It seemed like a long summer without our team lead by Mark Harmon, who plays NCIS agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Indeed, it was a long summer of simmering tensions around the world. Anticipating tonight’s episode, we wondered what tough and tender issues the NCIS writers might tackle. We had heard rumors of a Russian bad guy. And the drama leapt out at us from the screen putting us at the edge of our seats. Who was after Gibbs and McGee twenty kilometers, “twenty klicks” from Finland?

This episode explodes with a traitor within the walls of NCIS. Abby is called on to evaluate what kind of SAM (Surface to Air Missile) shot down the helicopter carrying Gibbs and McGee out of Russia with Kevin Hussein, the IT guy with a head full of Navy secrets. The question is, who or what are the Russians after? And what does Hussein know that he is not telling Gibbs? Bishop reaches out to NSA, her former agency, and where her husband works, hinting that we’ll learn more about him in future shows.

We expect the drama involving Sergei, the Russian, will continue throughout the season. In real life, the NCIS IT Kevin Hussein would be looked at real hard when considered for the requisite Top Secret security clearance. With an uncle who was a professor at a Russian University, he’d get twice the scrutiny. Could it have been a technical flaw? We were relieved to see Gibbs and McGee making it home. Were you all surprised to discover Gibbs has another boat in the making in his basement? Supposedly it’s the life size boat that is a replicate of a model boat that Gibb’s mother had. David always wonders how Gibbs gets these boats out of his basement, once completed. Will we ever find out? Probably not.

We watched the New Orleans debut and enjoyed the investigative/search scenes. Ducky made a guest appearance via teleconference. Now we will really need to discipline ourselves if we are to get this blog written each week, and write our next suspense novel.

We do have a new thriller coming out, so watch for more details about Embers of Courage, to be released on December 3rd.

Let us know what you enjoyed about tonight’s show!

Be Blessed, Diane and David