{ NCIS, 5x18-19, Judgement Day I & II; spoilers for everything ever. }

[delga]

First off: MIKE FRANKS. The moment I saw his face, I knew that I was on board for whatever else this episode threw at me. (There are ONLY 2 things that could have made this episode superior: one, an alteration in Ziva's reaction and two, Tobias Fornell ON SCREEN as opposed to in reported dialogue. Goddamn, I might have died.)

Secondly: as far as I was concerned, there were only three possible candidates for casualty, and the one most likely to take the hit was the one who did. The other two options were McGee (because the actor is Bellisario's step-son and I wondered if that would play through) and Tony (because that story looked like it had come to a stand still, but fuck did Judgement Day open up that story - or rather, round it off. I can't believe it, but I actually want to talk a LOT about Tony's arc which isn't something I've ever touched on too much mostly because it never seemed to head anywhere. And now I feel like we've hit either an apex, or a resting ground, and that's something I can work with). And then, of course, there was Jenny because (a) wow, was her story line getting tight, (b) the actress has her family to consider and (c) hey, check out Deputy Director Vance who we've never seen before. I didn't think that it could be anybody else (and the year that they start pulling this shit with Ziva &/or Abby is quite obviously the year that I lose my nut).

Jenny Shepard. How I wish you had the chance to be so actively badass through the rest of the series. I have always liked you. I have always liked you because I didn't want to like you, and because that's exactly the kind of backwards-ass logic I apply to shows that I love. I didn't want to know about you and that's why I paid attention because there was a lot going on there. And wherever you were, there was a part of Jethro (which, boy, did that EVER play out this week). I loved your guts, I loved your strength, and I love that idea that you framed this to go down exactly the way you wanted it to go down. I love that there is SO OBVIOUS an evolution from the Jenny that Jethro loved once upon a time to the Jenny that Jethro loves now. So obvious that the words are put into Jethro's mouth: that back then, she couldn't kill Svetlana. It wasn't in her until Jethro changed her. (God, that killed me. Because it's that one facet of her development that she's always, always, always pointed out - 'I learned from you' and 'You taught me how.'

Oh my, check out the parallels with Kill Ari. Someone dies (check); the team is kind of thrown by it (check); the new director is introduced in opposition and in collusion (check). This is a whole other arc: Jenny Shepard. Most important parallel? Jethro, our hero who kills when killing is necessary, doesn't pull the trigger. An outside source gets the job done. Why? Because in this episode, Mike Franks was Jenny's arm outside death. He's the one who takes the files; he's the one who kills Svetlana. That's the second time. I can never stress how important Ziva is in Kill Ari II; the part that I never pointed out is that whilst Ziva=Kate in many ways (not HER, not a REPLACEMENT, but in terms of positions held that are alike and not different - um, possibly I have to go into that more, but there's symbiosis between Kate and Ziva that extends beyond everything we see on screen; their stories are irrevocably intertwined, and that it is ZIVA who pulls the trigger to make up the debt that Ari cost Jethro, that's so fucking symbolic) in Kill Ari II there is a moment where Ziva=Jethro. And Ari's death through Ziva is so important - that Ziva has to cross that boundary... all the things that Jethro owes her from that one act. And this time around it was Mike Franks. And it has to be Mike Franks because Jenny didn't do the job, and Jethro did his, and because ultimately, this isn't Jethro's play. Jenny put him outside the goddamn box. (There are issues about Jethro's susceptibility to suicidal thoughts, but that, too, makes sense and links back to what we learned about him in Hiatus.) Mike Franks, then, is another, less obvious arc, because this all stretches back to Hiatus - the moment where Jethro stops being the man that was once Jenny's superior, and starts being her subordinate. Up until then, he's driving that relationship, he's the one who has the upper hand. But Jethro bows out in Hiatus and Jenny steps up. La Grenouille starts up. And Tony, poor, poor Tony, comes into play.

