NCIS“Broken Bird”
Original Air Date: Jan 13th, 2009
Nicola – TwoCents Reviewer
Nicola@thetwocentscorp.com
Another quiet, happy day in NCISland, complete with witty banter and Gibbs entering like a raincloud to tell the crew about the next naval officer's death. This time it's petty officer Kevin Lim, stabbed to death in the middle of the street. A friend says she's sure it was Cheryl, his until-recently fiancé. An eye-witness says that there was a woman who ran by with bloody hands. Ziva, Gibbs, and McGee track her down and leave Ducky and Jimmy with the body.
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ReplyDelete“Broken Bird”
Original Air Date: January 13th, 2009
Nicola – TwoCents Reviewer
Nicola@thetwocentscorp.com
Another quiet, happy day in NCISland, complete with witty banter and Gibbs entering like a raincloud to tell the crew about the next naval officer's death. This time it's petty officer Kevin Lim, stabbed to death in the middle of the street. A friend says she's sure it was Cheryl, his until-recently fiancé. An eye-witness says that there was a woman who ran by with bloody hands. Ziva, Gibbs, and McGee track her down and leave Ducky and Jimmy with the body.
While Ducky schools Jimmy on why there are no streets in DC called J, a woman comes into the crime scene from the crowd and grabs the murder weapon. She stabs Ducky through the hand and runs off. Ziva follows her but doesn't catch her, though she does grab her scarf.
Sweet little Abby comes to visit Ducky at the hospital and for once doesn't flip out. It seems like she's finally learned about the hazards of the job. Ducky's a bit out of it from morphine, so he can't tell them anything about their attacker. But Ziva and Tony are able to obtain a camera phone video of the attack.
Jimmy calls in Dr. Jordan Hampton to fill in for Ducky when he's in hospital. She comes in to perform the autopsy on Kevin Lim, but she seems a bit distracted when Jimmy tells her about Ducky's attack.
Abby works her magic and analyzes the prints on the knife, as well as pull hairs from the scarf the woman lost.
A translation of the attacker's yells becomes available, which is rather shocking. Gibbs goes to confront Ducky, telling him that she was yelling, "You killed my brother." Ducky doesn't deny this accusation at all.
The attacker's fingerprints identify her as Mosuma Daoub, a florist who has gone missing, according to her husband. He has no idea where she has, and she's been gone for over a day.
Gibbs has McGee pull Ducky's personnel file to learn about his past. He was with the Royal Army Medical Core when he ended up in Afghanistan. After catching up on Ducky's history at the refugee camp, he goes to talk to someone who can get him more information about the camp.
Ziva and Tony go to the Afghanistan Embassy to see if they can find out about Daoub. The ambassador tells her that Daoub is there and has accused Ducky of war crimes. She says she didn't know Ducky was around but it seems that it was premeditated as she went missing and was wearing her scarf to hide her face.
Gibbs gains Ducky's super secret files and goes to confront him. He brings with him CIA footage taken at the refugee camp. Ducky tells Gibbs about Javid, Daoub's brother. He was tortured by one of Ducky's fellow doctors, Dr. Pain as he was called, and then Ducky was in charge of stitching him up. He refuses to tell Gibbs anything else.
Jordan calls and says Ducky's gone missing. Gibbs knows where Ducky has gone, and follows him to the embassy. Ducky's turned himself in, but Gibbs fights for him and says he'll arrest Daoub if Ducky is arrested.
Abby and McGee manage to track down the torture doctor from the refugee camp and bring him in to talk to Ducky. They bring Daoub in to watch their conversation so she can decide who is really responsible for her brother's death. Dr. Pain does not deny killing Daoub's brother, and instead attempts to justify the way he tortured and murdered people. It seems that Ducky only put Daoub's brother out of him misery with morphine. Daoub drops the charges against Ducky when she hears everything.
Another episode of a case within a case. Or rather, a switching of cases within the first five minutes. Those tricky writers. But two weeks in a row, I think I’ve cottoned onto their modus operandi. Obviously we’re supposed to assume that it was indeed the ex-fiance in the first case who committed the crime, because we never hear of that case again. Whatsamatter, NCIS? Can’t handle two cases at once?
War crimes are popular topics these days, and I’m definitely not surprised to see them crop up here. I personally would have liked to see a little dissent with the crew when it came to Ducky’s crimes, or as he called them, “acts.” Wouldn’t there be anyone in NCIS whose opinion of Ducky would be altered after hearing what he had done? I suppose it would be wrong to create any pertinent rift in the team, but I think unwavering loyalty can only go so far.