NCIS season 15 episode 2 review: Mark Harmon, Sean Murray shine

Within the opening minutes of NCIS season 15 episode 2 we got a pretty clear reminder of how freaky the show can be. We don’t quite know how else you can describe a case revolving around two bodies found in the same grave.

We’ll get back to that case in the moment, but let’s talk about one of the bigger surprises of the season so far: Gibbs actually being in a good mood for a change when it comes to Dr. Confalone. He was willing to go to therapy later in the afternoon to assess his mental state, and that’s probably why she allowed the two to go out and assess the crime scene. The big difference here was that Gibbs and McGee still had to work under Bishop.

The case was an odd one given that you had a body belonging to Navy officer placed within an elderly woman in Edna’s casket. Eventually we learned a little bit more about the deceased Lt. Richard Coyne — he was a former SEAL candidate and a man who was set to testify in a trial. Basically, the motive for someone to kill him was pretty clear, given that this is a guy seemingly taken down because of what he saw. He could destroy someone else’s life, so someone opted to end his first.

From here, the mystery started to escalate as we saw Torres, Bishop, and the rest of the team trying to figure out how in the world Coyne’s body got there. Meanwhile, Gibbs attended therapy and Mark Harmon had one of his better scenes in ages. He was a different man, someone who understood his own mortality far more than he had ever had before. As Dr. Confalone said he had a “new lease on life” and that actually excited her.

On the flip side, there was a major concern started to crop out with McGee. As happy as Gibbs was to be back, his fellow agent was cold, distant. He also still kept the goatee as though he was stuck in the darkest timeline from Community. He bailed on his appointment with the therapist and tried to make excuses for it when Director Vance showed up.

The first big twist in the episode

Everyone was far more connected than anyone would have predicted. When you consider how Coyle’s widow was connected to another person involved in the case (a gym owner with ties to the decease), it was clear that things were a little complicated.

The second big twist came about with Ducky and Palmer in the lab. There were so many toxins within the liver of one of the bodies that it caused Jimmy to pass out. He turned out to be okay, and he was able to continue his work.

While it wasn’t a twist per se, as the episode progressed we got to understand more of where Gibbs and McGee were coming from mentally. McGee was up in the middle of the night, tossing and turning in sleep — he couldn’t figure out what to do with himself, and he was so scared of his psych evaluation that he was avoiding going.

The case comes together

It turns out that a combination of different drugs was what killed Lt. Coyne, and it turns out that it was the dealer in Leo who knew more than he let on previously. He wasn’t the real guilty party, but he was able to hand down some more valuable information on the case — much more than the team had previously.

As a matter of fact, it turned out that gym owner Pete who was really the one responsible for what happened to Coyne. He claimed that he was using drugs from Leo and others to “help” Coyne, and that his death was apparently an accident. Everything came about as a result of bad prescription and a fight that spiraled out of control.

The conclusion of the therapy story

McGee finally decided to sit down with Dr. Confalone, where he was faced his biggest question: Why was he not sleeping? As it turns out, he was afraid, and living off of months of fear that he couldn’t exactly feel at that time. He didn’t have time to experience some of that fear back in Paraguay, which is why he was struggling to find a way to make things work for him in the present. This was another incredibly compelling scene for McGee, and we give Sean Murray credit for taking on some pretty nuanced material here.

CarterMatt Verdict

“Twofer” was an episode with its fair share of funny moments, whether it be a super-paranoid Torres (he really doesn’t love funeral homes) or a chipper Gibbs. Also, the scene at the funeral home with the late Edna’s mother was worth plenty of laughs before we learned about her connection to the case. The same goes with Gibbs visiting the lab when Ducky and Palmer were working on the bodies.

Overall, though, we do think that this episode will be most defined by Harmon and Murray giving another set of great performances as they confronted their trauma in various ways.

What’s coming on NCIS season 15 episode 2?

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