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rebecca_in_blueNotes on episode 8x05 Dead Air
Writer: Christopher J. Waild (Guilty Pleasure)
- I really disliked the camerawork and dialogue in the opening scene. Showing the murder from the killer's point-of-view felt choppy, and who the heck yells, "No! Don't!" and runs towards somebody with a rifle? Yeah, no wonder you got shot.
+ Tony and McGee discussing baseball and hyping up the sport to Ziva was so bromantic. I love it when they get along, instead of Tony making fun of McGee.
+ "Gotta keep the dream alive, Tim." Wow, this is the third week in a row that Gibbs has used McGee's first name! Is this what he's going to call him from now on? Interesting.
- It's a small local station with only one employee, but the radio show garnered enough attention to piss off people, get death threats, and ultimately drive somebody to kill over it? Ridiculous, writers.
+ Tony's expression when he accidentally turned on the radio tracks. How cute were those big, surprised eyes? I admit, I rewatched this bit over and over. I also loved his movie reference and detective work at the station. He was funny without being the incompetent goof that he was last week in Royals and Loyals.
+ "I don't think we're looking for a hillbilly militia, Gibbs." For some reason, I like this line. I think there's a stereotype that people who take up arms against the government are inbred rednecks, and this played against that idea.
+ I loved the "picket fence" Ziva-ism. Now that she's been in America for +5 years, her mistakes with English are getting harder for me to believe, but this one was perfect! And I loved that she had this exchange with McGee, instead of Tony. They're so cute together, like brother and sister.
- Ziva and McGee turning the sound down on Tony as he made rounds in Royal Woods was pretty mean.
+ The scene with Abby and Tony in the lab -- awww! I loved how Abby gave him Caf-Pow and cheered him up. This is why I much prefer Abby/Tony or Ziva/McGee scenes over Tiva or McAbby quasi-romantic crap. The former are pure frienship and always sweet to see, wheras the latter tend to be snippy or jealous.
+ Tony's witty lines while he and Gibbs were arresting Deeter cracked me up.
- I didn't take Tony's Under Covers reference as anything more than him messing with McGee's head. The Tiva fans can take it however they want. Text for none, subtext for all.
+/- Okay, I'll admit I laughed at Tony trying to interrogate Deeter. But part of me is very tired of the writers making Tony look stupid. His shouting "Help!" to Gibbs really rubbed me the wrong way.
+ Oh my gosh, how ADORABLE was Ziva's laugh when Ducky told Tony not to talk for the next 24 hours? I watched this bit over and over, too. SO cute.
+ It was both sad and touching when Ziva jumped in for Haskell when his daughter got mad at him. You could see she totally remembered being a daughter whose dad constantly hurt and disappointed her. Also, the intense looks she shared with Gibbs when he asked her to talk to Kristin. It was almost like Gibbs was saying, "You understand this girl, you know how she feels," and Ziva didn't want to admit it. Her line about fathers and forgiveness made me very interested to see how things will play out with Eli, who comes back in a few episodes.
+ I totally fell for it when Tony pretended to drink deer urine! Clever.
- The bomb scene was very much a replay of Boxed-In. I wasn't crazy about it, but if there had to be Tiva scenes, at least they weren't shoved down our throats like they were in Jetlag.
+ Ziva playing baseball with Gibbs was very sweet. (She made a movie reference!) I liked how impressed McGee was with her throws -- awww! There's been some debate over whether Ziva was referring to Eli or Gibbs when she said that her "father" taught her to play baseball. I can't help but think she was referring to Gibbs. My evidence:
1) Ziva smiled when she said it. Ziva never smiles when she's talking about Eli.
2) Gibbs smiled and nodded in what seemed like a very knowing way when she said it.
3) It is established that Ziva, like the rest of Gibbs's team, sees him as a father-figure.
4) We've seen Gibbs play baseball before. Eli, however, is so all-obsessed with producing good Mossad agents that I can't see him teaching his children any sports except ones that would be beneficial to them later on, like martial arts.
FF: I sorta wrote a tag to this moment in Teach Your Children Well.
- The whole subplot of Ziva going undercover as her former self was interesting, but a bit strange. Ziva has changed a lot since since she joined the show five years ago, and this episode addressed that head-on. There were even mentions of how much more sexual she used to act and how differently she wore her hair (and man, do I miss her Season 3 hair!). But to me, it felt like the show was telling us that she would never go back to Old Ziva, rather than trying to explain how/why she changed. It was like the writers were saying, "Look, we know we've changed Ziva a lot, and none of you viewers really understand why, because you all liked her the way she was! But now, we've done an episode addressing it, so stop asking us to bring back Old Ziva, okay?" It kinda rubbed me the wrong way.
