I became a life-long Jessica Walter fan way back in 1971, after seeing her in Eastwood's "Play Misty for Me", my favorite performance that year. (She was infinitely better in the role than Glenn Close's riff on it so many years after in "Fatal Attraction" with the wrong lady getting an Oscar nomination.)
It was a special treat to see her return as Judith McKnight, member of the Sherlocks in this cute "NCIS" episode, from the same director (Mark Horowitz, a producer on the show) and writer (Brendan Fehily) of "16 Years" in 2015, also featuring Richard Riehle as the cute sheriff Walt Osorio. And Walter's delivery of delightfully rude double entendres, in her sexy sparring with Robert Wagner, was memorable -making every moment of her small role count, and reminding me how much Standards & Practices at the Networks have changed over the decades in permitting such ribaldry in a non-Cable show.
I'm filing this IMDb mini-review as something of a response to the "Official" review already posted for this episode by a fan who has fallen prey to the curse of inveterate TV addicts, dissecting a show from a strictly "Principal Cast" point-of-view. In my own history of watching way too much television, having my mind warped at an impressionable age, I learned to watch for and treasure the guest stars, rather than becoming fixated on what minuscule differences occurred in the characters of say a Marshal Dillon or Miss Kitty from week to week.
So before "Play Misty", I greatly enjoyed Jessica's guest shots on all manner of shows (ranging from Wagner's "It Takes a Thief" and serious stuff like "The Defenders" and "East Side/West Side" to those popcorn shows I loved like "The Immortal" and "Then Came Bronson"), and in the '60s and '70s doted on the frequent guest ladies like Stefanie Powers, Mariette Hartley and Pamela Franklin who usually outshone the highly paid and highly publicized STARS on the sets they visited. You will note in the "Official" review that not only Jessica Walter is omitted but ONLY the Harmon & co. permanent line-up is addressed (treated like a soap opera with only their characters' names mentioned), as if they were the only players on screen.
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