I know so many people argued with me that Kasie wasn’t overshadowed during the previous episode of NCIS, but it doesn’t change how I felt.
I’m a huge fan of Kasie, and I love seeing her show off her skills, so with the second episode of this two-parter delving deeper into them, I was excited.
Then NCIS Season 23 Episode 18 aired, and yes, we got to see what she’s good at, but I still felt like her story was overshadowed.
Had this been some sort of backdoor pilot for NCIS: New York, then maybe I could have accepted it.
It wasn’t, though, and I didn’t feel the need for LL Cool J to be part of the episode.
Sure, I like seeing Sam Hanna, but I need special guest stars to be there for a reason, not just as fan service. And this felt like the latter.
Parker Should Have Shut Up About the Money
After finding out that Edna is Kasie’s software that she started developing in college, she takes Parker and McGee to the private business that wants to buy it.
This is revolutionary technology that creates a fingerprint-based profile. It wouldn’t matter whether the fingerprint is in the system or not; the agencies can work out who the suspect could be.
Sure enough, businesses are more than willing to pay a fortune for that, but this is where the conversations should have stopped.
Everyone was out of line discussing the money.
The CEO shouldn’t even have brought it up to Parker and McGee, and those two definitely shouldn’t have said anything to anyone else in the office.
While I’m a big supporter of colleagues discussing their salaries to make sure nobody is left behind or a business isn’t taking advantage of them, I don’t believe in gossiping about private sales and business.
The latter is what happened during NCIS Season 23 Episode 18, and both Parker and McGee should have known better.
I liked Palmer worrying about Kasie leaving and about things changing between them, but that conversation highlighted why nothing should have been said.
Everyone looked at Kasie differently after that, and it completely derailed the investigation for a while.
A Side Note on Torres’ Lack of Growth
Torres going on and on about the dinner he took Kasie out to and how she should have paid for it grated on me.
He just wouldn’t shut up for a while, and I even had to question whether he is friends with Kasie.
Torres hasn’t had that much growth, and it’s time we saw it.
I don’t even know why this part annoyed me so much. Usually, Torres offers some comic relief.
It just fell flat this time, and actually made me dislike Torres for a while.
Honestly, it’s why nobody should have been told anything about the windfall Kasie could have come into.
That was nobody’s business but hers, and Torres proves why.
What Was the Point in Sam Being There?
During my review of NCIS Season 23 Episode 17, I questioned why Sam was even there.
He didn’t add much to that episode, but I kept an open mind for the next installment. After all, maybe it was a way to build up NCIS: New York.
Sadly, that wasn’t the case.
It seemed Sam was there to drive Kasie to Upstate New York and waste time using a breadstick as a talking stick, and then got the opportunity to take down the bad guy, which anyone on the team could have done.
Cameos like this are supposed to further the story, such as offering an insight that absolutely no one else could have provided.
If not that, then a cameo should have a reason connected to the universe as a whole.
When Sam appeared in NCIS Season 22, he offered a much-needed Hetty update while also advancing his personal development, which arguably helped set up the New York-based spinoff.
This time, it felt more like it was for the fans rather than the story, and I still feel like it took time away from other characters.
His appearance still overshadowed Kasie’s story, and she had some huge moments throughout the hour.
This was her chance to showcase her coding skills, creating a piece of software that people could only ever dream of.
Then we got some backstory for her, focusing on a past relationship we never knew existed.
There was a sense of hope by the end of the installment that Kasie and her ex could maybe work through things.
Honestly is important, even in a breakup, and Kasie proved that.
Being open about feeling unworthy of someone else’s support and love opened the door more to Kasie’s heavy focus on work and outside projects.
In a way, it opened the door to why we don’t see her outside of work all that much.
She doesn’t have strong connections outside the workplace, and that’s because she’s so hard on herself, her skills, and her worth.
I would love to see that change, especially now that she’s admitted it to herself as well as to other people.
Kasie Has Other Lessons to Learn
While she learned to be honest about the breakup, Kasie also learned that good intentions don’t always work out.
The case itself was pretty obvious. I thought that the guy hounding Kasie to make sure the upgrade went smoothly was the one behind the hack.
That’s usually the case, but I couldn’t put all the pieces together at the time. I didn’t know what Edna was or why it was so important.
As we saw Kasie framed for murder through the creation of her fingerprint, it all started to make sense.
Now, the use of Kasie’s fingerprint wouldn’t have needed Edna. Her fingerprints would be in the DOJ database, and it would have been easy enough for someone with the know-how to plant one.
However, it had to be connected to Edna so Kasie could see that technology can be misused.
This isn’t the first time NCIS has brought up this idea.
It was only recently, during NCIS Season 23 Episode 14, that we also got that lesson.
The right technology in the wrong hands becomes dangerous.
Sometimes, it becomes a killing machine, and other times, it’s used to track people.
Then there are times that it can be reverse-engineered in some ways to frame people.
Do I think that Kasie should have deleted everything about Edna after learning this?
Not at all! It still has its place and its need, and catching the right bad guy proved that.
Too often, great technological ideas are pushed to the side or scrapped because of the potential harm they could cause.
But anything in the wrong hands is dangerous. That doesn’t mean everything is destroyed.
It just means checks and balances are put in place.
Safety measures would need to be put in place, and that could have been something Kasie and McGee could work on together.
One thing NCIS Season 23 Episode 18 proved is that Kasie needs more time focused on her, on who she is outside of work, not just for us.
It’s needed for her own character development.