NCIS - Requiem
Dec. 9th, 2008 03:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ivyficI am continuing along in my viewing of NCIS. I just got to the season 5 episode "Requiem," which is apparently the highest rated episode of the show. I'd noticed before there seemed to be a lot of episode tags for this episode, so I hunted some down.
Here is what baffles me about these tags. Almost every single one involves Tony getting some sort of plague relapse for his heroic underwater rescue. These mostly cause Gibbs to go into some guilt-induced fit for oh so selfishly forcing Tony to tax his poor lungs by rescuing him. They are either of the shmoopy, then-Gibbs-realizes-how-much-he-needs-Tony variety with lots of comfort and (oh god) cuddling. Or they are like one of the stories I found which went roughly like this:
"Gibbs never even thanks Tony for saving him and never asks how he's doing so Tony has no choice but to leave precipitously in the middle of the night. (There seems to be a whole genre of Tony leaves because Gibbs doesn't appreciate him fic, and all of them have a requisite Gibbs finds his apartment empty scene.) Tony leaves a note for Gibbs in which he says that he has always had the hots for him. Goodbye forever! Gibbs realizes that he's also always had the hots for Tony, but that doesn't make him gay. Gibbs hunts him down but finds him in the arms of another man. Gibbs turns away in tears. Tony has moved on because Gibbs was too much of a bastard to notice his attraction. Gibbs must live the rest of his days old and alone. The end."
Now—from watching the episode—the pivotal point for me is that Tony stops doing CPR on Gibbs. There's a moment where Tony gives up on Gibbs and tries to save the girl instead. That seems like a gimme for fic. Oh, the stores of tortured guilt! And yet not a one of the many tags I've seen even mention the fact that Tony left Gibbs for dead.
I don't get it.
Here is what baffles me about these tags. Almost every single one involves Tony getting some sort of plague relapse for his heroic underwater rescue. These mostly cause Gibbs to go into some guilt-induced fit for oh so selfishly forcing Tony to tax his poor lungs by rescuing him. They are either of the shmoopy, then-Gibbs-realizes-how-much-he-needs-Tony variety with lots of comfort and (oh god) cuddling. Or they are like one of the stories I found which went roughly like this:
"Gibbs never even thanks Tony for saving him and never asks how he's doing so Tony has no choice but to leave precipitously in the middle of the night. (There seems to be a whole genre of Tony leaves because Gibbs doesn't appreciate him fic, and all of them have a requisite Gibbs finds his apartment empty scene.) Tony leaves a note for Gibbs in which he says that he has always had the hots for him. Goodbye forever! Gibbs realizes that he's also always had the hots for Tony, but that doesn't make him gay. Gibbs hunts him down but finds him in the arms of another man. Gibbs turns away in tears. Tony has moved on because Gibbs was too much of a bastard to notice his attraction. Gibbs must live the rest of his days old and alone. The end."
Now—from watching the episode—the pivotal point for me is that Tony stops doing CPR on Gibbs. There's a moment where Tony gives up on Gibbs and tries to save the girl instead. That seems like a gimme for fic. Oh, the stores of tortured guilt! And yet not a one of the many tags I've seen even mention the fact that Tony left Gibbs for dead.
I don't get it.
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-10 02:37 pm (UTC)You can ask yourself, why did Tony stop? Was the girl more important? Would Gibbs have rathered had the girl live than himself and Tony know that? (That's pretty much what I think). I also think it was telling that the whole time Tony was working on the girl he kept looking at Gibbs and willing him to breathe, but knew that the girl was more important (in the eyes of Gibbs).
I love the beginning of that ep, when Tony is super agent. Firing while running and just so able. But yeah, I would love better fic for the show, I'm always afraid to venture in 'cause I don't have a ton of time and to get sucked into something that isn't quite for me... is not appealing. :)
no subject
Date: 2008-12-10 07:12 pm (UTC)The amount of Tony apologist fic in this fandom is truly staggering. And I get it—he's a woobie. But he also clearly interprets Gibbs's brusqueness as positive attention, and not as cruelty, as the fic always wants to say.
The problem is, the dynamic between them is very messed up and begs to be explored, but Tony is the kind of guy who talks and talks and says nothing important, and Gibbs is the kind of guy who says nothing at all. So almost every fic I come across caves in to a desire to give them a long heart-to-heart, but that's unbelievably out of character.
Honestly, from the show, I'm starting to be more of a Ziva/Tony shipper. She, at least, has shown that she picks up on when Tony is upset (unlike Gibbs), and has proven that she can get past his emotional defenses and get him to confide in her. I've started viewing the show through the lens of Tony/Gibbs having a sort of fuckbuddy relationship up until the end of season three, when it ends because of Gibbs's amnesia and they never ever talk about it, then he goes undercover and falls for Jeanne on the rebound, but after all of that, he ends up with Ziva. She's the only one giving him emotional support in season four. And maybe you could throw in a little regretful Gibbs for how things ended with Tony, but the guy's had three ex-wives and never apologizes, so I don't think he'd torture himself about it too much.