Last week, I talked about how NCIS stays away from tackling real world issues head on. An issue, such as funneling money to Afghan warlords, may be central to the plot, but in considering the morality of the foreign policy, there is no stance taken.
"Dead Air" does the same, creating a militia group so bizarre it's hardly relevant. About a month ago, Time had an interesting article about rising militias in the United States, so I thought it was cool that NCIS was being relevant, something The Good Wife does to great effect almost every week. However, the militia has a ideology that makes fringe groups look wacky: they want the military to withdraw from foreign countries to protect America and its citizens. In other words, they want to turn the United States into a police state. Right.. And to top that off, they're using Ben Franklin's Join, or Die cartoon which was about uniting the colonies, and in later years was also about opposing the British.
But enough of that--NCIS shouldn't be taken as having a political message.
"Dead Air" does a fantastic job paralleling the terrorist's daughter with Ziva. At each point, we see Ziva skirting with her Mossad past and considering her father. As the final scene at the baseball field shows, Eli wasn't all bad and it looks like there'll be an amicable conclusion in the future.
Score: 9.0/10
