(S07E11) The new year and a new story arc for Gibbs... Well, not exactly new because it turns out the hot lawyer who kept getting in his grill was connected to someone from the past. The hour was also a chance for McGee to go full McGeek, as well as Mr. Palmer to get some airtime dissecting a squirrel. And have I mentioned that the show also included allusions to Thunderball, The Jetsons and the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles? More on the latest NCIS after the jump.

Jet packs. Remember James Bond flying with a jet pack in Thunderball? What about the movie The Rocketeer? McGee was obsessed with jet packs, even had a Power Point presentation about the technology and a nifty documentary film -- a Thom E. Gemcity Production. McGee got Gibbs to watch it, but what was really great was seeing that Tim had the voiceover narration memorized and could still mouth the words.

Gibbs gave McGee the lead on the investigation, and while was boring the team with his jet pack mania -- even Abby was bored by the details -- Ziva and Tony were rounding up the suspects. The Tillmans were divorced competitors in the jet pack biz, which was only interesting because first one, Victor, then the other, Vanessa, was represented by an aggressive, beautiful attorney named M. Allison Hart.

Hart and Gibbs were setting off sparks right away. Jethro even asked if she had been a redhead, which meant he was attracted to her. Maybe attracted and repelled at the same time because she was definitely busting his balls about police procedure. She wasn't wrong; Gibbs does bend the rules and looks the other way on occasion.

Hart turned up more than once and without invitation, a fact that gnawed at Gibbs. Then there was the private detective that was trailing Ziva and Tony .. It turned out that Hart was connected to Colonel Merton Bell, the para-military mogul who had gone after Mike Franks and wound up taking down by Gibbs. Now he's gotten off and is using Hart to go after Gibbs. This should get interesting...

Other points of interest

-- Hondo was the name of the pilot who died. It was also a nickname for John Wayne, as Tony noted.

-- Did you notice that Ms. Hart made a point of Jethro by calling him Mr. Gibbs ... not Agent Gibbs? Just another way to get under his skin.

-- I figured out the murder plot after act one. It wasn't tough enough.

-- Hooray for Gibbs and the morning newspaper! What a concept, all the news in one convenient place, sans pop-up ads.

-- Thom E. Gemcity was McGee's pen name.

-- Rena Sofer played M. Allison Hart. She and Michael Weatherly were both once on the ABC soap Loving.

[Watch clips and episodes of NCIS at SlashControl.]