What I’m Watching: NCIS

NCIS: Season 7, Episode 14 “Masquerade” (B)

This was an intriguing episode to be sure, but it did feel rather scattered and all over the place. The sight of McGee in a tuxedo video-chatting in to a wedding across the ocean was pretty funny, though it might have been nice to see a bit more of that since it was a great joke that never quite received the proper follow-up. McGee did enjoy cracking a few zingers this episode, sort of taking the place of Tony, whose usually assumes the responsibility of providing the comic relief. I did enjoy the hunt for the bomb and watching Abby run up to deliver a surprise attack that was actually just her enthusiastic way of giving a hug. Regarding the central plotline and the return of Rena Sofer’s character, I’d be infinitely more impressed if the actress portraying her was much more up to the task. Her omnipresence is interesting and somewhat surprising, but again, the actress is just far too weak. Mark Harmon certainly plays well against her, but he’s a much more capable actor. They had initially been posited as rivals, and the notion that they might be crafting some sort of relationship out of Margaret’s seeming obsession with Gibbs is quite intriguing. It doesn’t necessarily make a lot of sense, but it’s certainly not a route that has been explored up to this point. This in fact marks the most of any Gibbs girlfriend type we’ve seen, physically-speaking. All I can think about with that final scene where both of them are so close to each other is when Shawn and Juliet were just “talking really closely” at the close of one episode instead of doing anything remotely flirtatious. I doubt that’s the case here, of course, and I’m very interested to see what happens next week.