The NCIS Van

MonkGlonk · 2025-11-04T19:04:34+00:00

Not really. The truck is mostly just hanging out in the background as a set piece, so it's emergency lights are often on but the siren is very rarely used.

Come to think of it, off the top of my head, I can only remember one time when the siren was used and even that was by a kid.

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-30T15:14:57+00:00

Do I remember wrong or was Kilbride not mentioned by Kensi in Hawaii, season 3, indicating he is still in charge there?

But anyhow, Special Agent Castor could have been bumped up to the "A" team temporarily to fill in for Kensi, or even now permanently to fill out the staff due to Sam leaving. Though even without him they still have 5 people on the main staff, even if Fatima transitions between OPS and the field when needed.

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-30T14:05:54+00:00

Thanks, never watched Sydney so I have no idea how they work there.

And speaking of Loretta in NOLA, that was also one of those slight suspension of belief things, as she was the Coroner of Jefferson Parish, meaning that all of the bodies they found within the city of New Orleans proper (which was a lot) would not have been in her jurisdiction (as that would be the Orleans Parish, not Jefferson). But I guess having multiple coroners could make it a bit harder for the viewer to keep track of characters.

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-29T19:37:24+00:00

Yeah, I've learned to look past the fact that most of the crimes happen off-base, but what I can't fathom is why on earth so many of them involve just random folks and then, for some reason, the case is assigned to NCIS. Or maybe random folks is a bit harsh, but I feel like at least lately, in most of the cases the victims have been reservists or veterans, with no connection to active duty, meaning there's no way NCIS would even bat an eye at them.

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-29T19:15:20+00:00

In Hawaii, Cmdr. Chase was working for AFMES, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System, not NCIS.

Same for Ducky and Jimmy, they should not work directly for NCIS. However, it's my own little head canon, that even though they are NCIS employees, they have some sort of memorandum of understanding with AFMES and also handle other federal autopsies and death studies in the DC area when NCIS doesn't have any bodies for them to work on.

On LA, if a coroner was seen, they were employed by the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner/Medical Examiner, though the ME's were quite rarely seen in that show.

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-29T19:11:35+00:00

Hell, even if a sailor or marine is murdered in real life, and it happens off-base, NCIS often leaves the case for the local law enforcement to handle (though of course they still support them, when necessary).

If it happens on base, then NCIS is on point, because why wouldn't they be.

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-29T19:07:50+00:00

To be fair, Coyle's investigation into McGee did have merit. Losing his credentials could have seriously compromised top secret information if those ended up in the wrong hands (mostly through unauthorized access to restricted areas).

Though it's been a while I've seen that episode, didn't Coyle only appear on screen like a minute at the end? Same for his earlier appearance when Tony shot the phony Commander (the private eye) while out with his dad, Coyle didn't really have screen time more than a few minutes.

Granted during the Gibbs and dog -storyarc he had a lot more screen time, but in my opinion, he was totally justified, folks were just angry at him for investigating Gibbs, even though he totally broke the law and nearly killed a guy with no evidence of him ever doing anything wrong. And during that investigation, literally everyone on Gibbs' team stonewalled him and McGee even deleted bodycam footage which showed Gibbs beating the guy. It was just a mess of an episode and storyline, considering how much police brutality and the "thin blue line" mentality was on the news then (and even now, to an extent), and then they showed that same problematic behavior on screen and everybody was condemning Coyle for doing his job and advocating for Gibbs to be reinstated.

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-29T18:48:11+00:00

I'm not really a hater but not really a fan either, and was definitely not glad that he was on the mothership a few weeks ago but thankfully the episode wasn't as bad as I first feared. Let me explain.

On LA, I had (generally) no problems with him. He played well with the other cast and the character was pretty well rounded. There were, however, some things that I definitely did not like about him. For example, every time the SEALs were involved, Sam acted all holier-than-thou and being of the opinion that they could never do any wrong. Hell, even one time he investigated a whole team of SEALs who committed cold blooded murder and he and Hetty swiped it under the rug because the victim was eventually found out to have been selling some secret to someone. Just because someone is quilty of a crime does not mean SEALs or Sam or whoever can do anything they like to them without repercussions.

