Challenge #27 - Tony's Tuesday Review
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the_navy_yardEpisode Title: 2.22 SWAK
Caf Pow Rating: 5/5
Review: 1,009 words
One of the reasons I love early NCIS episodes is that you can see, hear and almost feel Donald P. Bellisario’s touch in every scene. The man is an absolute genius when it comes to putting together an hour of riveting television, and SWAK is one of his finest moments.
As I type this, I’m out of town and I don’t have access to my DVD’s so I can’t reference every little nuance that I would normally pick up on; however, I’ve seen this episode more times than any other, and every single time I find something new in it that didn’t catch my attention previously. Of course, part of the magic is that not only do you have the amazing writing talent and executive production of DPB, but you also have a brilliant cast of actors who were really hitting their stride and finding superb chemistry by this point in the second season. How sad that, one episode later, we lost the wonderful Caitlin Todd to Ari Haswari’s Full Metal Jacket Lapua.
There are several scenes in this episode that have become absolute classics, at least in my mind...the revelation that Gibbs has never had a cold, or the flu either, and Tony’s matter-of-fact explanation to Kate – “If you were a bug, would you attack Gibbs?”...the scene in the HazMat showers when it is revealed that Gibbs received by mail the Honey Dust Tony had intended for a special (female!) ‘someone’ at Christmastime (who knew that Gibbs would be able to explain to the Probie all about the benefits of Honey Dust *grin*)...Gibbs and Abby reviewing the video footage from the bullpen and seeing that Tony has been working late, prompting Gibbs to quip “He does his best work at night,” to which Abby responds cheerily, “So he tells us!” (As an aside, I love how Bellisario’s deft touch as a writer enables him to keep the humour in Tony’s character without demeaning him – Tony comes across here as a dedicated employee who doesn’t want to spoil his playboy image by letting people know how dedicated he really is. But of course, Gibbs knows!)...and of course, poor, hapless Jimmy Palmer’s innocent question to Gibbs when told to requisition new cell phones and weapons for his team: “Pistols?” – to which an annoyed Gibbs responds, “Well, no, Palmer, crossbows, if you think they might work better!”
I could go on, but you get the idea...Don Bellisario is a master at coming up with one-liners that fit each character perfectly, adding a little bit of levity to an otherwise extremely serious and nerve-wracking scenario...Tony’s life hanging in the balance as the team races against time to find the antidote for the genetically-altered strain of Y.Pestis with which he’s been infected.
Putting Tony and Kate in isolation at Bethesda provides the perfect set-up to explore the true nature of the relationship between these two characters. For two seasons, they’ve been at each other’s throats, like a brother & sister who can’t stand each other but for some unknown reason each still absolutely cares about what happens to the other. Movie references abound, much to Kate’s shagrin, and yet as she learns that Tony has tested positive for Y.Pestis, she chooses to let him think she’s sick too, thereby submitting herself to the onslaught of movie quotes just so Tony won’t feel alone. The veneer of snarkiness and teasing gradually wears down until finally Tony is brought to a state of complete vulnerability by his illness, while Kate finally loses composure and collapses into Ducky’s arms in tears as she concludes that her partner is about to die.
Of course, in a master stroke, Bellisario manages to lighten the mood once more at the very end of the episode, when Kate decides to stay the night beside Tony as he recovers, only to have him make yet another movie reference: “This reminds me of the end of Alien.”
Cassie Yates makes her first appearance in this episode, and I have to say I like her much better here than in her subsequent appearance in Jeopardy, where she joins Gibbs in giving Paula Cassidy some serious grief, without any obvious provocation. Here, she seems to have a very good and friendly rapport with the team, suggesting they’ve worked, or at least socialized, together in the past. Even McGee knows and likes her, and had an adjacent parking spot to hers at the Norfolk field office. Yates and Gibbs strike the right counterbalance to get the truth out of Hanna Lowell’s daughter, revealing that the “rape” case from years ago was actually not a crime at all, but a silly prank by her boyfriend.
We see Gibbs in full papa-bear mode throughout this episode, revealing his fierce affection for Tony as he first paces like a caged lion when confined in autopsy, and then goes on the warpath to find the cure, threatening to “stick my Sig in her [Hanna Lowell’s] chest.” When he learns the bug’s ‘suicide chain’ has come into effect and that Tony is no longer contagious, Gibbs provides his SFA with just the medicine he needs, though it may not be what the doctor ordered: a gentle head-slap and a reassurance that “You.Will.Not.Die.” Tony clearly latches onto those words, and they are what pull him through to recovery and prevent him from giving up.
It strikes me that this episode has the same kind of light touch that characterized early Star Trek – serious concepts and thought-provoking subject matter, presented to the audience out of the writer’s desire to make people really think about these issues, and yet made palatable by injecting light doses of humour into almost every scene. When this episode aired, the spate of Anthrax scares that rocked the United States in the years immediately following the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon was still fresh in everyone’s mind.
The point was well-made by Bellisario – be watchful; don’t let down your guard, as Tony did by breaking protocol and opening a suspicious letter.
