Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS: Sydney episode “Again within the USSR” are forward!
The most recent NCIS: Sydney episode to air on the 2025 TV schedule was a deal with for many who appreciated Chilly Conflict period vibes. It began with the invention of a physique that had been buried in concrete for the reason that mid-‘80s and led to the invention of a spy who’d been working for the KGB. Nonetheless, the actual scene stealer in “Again within the USSR,” which might be seen now with a Paramount+ subscription, was the yellow vest donned by Todd Lasance’s JD, as he saved getting roasted for his flashy wardrobe selection. However the vest was meant to “show the authenticity of Australia” in relation to displaying appreciation for individuals you care about, as Sydney showrunner Morgan O’Neill informed me personally.
My dialog with O’Neill on behalf of CinemaBlend touched on numerous key factors from the opening NCIS: Sydney Season 2 episodes, together with the most important reveal about Mackey’s previous shared within the premiere, once we’ll meet this season’s large unhealthy, and the way DeShawn and Evie’s dynamic is just like Tony and Ziva’s from the sooner NCIS days. However I additionally jokingly requested the showrunner what I thought-about essentially the most “vital” query of the interview: will we see the yellow vest once more? O’Neill laughed at this and began off with the next:
From a narrative perspective, what’s so cool about that’s it actually does go to the guts of, ‘What it’s to be working in an workplace?’ I used to be telling somebody the opposite day, I stated the present… it is a police procedural, however the different two parts that maintain the present up are that it is a household drama and it is a office comedy. And the place we go together with JD and that jacket satisfies the household drama and office comedy completely, as a result of that is what you do.
The yellow vest got here into play initially of “Again within the USSR” when a package deal got here containing it and new NCIS jackets for Mackey, DeShawn and Evie. JD opted for the vest over the jacket due to how “purposeful, breathable and light-weight” it was. Even higher, it got here with some further options, together with a headphone holder, tactical d-rings, a retractable hood and a whistle. The draw back of conserving the vest on for everything of this NCIS: Sydney was the teasing JD endured, like how Evie and Rosie respectively known as him SpongeBob and Cornpuff. However this was only a technique to spotlight the light ribbing that occurs between coworkers who’re shut, with Morgan O’Neill persevering with:
It is like when your sister or your dad or your grandma or your mother or your son is available in carrying a factor. You are like, ‘What the hell is that? When did you suppose that was a good suggestion? Who did you seek the advice of earlier than you set that on?’ And whenever you put on it to work, it simply will get amplified once more. So we felt prefer it was a extremely elegant technique to remind everybody that on the core of our present are six people who we need to hang around with, six people who we’re gently, and even maybe not gently, falling in love with, and what it’s to be a human in that world. What Australians do so much, our love language is to take the piss.
See? All of the grief that JD acquired for that yellow vest was simply reflective of how individuals in Australia present affection for his or her buddies, households and colleagues. Actually, O’Neill then recalled how he met somebody from america who didn’t really feel at dwelling in Australia till these round her began receiving this distinctive type of “love language.” Within the showrunner’s phrases:
Funnily sufficient, I used to be talking to a really excessive rating American who labored for the State Division who’d been out right here for a very long time. And I stated, ‘Did you ever really feel such as you belonged right here?’ And he or she stated, ‘Solely once they began to take the piss I knew I used to be welcome.’ So that’s our love language. So when when JD wears this factor in and everybody piles on, it is truly them saying, ‘Man, I like you. I actually do, I actually look after you, and that is how we do it.’ I felt like that was it was a key technique to show the authenticity of of Australia, and likewise maybe the slight distinction in, in our cultures. However yeah, for me, it was one of many extra enjoyable moments of Season 2.
I ought to be aware that not everybody in “Again within the USSR” gave JD a tough time about his vest. DeShawn was fairly smitten by it proper from the get go, Overseas Minister Quinn expressed her approval of it after checking in on the workforce’s case (she has the identical vest in lilac), and the vest was the one piece of clothes that was immediately returned to JD and Mackey after they had been uncovered to a lethal nerve agent (not fear, they rapidly obtained the antidote). Evidently it’s extraordinarily contaminant resistant, and the hazmat man even said that every one cops must be carrying these sorts of vests.
We’re solely three episodes into NCIS: Sydney Season 2 (and Season 3 can also be on the way in which), so there’s much more to look ahead to within the coming weeks because the present airs Fridays at 8 pm ET on CBS. Me, I’ll be over right here crossing my fingers that JD’s yellow vest will return, because it deserves extra time to shine onscreen.