The “butterfly effect” is the part of chaos theory in which seemingly smaller unrelated events influence a larger conclusion. A frequent example is the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in South America that compounds with other factors, eventually causing a tornado in Texas.
For NCIS, the butterfly effect starts with a potluck list and evolves into full-speed chaos.
Not the usual Thanksgiving chaos…turkey not thawing quickly enough, forgotten ingredients, unexpected guest additions, no antacids… No, NCIS’s Thanksgiving is plagued with murder most fowl…uh, foul.
Of course, there is the usual negotiating of “who is bringing what” to the NCIS Thanksgiving dinner, but unrelated circumstances converging around a murder decrease the probability of a successful holiday feast.
The first point of convergence occurs when the body of an MI5 agent, Nigel Ford, is discovered in a parking lot. Reeves (Duane Henry), MI6 liaison to NCIS, recognizes Ford as a “legend at our training academy. Sloane (Maria Bello) previously had worked with Ford on a special joint operation and considered him a friend. Ford, on the trail of an international arms dealer, André Yorka (guest star Henri Lubatti), had an appointment with Jack to get her case files.
Could Ford (guest star Max Bird-Rindell) have been murdered to prevent him from meeting with Sloane? If Ford is MI5 (British domestic intelligence), was he doing double-duty for MI6 (foreign intelligence)? There is evidence that Yorka fled the scene, armed and wounded, which leads to the next convergence.
Abby (Pauley Perrette) calls McGee (Sean Murray) at the crime scene to tell him that she is driving Delilah (Margo Harshman) to the hospital.
Tim, already neurotic and scrambling from the late-breaking news that Baby McGee is actually twins…and now they are coming three weeks early. Chaos parameters intensify.
Converge a wounded arms dealer with a nervous dad-to-be, early twins, a goth forensic scientist behind the wheel, an NCIS team investigating a murder, unexpected connections and Dan Lauria (THE WONDER YEARS) as Emergency Room Guard Morgan Cade…What could possibly go wrong?
Makes the usual chaos of Thanksgiving look relatively easy.
Guest stars on tonight’s NCIS episode, “Ready or Not,” are Brian Kimmet, Christine Horn, Al Cornel, Sarah Butler, Andy Cohen, Rob Locke, Flor De Maria Chahua and Donald Li.
“Ready or Not” was written by Scott Williams and directed by Terrence O’Hara.
NCIS airs tonight (November 21) at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS in the U.S. and Global TV in Canada.
