What I’m Watching: NCIS

NCIS: Season 7, Episode 9 “Child’s Play” (B+)

It’s always great to see Gibbs quickly establish a deep rapport with a surprisingly mature child. His direction to Angela to look at him when a gun was being held to her head made me think that he might try to blink Morse code at her to instruct her on how to distract him (like Sydney and Jack once did on “Alias”), but her recitation of probability facts was just as satisfyingly cool. This cornfield murder, reminiscent of the opening moments of the pilot of “Smallville,” presented a terrific opportunity for Ziva to climb on Tony’s shoulders, which was an amusing moment. Tony asking if his combined SAT score of 950 was good was funny, though I suspect that the requirements for being an NCIS agent demand a stronger display of scholastic achievement. This episode was particularly fun because there were so many chances to see what all of the team members do on Thanksgiving, and to have them come together to share in a traditional meal at Ducky’s home. Ducky handing out invitations at the office made it really seem like this group was a family, and Tony insisting that he had travel plans but never actually saying what they were was nice in that it implied he had something else to do but still allowed him to celebrate the holiday with his coworkers. Ducky taking his turkey out of one of the drawers where he keeps the dead bodies was hilarious, as was Abby’s comparison of Gibbs to a father figure: “Who’s going to carve the turkey? Who’s going to watch the game with me? Who’s going to eat too much pie?” Her patting Gibbs’ stomach with the utterance of the final line was particularly superb. Their episode-ending meal was lovely, and the belated arrival of Gibbs made everything come together wonderfully. Gibbs’s slow-motion laugh-smile was a terrific way to close out the episode and spread some holiday cheer.