NCIS: “Sins of the Father”

 Grade: A-

Airdate: 11/29/11

Anytime the suspect is or is related to a member of the NCIS team it’s going to be a good episode. This time around it was Anthony DiNizzo Sr., played by Robert Wagner.

The episode started with two cops finding Senior, obviously hung-over, in a Rolls Royce that has a body in the trunk. Meanwhile, at NCIS Tony (Michael Weatherly) is complaining that his dad was supposed to meet him for dinner but never called to say what restaurant. Gibbs (Mark Harmon) comes in and tells the team they have a body. It isn’t until they get to the crime scene that they find out the suspect is Tony’s dad. Gibbs instantly forces Tony to sit the case out.

Gibbs is questioning Senior back at NCIS and finds out that he didn’t know about the body and can’t remember anything from the night before. Abby (Pauley Perrette) tells Gibbs that his blood alcohol level would have been .15 during the murder. Senior and Tony both say that he can usually hold his alcohol. The victim is Dean Massey, who is a former Air Force pilot and wealthy land developer that Senior was about to close a deal with, but it went south.

Gibbs and Ziva (Cote de Pablo) go to Massey’s company and find a recording of the meeting, on which Senior says he is going to kill Massey. For the next few scenes Abby, Ziva and McGee (Sean Murray) keep finding more evidence against Tony’s dad. Tony tries to get information out of all of them. McGee is the only one who gives in and tells Tony they are doing the best they can to try every angle but they are “one very special agent short.”

Gibbs does a few things throughout the episode to take care of Senior, including keeping him out of jail by getting him a house arrest bracelet and having him stay at his house. Senior thanks him for it, but Gibbs said he didn’t do it for him. Every episode Senior is in usually plays up the fact that Gibbs has been a better father to Tony than his father ever was. Senior started to caught on in this episode.

Close to the end of the episode, it seems like all the facts are pointing to Senior and the framed theory is dead. But, with some last-minute evidence finding by Abby we find out that he was framed and drugged. Gibbs and the team go and arrest the victim’s lawyer and secretary girlfriend.

The episode ends on a heartfelt father-son moment between Senior and Tony, set up by Gibbs. Overall all it was a good episode. There was a lot of solo Ziva scene, which was fun because she doesn’t usually get very many. NCIS is always good at doing family episodes. A-.