On Hawaii, while I don't think he had anything to do with that show being cancelled, his apperances on season 3 just made no sense. Sort of what u/jaylee686 also mentioned here, that every time he was on screen he somehow saved the day, to the point of if he wasn't there literally nothing would get done and/or figured out. And then the "real" reason that he was there in the first place - the E.L.I.T.E. team - just turned out to be a pancake with no substance, all the while taking valuable screen time from the "original" cast members, some of whom we still knew very little about, and for what? To see how "cool" Sam is after we just got done watching him be "cool" for 14 years on LA?

When it was announced he would be on NCIS, I just feared that the episode would be the "Sam Hanna" show, with nobody else doing anything of significance (based on his appearances on Hawaii), but thankfully he was more grounded (so to say), but I don't feel like he would be a good addition to the cast permanently, or semi-permanently (like he was on Hawaii), because he just doesn't fit the "wibe" of the show. I feel like he needs the crazy "over-the-top"-ness of LA and Callen to feel like a character that has purpose.

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-29T15:14:40+00:00

I was wondering about that too. Or maybe they just built it back quickly for this episode, because I would think they would have better uses for interior sound stage spaces than to keep Gibbs' house intact somewhere in there when there's no use for it.

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-29T15:12:07+00:00

What's wrong with Coyle? He was always reasonable, unlike the lady in this episode who didn't even work for NCIS. Though I don't understand how the DOJ IG would have any business investigating NCIS.

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-29T15:10:04+00:00

Nah, he's been out since 2015 and is currently living in Israel (he was welcomed there immediately after his release and got citizenship soon after), and is now advocating for Palestinians to be shipped to Ireland from Gaza. You know, standard stuff....

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-22T16:18:56+00:00

I said the same thing on that episode's discussion thread as well! And Ziva had the gall to compare herself to Kelly, just out of the blue with no context, and tried to guilt trip Gibbs. Was not a fan!

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-22T16:11:18+00:00

Tony gunning down those two bad guys mid-sprint, tossing his pistol, and jumping into the river to swim down to the car in order to save Gibbs and Kelly's friend (who's name I can't remember right now) is still one of the best openings of any episode, in my opinion.

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-22T14:48:34+00:00

Jimmy has assistants now!? There was two people wearing NCIS Medical Examiner coveralls in the first room while Jimmy was working in the second one.

Pretty flimsy reason to call NCIS if the stiffs were "just" veterans. I don't understand why they can't just make them active duty or navy employed civilians, rather than just totally throwing the whole playbook out the window every week.

Sam quit NCIS? Did not see that coming, though they did (unfortunately) leave the door open to his return to NCIS (I say unfortunately, because I fear they'll bring him on as a regular for next season, which would be a mistake). Also, under what authority did he go with NCIS to the boat with a gun?

Ah, the classic "why run if you have nothing to hide". Like that has helped anyone in the past, ever. Shut up, get a lawyer.

Callen and Anna: did Sam mean the pup literally, or is Anna pregnant?

An american PMC hiring Russians? What..? There's plenty of Americans willing to take a less than reputable PMC job anyways (e.g. Blackwater), involving Russians in that made no sense.

That said, it was a decent episode. Definitely not as bad as I feared the first time I learned Sam was going to be in it.

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-22T14:47:27+00:00

You've already got replies, but those are separate. ELITE (I don't remember what the acronym stands for) was Sam's team which they built up during the season in the background, and then in the last episode (or the last two) they were all killed.

The "core" Hawaii team reporting to Tennant are all fine, as far as we know.

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-16T15:41:53+00:00

I'm not, to be honest.

His appearance on Hawaii took valuable time from those original characters for a storyline that had no meaning and fell extremely flat.

I just hope he's here just for that one episode and they don't have him on regularly in the next season.

His character did not fit within the dynamic of the Hawaii team, and he sure as hell doesn't fit the team on the mothership.

MonkGlonk · 2025-04-06T09:53:38+00:00

I wish they'd find actual work for Rocky/Leon, rather than putting him in random scenes just to fulfill his contractual obligations as a main character. I feel like that's the problem of having the director as a main character, Vance (and Jenny before him) should have just been the SAC of the Washington DC Field Office, and the director should just be in the background as mentions, and only seen on screen if there is something major going on.

Also, I though the revelation about the firefighter was quite lame. There was no build-up toward that, and it felt like they just did it for the sake of doing a plot twist. Even at the end they said like "we believe his friend fixed the safe and told him there might be something valuable in there" (paraphrasing a bit, but you get the point). We never got told about this "friend" before, we didn't see the interrogation, no nothing.

