Lance Corporal James Corby, known for his practical jokes, is found dead in his car the night before Halloween. His death is staged to look like carbon monoxide poisoning, but closer inspection reveals he ingested a lethal amount of liquid nitrogen in addition to traces of paint thinner. NCIS must determine who among several suspects, including half his Marine unit, killed Corby.
This struck me as the most ordinary episode of Season 7 so far. That’s not a bad thing; not every episode can have the same stakes over the course of a season. However, this was also the latest of several Halloween-themed episodes in NCIS‘s history. I’m not much a fan of Halloween, especially because of the practical jokes. There may have been more humor here that I missed, but this was not the best Halloween episode of NCIS, either, in my opinion.
I did like that Corby’s death wasn’t as it first appeared, but almost immediately I could eliminate “half of Corby’s unit” as suspects. The culprit is always someone viewers get to know more personally. DiNozzo suspected Corby’s wife right away. She was attractive and had a history of marrying men in uniform, all of whom left her with rich insurance payouts. I have to admit she seemed the most likely suspect to me, so I still felt that final surprise at the real culprit.
Viewers not fooled by Mrs. Corby probably suspected the Corbys’ stepdaughter much earlier. The writers might have delayed this by delaying the revelation that she was a stepdaughter. Perhaps have Gibbs and the team discover that or get it out of her in interrogation instead of having her admit it when viewers first meet her. The daughter trying to bump off her parents and claim her inheritance is an old premise that needs all the disguise it can get.
As I’ve said before, if there are enough character moments in an episode, I care less about plot. On one hand, I’m glad this episode didn’t focus too much on Ziva, but on the other, I would have liked to see more of her adjusting to being a probie. That may come as the season goes on.
