NCIS Season 7 Episode 8-Power Down

First off, I object to the beginning of this episode and the depiction of the stereotypical male internet geek who lives with his mother and spends the entire day playing video games on his computer. At least I object to the fact that he was sporting a mustache and goatee-that look is so 2005. Most of us are clean shaven these days. I, uh I mean... moving on...

The whole mess begins when the offices of internet provider Switch Cast are under siege, with several assailants in masks looking to take down the offices for some unknown purpose. Maybe they're not happy with their frame rate. They clip one security guard in the shoulder. His partner pulls him out of the line of fire, but before they can stop the thugs, they fire off a pinch which shuts off the electrical circuits of half of Washington. Ocean's Eleven fans will recall that a pinch is "a device which creates, like, a cardiac arrest for any broadband electrical circuitry. Better yet, a pinch is a bomb - now, but without the bomb." -thanks trusty imdb.com memorable quotes page!

The half of Washington that is blacked out also happens to include NCIS, which means that with the power out, Team Gibbs is left to go it analog instead of digital. There is barely enough back-up generator power to put on some lights and feed some a/c into autopsy so the bodies don't begin decomposition. Makes you feel really comfortable in our government security, doesn't it?

When the lights do go back on at Switch Cast, one man (well a woman) of the three man team is found shot dead. The security guard said he got the jump on this one and handcuffed to the pipe. However, when they come back to her, she is dead. She just happens to be a Navy Lieutenant, which of course necessitates investigation by Team Gibbs.

Plenty of lamentations about no computers, no phone service, no scanners and no access to national databases follow from DiNozzo, Ziva, even Abby and especially from McGee. Oh and yeah, no elevator service either, which is too bad for McGee and Ziva because they have been stuck in the elevator just outside the office, for nine hours and twenty-one minutes. DiNozzo doesn't waste time harassing them, which leads to the "DiNozzo insults Gibbs and Gibbs is right behind him" beat of the episode. Awesome considering DiNozzo was using an orange pylon to make his wise crack, how could he not expect EVERYONE, much less Gibbs, to hear it? When Tim and Ziva are finally freed, they have to head out immediately to investigate the dead body.

Gibbs, meanwhile, seems unfazed by the lack of technological hoo-hah. His natural environment is one that doesn't rely on machines, rather instinct and hard work digging up the facts--or as DiNozzo puts it to Navy Commander Sarah Resnick (Cara Buono) later on, "just the facts, ma'am" (doing his best Dragnet impression; He also gets in a great Kolchak). We get the "strong and silent" Gibbs for most of the episode-resolute but constant in his determination to solve the case. While the rest are kvetching, he's right there with the solutions-Polaroid cameras instead of digital, corkboard instead of a digital television for case information, Band-Aids for McGee's paper cuts and even working an old school copy machine. Gibbs is a bohemian Super-Man.

Some of the more comedic moments come from Abby in the lab. Seems like she wants to try to gin up some homemade Caf-Pow (she comes up with whiskey instead). There's also a wonderful moment where she goes all fifth-grade science experiment by using lemons to create battery power to fuel her stereo system. I guess when life gives you lemons, make batteries. McGee also gets to return serve to DiNozzo for some earlier cracks about watching Doctor Who as well as leaving him with the paperwork from before. He is sporting a mile-wide smile when he is able to use MTAC to watch surveillance video, while it is Tony who is stuck with the paperwork and the paper cuts. Gibbs doesn't even seem to mind the little bit o'payback.

The investigation into the death of Emma Paxton leads to the A.F.E.(Armed Forces Entertainment) division, where Paxton served setting up concerts for the troops. She seems a straight-up citizen. However, as usual, when NCIS digs deeper, they uncover she's more than meets the eye-literally. It turns out that Paxton was one of two special soldiers along with Resnick . They underwent surgery that allows her pupils access to any Iris scanning system-sort of a "master key" built in to their eyes. That allowed them to use their A.F.E. cover to travel all around the world and assist the military in special ops using their ability to break through security system defenses.

At first, NCIS believes that Paxton may have used that special ability to go rogue and help the team that infiltrated Switch Cast. Her husband denies that and believes she would have never done anything dishonorable or to betray her country. Alarms go off when they find a hideout specifically created by Paxton bearing her picture and her husband on different passports. However, as is later explained by Resnick, this was a failsafe for Paxton and her husband if they had to flee to another country.

The Switch Cast break-in wasn't just a crime of opportunity but one of convenience. You see, it was actually the butler that did it! Well, no, not really, but it was the Switch Cast security guard, the one who had his shoulder clipped, who was the man in charge of the op along with his accomplices Donovan Graham and Leo Harper. The injury was just a convenient alibi to throw the investigation off course. The man is really, an ex-Russian spy for hire who tried to use Paxton. He took care of Paxton when she tried to stop him. Then he dealt with his other partners in order to clean up. Paxton was really a hero after all.

The Switch Cast server farm was broken into after blowing the power and one of the server heads were replaced with another server that had spyware and such that once powered up again would be able to look into all sorts of top-secret government information. As DiNozzo explains in a bit of meta-textual discourse, this is your classic cop show switcheroo. Again, makes you feel comfortable in the government, doesn't it? At least the lights come back on at the end of the episode, which means life in the naval yard resumes a sense of normalcy. Gibbs still has his emergency bag for the next time the digital world goes wonky-and the Band Aids for all the paperwork that would be sure to follow.