NCIS Season 7 Episode 3-The Inside Man

Unlike the move starring Clive Owen and Denzel Washington and bearing the same name as this episode, no one is stuck inside a crate on a bank job.

Instead, the situation is much worse for NCIS. Matt Burns, An "investigative journalist" who runs the blog BeltwayBurns.com is found dead shortly after posting he was about to meet a source to "break a case wide open", thrown of a highway overpass and impaled onto construction debris. It's clearly a Metro case, as no naval officer was murdered. However, he has blamed NCIS for covering up the death of Lieutenant Rod Arnett, which leaves leaves Gibbs wondering if the cases are connected.

Burns believed that Arnett was connected to an insider trading scam. As it turns out, while Burns often made up sources and information, he was dead-on with this one, which is probably why he ended up dead on that highway.

Agent Gibbs is back in a more prominent position after taking a bit of a backseat to DiNozzo in the first two episodes. The highlight is when Gibbs interrogates Lt. Summers, who was Arnett's project officer. She is clearly withholding information, but when she gets put in the box proves no match at all for Gibbs-completely unnerved to start and almost breaking down by the end. This is kind of quality Gibbs the series has been known for-taking no BS, demanding the truth and getting it out of his suspects. What I love about the development of the team over the years is that they know each other's interrogation tactics. It's especially humorous when they "commentate" or do play-by-play from behind the glass window, even betting on what tactic will be used. DiNozzo thinks Gibbs will transition from "crazy uncle" to "father figure", while McGee is think the "classic in your face Gibbs-the intimidator." What we get is something completely out of left field as DiNozzo terms it "the good old you-lie-to me, I-lie-to -you." The just at the very end we get a bit of Classic Gibbs, smash-and- yell and if you can catch it, a bit of eye contact and a smile from McGee to DiNozzo-a bit of "see, I told you he would get it in there".

Eventually, they figure out that the cases are connected when they exhume the body and discover the coffin of Arnett doesn't contain his body (oooh, that's not good at all). This leads them to a sandwich shop worker named Will Sutton who at first has no apparent connection to Arnett, other than he profited $2 million from the same investment stock.

Later on Team Gibbs connects the dots that being the railway dots on the Red Line, where both Arnett and crossed paths, conspiring to share information on the stock. DiNozzo gets in the patented classic movie reference to Hitchcock's "Stranger's On a Train" as they prove that Sutton murdered Burns so as not to expose the Arnett insider trading scam. However, Sutton believed Burns' blog, even though he didn't have the good. Sutton was the "source" Burns was going to meet on the overpass! DiNozzo steals a page from Gibbs' earlier tactics and lies about co-operation with Metro PD, proving once again the student can still learn a thing or two from the teacher.

What I like about NCIS as Season seven of NCIS continuous to move on is that there is no automatic sense of the "return to normalcy" most sitcoms or dramas undergo after a cliffhanger or status quo change. The series is still coping with (and slowly at that) the events of the conclusion of last season, where Ziva left the team and was captured by terrorists in Somalia. It wasn't like NCIS rescued her and-poof!-magically she's back on the team and everything is great. The series is taking a very logical, real-world approach to Ziva's presence in the series. Used and manipulated by her father, Deputy Mossad Director Eli David, Ziva finds herself in season seven in the middle of the ocean, caught between two land masses. She knows doesn't want to return to Mossad, but it's not like she is automatically back in the fold in NCIS.

Psychologically, Ziva is still messed up (despite Ducky's prying, she isn't letting anyone in) and despite the heart to heart, Ziva and Gibbs still have some mending of the fences in order. At the conclusion of this episode, which freeze frames (or "phoofs", as NCIS-philes refer to it) on Gibbs lingering on whether or not to sign Ziva's application to become an official NCIS agent. Ziva is still a "visitor" to the NCIS offices, able to stay and do office work but not allowed onto the field. By the end of this episode, Ziva has designed to resign her commission as a Mossad Officer and make her presence in NCIS official (perhaps if only to escape the stultifying life in the office). Judging by the sneak preview of episode 4, that won't be as easy as she thinks-SPOILERS AHOY... her application is denied and she looks to be involved in another argument with Director Vance.

Speaking of whom, Director Vance was completely absent this week-where the heck DID he go at the end of episode 2? I didn't see him vacationing this week in the plush villa those lucky NCIS: Los Angeles agents get to call their office.

Ziva's life isn't the only one that is looking to have a bit of a change. Fans of the show have been asking when McGee will have a girlfriend (shippers have often begged for the McAbby pairing, but that looks unlikely). There were hints of something perhaps going on with ICE Agent Jules Foster-Yates, but nothing has come of that so far. However, this episode gives McGee a potential new love interest. McGee supposedly has failed the annual polygraph test and has to retake the test, and becomes increasingly paranoid throughout the episode that he will be fired as a result. As it turns out, this is simply a ruse by the attractive test-proctor Agent Grady, who is crushin' on McGee, who in typical McGeek fashion doesn't realize it's a set up until Gibbs practically has to say "hey bonehead-she likes you!" I was waiting for Gibbs-slap on that one personally. It's not like the feeling isn't mutual-McGee's heart rate goes up about twenty clicks when he sees her in that "sexy business suit" attire-and not only can she tell, but the audience can as well, because he is attached to the polygraph machine as she asks some rather revealing questions! Anyway, McGee says he will "handle it." I'm sure he will. Go McGee, it's your birthday!

Ahem.

Tony's roving eyes also seems to have landed on yet another girl, this time rookie detective and extremely fetching Megan Hanley (Kelly Overton). This is her first case and she is immediately thrown off by Tony's gab and Gibbs' prying. That gets her (and the NCIS crew) into some trouble with her superior officer, the dislikable Metro Detective Danny Sportelli (Jack Conley). Sportelli knows NCIS was blamed for a cover-up and doesn't want to share information much less the investigation. In fact, in a rare plot development, Sportelli pretty much has Gibbs and NCIS by the balls throughout the episode. That leads to McGee and DiNozzo having to take the very serious risk of breaking into Metro Impound to investigate Matt Burns' car.

This leads to one of the most hilarious chase sequences in quite some time. As avid NCIS fans will remember, McGee is not dog's best friend. In season 5, McGee had to shoot a dog that attacked him (although ironically, he ultimately adopted him under pressure from Abby). Well, after a little "Boy Who Cried Wolf" action from DiNozzo, we get the real thing. Huge canines run after both of them, forcing them to go up on top of cars, jumping from car to car to avoid getting torn to shreds. Meanwhile DiNozzo is spouting off dog movie reference as he is running (I caught K-9 and Turner and Hooch). They can't escape in time and are arrested, although Gibbs quietly negotiates for Sportelli to drop the charges after they practically gift wrap the real killer for him.

While NCIS began its season red-hot with two very dramatic episodes I actually think this one is the most "fun" of the season-plenty of laugh-out-loud moments (including a hilarious aside with a Securities and Exchange commission investigator named Benjamin Franklin, who not only shares the name but also some of the ancient inventor's aesthetics; DiNozzo really enjoying a pastrami sandwich). There are some entertaining back and forth between McGee and DiNozzo as well as two important overall series developments with the David application and the possibility of McGee's new girlfriend.