Captain Estes and Pride talk about Davis covering up corruption and Desmond Whitney, the State Attorney General, trying to put an end to it. Pride doesn’t think that Davis was working alone. Captain Estes agrees and adds that Pride and his team saved Mayor Taylor from an attempted assassination a few months ago. That’s two attempted assassinations on two major politicians in the state of Louisiana that are standing up to corruption. Captain Estes asks Pride, “You thinking, what I’m thinking?” To which Pride responds, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
*******
My Thoughts:
I liked this episode a lot! We got to see Sydney Halliday in action for the second time and she seems like she’ll be a good fit for the show. I’m glad the writers approached her joining the cast differently than they did Gregorio’s character. It seems like the cast will continue to flow smoothly with Halliday and I think the fans will appreciate the transition playing out this way as well.
That being said, Halliday did her own thing twice during the episode. The first one ended up with her tied to a chair, but the second one saved Curtis and Pride’s lives. Do you think she’ll be the type of NCIS officer to jump into danger and consider the consequences later? I doubt the writers would have another Percy-near-the-end-like character who was questioning Pride’s authority and not following orders. What are your thoughts on Halliday joining the team?
One small issue I had with the episode is that I don’t think it was realistic for Officer Leroi to remain on the tactical team after his partner, Detective Franklin had just been shot. I’m pretty sure that goes against the rules. What do you think?
Leave me a comment below with your thoughts!
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