I was very disappointed in the episode. Forst off, it was just too easy. The FBI, et al could never catch Deering for years... super elusive bad guy... then you get the call that they trace to a car in a parking lot. As soon as I saw the “thermal image” I expected the car to blow up... it did. The body in the car... too badly burned, but they accepted that it was him, except Gibbs... then the concluding scene... Just stupid. I sat there at the end of the episode thinking about the wasted time I just lost and feeling suckered for waiting anxiously all summer for the answers to the cliffhanger. Just a really , really bad episode.
Director Vance’s “It’s HIM!” comment in autopsy actually ticked me off - it was simple and stupid from what has always been a complex and intelligent character.
I caught the BS about Michelle Obama, even though my family did not. They seemed surprised to have it pointed out to them.
I am glad that they opened the show with Ducky’s waking up in “purgatory” (my wife loved that bit).
Because they rushed the last half of the show, they missed a great chance to develop the enmity/affinity between Dearing and Gibbs. As it was done, Dearing’s death is little more than murder. Gibbs always deals in justifiable homicide. The writers blew it.
I also thought the FBI hooker’s finding Dearing was far too dang easy for someone who had eluded detection for so long. The cell phone in the car with the dead brother was at least a plausible defensive move on Dearing’s part. The “I don’t know you but why don’t we go somewhere and talk, or something.” come on from the FBI check was utterly ridiculous. Well beneath the caliber of the show - at least in the past.
This should have been a two-parter.
JMO, notch! ;-P