After the previous episode ended in a surprising twist *almost* equal to the legendary one at the end of season two finale "Twilight", the follow-up has some big boots to fill. Fortunately, the makers of NCIS have enough experience to be wise enough to have spared a few tricks for this episode to surpass the previous one.
In the first one, Catherine Dent of The Shield fame was just another guest star. Here, her character is a significant element of the plot. Yes, they use her character as a means to play a familiar card played in so many shows, but this is one of the times playing that card is actually relevant to the *bigger* plot, and it also rewards long-time viewers by filling in some mysteries that have been lingering for *years*. What is even more fantastic is that somehow they manage to tie it all into character development as well, deepening *multiple* characters instead of serving us yet another frustrating reference to the "One Night in Paris" between Tony and Ziva.
Speaking of Ziva, these two episodes have served her character well, fearlessly dealing with the rather uncomfortable relationship between her and her father. Cote de Pablo gets it all: to act, to kick ass and to look disarmingly beautiful.
Ziva is not the only winner here. The character of Director Vance is finally fully realized as a three-dimensional human being instead of just butting heads repeatedly with Gibbs or remaining vaguely cryptic. Now he is interesting.
If there is one complaint, it is that Abby is left sidelined. Even Ducky gets more exposure than her! However, in the end, this is a magnificent 9/10 episode - one of the best, but not quite a full 10/10 best of the best.
