On NCIS this week, Gibbs was surprised when he found out a murdered man had been using one of his old covert identities from years ago.
That revelation was only the tip of the interesting iceberg on NCIS Season 12 Episode 16, as a few more old identities also cropped by, courtesy of the services of a retired CIA woman who had resurrected these IDs.
Below, TV Fanatic panelists Kathleen Wiedel, Christine Orlando, Tanya Moat and Douglas Wolfe gather to discuss all of the above and a lot more. Ready to jump in to the debate?
What was your favorite scene or quote from the episode?
Kathleen: I loved the scene where Gibbs walks into the office building in his undercover guise and McGee is trying to feed him all sorts of technical gobbledygook to say to the guard, and Gibbs totally ignores McGee and does his own thing... which works perfectly.
Christine: I actually liked that they brought up Tony DiNardo and how he fell in love while undercover. That was one of my favorite storylines and I appreciate that its place in Tony’s history is not forgotten.
Tanya: I enjoyed all the callbacks, from Tom Morrow to Tony DiNardo, too. This show has such a rich history, and I love that they don't forget it either. My favorite scene, however, was the same as Kathleen. Gibbs was hilarious as an IT guy. He may not know technology (4 hours!) but he knows people.
Doug: I enjoyed the scene where one of The Architect's cats was rubbing up against Gibbs' leg. Though he claimed to not have a problem with it, you could tell he was distracted.
Was there any scene which struck you as odd or wrong?
Kathleen: I was slightly bugged by Bishop's apparent hangup on the whole "deep cover" concept. There's been no indication whatsoever before now that any of them would be going into a deep cover, after all, so her concern seemed a bit unwarranted.
Christine: I agree, Kathleen. Her obsession on the subject seemed very odd. No one has asked her to go undercover, never mind a long term, deep cover operation. She seemed inordinately worried about being asked to do something she wasn’t comfortable with.
Tanya: I have to concur with everyone else. Bishop's concern seemed so out of place. I expected to find out that she was working a super secret, undercover mission that Gibbs and team knew nothing about.
Doug: Let's make it unanimous. That part didn't fit with the episode at all. It made no sense to me.
What do you think of the premise that a foreign country would recruit spies, give them undercover IDs and then start killing them?
Kathleen: It sounded like an awful lot of investment for such a little payout. It's not like gallium nitride is hard to come by, after all. The stuff is grown commercially, for heaven's sake!
Recruitment and training of skilled intelligence agents isn't cheap, so you want to get the biggest bang for your buck. Killing your own spies should be an option of last resort, especially if you're unable to kill them without drawing undue attention.
It was the death of that first spy that ultimately led to the collapse of the whole operation in this particular episode. I'd imagine the foreign spymaster who orchestrated the plan was probably fired... with prejudice.
Christine: I honestly found the making of the ID’s themselves and the ID maker the most fascinating part of the story. The need to kill the spies seemed a bit convoluted.
Tanya: I never completely understood the rationale of the killer. None of the covers had been compromised, so why kill them now? It didn't make sense to me. I also didn't quite understand the Architect's motivation. She was bored?
Doug: Kathleen summed it up best for me as well. Killing is a messy business, which just begs for the police to start investigating your covert operations. Why take the risk?
As for the architect, I don't think she was bored so much as deflated after being forced into retirement.
Is Tony getting ready to take a few steps backward in his relationship with Zoe?
Kathleen: I sure hope not. We've all seen Tony have relationship issues before -- it's time for something new. He's 40-something now, and it's well past time for him to go forward in a mature, serious relationship.
Christine: Meeting the parents is always a big deal and since Tony’s never actually done it before, I could understand him being skittish. But as Kathleen pointed out, he’s not a kid anymore and it’s time to man up if he wants a real relationship with Zoe.
Tanya: I have enjoyed Tony's maturing and regression would be really irritating. Meeting the parents is a big deal and it's understandable that he'd be anxious, but it just seemed more like a step back versus a step forward. We really don't know much about their relationship, so I'm not sure what our take-away was supposed to be with this little tidbit.
Doug: Tony is lying to his girlfriend now, just because he's nervous about meeting her parents? Seems someone can't seem to shake that immature frat boy persona that I was sure we'd left far behind. It's ridiculous and represents a step backward in Tony's character development.
Sure, let's let him lose the girl over this, and maybe we can put a beanie hat on him and some clown makeup and we can all go back to old times.
Gibbs as an IT geek. Were you able to reconcile the apparent dichotomy between that and his technophobia?
Kathleen: As Gibbs clearly demonstrated, he didn't have to know a thing about computers to pull off his cover as a computer technician. What he does know, as he told McGee, is people. No matter how advanced our technology gets, people don't fundamentally change.
Christine: I loved that Gibbs is still able to surprise his team. His inherent talents and instincts helped him far more than understanding technology. Of course if he was more proficient with a keyboard perhaps he wouldn’t have been stuck there half the night.
Tanya: He was great and believable. Gibbs has his fabulous gut, so he knows how to read people. It would have seemed off if he was suddenly a computer whiz and not nearly as fun. Given his trouble finding the CAPS lock key, he probably had a migraine by the time Abby and McGee talked him through it.
Doug: Gibbs seemed more believable to me as an older IT geek guy who'd received a late night phone call than he would have had he tried to come off as an Abby or McGee. That said, I still don't see how he had a covert I.D. as an IT geek all those years ago and yet today is somewhat of a Luddite around computers.
Mark Harmon has been all over our TV screens since the mid-1970s but long before he was our beloved Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS he was Fielding Carlyle on the prime time sudser Flamingo Road.
