NCIS: New Orleans - Mind Games - Review: “Gregorio’s Past”
4.21 - “Mind Games”
Directed by Not Listed
Written by Talicia Raggs
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount
This episode opens up with a bloody and brutal interrogation. A woman is tied to a chair as another woman (she previously played Heather Taffet a.k.a. The Gravedigger on Bones) tortures here, trying to get her to admit the truth about something that happened in her past.
When the woman finally gives in, her torturer tells her that she’s finally free and then puts a plastic bag over her face and she suffocates. Yikes! This is an intense start! I’m not sure I’ve seen anything quite like this on NCIS: New Orleans before… Very Criminal Minds-ish.
Back in New Orleans, Sebastian stops by Gregorio’s house. He gives her a hard time for leaving her door unlocked and for her place being a mess. Gregorio says it’s been hard since Percy left. Before he can tell her about their new case, a half-dressed woman walks out of Gregorio’s bedroom. Sebastian is tongue tied and struggles to talk to the beautiful woman. Before leaving, the woman reminds Gregorio that her name is Brooklyn and leaves her phone number on Gregorio’s refrigerator.
At the scene of the crime, Sebastian asks Gregorio is she’s alright. He says that she isn’t acting like herself. Gregorio tells him, “I love you, but if you don’t stop, I’m going to drop you and turn you into a Soprano.” Gregorio and Sebastian are my new favorite pair. RIP, City Mouse and Country Mouse.
Inside the abandoned farm house, the crew looks at the victim’s body. She was tortured by someone who knew what they were doing. Gregorio hypothesizes that the farm house may mean something significant to the victim. She also brings up an old case that she studied at the FBI. The victim in the case study was killed the exact same way as the victim in their current case.
Sebastian voices his concern for Gregorio to Pride. Pride has noticed her behavior is off as well. They are both going to keep an eye on her.
Gregorio gets a hold of Professor McDermott, her old professor at the FBI. OH MY GOSH! Her professor is the person who killed their current victim, a Navy pilot. Gregorio tells her that she thinks the cases might be connected. She gives her professor a ton of information. Professor McDermott offers to help. YIKES!
Sebastian reports back that the killer is, “incredibly meticulous” and didn’t leave any evidence behind.
Gregorio has more info. There are a lot more victims and they were all killed in places that meant something to the victims. She doesn’t think the killer knew the victims ahead of time, but they are somehow related.
Pride comes in and announces that its late. He wants to start fresh in the morning. Gregorio and the team are surprised, but they follow Pride’s lead.
Gregorio heads home while on the phone with Professor Claire McDermott. EEK! The professor is in Gregorio’s house! SCARY! Gregorio goes over the information she knows and the profile she’s starting to form for the killer. She notes that the killer always broke into the victim’s homes before kidnapping, torturing, and then killing them.
Uh oh! An ambulance drives by as Gregorio is still on the phone. Gregorio can hear the ambulance on the professor’s line! Gregorio looks up and sees shadows in her apartment. She runs up with her gun drawn, but Professor McDermott is already gone!
The next morning, LaSalle and Sebastian are at Gregorio’s apartment, looking for clues. Gregorio knows Professor McDermott is the killer. She also knows that she’s incredibly smart and cocky, after all, she literally teaches a class on her first victim.
Pride shows up and tells Gregorio that he wants her to stay in her apartment with Sebastian inside and NOPD outside. She follows his orders, even though she isn’t happy about it. As Pride and LaSalle head out to go to the morgue, Pride whispers, “Do not let her out of your sight,” to Sebastian.
Loretta is worried for Gregorio. Professor McDermott was a monster. Loretta has information, the killer used a specific scalpel for torturing her victims. Also, the killer gave each of her victim’s roofies (Rohypnol), in order to get them woozy enough to kidnap them.
Uh oh! Brooklyn, the woman who spent the night at Gregorio’s house is sitting at the bar when she receives a glass of wine. It’s allegedly from Gregorio, who’s not going to be able to make it to the bar to meet her. Professor McDermott sits down next to Brooklyn. This is not good! She starts talking to Brooklyn and they clink their wine glasses together before Brooklyn downs the drugged wine.
Gregorio gets a call from Brooklyn’s phone. Too bad it’s not Brooklyn, it’s Professor McDermott. She tells Gregorio that if she doesn’t sneak away right now and come meet her, she’s going to kill Brooklyn. She also tells Gregorio that she wants to “free her.”
Sebastian is freaking out when Pride arrives. He feels terribly guilty. Pride says that McDermott must have, “taken Brooklyn to get to Tammy.”
