NCIS season 15 episode 4 review: How was Maria Bello’s debut?

NCIS season 15 episode 4 started off with what seemed to be a murder mystery case inspired by Clue — one that led to what looked at first to be a new murder. In terms of creepy introductions to a case, this one takes the case!

For a split second, this reveal helped to almost make us forget that “Skeleton Crew” was actually notable first and foremost for the arrival of Maria Bello to the show as Jack Sloane — a smart, resourceful, but also quirky forensic psychologist who formed a strong relationship with Gibbs from the very beginning. He took her in after her car broke down via the arrival of Hurricane Molly and she was certainly different than most — she actually liked his flip phone! Also, Gibbs let her stay in his house while he went to investigate the aforementioned crime. The victim of the attempted murder was a man named Ethan.

Following what transpired here, there then became another problem: The disappearance of Helen, a woman with pretty clear tie to Ethan. The search for her led Bishop and McGee to an investigation at sea. This was made all the more problematic by the limited crew who was on board the ship because of the hurricane.

One of the other interesting facets of the case was that there were some ties to Bishop’s own past over the course of the case, one where we learned via a man named Buckner she had a less-than-pleasant nickname from her time in high school: Scarecrow. This was a good story for the character in general, mostly because she made it clear that she had a lengthy history of being bullied in school because of Buckner and some other people.

It was entertaining getting to learn more about these characters, but the case was taken up another notch by the news that Helen was eventually found dead, and a recovering Ethan pointed the finger at Buckner. Bishop interrogated him, intent on figuring out the truth behind what happened. Unfortunately, she let her own anger get in the way of seeing the truth — Buckner didn’t kill her. He explained his relationship with her and all of a sudden, Ellie realized that he wasn’t that guy anymore.

Eventually almost everyone involved in the case started to figure out what really happened — at least in terms of someone looking to take advantage of the skeleton crew to get the money off the ship. However, the person responsible for robbing said safe was not the person responsible for killing her. Instead, the actual killer was Grayson, a man clearly out for revenge after a brief relationship with Helen.

More reactions to Jack’s arrival

When Gibbs realized that Jack, who hadn’t previously told him about her job, was joining NCIS, he was shocked — and he was also angry about it. He also felt like she was following him around. Everyone else seemed fine to have her around, but as we’ve come to know over time, Gibbs isn’t a big fan of change…

The fun twist at the end was that Gibbs actually did know who Jack was when she turned up at his house — he just wasn’t on for much of the episode and was using that as a test. The big mystery with this character came in the form of those scars we saw on her back in the end — while she may be upbeat, clearly she has went through something deeply traumatic.

The funniest part of the episode

The first one was learning that McGee was apparently a Ser Jorah – Daenerys ‘shipper based on his tandem Game of Thrones costume. Also, apparently Abby wanted a zombie survival guide for the team and in the midst of the hurricane, it actually proved useful.

CarterMatt Verdict

Overall, Bello’s arrival went fairly smoothly, though we’re actually surprised that we didn’t see more of her over the course of the episode. The big surprise of the night was getting a big Bishop storyline that showed off some of the insecurities of the past.

What did you think about Maria Bello’s NCIS debut?

Be sure to share some of your thoughts in the comments! Meanwhile, click here to preview to get some additional news regarding what is coming up.

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