NCIS In Review - High Seas (Episode 1.6)

NCIS In Review - High Seas (Episode 1.6)

The story begins at a nighttime party, leading us to believe we will witness more traumatized attendees. However, that's the narrative they want us to have. In contrast, a sailor, somewhat distressed, disappears from the crowd in a crowded bar. A restaurant staff member finds our sailor of the week in a cold storage room, trying to cool down. He's not dead, just "high."

"It's personal, I think the test Tony did didn't come out as he expected."

Episode: 1.6, High Seas.

Air Date:  November 4, 2003. 

Victim: Bobby Wilkes, First Class Sailor

The story begins at a nighttime party, leading us to believe we will witness more traumatized attendees. However, that's the narrative they want us to have. In contrast, a sailor, somewhat distressed, disappears from the crowd in a crowded bar. A restaurant staff member finds our sailor of the week in a cold storage room, trying to cool down. He's not dead, just "high."

Gibbs is quietly in his corner in the basement when one of his former colleagues, a guy named Stan Burley, calls. Burley is the NCIS agent assigned to the U.S.S. Enterprise aircraft carrier. He manages to get Gibbs to answer the phone, whether by shouting or begging on the answering machine. Burley informs that there's a drugged sailor who went crazy in Rota, Spain. Toxin test results are not out yet, but the latest random drug test on the guy came back negative. Burley is overwhelmed and needs help solving the case.

The team provides some necessary background on Burley. He worked alongside Gibbs for five years. Both Ducky and Abby admire him.

As they're heading to the aircraft carrier, Gibbs and Tony tease Kate by explaining how the signaling boards work, since she once got lost on a ship and clearly, Kate will end up getting lost again. Kate is the character through which the audience will experience the details of the aircraft carrier.

The team arrives on the ship, divides tasks and, unsurprisingly, Kate gets lost again.

The result of the toxin analysis on First Class Sailor Wilkes comes back positive for methamphetamine. Gibbs interviews Wilkes, who vehemently denies using drugs. Gibbs isn't convinced and isn't being very friendly. However, Wilkes is denying drug use with noticeable distress.

Kate interviews First Class Sailor Niles, one of Wilkes' colleagues on the flight deck and one of the guys who went out with him in Rota. Both Niles and Wilkes are flight deck operators on Chief Reyes' team. Niles also doesn't believe the accusations against Wilkes and tells Kate that Wilkes is the fourth generation of a Navy family, with a grandfather who served on the Arizona. "He would never dishonor the uniform."

The Enterprise is called for a search and rescue operation, adding tension to the investigation. With flight operations resumed, it's crucial to resolve any drug issues on board. As an example of consequences, the scene shifts to the flight deck, where Chief Reyes is pushing the men hard in operations. Tony arrives to interview Reyes and is intrigued by his tough approach. Tony wants to know if Wilkes was under a lot of stress during his shifts. Shortly after, another sailor, First Class Sailor Shrewe, the other guy who went out with Wilkes in Rota, starts freaking out on the deck and collapses.

The attending physician gives the same diagnosis for both Shrewe and Wilkes – chronic and prolonged methamphetamine use. However, Shrewe also passed a recent random drug test. Gibbs wants to talk to Shrewe and pressures the doctor to make it happen. Gibbs then delegates tasks: Tony will investigate Shrewe's locker; Kate will investigate the urinalysis procedure ("find out where the urinalysis coordinator keeps everything visible"), in order to understand if someone could tamper with the test; and Gibbs and Burley will examine the flight deck tapes.

Kate gets lost again, but eventually interviews the urinalysis coordinator. She questions the procedures and it becomes clear that two false negative results in six weeks would be highly unlikely.

Gibbs interviews Shrewe, who denies any drug use and claims not to consume alcohol or cigarettes either. Gibbs isn't as cordial as he was with Wilkes. Speaking of Wilkes, the interview is interrupted when Wilkes collapses and dies on a nearby bed.

Somehow, Ducky gets Wilkes' body delivered express from Amazon, and he and Gerald perform the autopsy. Ducky and Gerald reconstruct Wilkes' murder in a video conference for the team. Ducky is making this extra effort to communicate to Gibbs that someone injected an air bubble into Wilkes' bloodstream, causing his death. However, Gerald is smiling, waving, and exaggerating death snoring sounds in the reconstruction, which is hilarious.

