NCIS season 18’s latest episode left most fans frustrated as Bishop and Torres once again failed to get together, leading to unfavourable comparisons to another infamous will-they-won’t-they couple.
The new episode of NCIS season 18, ‘1mm’, saw agents Ellie Bishop (played by Emily Wickersham) and Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) get up close and personal to hash out their feelings. Unfortunately, the CBS series has let down countless ‘Ellick’ fans, just as it did with another fan favourite couple a few seasons ago.
Viewers launched some harsh criticisms at the latest episode of NCIS, 1mm, claiming it borrows heavily from season three’s notorious ‘Boxed In’.
In ‘1mm’, a botched case traps Bishop and Torres in abandoned jail cells, finally giving them a chance to talk over their tearful reunion in last week’s double bill.
At the end of Head of the Snake, Torres feared for his partner’s life when he realised she was onboard a plane that was rigged to explode.
Thankfully, she made it out alive, and the field agents’ passionate embrace convinced several fans they’d finally be addressing their obvious feelings for each other in the very next episode.
Sadly, this wasn’t to be, and this week’s instalment had angry fans complaining their drawn out romance is just as played out as Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva David’s (Cote de Pablo).
Once the new episode wrapped up on Tuesday, viewers flooded social media to vent their frustrations with yet another ‘Ellick’ let down.
Over on Reddit, user luis-can-jump posted: “This last episode is just a discount of the Tony and Ziva shipping container episode in my opinion.”
Several fans concurred, with one adding: “I thought the same thing. Haven’t we seen this before?”
“Oh yeah the shipping container; at least that was a believable circumstance unlike a fully operational electronic jail in an old abandoned historic site.”
Back in season three, ‘Boxed In’ saw DiNozzo and David get bolted inside a shipping container by two armed terrorists.
While the episode provided ample opportunities for the two agents to talk over their feelings, fans were almost impressed when it took them another whopping eight seasons to actually get together.
As two of NCIS’s newest recruits, viewers are hoping Bishop and Torres won’t fall into a similar trap.
Unfortunately, their latest appearance seems to suggest it could still be some time before the flirtatious pair finally seal the deal – if they ever do.
The unavoidable comparison to the frustrating bottle episode back in season three was even brought up in TV Fanatic’s review of ‘1mm’.
They wrote: “It was more of the same, with the pair pretending to be just partners when they could become so much more.
“Not that they have a boatload of chemistry together, but enough already. Get them together or give them other love interests.”
“I blame Tony and Ziva and a decade’s worth of will-they-or-not-they.”
Of course, with a series as long-running as NCIS, some padding is to be expected when you’re dealing with character arcs that stretch over multiple seasons.
Hopefully the series has finally learned from past mistakes, and Bishop and Torres can get to the end point a little quicker than their infuriating predecessors.
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