NCIS Review: Sunburn (Season 18 Episode 4)
There’s no such thing as vacation for the NCIS agents.
On NCIS Season 18 Episode 4, “Sunburn,” McGee and Delilah find this out the hard way when the case of the week interrupts their Bahamas trip.
In the worst escape room ever, Petty Officer Mason is murdered while running his room. Naturally, the investigation leads to the Bahamas, so McGee and Delilah are on the case.
It’s really nice to see the fun, adorable side of this couple. For years, anytime an episode has focused on McGee and Delilah, it has featured major drama or some terrible incident. Sean Murray and Margo Harshman’s chemistry is so easy and natural, that I wish we had more time to spend with them at home.
Procedurals don’t always lend themselves to healthy, happy relationships, so I love that McGee and Delilah get to be a super couple.
As the pair looks into a mysterious woman Mason contacted, they discover Mason’s presumed dead partner Lucas is actually alive.
Mason and Lucas built a drone that could be used as a powerful AI weapon, but regretted it and destroyed the prototype. Lucas’s girlfriend decided she wanted to sell it on the black market, killing Mason in the process.
Side note: The NCIS franchise is known to work closely with the military and Department of Defense, so whenever we hear about some crazy superweapon on one of the shows, we’re left wondering how close to reality it is? Or perhaps, we don’t really want to know.
For just a few minutes, I thought we were once again getting the shady boss as the bad guy, but NCIS pulls a swerve at the last minute.
Look, it’s not like the girlfriend is a groundbreaking choice but the shady boss has been a popular story in the franchise lately, so I’m just happy to see something different.
Meanwhile, Gibbs is distracted since Fornell has disappeared while working on the case of the counterfeit opioids. He even discovers Fornell’s blood at a crime scene, which makes him more motivated than ever.
Honestly, I am looking forward to this story wrapping up, as it has dragged on for far too long.
If this were for storyline reasons, we might be ok with it, but it’s clearly just meant as a placeholder because NCIS can’t figure out how to address the pandemic.
It’s not doing Gibbs any favors. After we witnessed him finally start opening up to the team, he’s been keeping this huge secret from them for months and it just makes him look like the old manipulative Gibbs.
It feels like this story has overshadowed everything else, with the other characters relegated to background players.
While Gibbs has always been the unquestioned star of NCIS, the ensemble’s chemistry is central to the show’s longevity.
The way this counterfeit story has slowly dragged on has messed with that chemistry a little. This is especially noticeable because the Season 17 finale was so good, and it feels like some of that work is being undone.
I only hope that with the end in sight, we get back to the NCIS we know and love.
What did you think of this episode of NCIS? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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NCIS airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on CBS.
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Stephanie Holland
Stephanie Holland is a nerdy lover of Star Wars, Disney, Doctor Who, Arrowverse, Star Trek and WWE. Is living the dream of turning a lifelong obsession with TV into an actual job. Still waiting for a reboot of the '80s classic Small Wonder.