Neither Gregorio’s cell or her GPS are working, Sebastian has tried to track both. Poor, Sebastian. I adore him. Sebastian did put a BOLO out on Gregorio’s car, so hopefully that will help them find her.
Professor McDermott leads Gregorio to a secluded location. She tells her to toss her phone. McDermott has planted a burner phone in her car and gives her further directions.
Pride and the team try to dig up any clues they can in order to find Gregorio.
McDermott continues to give Gregorio clues. She manages to run a red light, which will hopefully get picked up by a red light camera. McDermott tells her to pull off the road in a secluded area.
LaSalle gets the message about Gregorio’s car being spotted running a red light. LaSalle and Pride head to the location.
McDermott tells Gregorio that she’s going to free her. She throws her a bottle and tells her to, “drink it.” Gregorio demands to see Brooklyn, to make sure she’s okay. McDermott has her in the trunk of her car. McDermott tells Gregorio that she, “doesn’t care” about Brooklyn and that she’ll let her go. She then asks Gregorio about Hawaii. Gregorio is surprised that she brought that subject up.
LaSalle and Pride show up to the secluded area that McDermott was holding Brooklyn. Brooklyn is on the ground, still tied up, but okay. She tells them that McDermott is going to kill Gregorio.
Gregorio wakes up in a room covered in plastic. Professor McDermott tells Gregorio that no one is going to hear her. She’s rented out all of the rooms in the hotel and no one will hear her screams. The camera pans out and we find out that McDermott is holding Gregorio at the Aloha Motel.
Pride and Loretta are talking to Brooklyn back at HQ. They ask her if she remembers anything. She tells them about plastic sheeting and tape, but she can’t remember anything else. Loretta tells Brooklyn that perhaps Gregorio or McDermott said something that could be a clue. Brooklyn tells them that Claire said, “Remember Hawaii,” to Gregorio.
Sebastian and LaSalle have something! McDermott has brought each of the victims to the location where a previous trauma occurred. So, the pilot that she killed in the beginning had to make an emergency stop and landed on an old farm house. Some of her crew died in the crash.
Back at the hotel, McDermott brings up what happened in Hawaii. She wants to “free” Tammy Gregorio of that pain.
Sebastian comes up with something! He remembers a scrapbook he picked up at Gregorio’s house. It was about a trip she took as a teenager and there were a lot of pictures of her and a blonde girl. He finds it and shows it to LaSalle and Pride. It turns out Gregorio’s best friend was kidnapped and killed in a motel while they were on a family vacation.
McDermott is shoving a picture of Gregorio’s deceased friend in her face. She gets Gregorio to admit that when they were in Hawaii, her friend met a guy and left with him. They were teenagers and snuck out, without telling her friend’s parents. After Tammy admits what happened to McDermott, the professor says, “Good girl, Tammy. Now you’re finally free.” Without another word, she shoves a plastic bag over Gregorio’s head.
The team figures it out! McDermott took Gregorio to a location that reminded her of Hawaii, THE ALOHA HOTEL! They get to the parking lot just as Gregorio manages to get one hand free and tear the bag off her face. She attacks McDermott and almost kills her when Pride bursts through the door, stopping her. Pride holds Gregorio in his arms telling her, “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”
They arrest McDermott and Gregorio gets loaded into the back of an ambulance. LaSalle is worried, but Pride thinks she’ll recover.
Aw, Sebastian helps Gregorio get home. He is so sweet! He helps her get settled on the couch. She’s in a lot of pain, but still has her Gregorio-ness. She asks Sebastian to order some fried oysters. She’s worried he might leave, he tells her that he’s not going anywhere and adds, “You’re stuck with me, Gregorio.” Sebastian says, “Oh my god. You’re getting mushy!” I LOVE THESE TWO! Sebastian jokes about watching Silence of the Lambs and Seven, as Gregorio lays her head on his shoulder.
*******
My Thoughts:
This was a great episode, but also the most brutal I think the NCIS – New Orleans crew have ever filmed!
I absolutely LOVE Deirdre Lovejoy as Professor McDermott! She is the perfect villain. I loved her as the Gravedigger in Bones and she brought that same controlling creepiness for this role. I hope she gets out and haunts the crew in a future episode or two!
I thought this episode showed a lot of depth, especially for Gregorio’s character. She really dug deep and gave us a very real portrayal of someone in intense physical and emotional pain.
Two thumbs ALL THE WAY UP!
Leave me a comment below with your thoughts!
Also, have you missed an episode or two? Need to catch up or just want to refresh your NCIS - New Orleans memory? You can access all of my SpoilerTV reviews and interviews by clicking on the following link: http://www.spoilertv.com/search/label/KA
