Wet and dripping is the motive of this episode of NCIS. Indeed there are “Skeletons,” but there are also copious amounts of gelatinous matter and the requisite effluvium — a sticky situation indeed. Speaking of sticky situations, Army Lt. Hollis Mann (Susanna Thompson) makes her way back into an episode where we discover she and Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) have not spoken since ”Sharif Returns”. In addition, Forensics Specialist Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette) has boy problems that only Gibbs can address. Alas, I digress before even starting.
The episode opens on a military funeral. While the service is wrapping up, two servicemen in charge of maintaining a military mausoleum are trying to remove the door to one of the crypts to ready it for another occupant. The attempt results in an explosion of sorts with extremely disgusting consequences: decomposing body parts and skeletal remains. Thank God there is no smell-a-vision. The scene at NCIS headquarters is equally tense and surreal as Abby is acting odd (perhaps this show’s biggest irony). She accosts Special Agent Tim McGee (Sean Murray) for money to feed into the candy machine, ultimately secures the funds from Special Agent Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), spawning a discussion of exactly what “nugget” is. Gibbs arrives and gathers his forces for an apparent explosion at a local military mausoleum.
At the mausoleum, the bomb squad tells Gibbs, DiNozzo, and Ziva no explosives were found. The bomb squad details that the funeral was for a Marine lance corporal (thus the NCIS involvement) who was to be interred in the family mausoleum in a space with his grandfather. NCIS Medical Examiner Dr. Ducky Mallard (David McCallum) and NCIS Medical Assistant Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) arrive to correct McGee’s metaphor for the mess they have as “effluvium” as opposed to porridge. Ducky notes that there is enough decomposing matter for two people present in the crypt. He further surmises that the bodies were living as of two weeks before and then provides the theory that the lack of ventilation and the amount of gas that would be produced by the bodies would be enough to provide the explosion.
At the NCIS morgue, Ducky and Palmer have a “meat puzzle” not unlike that which we saw in a previous episode involving the sale of body parts (“The Meat Puzzle,” originally aired February 8, 2005). Ducky determines that the bodies were dismembered and that there were actually at least five bodies involved, thus introducing the possibility of more bodies in the mausoleum. At least one of the bodies was an elderly woman who was murdered. Ducky fears a mass murder.
Article comments
1 - Liz
Good job as always with your review. But it was nouget, not nugget that was under discussion.
2 - C. Michael Bailey
Thanks, Liz. No "you say tomato and I say potato" here. You are correct and I introduced a real bonehead into the review!
3 - Kaz
The Meat Puzzle had nothing to do with sale of body parts. I think you may be confusing it with the Numb3rs episode "Harvest".
And it's nougat not nugget.
Other than that, nice review.
4 - C. Michael Bailey
Just when I am reasonable sure no one is reading, I receive comments. Kaz, thank you much for the corrections. It was Numb3rs I was incorrectly thinking about. I think there was a CSI on the subject also. The "Meat Puzzle" involved dismembered bodies disposed of in 55-gallon drums.