NCIS: Sydney with Part 2 of its freshman finale opened with a big win — the mysterious “Ana Niemus” was in custody! — only to quickly reverse the team’s fortunes with the news that JD’s son Jack had been kidnapped from his ninth birthday party by a creepy clown.
Said clown got in touch with JD to demand a swap: Jack for the blonde, Irish (?) spy currently cuffed up in NCIS’ interrogation room. Thing is, assorted “acronym agencies” representing U.S. interests were on their way to claim “Ana” for themselves. First up, Mackey met with the slithery Colonel Rankin to see if he could tap the brakes on those coming to scoop up Ana — and Rankin agreed, being a father himself and all (to some oddly young kids?).
Nonetheless, the “acronym agencies” eventually landed on NCIS’ doorstep, only to discover that Ana had escaped! — with, we’d learn, help from JD, who’d deftly supplied her with the means to pick the lock on her handcuffs, and then met her out back with a van.
JD in turn rendezvoused with the Killer Clown at a remote location, with Ana in tow. When Jack’s kidnapper revealed that he’d be welching on their deal, and instead planned to shoot JD dead in front of the (blindfolded) kid, Ana slipped free of her cuffs, grabbed JD’s gun from her hoodie pocket, and put the clown down.
Ana then trained the pistol on JD, making clear her intention to elude NCIS’ grip yet again. But before she sped off in the van, she handed JD the clown’s phone and nudged him to “phone a friend” — and possibly be surprised by who picks up.
As JD tapped on the lone contact listed on the kidnapper’s phone, we cut to the NCIS HQ, where Blue and Mackey heard a nearby Colonel Rankin’s phone vibrating.
“You gonna get that, Colonel…?” asked Mackey, raising an extremely judgey eyebrow while sliding her hand to her holstered gun….
What are we to make of Rankin’s phone ringing? Why would the DoD bigwig have been in contact with the man who took Jack and wanted Ana?
“What’s incredible about this [reveal] is it is endless as to where they could take it,” Todd Lasance, who plays AFP Sergeant JD Dempsey, remarked to TVLine. “That is the way to finish a [season].”
“What I love is that [Rankin] is such an intrinsic part of the organization and controls a lot of our activities, so to have that person be part of, potentially, our biggest threat and the biggest enemy introduced in the whole series — and she has escaped, as well! — it’s like, where they can go with this is phenomenal,” Lasance effused.
TVLine then posited that perhaps Colonel Rankin set in motion the kidnapping as a means to set free detained spy Ana, whose national/political allegiances and affiliations have been a bit murky thus far.
“That’s good,” Lasance nodded. “The thing is, you don’t know if Rankin was a pawn to a degree. Was there pressure from Ana’s side of the organization to potentially make these calls, but then it was out of his hands? Maybe the terrorist organization was handling all of those decisions? I don’t know — I’m just as excited as you to see where it goes.”