NCIS: The Good Samaritan (2004)
Season 1, Episode 14
6/10
Either I'm stupid, or the writing in this episode was off.
10 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Man, this case threw me for a loop. I thought the perpetrator was the first woman to be introduced. Because we, the audience, know a woman was the perpetrator; makes sense, right? But now that I think about it, it couldn't have been her because Lieutenant Commander Wayne Julius didn't recognize the woman.

Then the wife got introduced. So, I thought it was her. The characters did, too. Now, I was confused. But after giving it some thought, you can somewhat see her face in the first scene: you could see that it's the same actress as the wife. Not to mention her voice sounded the same. But I didn't notice that while watching. I only noticed it after giving it some thought and watching the episode a second time.

But then the first woman received the spotlight by the characters; only a little while later, it seems like it's neither of them. Then it was seemingly revealed to be the wife, yet it wasn't; it was her TWIN. Well, it was the wife for the first two, and it was her twin for the murder of the husband. Did I get that right? But if the wife killed the first two for her sister who killed the husband, how is that possible if the third victim was the husband? Either I'm stupid, or something about this episode's writing made it a little difficult for me to follow along.

I guess the hints and crumb pieces were there to make it possible for anyone to come up with the assumption that it could be a twin; identical DNA, you know, and other things. But I wasn't one of those people. Maybe I'm also not the only one who didn't even think of that, but the majority of people had to have had that thought; surely. I think I'll choose to believe that the writing was a little shoddy.

The episode itself certainly could've been more enjoyable. I think previous episodes have been more enjoyable. I certainly wasn't as invested in this episode as I have been in previous episodes. Maybe that played a part in me getting thrown for such a loop. Ehhhh, that's probably just an excuse, though. I was at fault for that one.

Anyway, Lieutenant Wallace. Played by Sean McGowan. Yet another person who voice-acted a significant video game character in the future of when this episode, and the other episodes, premiered. Not only that, another person who voice-acted a character in L. A. Noire. Quite possibly the majority's favorite character in the game, or at least the majority's favorite partner: Stefan Bukowski. I knew Lieutenant Wallace looked familiar, although I thought Sean was the one who voice-acted Ralph Dunn. But that was Rodney Scott.

Besides that, this episode tilted the scale back towards the weaker side of things. It was a weak episode. I swear the writing in this episode was off. The formatting/editing could've played a factor in that as well. The character interactions between the team this time around were also weak. I guess the bits between Gibbs and Sheriff Dupray were decent.

I feel like some people may consider this a better episode than I do, based on the concluding twist of the case: well, if they didn't consider it as I didn't. But personally, that twist almost had the opposite effect on me. I already wasn't that invested in the episode, not to mention the case. So, that twist was like the icing on top of a cake that I wasn't interested in, let alone one that I ate. But if it was the opposite of that analogy for you, good for you.
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