NCIS Season 23, Episode 6 ‘Page-Turner‘ is the best episode of the season, and an hour that makes it clear that twenty-three seasons in, NCIS can still pull off a very original episode that can be both emotional and exciting. This is hard to do, and I often don’t think the show gets enough credit for how well it’s held up, given how long it’s been on the air and how many iterations of this team there have been.
“Page-Turner” focuses on one of the characters who has been around the longest, Timothy McGee (Sean Murray). And it does so by giving us an hour that doesn’t just explore his writer alter ego, Thom E. Gemcity, but that also gives us the best version of McGee—talking to his characters, solving the “case” and kicking ass. What’s not to love about this McGee, or every McGee?
It’s a very meta hour, and very on-point commentary on why we, as fans, love procedurals in general and NCIS in particular. Just like fans of McGee’s Deep Six series, it doesn’t matter to us if they might sometimes be derivative. We’re here for the characters, and as long as they work (and they do!), we’ll continue to be here.
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THE WORLD OF THOM E. GEMCITY
Personally, I love hours like this one that deliver a hidden message. I also don’t mind more straightforward case episodes that are used to dig deeper into characters, but when a show can break in from the format expected and do something fun like this, as a fan, it’s a treat. Particularly because we get Gary Cole, Katrina Law, and Wilmer Valderrama playing not Parker, Jessica, and Nick, but their alter egos as written by McGee. Or, shall I say, Thom E. Gemcity.
They are, of course, figments of McGee’s imagination, there to help him work through the mystery in front of him, but in many ways, they serve as a way to conceptualize what this team means to McGee. He insists, throughout the episode, that he didn’t really base his characters on his team, but we can all see he did. Deep down, I think he knows that. And for someone who has indeed been here since the beginning of this show and gone through so many different teams, it’s crucial that he makes these people part of this world.
When Gibbs left, when the team changed the last time, it felt like the show might not survive. Then Parker worked, and the team settled in and now… here we are. With a version of NCIS that doesn’t look anything like what it looked like in the early seasons, or what it looked like after Ziva and Tony left, but that we are nonetheless rooting for, and more importantly, that we are invested in.
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TWENTY-THREE SEASONS IN
Sean Murray shines in this episode, and he does so in a way McGee doesn’t always get to. When you’ve been playing a character for as long as Murray has, there’s a tendency by fans to believe they know everything about the character. But Murray never plays McGee as if he’s found the ultimate version of the character, which is very true to real life. We’re always growing and learning. And that makes McGee a really dynamic character who always manages to surprise us when we least expect it.
In this hour, there’s a little bit of techy McGee, there’s the meta-aspect of him basically talking to himself as represented by his characters, and there’s McGee literally kicking ass to the point that when the team arrives, they’re only there as backup. He’s got this. He’s had it since those first episodes of Season 1, when he was only a guest star that we wanted to see stick around.
And if this hour proves something is that we still want more of Timothy McGee. We still want more of this NCIS team and this show. And that holds especially true when, every once in a while, they throw a curveball like this episode at us and, at the same time, prove that they understand why we love the show. It’s not just about the twists and the interesting cases. Instead, it’s more about characters people want to write 20+ chapter fanfics about.
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Things I think I think:
- Look, Palmer with long hair is an image I will not be getting out of my mind.
- Now, that’s a creepy message.
- Coincidence? Is that what you’re going with, McGee?
- Kasie is on the field! I repeat, Kasie is on the field!
- Oh, McGee’s got a stalker. I 100% bet someone’s gonna think she’s the bad guy, but she’s just dedicated.
- “Hot scary.” OMG.
- Seth Meyers hahahahahaha.
- Jimmy, don’t try to keep secrets. Tell Kasie at least. Jess. Someone.
- I mean, we understand Kasie’s mom. Having a crush on Torres makes sense.
- “I know your time is valuable. To some.” Ouch.
- Look, I write full-time and it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, lol.
- Fake text to Vance and everything!
- Nick’s alter ego, who totally isn’t him but is enough of him that Torres can play him in McGee’s imagination, is hilarious.
- Rule 39: Coincidences don’t exist.
- Look, you can’t claim the Tibbs character isn’t Gibbs when his rules are the same.
- I’m glad Torres called Delilah.
- Katrina is basically playing Nyssa Al Ghul, again.
- “Stabs first, asks questions never.”
- Point.
- Okay, but a 20-chapter fanfic with how many words? Because that’s still mid-level fan to me.
- What do you mean everyone ships fake Knight and fake Torres?
- THEY HAVE A SHIP NAME.
- I teared up at the revelation that Myers was taking care of his friend’s mom.
- “I write for my fans.”
- “All hail deep sixsies.”
- Who is shocked that Parker’s mother didn’t die from a car crash? Anyone? Anyone?!
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS Season 23, Episode 6 ‘Page-Turner’? Please share with us in the comments below! And if you have any thoughts about the show, leave a review/rating of your own in our NCIS hub!
NCIS airs Mondays at 8/7c on CBS.
