NCIS Review: Blood and Treasure (Season 18 Episode 3)

Gibbs and Fornell continue to look for the person running the counterfeit opioid operation, while the team is drawn into the world of treasure hunting on NCIS Season 18 Episode 3, “Blood and Treasure.”

Before we get started, a quick reminder that everything is taking place pre-Covid-19 toward the end of 2019, in the middle of Season 17. Such simpler times.

The slow burn of Gibbs and Fornell’s investigation is meant to draw out the tension of the case, explore the pair’s friendship, and revisit the overdose of Fornell’s daughter.

What it’s really doing is allowing the show to avoid immediately jumping into current events like Covid-19 and racial injustice.

If the show wasn’t ready to tackle those issues, that’s understandable. However, dragging out the story into five episodes isn’t serving the audience.

We do get movement in a three steps forward, five steps back sort of way.

Fornell hilariously goes undercover at a fast-food restaurant, where he finds pills hidden in the freezer and learns the name of the kingpin is Merriweather. Unfortunately, he then disappears.

On the plus side, we get more of Gibbs and Fornell’s always entertaining relationship. Mark Harmon and Joe Spano are dance partners who know each other’s every move before they even make it.

Even when one of them improvises, the other still follows perfectly, and the result is flawless every time.

After 18 seasons, I’m amazed that NCIS still finds creatively disgusting ways to portray dead bodies. We wish we could look away, but it’s one of the things we still love about this show.

This time, Chief Petty Officer Diego Barnes is found on a fire escape with pieces of his carved up body falling to the ground. This crime scene isn’t helping the team, who are still hungover after partying with Gibbs the night before.

Barnes was an avid treasure hunter who spent years tracking the Demint treasure. Apparently, Angus Demint buried $1 million in gold, then left codes to the clues. The team thinks Barnes was killed because he found the treasure.

The setting of a treasure hunt is a nice background for what turns out to be a pretty basic case of greed.

What NCIS has always done really well is tie the case into the team’s personal lives. This story isn’t really about Barnes and the treasure. It’s about Angus abandoning his daughter and hiding in his treasure hunt.

A man who is taking time with a loving daughter for granted is something Gibbs takes very personally. He catches the murderer and mends their relationship.

The references to the team’s night out help reinforce that at its core this show is about how these people have built this beautiful family together, and there’s never a moment when they don’t love being there for one another.

It may sound cheesy, but it still works almost every week.

What did you think of this episode of NCIS? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

NCIS airs Tuesday at 8/9c on CBS.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

Supernatural: The Single Best Episode from Every Season