Season 5 has paid some attention to developing characters of Tech Operator Eric Beale and Intelligence Analyst Nell Jones.
Retweeted by Barrett Foa
ChrisDaisy
@BarrettFoa @fiona1wallace & the end of 5x06: Eric being acknowledged as the smart 1. That scene was really sweet! pic.twitter.com/pdbFJO5VfB
Recently, you may have seen me writing about Nell Jones In and on the Field . The prompt was ofcourse the Episode 5x14-War Cries where Nell showed her prowess in self-defence through her handling her opponent with a knife. With that fight she proved that she was fully ready to be on the field, unlike the "how to deal with unprepared challenge' in 4x14-Kill House last season. Nell Jones has been going to field at various times as needed throughout from Season 2 where she began her field assignments from 2x06-StandOff.
Same is the case with Eric Beale. My prompt this time to write about Eric is 5x18-ZeroDays episode, an episode very much dealing with IT People, Hacking etc. Zero Days itself is the IT concept of that challenge which can be tapped by a Hacker which has not been even addressed by the developer. And that makes me write about Eric Beale-The Smart Boy.
It was Dave Kalstein's 1x03-Predator where we were given a little peep into Eric Beale's character, about how much he is so focussed and stressed about achieving the mission objective. Nate psychoanalyzes him as a person who keeps pressing the elevators buttons even if he knows its not going to come any sooner that it supposed to take time. It is the moment when Nate observes Eric being totally edgy with impatience at the kaleidoscope search not giving him fast results. We are informed that Eric is a surfer and uses a lot of surfer lingo that others cannot much understand. He dresses in beach-casuals. But that is just him and his looks. But his work shows him as him being the best at his work. He is a Hacker himself working for the Government against the rogue hackers on his watch. He helps Kensi get on with guest lecturing the superior hackers, and he also hacks into Joel Hardy’s laptop to know whereabouts of the rogue Drone. Eric Beale as the Tech Operator, explains us the two NCIS technologies that they use vastly - The FacialRecognition software search and the Kaleidoscope Search which is a visual search that scans live feeds from traffic cams through inputting of search parameters.
This year Eric Beale carries on with same traits as introduced before. He is smart, impatient, is geeky, wears casuals and keeps experimenting with his whistling calls for the Agents to come up to Ops Room for case hearing. On the surface, its not at all visible that anything much has changed for Eric. But subtlely things are changing this season for him. Inspite of the E-bot jokes on him for the rest of the team, who are irritated of his knowledge that they cannot understand, we as viewers see that increasingly, cases are coming that are going nowhere and only Eric along with Nell's partnership, give an insight into the cases that the team are working on. We are impressed with his skills in Gemmill's episodes 5x02-Impact, 5x14-War Cries , in Jordana Lewis Jaffe in 5x06-Big Brother, Andrew Bartels' 5x18-ZeroDays and Gil Grant's 5x20-Windfall. These episodes take us close to a real life NSA Employee who works for Government and is a hacker for Government related Security Projects and need all surveillance skills that allow security agencies to do their work. They are as much agents, detectives and soldiers on the field with their prowess about using technologies.
It was Dave Kalstein's 1x03-Predator where we were given a little peep into Eric Beale's character, about how much he is so focussed and stressed about achieving the mission objective. Nate psychoanalyzes him as a person who keeps pressing the elevators buttons even if he knows its not going to come any sooner that it supposed to take time. It is the moment when Nate observes Eric being totally edgy with impatience at the kaleidoscope search not giving him fast results. We are informed that Eric is a surfer and uses a lot of surfer lingo that others cannot much understand. He dresses in beach-casuals. But that is just him and his looks. But his work shows him as him being the best at his work. He is a Hacker himself working for the Government against the rogue hackers on his watch. He helps Kensi get on with guest lecturing the superior hackers, and he also hacks into Joel Hardy’s laptop to know whereabouts of the rogue Drone. Eric Beale as the Tech Operator, explains us the two NCIS technologies that they use vastly - The FacialRecognition software search and the Kaleidoscope Search which is a visual search that scans live feeds from traffic cams through inputting of search parameters.
This year Eric Beale carries on with same traits as introduced before. He is smart, impatient, is geeky, wears casuals and keeps experimenting with his whistling calls for the Agents to come up to Ops Room for case hearing. On the surface, its not at all visible that anything much has changed for Eric. But subtlely things are changing this season for him. Inspite of the E-bot jokes on him for the rest of the team, who are irritated of his knowledge that they cannot understand, we as viewers see that increasingly, cases are coming that are going nowhere and only Eric along with Nell's partnership, give an insight into the cases that the team are working on. We are impressed with his skills in Gemmill's episodes 5x02-Impact, 5x14-War Cries , in Jordana Lewis Jaffe in 5x06-Big Brother, Andrew Bartels' 5x18-ZeroDays and Gil Grant's 5x20-Windfall. These episodes take us close to a real life NSA Employee who works for Government and is a hacker for Government related Security Projects and need all surveillance skills that allow security agencies to do their work. They are as much agents, detectives and soldiers on the field with their prowess about using technologies.
