Review: NCIS: New Orleans ‘A House Divided’

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Warning: Post contains minor spoilers

“NCIS: New Orleans” episode “A House Divided” opens with Navy Officer Wyatt Prescott taking a tumble down a flight of stairs at a charitable event hosted by the wealthy and influential Prescott family. As such, the NCIS New Orleans unit swoops in to investigate. “I got calls from bosses I never even knew I had,” explains NCIS Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Dwayne Pride (Scott Bakula). “Half the people in this room have a direct line to DC,” Special Agent Hannah Khoury (Necar Zadegan) adds. Upon arriving on scene, NCIS Agents Tammy Gregorio (Vanessa Ferlito) and Sebastian Lund (Rob Kerkovich) are largely unable to draw out any answers from the guests. It’s actually Sebastian who’s best equipped to handle the elitist, affluent house guests.
Unfortunately, Pride and his team are met with resistance along the way. Medical examiner Loretta Wade (CCH Pounder) gets unceremoniously removed from the investigation, Wyatt’s body removed from her lab without any warning. Meanwhile, Prescott family lawyer Lisa Butler makes it even more difficult to probe Wyatt’s death. “I know you’re just doing your job, but I’m doing mine,” Butler states. When Pride asks what her job is, Butler replies “Protecting the Prescott family interests.”

While on the case, Agents Chris LaSalle (Lucas Black) and Gregorio discover that CGIS Agent Michael Martin (Jonathan Medina) was placed on unpaid leave when he became involved with irregularities at Prescott Shipping. “Don’t go sniffing,” CGIS Agent Martin warns. It turns out Prescott Shipping was smuggling in counterfeit money. Suspicion turns to Bryce Prescott, one of Wyatt’s brothers.

Observations:

“NCIS: New Orleans” season 5 episode 19 contains a few surprises. For one, SAC Dwayne Pride remains in the field once again. It’s a pattern continually popping up. During “NCIS NOLA” episode “In Plain Sight,” the excuse was that it was a personal case, with NCIS New Orleans consultant Patton “Triple P” Plame’s (Daryl “Chill” Mitchell) friend gunned down. During S05E19, it’s because the team probes the powerful Prescott family. While I do enjoy Pride’s continued work with his NCIS NOLA outfit, it’s unrealistic for the SAC to largely participate in fieldwork.

Notably, Sebastian emerges as the unsuspecting ambassador between the wealthy houseguests and the NCIS team. Lund reveals that his past experience as prep school afforded the skillset to successfully navigate the upper class. “They’re rich, they gotta be handled,” Sebastian scolds Tammy. “By kissing their asses?” Gregorio questions incredulously. It’s an unsuspected move having the geeky former laboratory assistant Sebastian as the most socially aware.

The murderer is finally revealed after a series of twists, and there’s substantial nuance to the crime. I appreciated that the mystery largely remained throughout the entirety of “A House Divided.” The issue of Pride constantly staying in the field rather than assuming his role as SAC really needs to be explained at some point, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he abandoned his post to resume control of the NCIS New Orleans outfit once again.