Gibbs interviews the paramedic who switched Wilkes' intravenous saline bag and accuses him of murder. However, he doesn't have substantial evidence against the guy. Burley manages to identify Wilkes' fingerprints on the saline bag that contained the air injection. Burley believes Wilkes committed suicide. As mentioned earlier, Wilkes had training in emergency medical care before joining the Navy, and Burley informs Gibbs that the aircraft carrier violated protocol by allowing Wilkes to take a call from his father, a retired Chief Petty Officer.

Earlier, Kate had sent samples of urine from Wilkes and Shrewe's clean drug tests to Abby, who discovers that Wilkes' clean urine sample is identical to Shrewe's. Total coincidence. Meaning, someone is swapping the samples.

Kate and Tony need to analyze the records to see who was handling the logistics of the urine tests. They debate the best way to get into the administrative offices and end up in a race. Kate doesn't get lost. Tony, on the other hand, ends up in the laundry room.

Gibbs and Burley examine the flight deck tapes and observe Chief Reyes handing something to his subordinates. After Abby enhances the video, it becomes clear and perceptible that it's a capsule. When Gibbs and Burley confront Reyes, he produces caffeine pills and gives a speech about how he would never harm his subordinates' health. In fact, the pills don't show methamphetamine in their results. A test on the powder found in Reyes' locker is also negative. However, the question is why the caffeine powder was outside the pill container. Did Reyes swap the pills for another substance?

Gibbs decides to talk to the last original team member: First Class Sailor Niles. Niles has been agitated throughout the episode and even confronted Tony about searching Shrewe's locker earlier. Niles denies drug use and hands over his caffeine pills to Gibbs. They test positive for methamphetamine. Kate takes the opportunity to whisper, "Told you." The problem now is that they have a sailor caught with methamphetamine who claims his respectable superior, Chief Reyes, provided the drugs. Incriminating him won't be an easy task.

Gibbs has the Chief of Air Operations pressure Reyes. The chief isn't pleased, but eventually gives in. Reyes also knows that the aircraft for the rescue mission is on the way and needs his team in top condition. Under pressure, Reyes enters a room, possibly to retrieve the stash of methamphetamine. Upon his exit, the agents storm the room and arrest the urinalysis coordinator. They point out that the coordinator and Reyes served on three different aircraft carriers, and Reyes' teams always had the best performance on all of them. It's not conclusive evidence, but they manage to force the coordinator to reveal where the methamphetamine is.

At this point, Gibbs instructs Niles to approach Reyes and pretend to be losing control on the flight deck, needing something to cheer him up. It's quite obvious what's happening, but the episode is wrapping up, so it should work. And it does. Reyes hands real methamphetamine to Niles, and Gibbs emerges from the shadows to arrest him. At least Reyes is professional enough not to be resentful towards Niles for following orders. Reyes tries to justify himself to Gibbs, but Gibbs isn't interested in hearing it. The scene is impactful, showcasing Gibbs' moral authority and the disdain he conveys.

And that's it. Throughout the episode, Gibbs jokes with Burley, teases Tony, and praises Burley, speaking of him as if he's the best agent he's ever worked with. All of this is clearly orchestrated to make Tony feel inadequate compared to the guy he replaced. In the end, Burley and Gibbs shake hands (after Gibbs warns Burley not to get sentimental), and as Gibbs leaves, Tony comments that Gibbs never shook his hand. According to Burley, "He must really like you." The emotion is clearly visible in Tony, creating another well-executed, touching scene.

The episode concludes with Kate enjoying another groundbreaking moment on the aircraft carrier: takeoff.

Review: This episode delivered solid acting and character development. The subplot involving Burley and Tony was fun - Mark Harmon clearly had fun with it. However, drug-related plots can become tiresome. Additionally, it's frustrating when the criminal, who had shown cleverness up to that point, starts acting incoherently in the last seven minutes of the episode. Reyes was just interrogated by two NCIS agents, one of them quite intense, about supplying drugs to his team. Any sensible drug dealer wouldn't return to doing that under such scrutiny, no matter the work pressure. Moreover, the risks weren't high enough for Reyes to take such a gamble. Also, in evaluating Reyes' behavior with his team, the NCIS agents repeatedly reinforced that the risks weren't that great ("It's just a search and rescue, then they return to base"). Basically, Reyes is going to jail because he decided to act foolishly in the last seven minutes of the episode.

While the episode itself was somewhat lackluster, there was some good character work done.

I give this episode Four Abby's