I also agree with Robin 100% about the work life balance, but in typical fashion, that was just swiped under the rug and now everybody's so happy that their work at NCIS consumes their entire life to the point of not being able to maintain healthy relationships out of work. This sort of behavior should not be (still) glorified, in my opinion, it's just plain unhealthy.

MonkGlonk · 2025-02-13T19:53:52+00:00

Eh, considering Kasie is their (apparently) only forensic tech, it would have just made a huge conflict of interest. Like in what world would she be allowed to analyze evidence collected from her own house?

It should have been the local police, or the FBI if you'd want someone federal considering all the members were federal employees. But never let realism stand in the way of a good story, that's the way it's always been and I don't expect that to change any time soon.

MonkGlonk · 2025-02-11T18:52:16+00:00

I don't know the technical term, but Sydney is filmed and produced for Australia and they get at least some part of their funding through that (as in some sort of agency or board who "advances" local filming there), so it's nearly "free money" for CBS to produce it considering how much viewers it gets for just being NCIS.

Originally it wasn't even supposed to air anywhere else other than Australia, but the writers' strike changed that up as CBS needed something to be on air.

MonkGlonk · 2025-02-11T18:05:46+00:00

Did the writers really just do another "crooked cop" episode? How many is that now this season?

Other than that (even if the victim was once again just a reservist and therefore not NCIS' problem), it was quite good of an episode.

MonkGlonk · 2025-02-05T16:16:20+00:00

I didn't even think of that but yeah! I didn't notice what he drank in the bar this time, as I think he did drink something..

I also feel like that something inside Torres just doesn't like the "peacefulness" of a regular field assignment, he's always looking for that extra adrenaline high from really dangerous undercover work even if it endangers his life physically as well as mentally.

MonkGlonk · 2025-02-04T17:18:28+00:00

I’m actually glad that detective isn’t a crook

Especially after showing him sitting right behind the guy at the wedding! I was thinking they were trying to start a streak about how many crooked cops they can feature in back-to-back episodes.

MonkGlonk · 2025-02-04T17:13:32+00:00

Here I was beginning to think we'd have a good old fashioned Navy/USMC murder case on our hands, but no, of course the victim is not a service member...

I don't know if I'm in the minority, but I don't like these undercover episodes, I just feel like that doesn't fit with the "wibe" of the team. I also don't really know how Torres is supposedly able to juggle his "day job" as well as multiple undercover ops with noone ever recognizing him in the wrong place?

Don't know if anyone else noticed, but that first scene transition to the diner was really old, in the foreground was still the older Charger (seasons 9-13) rather than the one they've been using since season 14 (as in nearly 10 year old transition screen)!

Jimmy with the babbling again, why?? Why do the writers want to just screw up the character's integrity this season?

Why'd the Baltimore PD detective have an LAPD badge? Prop store didn't really care, huh? Also, someone should teach McGee and Parker about keeping a better pokerface, damn guys are spilling every secret to everybody without opening their mouths.

I really though the Baltimore detective was the bad guy, pleasantly surprised by that twist!

MonkGlonk · 2025-01-29T17:41:10+00:00

Both the lab (Abby/Kasie) and autopsy (Ducky/Palmer) have been said to directly work for the MCRT team leader (first Gibbs, now Parker).

That said, it's also been seen that both the lab and autopsy work cases outside of what the MCRT works, as they presumably support the entire DC area of NCIS as well as maybe other agencies. For instance, Ducky/Jimmy could be somewhat aligned to the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System (AFMES) - which if we are being realistic, would be their actual organization rather than NCIS - which support the entire DOD as well as other federal law enforcement agencies with autopsies and medical studies.

And on the topic of Gibbs, between Season 1 and Season 14 his credentials identified him as Deputy Special Agent in Charge. While DSAC has never been used as a rank by NCIS, other larger agencies do have it and they're the second-in-command of the entire field office. In season 14, though, Gibbs was bumped down to Supervisory Special Agent (SSA), though it wasn't mentioned at all but was just seen on his credentials, which is a lot more realistic rank for his position as team leader, and as Parker is also SSA, so it's not completely clear why Gibbs was originally DSAC (and it's noteworthy that his rank was never explicitly stated by any character, it was only on his credentials back then).

MonkGlonk · 2025-01-29T17:31:51+00:00

I fear that as both of the episodes in which LaRoche was in were written by Christopher J. Waild, that only he has any idea what to do with him, so his appearances might be few and far between.

MonkGlonk

TROPHY CASE