Caf Pow Rating: 5/5
Review: 1,009 words
One of the reasons I love early NCIS episodes is that you can see, hear and almost feel Donald P. Bellisario’s touch in every scene. The man is an absolute genius when it comes to putting together an hour of riveting television, and SWAK is one of his finest moments.
As I type this, I’m out of town and I don’t have access to my DVD’s so I can’t reference every little nuance that I would normally pick up on; however, I’ve seen this episode more times than any other, and every single time I find something new in it that didn’t catch my attention previously. Of course, part of the magic is that not only do you have the amazing writing talent and executive production of DPB, but you also have a brilliant cast of actors who were really hitting their stride and finding superb chemistry by this point in the second season. How sad that, one episode later, we lost the wonderful Caitlin Todd to Ari Haswari’s Full Metal Jacket Lapua.
There are several scenes in this episode that have become absolute classics, at least in my mind...the revelation that Gibbs has never had a cold, or the flu either, and Tony’s matter-of-fact explanation to Kate – “If you were a bug, would you attack Gibbs?”...the scene in the HazMat showers when it is revealed that Gibbs received by mail the Honey Dust Tony had intended for a special (female!) ‘someone’ at Christmastime (who knew that Gibbs would be able to explain to the Probie all about the benefits of Honey Dust *grin*)...Gibbs and Abby reviewing the video footage from the bullpen and seeing that Tony has been working late, prompting Gibbs to quip “He does his best work at night,” to which Abby responds cheerily, “So he tells us!” (As an aside, I love how Bellisario’s deft touch as a writer enables him to keep the humour in Tony’s character without demeaning him – Tony comes across here as a dedicated employee who doesn’t want to spoil his playboy image by letting people know how dedicated he really is. But of course, Gibbs knows!)...and of course, poor, hapless Jimmy Palmer’s innocent question to Gibbs when told to requisition new cell phones and weapons for his team: “Pistols?” – to which an annoyed Gibbs responds, “Well, no, Palmer, crossbows, if you think they might work better!”
I could go on, but you get the idea...Don Bellisario is a master at coming up with one-liners that fit each character perfectly, adding a little bit of levity to an otherwise extremely serious and nerve-wracking scenario...Tony’s life hanging in the balance as the team races against time to find the antidote for the genetically-altered strain of Y.Pestis with which he’s been infected.
Putting Tony and Kate in isolation at Bethesda provides the perfect set-up to explore the true nature of the relationship between these two characters. For two seasons, they’ve been at each other’s throats, like a brother & sister who can’t stand each other but for some unknown reason each still absolutely cares about what happens to the other. Movie references abound, much to Kate’s shagrin, and yet as she learns that Tony has tested positive for Y.Pestis, she chooses to let him think she’s sick too, thereby submitting herself to the onslaught of movie quotes just so Tony won’t feel alone. The veneer of snarkiness and teasing gradually wears down until finally Tony is brought to a state of complete vulnerability by his illness, while Kate finally loses composure and collapses into Ducky’s arms in tears as she concludes that her partner is about to die.
Of course, in a master stroke, Bellisario manages to lighten the mood once more at the very end of the episode, when Kate decides to stay the night beside Tony as he recovers, only to have him make yet another movie reference: “This reminds me of the end of Alien.”
Cassie Yates makes her first appearance in this episode, and I have to say I like her much better here than in her subsequent appearance in Jeopardy, where she joins Gibbs in giving Paula Cassidy some serious grief, without any obvious provocation. Here, she seems to have a very good and friendly rapport with the team, suggesting they’ve worked, or at least socialized, together in the past. Even McGee knows and likes her, and had an adjacent parking spot to hers at the Norfolk field office. Yates and Gibbs strike the right counterbalance to get the truth out of Hanna Lowell’s daughter, revealing that the “rape” case from years ago was actually not a crime at all, but a silly prank by her boyfriend.
We see Gibbs in full papa-bear mode throughout this episode, revealing his fierce affection for Tony as he first paces like a caged lion when confined in autopsy, and then goes on the warpath to find the cure, threatening to “stick my Sig in her [Hanna Lowell’s] chest.” When he learns the bug’s ‘suicide chain’ has come into effect and that Tony is no longer contagious, Gibbs provides his SFA with just the medicine he needs, though it may not be what the doctor ordered: a gentle head-slap and a reassurance that “You.Will.Not.Die.” Tony clearly latches onto those words, and they are what pull him through to recovery and prevent him from giving up.
It strikes me that this episode has the same kind of light touch that characterized early Star Trek – serious concepts and thought-provoking subject matter, presented to the audience out of the writer’s desire to make people really think about these issues, and yet made palatable by injecting light doses of humour into almost every scene. When this episode aired, the spate of Anthrax scares that rocked the United States in the years immediately following the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon was still fresh in everyone’s mind.
The point was well-made by Bellisario – be watchful; don’t let down your guard, as Tony did by breaking protocol and opening a suspicious letter.
