On this week’s episode of NCIS we are brought into a pretty gruesome type of murder. The show began with an odd introduction going from some warm holiday season cheer then abruptly shifting to an awkward scene of a man leaning against a tree, in the freezing snow, barefoot.

The next scene opens with a loving couple who spot the murder victim sitting out in the snow, exposed to the elements. When they walk over to see what is wrong, they discover the man’s head is split open and blood is everywhere.

The murdered man is a marine who had converted to Islam and as it turned out he was out in the wooded park praying when he was killed. Initial it looks like a baseball bat was the most likely murder weapon.

This put the murdered man’s wife in the cross hairs NCIS team when it was discovered that she had been having an affair while her husband was deployed over in the war zone, plus she was an avid softball player.

The marine’s own father became a suspect too when it’s learned that he and his son were at odds with his choice of religion. The father was an ex-marine himself and since that time had become a Christian and also the head of his own church. It is uncovered that the marine’s father paid off a couple of his son’s marine comrades to harass him because of the son’s change in religion.

Eventually the NCIS team discovers that the murder weapon was a lacrosse stick and that the murdered marine’s younger brother played the game. When confronted about the murder the younger son quickly confessed telling his father that his brother had shamed their family name by becoming a Muslim.

Another part of the show centered on Gibbs and his father who evidently had a family dispute still raging between them, but it was not really made clear what the differences between them were.  Their relationship seemed to have crumbled after Gibbs’ mother passed away.

It turns out that his father had to defend himself and some people in his store when a young 23 year old man tried to rob his shop. Gibbs father had to shoot and kill the robber and he was emotionally distraught by the situation so he basically sought out family during this time of crises.  This bad situation got Gibbs and his father back on steady grounds again because it forced them to communicate and open up a bit to one another.

In a heart warming scene near the end of this NCIS episode, McGee makes a young boy’s Christmas wish to see his mother come true. ­McGee plowed through a ton of red tape in order to get a video feed from the ship that young boy’s mother is stationed on. The boy and mother were overjoyed to be able to see and speak to each other on Christmas Eve.

Happy Holidays Everyone!