Moment of Goodness: McGee Gets Himself a Probie, NCIS “Need to Know” 

Until Ziva became a U.S. citizen and gained official special agent status, Timothy McGee had been the low rung on the NCIS team totem pole, so to speak. And Very Special Agent Anthony Dinozzo never let him forget it. For years, Dinozzo’s not only given McGee every McNickname under the sun but he’s constantly referred to him as “probie.”

After Tim got a bit more seasoned, you could tell he started to hate the moniker. We even learned as much in Season 4’s “Singled Out.” While Tony was on the phone, he tried to get McGee’s attention by calling him “probie.” Well, Tim didn’t respond too well and pretty much ignored him. He thought he was beyond being called probie since he’d been Tony’s Senior Special Agent while Gibbs was on “hiatus.” Gibbs had to remind Tim that even though he’d been an NCIS agent for 16 years, his first partner (aka Mike Franks) still called him probie. But it doesn’t matter how far Tim has come, he’ll always be Tony’s probie. It’s a term of endearment as far as I’m concerned.

Having said all that, how satisfying was it to see that in “Need to Know,” McGee got to call someone else the name he’s been plagued with for years? Dorneget is a probationary agent currently working in the evidence room. However, he has designs on bigger and better things. He thinks his ticket is getting on Gibbs’ good side. That way, he’ll let him go out in the field. Well, he finally gets his chance. Gibbs is really trying to stick it to Dinozzo who has been going on and on about Bayar’s supermodel girlfriend. The team needs to pick her up at the airport but instead of letting Tony go (he’s practically drooling at the thought of it), Gibbs decides to send McGee with Dorneget instead.

In the car on the way to the airport, Tim tries to get the newbie acclimated to working in the field and working for Gibbs:

Tim: “Now you know, probie, this is a test. That’s right. Gibbs is giving you little baby steps. Now if you make a mistake, you don’t get a second chance. Most importantly, you follow Gibbs’ rules.”
Dorneget: “Gibbs has rules?”
Tim: “Yep.”
Dorneget: “How many?”
Tim: “Well, no one’s really sure. There’s a lot of ’em.”
Dorneget: “What are they?”
Tim: “Well, let’s start with rule number one: ‘Never screw over your partner.”
Dorneget: “Hmm…mmm.”
Tim: “You should be taking notes.”

I have so much love for this scene. Tim getting to call someone probie and treat someone like a probie is awesome. There have been other agents in that position before (namely, the late Michelle Lee), but this time around is so much better. Dorneget is awesome to watch as he learns the lay of the land as a field agent. He seems extra probielicious considering he forgot to take his gun with him and it was easy for the beautiful Russian supermodel/suspect to get the best of him. Poor Dorneget. McGee and his brand new sidekick get lucky when Gibbs calls and says they need to let Baransky go. There’s no need to tell him that instead of letting her go she got away, right? McGee knows that Gibbs can sense everything. There’s no use lying.

Other Favorite Scenes/Thoughts

• I like that we learned a little bit about Dorneget including the fact he’s gay. He plays it down at work but it was cool that he came out to McGee.

• Loved Tony getting angry with Gibbs after his boss prevented him from going to pick up the supermodel. That scene in Abby’s lab was classic as Dinozzo was clearly pissed off while presenting the latest info about the case. Tony even called Gibbs “sir.” We all know Gibbs hates to be referred to as “sir.”

• Loved even more the autopsy scene where Gibbs and Dinozzo tried to get info out of the speedy hacker dude — they wanted him to implicate Agah Bayar. If Dinozzo was bad cop then Gibbs was badder cop. As for Ducky, he slipped out to get some tea while Gibbs and Dinozzo took care of the situation. He even offered the special agents some tea too. And they took him up on it — even Gibbs. Loved the humor of the scene as the partners threatened the guy with bodily harm. They may get upset with each other but they always work well together.

• Gibbs confronted the arms dealer, Agah Bayar, at least twice. Probably just made himself a big ol’ enemy. It definitely feels like the show is going to revisit this story down the line — probably come season finale time. Things were left in an open-ended fashion. Yeah, we’re going to see Bayar again. Don’t you guys think?

NCIS airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on CBS. Although, it seems like we’ve hit a bit of a break again. I wonder how long it’ll last. We’re not getting new episodes for the next couple of weeks at the very least. Hopefully, the show will be back sooner rather than later.