Touchstones

I really wanted to like this show and have watched them all - first sign of trouble for me was the overbearing family tragedy loop that became the center piece of too many episodes in the beginning turning NCIS origins into a melodramatic morass instead of an action crime fighting series - it is time for the backgroud monolog from Gibbs to end - last week it was about a shoe and this week it was a mouse metaphor story that made little to no sense to me as it related to the investigation of the office burglary - I am glad this show is hitting so many hot buttons but it is coming close to me hitting the off button.

This episode delves into the origin of an older character on Franks' team: Kowalski (nicely played by Michael Harney). His domain, the evidence room, has been ransacked overnight, with $41,000 in confiscated cash from a drug bust stolen. While the team investigates the theft, upshot is that traumatized Kowalski resigns, and we find out what really makes this ex-Army chaplain (who lost his faith) and POW during the Korean War tick.

I enjoyed the series expanding beyond its obvious prime directive of tracing and explaining the histories of NCIS key characters Gibbs and Franks to let us inside the skin of the other characters introduced here as their earlier teammates. Besides Harney, Daniel Bellomy as his protege gives a solid performance, and there are several well-designed plot twists resolving the theft case neatly and a simple but moving moral to Kowalski's story.