Oh Tony. Tony's reactions in Kill Ari are as keyed down as Tim's reactions here in Judgement Day. But Tony has been through the wringer and I think you have to assume an attachment between him and Jenny, if only on his part, because she played him and she played him damn good. You think Ziva was berating her judgement in Recoil? Tony's response makes SO much more sense now. Here's my take: season 5 = Tony's PTSD culminating in this act which he considers an epic f,ailure on his part. Vance compounds that. Jethro almost does, until he plays the straight man and doesn't - because that's the kind of man Jethro became post-Hiatus: a man who backs his team, and props them in a way that he couldn't before. Jethro (and I'm sure people will fight me on this) became emotionally available whilst Tony became emotionally unavailable. Let's count those deaths: Kate, Cassidy, (Jeanne), Jenny. One, two, three, four; and Tony is growing all the way through. Tony is falling in love, he's filling Gibbs' shoes, he's stepping up and getting smacked in the face for his efforts. And all the while, there's Ziva, there's Mike Franks and Jethro Gibbs and all that history falling in on itself. And what does Tony have? Tony has his loyalty to Jethro which is not taking him as far as he needs it to take him. I think Tony needs a radical character-shift of some sort because at some point he has GOT to stop being Jethro's busboy. There is only so far he can go as a heel. And I'm excited for his characterisation, because I think this is the threshold he's been waiting for. This is make or break. (I'm hoping the hiatus doesn't dilute that, which is often what happens.)

Oh, but Jenny. I cannot stop thinking about Jenny (it is now Thursday - I wrote a lot of this last night before I went to sleep). To know that she was dying, to know that this was her last chance to do anything about all the wrongs in her life. To know that essentially this was all about something she had failed to do once upon a time... man. This was like getting Twilight and Kill Ari one right after the other (which, ha, is exactly how I watched them, actually) but for Jenny-- I cannot accurately verbalise my sadness at remembering her sitting on the table in the diner, waiting with Mike Franks for her death that is coming, coming, coming straight at her. And for her, this is endgame. She knows it's coming. And that she put up such a fight, that those men all died in coming to get her, my god. Fathers are surprisingly important in this show where parents are really spoken of explicitly. Ari's father, Ziva's father. Jethro and Tobias as fathers. DiNozzo's father who disowned him, and Jeanne's father who is an arms dealer. Jenny's father who killed himself. Jenny who needed to kill La Grenouille. If killing Shannon and Kelly's killer is a necessary death for Jethro - if Ziva's shooting of Ari is for Jethro a necessary death - then this for Jenny is a necessary death. It's all very well Jethro asking her, if I wasn't here, if that gun was loaded, it's all very well that there is fear in him, that maybe he taints the people around him with his anger (which is mostly gone by this point; Jethro is not the man he used to be) but he cannot honestly stand there and say to Jenny, are you fucking sure? Because Jenny is sure. Jenny is certain. And Jethro is so afeared for her that it is blinding him to what necessitates the death for her. (That he asks her are you well? Is your health well?; that he knows to some extent that there is something going on beyond him, that he gave up some sort of right in Hiatus, my fucking god, that's some really interesting story telling there. The power play between them and how that peaked in Hiatus, that always gets to me.) Oh, oh, Jenny, and your vendetta. Gibbs never teaches, you just learn. I learned from you; this is what she says over and over. To what extent can Jethro legitimately say that he was to blame? Not as much as he wants to, not after Hiatus, and yet, yes, I think you can say that Jethro's hand falls into this too. He's so far on the outside right now. Vance has stripped him of this family that he has created, of this stability that he has enacted. Jethro has become a stabilising force (I think we can assume - from what we learn in S1 - that Jethro's team has been in constant flux in his pre-Tony span). So what hurts about Vance's final act is not the 'ohnoes, will they ever be a team again?!' (see below) but that he can rend flesh from bone. That he can say, I take your daughter. I take your sons. That he can say, I take from you what you have learned to create. I dissemble that. I dissemble your strength.

The ONLY thing that irks me about this whole thing is Ziva's reaction. I know that Ziva picked her side a long time ago, and that with Kill Ari it was Jethro and no-one else. But shit, she and Jenny were a team in Europe. How did that get left out? (I love that Ziva speaks the truth, that Ziva pushes Tony, that when confronted by Vance, the answer is always Gibbs.)

Re: the ending. I'm not fussed. I'm not fussed because that is exactly the kind of cliffhanger that can get hit by the reset button, just like Hiatus II got thrown back to business by Shalom. I am, however, totally suspicious about whatever the fuck it was that Vance shredded from his own file. I like the guy. I think we're not supposed to like him entirely but there was too much interaction with McGee for him to be a black&white bad guy. (Um, I'm lying: the other thing that obviously makes me think thinky thoughts is: ZIVA IS BEING FORCED TO GO BACK TO ISRAEL. There goes that comfort zone.)

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Two things that killed me, killed me dead: seeing Jenny on the floor of the diner; seeing Jenny's unwritten letter to Jethro. Oh boy.

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Obviously this is not all of what needs saying. But I'm a bit tired, lols, and also I am forgetting details. Which is okay. Because it's time to go and rewatch season 5. Season of secrets, season of resolutions. Or not.