We know him now as Frank Reagan on Blue Bloods and Jesse Stone and who doesn't remember him as '80s icon Magnum P.I? But did you know that Tom Selleck was once Jed Andrews on The Young & the Restless?
The Crazy Ones are over and we'll never forget her as Buffy the Vampire Slayer but did you know that Sarah Michelle Gellar was once Erica Kane's long lost daughter on All My Children?
Long before we knew his as mystery writer Richard Castle or Captain Mal on Firefly he was Joey Buchanan, who slept with his mom's arch enemy on One Life to Live.
You may know her now as the most dynamic and dangerous First lady on Scandal, but if you were a fan of NBC's soap Another World, you may have noticed Bellamy as Dr. Courtney Evans.
Claire Dunphy is the mom who makes us laugh (and sometimes cry) on Modern Family but Julie Bowen had a long career before becoming one of the Dunphys. As a matter of fact she started out on the ABC soap Loving in the early 1990s.
Long before we knew him as Anthony DiNozzo on CBS' hit show NCIS, Michael was known as the Preppy Killer on Guilding Light. In the mid-'90s he was also Cooper Alden on The City (formerly Loving).
We couldn't imagine The Good Wife without Diane Lockhart, one of our favorite kick-ass attorneys. But did you know that some of Christine's first roles on TV were Beverly Tucker on Another World and Jewel Maniscalo on All My Children?
She's currently the executive producer for Devious Maids and we all remember Eva from Desperate Housewives but she once played a Brenda Barrett look-a-like on General Hospital and graced the screen of The Young and the Restless as Isabella Brana Williams.
We all know Ed as the cranky but lovable Jay Pritchett on Modern Family and no one's going to forget him as Al Bundy from Married with Children but did you that he started out on the soaps. He was once on All My Children in the '70s and then played Lenny on Another World in the early '80s.
Halle Berry has been all over the big screen from James Bond's Die Another Day to the X-Men: Days of Future Past. TV Fanatics have been fascinated by her portrayal of Molly Woods on Extant but do you remember her from her six episodes as Debbie Porter on the night-time sudser Knots Landing?
Who doesn't love the Haley's antics on Modern Family but Sarah's been in the business since she was four-years-old. She started off on Another World as Rain Wolfe, later played Karen on All My Children, Alison McDermott Stewart (#4?) on As the World Turns and Heather on Once Life to Live.
Who hasn't seen Mariska as Detective Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU and some fans may remember her as Dr. Greene's girlfriend Cynthia Hooper on ER but did you know that way back in 1988 she played Carly Fixx on the primetime sudser Falcon Crest?
We are having such fun watching Cam Gigandet as the sexy Roy Raydor on the CBS summer hit Reckless but observant fans might remember him as Kevin Volchok on The O.C. and Daniel Romalotti from The Young and the Restless.
Fans have adored this Supernatural hottie for years and although many remember him as Jason Teague on Smallville and C.J from Dawson's Creek, soap fans will always know him as Eric Brady from Days of Our Lives.
Long before we knew him as Stefan on The Vampire Diaries, PFC Logan Atwater on Army Wives or even Tommy Callahan on Everwood, Paul Wesley started out as Sean McKinnon on Another World and then Max Nickerson on Guiding Light.
We love her as Hanna Marin on Pretty Little Liars but long before that, she could be seen as Jack and Jennifer's beloved daughter Abigail Devereaux on Days of Our Lives.
Seamus is now half of our favorite bromance as Det. Kevin Ryan on Castle but before he started solving murders, he diagnosed patients as Dr. Ian Devlin on General Hospital.
Where would Castle be without his mother to keep him grounded? But long before Susan Sullivan played Martha Rodgers, Broadway Diva, she was a star on the '80s night time soap Falcon Crest and before that she could be seen as Lenore Moore Curtin Delaney on Another World.
Long before we knew her as Capt. Victoria (Iron) Gates on Castle or even as First Lady Sherry Palmer on 24, she spent some time in the mid-'80s as Debbie on General Hospital.
Hayden starred on two daytime soaps at a very young age. She was Sarah Victoria "Flash" Roberts from 1994-1997 on One Life to Live and Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Light from 1998-2000.
Like his Nashville co-star, Jackson started on a soap as Lucky Spencer (Luke and Laura's son!) on General Hospital in 1996 and ran on and off in the role until 2011.
Long before appearing on The Following the six degrees of Kevin Bacon began when he played Todd Adamson on Search for Tomorrow and TJ "Tim" Werner on Guiding Light from 1981-82.
Long before he was Dawson's dad on Dawson's Creek or Henry Allen on The Flash (or Barry, for that matter), Shipp was a soap STAR. He started out on As the World Turns but became THE GUY on Guiding Light, Kelly Nelson (in a dual role, he also played Victor Lazlo) from 1980-84. He did, indeed, cross paths with Kevin Bacon's Tim Werner. Six degrees, people!
Before Private Practice, Murder in the First or his turn on The Good Wife, Diggs shared his megawatt smile on The Guiding Light as music mogul Sugar Hill in 1997.
Nick and Sharon are celebating 25 years on The Young and the Restless. Guess who was his first Sharon?! Monica Potter orginated the role in 1994. She shared with Craig Ferguson that she got fired because she was "terrible" and had to dance around in a bikini with a fake tan. Soaps are hard!
Back in the early 90s Janney plaid Ginger, one of the Spaulding's maids on Guiding Light. She has always had a way of tickling the funny bone making her current turn as Bonnie on Mom just perfect for her!
