1.04: "The Immortals"

by Sammie

Another teenage party...on some kid's boat. That's not ALL we do, y'know. One guy goes diving over the edge to show off and comes face to face with a dead guy.

Chap went overboard dressed in his dress white uniform, carried a long ceremonial officer's sword, and had weights on chains around his waist.

GIBBS. The body was found here, in the Bahamas.
TONY. Roosevelt Roads....
GIBBS. Yeah.
TONY. That's Puerto Rico.
GIBBS. Yeah.
TONY. Love Puerto Rico.
GIBBS. I'm glad.
TONY. No, boss, you don't understand, I LOVE Puerto Rico.
KATE. You been there a lot?
TONY. No! That's just it, I've never been there. I mean, I'm so wanting to go. Ever since I was a kid, I'm so wanting...to...sorry, I just, always...
GIBBS. Wanted to be there.
TONY. Yeah.

Turns out he got too involved in an online role-playing game and actually took it to the next level and did REAL sword fighting with a fellow sailor on board. To win, the second guy dared him to walk across the bottom on the ocean (hence, the weights) with his sword to prove he was immortal. So he did THEN, because he was sure the entire crew of his boat was helping his opponent, he tried to blow up his own skipper.

And people think I'm insane.

Ducky isn't getting it, and Abby has to explain it again. His response at the end: "...sometimes the dead make more sense to me than the living."

Tony gets to go to Puerto Rico to check on who was selling the swords...lucky him. Poor Kate and Gibbs are stuck on that boat as Tony gets a little tropical punch drink, and sun, and music.... Meanwhile, Gibbs and Kate argue over whether or not she is being unduly influenced by her Catholicism. (Turns out she's right, anyway.)

Tony returns and bugs Kate and Gibbs for the rest of the epi about the presents he got for them at Puerto Rico. (Aw. That's kind of nice.) Neither Gibbs nor Kate really care, but Tony's acting like a kid at Christmas. Plus, by the end of the episode, there's not much you can do to hold him off any longer.

TONY. Aren't you intersted at all in what I brought you back from Puerto Rico?
KATE AND GIBBS. [UNISON] Sure. Fine.
TONY. [HANDS KATE A WHITE GIFT BAG]
KATE. [LOOKS INSIDE] You've gotta be kidding.
TONY. It's a bikini. Two piece.
KATE. A bottom. And a hat?
TONY. Puerto Rican!
GIBBS. Any chance you're gonna try that on?
KATE. [THROWS IT AT HIM] You first.
GIBBS. Trust me. Not gonna fit.
KATE. Pigs. I work with pigs.
TONY. It's a fantasy RPG book. Complete with character books and dice...baby steps, Gibbs. Baby steps.
GIBBS. It's in Spanish.
TONY. There's just no pleasing you, is there?

______________________________________________________________

Crazy Credits

• In November 2001, a man killed himself supposedly after a betrayal by an online friend in the MMORPG "EverQuest", which he spent over half the day playing. Read the CNN and CBS articles.

• Look carefully at the list of players' websites in the MMORPG. One of them is "Count Belisarius." "NCIS" is, of course, a Belisarius production (it's Bellisario's production company). (Thank you, Meg!)

• from Kip:
  • Two of the first four scripts take place in a major part aboard ships. One a frigate, the other a carrier. Why? Not only does DPB like the big toys but we have all those JAG sets to use.

    Unless Unless the episodes were filmed out of order of the scripts, it's the first five scripts which have the ships. "The Immortals" takes place on a destroyer and the next episode, "The Curse", has scenes on an aircraft carrier.

  • Chad W. Murray, the post production coordinator, played Seaman MacDonald. [Chad and Sean Murray] are brothers. C.W. Murray also has a diving license.Chad Murray and Sean Murray are Don Bellisario's stepsons.

    Everyone did a damn fine job. Chad Murray (DPB's step-son) had no idea when he volunteered that he would also have to shave his body and appear in morgue scenes wearing a dead-flesh colored bikini. However, he then got his photo in TV Guide plus the extended time it took to film[;] everything earned him more money than he ever dreamed possible.

  • The above the water portion of the teaser was shot at Catalina along with Tony's phone call to Gibbs from the beach in Puerto Rico. This was all filmed with a reduced 2nd unit size crew.

    The below the water portion of the teaser was filmed in Key Largo, Florida. The two actors involved (the deceased sailor was played by DPB's step-son a certified diver) and a story board of the scene was sent to a Florida film company that specializes in underwater photography. They shot it for the same cost (including our two roundtrip airfares and per diem) as filming it off Catalina, which looks nothing like the Bahamas.

  • Concerning the crime summary scene by Ducky and Abby near the end: It's because stupid people (that would be me) wrote about how fast paced the show was last week and how they (me) had a hard time following the plot.

    So THIS week TPTB decided to include that little scene, just for me, in case I didn't follow THIS weeks plot. BTW, I had no problem following The Immortals but thanks anyway DPB ;)

    There were three scenes added to bring the show up to time. A recap at the beginning of act three for those viewers who tuned in at the half-hour and two Ducky, Abby scenes. One where he brought her a 'Caf-Pow' and the recap at the end. This made up a 3 1/2 minute deficiet.

    The re-cap was because so many of our staff looking at the rough cut had a hard time following exactly what happened. There have been serveral e-mails to the network and here commenting on how they liked it and wished we'd do it every week. We won't. Unless we're 3 1/2 minutes short, again.