Well...that was confusing to say the least. I'll try to review the episode based on what I understood, but I don't think it's my fault. I understood the Lost finale without too much thinking and I understood most of The Wire. This is NCIS. It's not supposed to be confusing, and it wasn't even confusing in a smart, complex way.
Most of the dialogue was couched in "mystery," what Shane Brennan probably thinks is subtle and clever, but totally ambiguous and nonsensical to the viewers. With quick cuts from scene to scene after a piece of dialogue that is seemingly important but utterly confusing, I barely got what was going on. Even though the dialogue was hopeless, the episode could have been much better if the editing wasn't so damn confusing.
Here's the timeline of events from my limited understanding. Gibbs is in the clutches of the cartel and the woman in charge threatens his loved ones about something or another surrounding the shooting. (I have no clue what was going on with the package, so I won't even touch that.) The federales bust in save Gibbs, but Rivera is the cartel woman's brother. Huh? The most important thing from this (again, from what I understood) is that the report on Pedro Hernandez never arrived.
Moving on, Ziva and Tony are in Mexico to pick Gibbs and he's waiting at the airport. Ducky finds out that the bullet which killed Bell came from Gibbs's gun, leading them to Bell lieutenant, Dean. (How Dean got the gun flew over my head. Something about prying the gun out of cold, dead hands? Wasn't Bell dead before Gibbs got there?) Dean gets caught at the airport and that's pretty much the climax, a boring shootout on the tarmac barely halfway through the episode.
Ziva becomes a citizen and Tony heads down to Mexico to find Mike Franks, who is doing something I have no clue about. M. (Margaret as we learn) Allison Hart shows up at Gibbs's house with the Hernandez file, presumably taken in transit. She confronts Gibbs about it, leading to Gibbs admitting he has his own code, not based on law.
Mixed in with the confusing plot was a parallel between Gibbs and Vance to Rick and Renault in Casablanca. Vance gives his tacit approval in the end after wanting more information, following the realization that this Mexico stuff isn't his business.
What a way to end the season. I liked last season's finale far more because it was understandable and real tension. I couldn't enjoy this episode because I was constantly trying to put all the pieces in place.
Score: 7.4/10
