Review: NCIS: New Orleans ‘Jackpot’

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Warning: Post contains minor spoilers

“NCIS: New Orleans” episode “Jackpot” opens at a club where rapper French Montana performs. While the night begins as a celebratory evening, it culminates in tragedy when Navy recruiter Tyrone Gibson turns up dead. Since Gibson was shot but left with $12,000 in his pocket, it appears the murder wasn’t a robbery. As it turns out, Tyrone had recently won the lottery, reaping a $100,000 jackpot.
Surveillance footage leads the NCIS NOLA team to Wendy Cotts (Lindsay Elston), hacker and cybercriminal. Previously, Tyrone taught Cotts at a criminal diversion program. Special Agent in Charge Dwayne Pride’s (Scott Bakula) friend and hacker extraordinaire Elvis Bertram (Tom Arnold) resurges, this time attempting to hack the NCIS NOLA outfit and erase all files on Wendy. When caught, Elvis reveals that he’s Cott’s father. Well, sort of. Bertram served as a sperm donor, and he’s Wendy’s biological father, only having actually met her once.

Meanwhile, SAC Dwayne Pride prepares for a trip to New York City to see his daughter Laurel (Shanley Caswell) perform in a concert. But Elvis reappearing sidetracks Pride’s visit.

Obvervations:

While I’m not opposed to Dwayne Pride as SAC, the past few episodes continually proposed excuses for why Pride remained in the field, shirking his duties as Special Agent in Charte. The death of a Navy officer (“A House Divided,”), the murder of NCIS consultant Patton “Triple P” Plame’s (Daryl “Chill” Mitchell) friend (“In Plain Sight,”), and the hunt for criminal organization Apollyon (“Reckoning,”) each keep Pride away from his role as SAC.

But “NCIS: New Orleans” S05E20 shows Pride’s continued yearning for fieldwork. You can take the man out of the field, but you can’t take the detective work out of the man. Visiting his office at headquarters, medical examiner Loretta Wade (CCH Pounder) comments “I see your organizational skills continue to be…unique.” Later, when Special Agent Hannah Khoury (Necar Zadegan), NCIS Agents Tammy Gregorio (Vanessa Ferlito), Chris LaSalle (Lucas Black), and Sebastian Lund (Rob Kerkovich) discuss Cott’s potential involvement, Pride keeps butting into their conversation. “Sounds to me like what you need to do right now is find [Wendy],” Pride comments interrupting. It’s clear that his heart is still in detective work.

As per usual, Tom Arnold delights as Elvis Bertrand. The lovable ruffian Bertrand persists in driving the NCIS New Orleans unit mad with his incessant, bothersome insertion into their case. Still, despite his bothersome behavior, it’s clear Elvis merely wants to be more of a father figure to his daughter, and accomplishes this how he sees fit: largely through hacking, and attempting to cover her tracks. It’s a fun episode and enjoyable departure from some of the heavier fare seen in the preceding several episodes.