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NCIS Origins: Vivo o Muerto (CBS)
The episode begins with Gibbs six months ago obsessing over his family's killers.
In his current day, a female Navy corpsman has disappeared in Tijuana, Mexico while on a date with her boyfriend who was drugged. Franks isn't available so Lala takes Gibbs with her to go down and investigate.
She lets him know she's been going down there once a month to try to find and kill Pedro Hernandez, who killed his wife and daughter.
They find that a young woman has been leading couples or women alone to a bar called Puerto Gris, where they are drugged and the women are taken away to be sold.
Franks comes down and the trio track the kidnappers to a gas station a place where Dana and other women are being held while waiting to be sold. They overpower the guards and release everyone.
One of the men who were holding the women confesses that Pedro Hernandez was killed six months ago, by a sniper. Lala confronts Gibbs with this knowledge, but he says nothing, and the trust between them is shattered.
It's apparently part of Gibbs lore from the original series that Franks ID'd the killer and his location in Mexico, and Gibbs went down and took the man out. I guess we will see what the consequences are for the team with the knowledge of Gibbs having killed the man out in the open.
Survivor (CBS)
They are keeping things exciting this season. In this two hour episode, there are two challenges and two tribal councils. In the first part, Rachel loses immunity to Genevieve, with the added burn that there's a Sanctuary reward. Sue and Teeny go along to enjoy the feast and Genevieve has an opportunity to try to win them over.
Back at camp, Andy is full of himself and he tries some "jury management" on Rachel, listing his many moves and flips. He's certain she's going home so he hopes she will share his game skills with the rest of the players at Ponderosa.
Nobody knows Rachel has an idol, as she's never told anyone about it, but at the last she tells Sue, to keep her from digging around the well for a possible idol.
When she uses it at tribal, it's Andy who is voted out, thanks to the good job he did of convincing Rachel he's been playing a much better game than anyone thought.
Part two of the two hour show featured Genevieve and Rachel trash talking/yet admiring each other for being such excellent foes. Rachel refers to them as Harry Potter vs Voldemort. I think even Genevieve knows she's Voldemort in that face off. Sue, Teeny and Sam were insulted to be considered no threat to the dynamic duo.
In a nail biter of a challenge that involved swimming, digging, then stacking balls while standing on a bouncy board, Rachel pulled off a win with Genevieve right behind the whole time. I was so glad to see the snake slither away after being voted out at tribal.
Down to four players. I am leaning towards Rachel, as she's played brilliantly, but don't want to jinx her.
Matlock No, No Monsters (CBS)
The case this week involves a nanny who has been photographed at a park in what looks like maltreatment of her charge. Olympia takes on the case and the mean nanny cam moms at her kids schools.
Julian puts Maddy in an awkward spot by asking her to kind of watch over Olympia. Things have been tense between Julian and Olympia since he confessed he had cheated on her while they were separated. I'm not understanding why this is so hard for Olympia to take since she was seeing her co-worker for quite awhile and planned to marry him (?) after her divorce was final. Does Julian not know about that?
In any case, I thought the episode was really slow moving and I was a bit disappointed in it. Thinking it through afterwards, I wonder if Maddy isn't just gaining Olympia's trust, but is she also becoming fond of her without realizing it, and might she begin to see her as a daughter figure as they go forward?
Also, Maddy continues to try to dig into the Wellbrexa case that will reveal who killed the information on Wellbrexa in the past. There was an emphasis in the episode on the assistants for Howard senior and for Olympia. A bit more on Howard's assistant since Maddy is getting passwords and other information from him by tricking him in various ways. Olympia's assistant is very protective of Olympia's files and any access to Olympia. Howard's assistant could have signed for the Wellbrexa documents, writing Howard's name. Also, printing from Howard's desk computer sends the copy to a main copy room rather than the printer right in the office. Odd, isn't it?
Tracker Klamath Falls (CBS/Paramount)
My spouse watched about six episodes of Tracker season one, then stopped watching. He's been eager for me to watch it so we could talk about the show.
I enjoyed Justin Hartley on This Is Us, and really liked him as The Green Arrow in Smallville. I did not think his new series, Tracker, looked appealing from commercials, so I never watched it. This week I watched episode one.
Here Justin is Colter Shaw, who called himself a "Rewardist" because he locates people for the reward money. His mom and her wife send him the cases to follow up on. His father is deceased, but he taught the three kids in the family survival skills which have served Colter well in his current profession.
The episode begins with Colter rescuing a woman who had been hiking alone in the wilderness. He finds her and encourages her to walk out of the canyon with his help and her leg stabilized, telling her the odds of her survival/and keeping her leg if she makes her way out with him rather than waiting the hours it would take for a rescue crew.
The actual case is a boy who has been contacted by his biological father has met up with him, then the boy disappeared.
At one point, Tracker tells the boy the odds of surviving a drop into some rough waters or waiting to see if the truck doesn't go over the cliff's edge before crews can stabilize it.
There's apparently some formula to the episodes. As a carryover from This Is Us, Colter has shirtless scenes, and females tossing themselves at him at the drop of a hat.
Also perhaps woven into the episodes will be the story of the night his father died. It might have been that a family member pushed dad over a cliff in the pouring rain, but which one?
I may watch more, as I appear to be as charmed by Hartley as ever. I liked the way he treated the people he had been hired to find. He set them at ease and seemed to care about them genuinely.
Skeleton Crew This Could Be A Real Adventure (Disney+)
I watched episode one, and was taken immediately by the adventure dreaming boy Wim. He's supposed to be doing school work and prepping for a big test, but all he can think of are Jedi's and the lives they must lead. His friend Neel is a completely charming creature who looks like a small blue elephant. He's a good friend to Wim and follows him on his adventures.
Rounding out the adventurers are Fern, the rebellious daughter of a local dignitary, and KB, who has a visor she can raise and lower, and some sort of an implant who is Fern's best friend. She looks like Geordi from Star Trek when the visor is down.
I love the planet the characters live on, with cybernetic teachers, and school guardians who are also cybernetic. It looks earth like but with scientific upgrades galore, and many species are in Wim's class, including an Ithorian.
Wim, taking a shortcut when he's late to school, falls into a ravine and finds a buried metal door. When he gets to school and is in trouble, he tries to tell his father he found a Jedi Temple buried in the woods. His father sternly brushes it off but Fern, sitting on a bench next to him is very interested.
That night the four kids converge on the site, dig their way in, and accidentally start up what appears to be a ship which soon whisks them into space.
Charming characters, good science fiction.
