‘NCIS’ season 12, episode 2 review: Leon Vance news casts sad light on ‘Kill the Messenger’
Going into Tuesday night’s “NCIS” episode, there really was not that much known about it other than the title was “Kill the Messenger,” and the story would send a few NCIS agents pretty close to the White House.
Over time, we learned the reason why. Director Leon Vance learned that he needs to have exploratory surgery for what could very well be lymphoma. The circumstances surrounding this are extremely serious, and he had to prepare for the worst. Seriously, this is a man who has already been through more hard times than almost anyone else on the show, and to add this to the list? Devastating.
While Vance told some that he was going to be hospitalized for the surgery, he decided to tell the kids something different. He didn’t want to lie, but worried that the truth may be a little much. In the end, he did learn that he was going to be okay, but we were short of breath for most of the hour.
The episode was not always so dark or depressing. DiNozzo was on the prowl most of the episode, and things got very awkward when he picked up McGee’s phone, which was a very revealing video chat he was about to have with Delilah. Let’s just say that clearly these two are doing well, and Tony won’t be doing that again. Speaking of men named Tony, Tony Gonzalez had a fun but brief cameo as CBS tries to push Thursday Night Football onto other shows.
As for the main case, it was a little more of the ho-hum variety. Sometimes, the cases just tend to blend together in the midst of all the other character moments. Some may have found this story more interesting, but we were almost so distracted by the Vance story that it doesn’t even matter. Grade: B+.
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Photo: CBS
Lorraine64
October 1, 2014 @ 2:30 pm
I quite enjoyed this week’s episode – which since I hated most of season 11 is saying something. The dialogue flowed better and it was nice to see some real emotion between Vance and Gibbs, though I too found little interest in the crime of the week. Rather wished that Vance’s story had been drawn out across more than one episode and as the most enormous Tony fan it would have been even more moving for me if it had been Tony that had the health scare rather than Vance, who does seem to have been put through rather a lot of late. Tony already has (though I think the writers have probably forgotten) scarred lungs following his bout with pneumonic plague which I guess might make him potentially more susceptible to other lung related issues, and it would have given the writers an excuse to show something of the old friendship that Gibbs and Tony used to share. Odd that Gary Glasberg seems to think Tony had “bubonic” rather than “pneumonic” plague according to this week’s NCIS-NOLA. Not actually watched “SWAK”?!