NCIS Enters a “Devil’s Triangle” – REVIEW

In “Devil’s Triangle”, Diane Sterling (Melinda McGraw) calls her ex-husbands, Gibbs and Fornell, when her current husband, Victor Sterling of Homeland Security, goes missing. Checking out the Beltway Burger where Victor last called Diane, NCIS finds two employees shot dead with Victor’s gun. One of the employees is a Naval reservist, allowing Gibbs and the team to investigate officially.

I’m an NCIS fan who’s less interested in meeting Gibbs’s ex-wives, but since they are a signature part of his backstory, it’s worth putting Diane in context. Before Diane, we had met Gibbs’s third ex, Stephanie Flynn (Kathleen York) in the Season 5 episode “The Ex-File”. While that relationship was cordial, Diane has traditionally been referenced as the most caustic of Gibbs’s exes. She mentioned trying to be a human antidepressant to help him get over the death of his first wife, Shannon, so Diane was probably his first ex-wife.

I thought NCIS might be repeating itself, but the joint FBI/NCIS investigation into Victor’s disappearance connected to his coerced role in the theft of data that was then used to create a synthetic airborne virus. This is the kind of far-reaching plot that sometimes gets short shrift, thanks to the single-episode time limit. This time, though, the masterminds behind the plot weren’t found, and another Homeland Security agent turned out to be a conspirator.

The plot most likely ties into the Phantom Eight, introduced in this season’s premiere. I don’t like that the Phantom Eight threat was invented in the first place, but since it’s out there, I’ll try to play along. I do like that the Phantom Eight arc seems to be getting the proper time to unfold, and that Gibbs and Fornell might never have gotten wind of it if they’d simply chosen to ignore Diane’s calls.

A parting comment on Diane: I didn’t feel any chemistry between her and Gibbs or her and Fornell whereas I did see why Gibbs was attracted to Stephanie. Then again, I suppose that’s one reason they get divorced.