NCIS: Has Jessica Lost Jimmy to His Flirty New Neighbor?
This week on NCIS, the plan to draw out an elusive thief introduced us to a woman with the potential to steal… Jimmy Palmer’s heart.
The Case of the Week is set in motion by Jimmy’s daughter Victoria (played by Brian Dietzen’s real-life kid, Elle Graper) revealing to Special Agent Nick —and not her dad, who is “just an M.E.” — that she had found a cache of cash when out one night, though she lied about where, at first, because she had quietly bailed on participating in the school science fair this year, much to her father’s dismay.
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When it is gleaned that the cash represents a fraction of the ill-gotten gains of a legendary thief dubbed the Saratoga Specter, the team seeks out an HVAC guy whose fingerprints were found on the bills. HVAC guy is found asphyxiated, deepening the mystery — especially when it’s realized that he spent a lot of time servicing Jimmy’s townhome development.
All signs point to the Saratoga Specter living in the development, so Jimmy offers to host a sangria night get-together at the development, going “undercover” to round up DNA samples off plastic cups. There, Jimmy meets Wendy, a new neighbor played by Erinn Hayes from the King of Queens revival Kevin Can Wait. Jimmy doesn’t pick up on it at first (busy as he is collecting cups), but he and Wendy hit it off, both being runners and all. (Jessica, meanwhile, absolutely does notice, and can barely conceal her thoughts on the matter whilst in the surveillance van with Victoria.)
Kasie’s rapid DNA tests on the six suspects’ cups reveal no matches, though someone else who was at the party is a partial match. Armed with new intel from McGee, Jess throws Wendy into the suspect pool, seeing as she claimed to have moved in just “two weeks” ago yet her house was purchased 15 years ago — right after the Saratoga Springs robbery — and in cash.
Thankfully, while it looked for a minute that Jimmy’s new crush was a thief and killer, Wendy when confronted explained that her father was the Saratoga Specter, and he’d recently died. HVAC guy had found the Specter’s $5 million stash in the home’s air ducts, and was taking a taste every now and again, to see if the missing monies got noticed. It was actually Rhonda, the rent-a-cop who patrols Jimmy’s development that got wind of HVAC guy’s scheme, and she offed him presumably to claim the windfall for herself.
In the aftermath, Jimmy tells McGee and Torres that he’d be game to pursue things with Wendy, once the federal charges against her are cleared, though he senses she “cooled off” when Jess led her away in handcuffs. Jimmy then goes to thank Jess for all of her help during this case — especially dealing with Victoria — and she stops him to say, “That’s just what family does.”
What did you think of the episode “Close to Home”?
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