Did you ever feel like everybody knew something that you didn’t? Even though we watch and critique every NCIS show, tonight we felt like we missed one. Did you? How many of you saw the show where Gibbs “shot Tobias Fornel in the caboose?” Remember when Season Ten ended with Fornel in the site of Gibbs’ gun? Then Season 11 started and Ziva left. The writers were compelled to change several episodes of this season. Tonight Fornel and his (and Jethro’s) ex-wife are talking about them getting back together after she nursed Fornel’s gunshot wound to the buttocks. So, okay, are the writers letting us know what they had to leave on the cutting room floor to adjust to Ziva’s departure?

The show was slapstick comedy, ala Cary Grant in his early movies, such as “Bringing up Baby” with Katherine Hepburn. We laughed. Anytime you get Fornel and Gibbs together, then throw in Diane Gibbs-Fornel, you have a funny show. Tony and Tim, played brilliantly by Michael Weatherly and Sean Murray, showed excellent timing in their performances. The plot held together pretty well. Ellie is developing slowly, just as Kate did, but she has a long way to go.

There were too many procedural no-no’s in this episode to qualify as one of the better episodes. We think that was intended. First, the agent’s would never permit the bank manager and locksmith to open the safe deposit box without an agent present to take immediate custody and maintain the chain of evidence. Secondly, Gibbs shouldn’t have permitted Ellie to be present at any crime scene. She is too green. Thirdly, no supervisor would permit a rookie analyst who hadn’t been through even the most basic training to be the courier of the money to the guy holding Fornel’s daughter as hostage. Gibbs permitted Ellie to do so, with the blessing of Tobias and Diane. You might have observed the criminal saw Ellie on a hidden camera at the crime scene and insisted she be the courier. That happened because Gibbs’ second mistake resulted in his third.

Then Ellie took out her earwig when she discovered the bad guy had given her a fake phone. We knew that Gibbs would blister her. Because Fornell’s daughter was safe, Gibbs let Ellie off easy. Do you think the show should hold a slot open for the actress who played Fornell’s daughter? She was a feisty kid, who seemed perfect as the Fornell’s daughter. David predicted the final line from the two of them, wanting Gibbs’ blessing. True to form, Gibbs conveyed his angst with his eyes. Beautiful.

On a final note, Mark Harmon is one classy guy. Because of fundraising by him and his friends, the “Harmon-y Pediatrics Clinic” opened in Oklahoma City, as part of the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic. Gibbs gift to the Indian community culminates at the same time as we celebrate God’s gift to the world.

Be Blessed and be a Blessing, Diane and David