NCIS Season 23 Episode 3 Teases Jess & Torres With Heaping Helping of Humor

Critic’s Rating: 3.75 / 5.0

3.75

The opening scene of NCIS Season 23 Episode 3 made it seem like, for whatever reason Nick got pulled aside at the end of “Prodigal Son Part II,” he was sidelined for duty, as well.

But nope. It was a bit of a red herring that had nothing to do with his chat with Director Vance.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one scratching their heads as that scene played out.

The last time we saw Agent Dale Sawyer was on NCIS Season 22 Episode 15, so it was surprising that he was on the scene and working with Jessica.,

And then Torres came out of a steam-filled alleyway and proceeded to jump on the hood of the car, eye twitching, demanding that Sawyer get away from Jessica. What the heck?

Not only was Nick pulled aside at the end of NCIS Season 23 Episode 2, but Jessica also got an offer. Hers was to go on future missions with NCIS Elite. Her moment of joy was crushed when Torres revealed he turned down the same offer.

But the opening scene loomed over us. Something fishy was going on.

Just how fishy? Well, Agent Sawyer popped up when the team was called to the murder of a poor fellow lying dead in an alley. Was it the same alley from the opening?

Not that it mattered. Any time Sawyer pops up, I know we’re in for a good time. I’m still of the mind that we deserve a more comedic NCIS hour with the night crew.

NCIS has always had comedic moments, but Sawyer is flat-out funny. Can’t you see an entire series focusing on the nighttime B team? I think we should start a petition.

“Whoa. I don’t do nose brain. Peace out, A Team,” Sawyer said as he backed out of the alley. “He doesn’t do brains at all,” Torres quipped. Kind of rude, but even more reason to fire up a show dedicated to them.

They can be the Frank Drebins of NCIS. Who’s with me??

And am I really joshing around about nose brain? Who have I become? We really have become desensitized to death when I can look at a dead man and joke about losing his brains through his cranial orifices.

It’s a smart move to take a breather after the double-episode NCIS Season 23 premiere. That was heady stuff, with real life-and-death matters taking their toll on the team.

And while I’m honing in on the funny here, I noticed the odd name of the dive bar, “Hairy Dave’s.”

I’ve been sick for over a week, and when a balding (but hairy-chested) guy claimed the name Hairy Dave, and Jessica said, “I see the name’s ironic,” the exchange that followed had me choking on my coughs because I was laughing so hard.

“You wouldn’t ask me that if you saw my back. Would you like to?” Hairy Dave asked. “No, thank you,” Jessica replied. “Maybe later,” Torres piped in. Then he looked at Jessica. “What? You’re not curious?”

Honestly, I don’t even know what I’m writing here. This is an awful review, but like I said, I’ve been sick, and this was really funny!

“We’ve got one whole outlet to charge our phones…” The night crew has to put up with some pretty humiliating stuff — from crappier wifi on their side of the office to the mood lighting — but that’s nothing compared to the cleaning crew wandering in and running a vacuum.

Playing with the B Team offers all kinds of tidbits to play with. Gerta the cleaning woman, Henry the ghost, the Nan Van, and a birds-eye view of Sawyer and Jessica wrestling to work off their Caf-Pow.

Palm readers, Devil possession, an exorcism, and two more brain bleeds, sorry, nose brains. And the whole time, we had the spectre of the opening scene playing in our minds.

So when Sawyer began joking about the devil jumping into Torres at the same time his vision blurred, I figured, why not?

It offered a chance for Sawyer to admit that he gets insecure around Torres. The A Team stuff would be enough to rattle anyone.

He also got to the heart of Jessica and Nick. She cares more about him than Nick knows (or needs to know). At the same time, Jimmy got Nick to admit he was jealous of her spending time with Sawyer.

He claimed he had zero romantic thoughts for her, but I was getting those vibes even when they played wedding on NCIS Season 22 Episode 11.

And let’s face it. NCIS: Tony & Ziva is proof positive that if done right, a romantic pairing on an NCIS show can work wonders.

It’s been a while since we’ve explored that avenue on NCIS, so it might be time to dip our toes into that water again.

Sometimes, the more you protest, the more you’re hiding. It would be difficult to work together when there are times you have to put your life on the line, but we’ve seen it done successfully many times before.

What are the odds that it was only the “possession” that revealed those feelings for Jessica? Even their conversation at the end didn’t sell me on the “just bros” of it all.

There’s something there, and the writers are trying to see if we’re good with it. Well, we are. Aren’t we?

The cast did a pretty decent script flip when Jimmy deduced it was sound causing the nose brain.

And it wasn’t an accident that, when he was discussing it, a giant speaker was behind him. I don’t know if I’ve just never noticed them before or if they were placed there specifically for this case. More than likely, I just never noticed, but it was still clever to have the conversation in front of them.

There are so many things out there that militaries all over the world are working on, and we only hear about them through our fictional programming. And people dismiss broadcast TV. Tsk tsk.

So, overall, it was a decent diversion from more important matters, like the team hiding from Parker that the red lipstick didn’t belong to Carla.

There’s plenty of time to get back to that. In the meantime, though, what’s going on with Vance and Parker? There is quite a bit of tension between them. They played it casually, but the undercurrent was pronounced.

What did you think about “The Sound and the Fury”? Was it a nice distraction from the heavier stuff or are you ready to get back to the big mystery?

Share your thoughts below and don’t forget to revisit how Gibbs and Ducky met on NCIS: Origins tonight or to check in on our NCIS: Sydney coverage!

Thanks for putting up with my own version of nose brain. My brains might not be coming out of my nose, but the brain fog from illness is sucking the life out of me nonetheless!