I suppose it was inevitable that a poor episode would befall NCIS. “Driven,” while a geek fantasy sequence, comes off as flat and silly. However, that is not to say that the episode was without its charm.
The episode opens with Navy Lt. Roni Seabrook (Jennifer Lynne Wetzel) testing a robotic Hummer prototype named “Otto,” in preparation for a demonstration to the Department of Defense. The outcome of this demonstration will provide the developers of Otto with an exclusive contract guaranteeing the company the much needed capital to get fully off the ground. Lt. Seabrook vocally directs the vehicle through several test scenarios, recording her results and observations to the project laptop. While parking Otto, Lt. Seabrook attempts to disengage her seatbelt, setting off a sequence of events where the seatbelt tightens on her, the doors lock, the windows roll up and the car directs its exhaust to the vehicle’s interior. Unable to reach the kill switch, Lt. Seabrook perishes.
At NCIS, the team is attending a required sexual harassment seminar being presented by a humorous woman who color codes personal contact as green, yellow, and red. This sets up the comedic allusions for the rest of the episode. The instructor is not used to the likes of Forensics Specialist Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette), who is instructed to now ask before she hugs the team, Special Agent Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), who wants to know if it is inappropriate to slap his co-workers on the back of the head Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon)-style. When describing the most inappropriate “red” behavior, Ziva licks the reclining Tony’s neck, prompting him to make a scene at the same time that the team is called into action for the death of a Navy officer at a DOD subcontractor candidate facility.
The DOD subcontractor is populated with the requisite oddballs. Project Leader Dr. Russell Pike (Lawrence Pressman) is from the Ken Lay school of benevolence, fatherly and clueless. There is the arrogantly Teutonic Torsten Anglers (Peter Giles), associate and rival of Lt. Seabrook, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed anvil German. And mechanic Jaime Jones (Kevin Alejandro), with whom Lt. Seabrook carried on a lively and violent tryst, captured on camera getting rough with the Lieutenant the night before her death. He is found tied up in her bed by Mossad Agent Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) and Tony, who just returned from the hospital where he was seeing his sweetheart, Dr. Jeanne Benoit (Scottie Thompson). Ziva suspects that Tony is not telling her something, though she is on the major wrong track.
Brainiac Agent Tim McGee (Sean Murray) and Abby figure out that a small bit of assembly computer code was added to the BIOS of the AI system that runs Otto instructing the vehicle to behave as it did when Lt. Seabrook tried to remove her seatbelt. Tim listens to the MP3 files recorded by the lieutenant in the closing minutes of her life while Abby regenerates those same closing minutes almost losing her life except for her rescue by Gibbs. Then they found the chip used to insert the code.
Article comments
1 - Brent
I'm rather curious as to why you describe the episode as "a geek fantasy sequence." The technology that the company is trying to develop is actually the sort of thing that is being funded by the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency - in other words the US Department of Defense.
Oh and Abby and Tim did have a sexual relationship in the past but it is fairly clear that it has ended - she says that "you only wish I was still sexually harassing you."
2 - Nomad
Michael Gilden died :(
3 - C. Michael Bailey
The producers of the episode depict the show as a "geek fantasy sequence" and do not apologize for it.
Mr. Gilden's death was tragic. I wish his family the best and mourn his loss, as I am sure the cast of NCIS do.
4 - L.W.S.
great review. this is one of my favorite NCIS episodes,especialy the sexual harassment seminar scene. this is what makes NCIS so unique. it can switch from a murder scene to a comedy scene, and it`s still believable. NCIS like all good series (seinfeld simpsons ect) just keeps getting better.