NCIS recap: Vance has a Berlin romance
If we learned one thing from this week's NCIS episode, it's to never, ever break into Leon Vance's house.
After a short misdirect with a sheet-covered body on Vance's (Rocky Carroll) living room floor, the team learns that the NCIS director felled one of three home invaders with his bare fists. Once a former boxing champ, always a former boxing champ—and let's just say that the human face is not a good substitute for a punching bag. Yikes.
Sonja Flemming/CBS Rocky Carroll on 'NCIS'
Even though it's 3 in the morning, the pajama-clad team heads to the big orange room to figure out what's up. And wouldja look at that: Knight (Katrina Law) is wearing a baggy T-shirt from the 2013 medical examiner's convention. We can all do the math there! Good for Jess and Jimmy (Brian Dietzen).
While the team quickly rules out the break-in as a standard-issue robbery, Vance insists on keeping his plans to attend the Interpol conference in Berlin. Since Parker (Gary Cole) can't change his boss' mind, he insists on going along as Vance's personal security.
In Berlin, Parker tries to keep it all business, but Lena Paulson (Marem Hassler), an extremely attractive German federal agent, makes "I've missed you sooooo much" eyes at Vance.
When Parker busts him trying to sneak out with a bottle of wine after check-in, Vance confesses that he and Lena look forward to reconnecting at this conference every year, if you know what I mean.... and if you watched Vance remove his tie and practice his smolder eyes in the mirror, you'll know exactly what I mean.
Parker accompanies an annoyed Vance to Lena's room, where they find her on the floor, bloody and unconscious.
Yep, the men who attacked Vance have hopped a flight to Berlin. Parker wants to get Vance back to the U.S. pronto, but he refuses to leave until he figures out what happened. Although Lena's in a medically induced coma at the hospital, before she went under, she was repeating the German word for "fortress."
Vance recognizes this as the name of the op where they met six years ago. It ended in the death of Chechen terrorist Goran Umarov, so now the team's wondering if this is a revenge mission.
Frauke Biedermann (Elyse Lavesque), an agent with German intelligence agency BND, is leading the investigation, but Vance and Parker don't offer up any pertinent details. Instead, Parker uses a trick from his childhood and lifts the crime scene tape from Lena's hotel room door with nail polish remover. Could somebody please try this at home and let me know if it really works on sticky papers?
Once they're inside, they find a meticulously processed scene, but Vance notices that Lena's blood trail leads not toward the room phone but the credenza. Inside, they find a Bible with a string of verses written in Lena's handwriting. Since Lena's a Buddhist, this is clearly a clue of some sort. (Did she write this before or after she was shot? If before, why? If after, where's the blood on the page?)
The team back in D.C. jump in under the guidance of McGee (Sean Murray), serving as acting director of NCIS until Vance gets back. Although McGee at first dreads being stuck playing politics behind a desk, he quickly finds his groove wheeling and dealing for extra funding with U.S. senators. It's a fast pivot for an agent who was lamenting his impatience with small talk not three episodes ago.
Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) and Knight are amused at how well McGee took to the desk job when they arrive to report on their investigative efforts. They tracked down a retired NCIS agent who worked on the Fortress op with Vance and is now retired and serving as the law enforcement consultant on a movie set in the area.
He remembers the op and offers up some more details: the raid also killed Umarov's girlfriend and three henchmen, and the team discovered $3 million in diamonds on the scene that never made it into evidence. And who do you think was the person to sign off on those evidence logs?
Yep, it's Lena. Worse, the team learns that days after the raid, she took a trip to Antwerp, Belgium—the diamond capital of the world. So, uh, who's telling Vance that his girlfriend might be a thief?
It'll be hard news for Vance to hear. At Lena's bedside, he tells Parker how much he didn't want to become one of those old NCIS agents, alone with their drinking problems. He was hoping that Lena might be the person who'd save him from that life. Parker understands that loneliness. "It sucks going to the movies alone," he says. It's a nice shared moment for these two men who've been in this business for ages and have had their share of losses.
Then BND Agent Biedermann turns back up to again urge Parker to work with her. She says Lena was her mentor and she's committed to solving her case. At this point, she's either the most earnest of do-gooders or the absolute villain of the week.
Kasie (Diona Reasonover), meanwhile, broke Lena's code: the Bible verse numbers point to a Berlin bank account in the name of Elizabeth Wenders. When Vance and Parker locate Elizabeth, they learn she's Lena's sister, and she's protecting Lena's child, Heidi (Charley Rowan McCain).
Lena did take the diamonds. But she also took the neglected months-old child who was left behind after the Umarov shootout. Rather than turn the baby over to Umarov's criminal family, Lena raised the girl as her own, even putting the Umarov family diamonds into a trust fund as Heidi's rightful inheritance.
"Your sister broke the law," Vance tells Elizabeth. And maybe worse, "She lied to me." Well gee, no matter what happens here, it seems unlikely that Lena will be Vance's happily ever after. This poor man! Remember when he got played by that physical therapy patient in season 16? And then, you know, there's his wife (may she rest in peace). The man has terrible luck, is what I'm saying.
Anyway, with this new knowledge, it makes sense that one of the men after Vance and Lena is Sergei Umarov, the terrorist's older brother, Goran, a mafia boss who broke out of prison two months ago.
McGee uses his newfound clout to get BND to offer up a safehouse. But Kasie and the team used Sergei's credit card to trace his rental car to the safehouse location, which turns out to be an abandoned warehouse. (It's always an abandoned warehouse!)
When Biedermann steps out to greet Parker and ask about Heidi, it's game over since Parker never told her about Heidi. I'm tellin' ya, that trope never gets old!
Right at this time, NCIS starts blowing up Parker and Vance's phones to warn them about Sergie, which confirms Parker's suspicions. He draws his gun, shooting dirty cop Biedermann before she can shoot him. Then a group of armed men come pouring out of the warehouse.
While Vance tries to get Heidi and Elizabeth to safety, Parker holds off the pack of bad guys, at one point dropping to shoot a man's feet from under a car, then sniping the guy in the head when he falls to the ground. Impressive and a little scary!
In the end, Heidi's talking stuffed bear misdirects Sergei so Vance can conk him on the head with some rebar, and the good guys live to fight another day.
At the hospital, Lena wakes to find Vance at her bedside. He tells her he understands about Heidi and says they'll talk later, although he doesn't make any promises about when. He then ushers Heidi and Elizabeth into the room.
Vance and Parker agree that they're willing to give Lena's wrongdoing a pass since it was for the right reasons (which isn't really how the law works but, okay). And before they leave Berlin, they make plans to catch a movie together.
Stray shots
More Parker trivia: he plays the piano like a fiend and keeps a go-bag in his car.
Of course Kasie recognizes the creepy motel owner who IDs Sergie from his appearance on Dateline! I love that she's a primetime news magazine fan.
So McGee enjoys the director's role after all, with its schmoozing and its big-picture outlook. When Vance is ready to retire, would you like to see Tim step up?
Speaking of Vance, I kind of want him to get his happy ending with Lena and Heidi—despite the disappearing diamonds and the hiding of a child from the authorities. The man deserves some joy, don't you think?
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