Eric worked against D7 Company to unearth information that they were trying to hide. You can read about that in my episode analysis of 5x02-Impact . In 5x14-WarCries, we see that it is because of him that D7 changes its tactics and shuts down its Ops and floats for itself a new entity. In that episode, Eric further helps Kensi run the surveillance for her in Afghanistan, unknown to his boss Hetty Lange under the very eyes of Assistant Director Owen Granger who flies to LA to find out who is helping Kensi. If you ask me it needs skill more than friends. Friends can help you having your back, but you also need to have that "extra edge" for which that gladly have your back. And that is Eric Beale equally to Kensi and Nell like they are to him. Its team work and Skill.
In 5x06-BigBrother, Eric was given a peep into his hacker mind and personality. A solo like we have seen episodes about him from Season 1. Like I remember him and the Drone Episode 1x03-Predator. All this just keeps pointing out to Obama Administration, which was directing that War on Terror can be also fought through remote targeting and not just actually in the field. The extensive use of Drones Air Strikes began under Obama and so had NSA spying and surveillance increased, to the point it got abused and exposed by a whisteblower Edward Snowden. And Big Brother is exactly that story. Through a story about a Teen Hacker, we are shown Eric Beale the Smart Guy, who actually understands when to hack and when not. The purpose is what counts for his way of work.
In, 5x18-ZeroDays takes us into Eric's blast with past in the form of his friendship with College friend Ira Wells. Ira's successful life-style, adds a Hacker's Dilemma to Eric, who then has to decide for himself, why he is at NCIS...something that even another favourite character of the series, Deeks; undergoes periodically. Isn't it surprising that both these guys are surfers and sork of geeky fellows ?!! As a free-lance hacker, Eric could have made a fortune like Ira does, but instead he chose to work for Government with much lower remuneration and continues to be proud about that. When Hetty does not allow Eric work with Ira, he feels dejected, but by the end of the episode, when situation reverses, Eric feels all grateful about the position he has in Ops and the support he provides to NCIS. It shows us, how he too needs appreciation like the others and also how only a few can understand him what he does for the nation. It is only like his boss Henrietta Lange, who has been with Internet Development, can appreciate what kind of an asset Eric Beale is to the team. So much that she takes special interest into grooming him into wearing trousers, make a gentleman out of him. Why? Because he has started liking Intelligence Analyst Nell Jones. Its that sense of pride and confidence in himself, that prepares him into going into the field and finish his mission about tweaking the geo-satellite to mask its coordinates in a bid to avoid nuclear missile attack on San Francisco.
Towards the season ending episodes, Eric comes across to us as maturing one, enough to take on equal aged young Agents of the team who are also his friends. He already had been teasing Deeks to stop being child in the previous episode about the workload that makes one be exhausted. In 5x20-Windfall, he is mature enough for Hetty to feel confident about his deductive skills and ask his assessment about Kensi, after her return from Afghanistan. Eric admits to Hetty that Kensi is bored and restless but emotionally is rock-solid. Hetty is also confident, though exhausted, Eric would survive the work alone without Nell in the Ops room, if situation demands that he has to work alone. After all, she had been preparing him from 5x08-Fallout to think like Nell, when he feels likes he needs her support. And in 5x20-Windfall, we actually start seeing Eric, knowing exactly what Nell would do to support him. We see through the case investigation in retrospect, how much Eric and Nell actually keep applying their inductive and deductive methods at gathering Intel and provide leads to the Agents on the Field. They know to dig for clues within given virtual datasets. And this comes out starkly as Eric feels exhausted with the amount of data-mining he has to do all by himself, when Kensi is assigned to work with him. Neither Kensi is motivated enough to take enterprise until ordered by Eric nor Eric is motivated enough to delegate work to Kensi until she asks for it. Eric Beale is not the same person as of Season 1 where he could use Kensi's help in whichever form he gets. Now Eric after having worked with Nell Jones, misses her at work for how much she shares his Intel gathering work and how she complements and supplements him at work. After getting used to that level of higher skills, Eric just cannot adapt to non-technical team members such as Kensi. He feels relieved when Nell joins him in Ops room for few minutes and they get to cracking on important piece of info.
I am sure, we are going to see more coming our way in the left over episodes of this season. And I shall continue updating that...
Towards the season ending episodes, Eric comes across to us as maturing one, enough to take on equal aged young Agents of the team who are also his friends. He already had been teasing Deeks to stop being child in the previous episode about the workload that makes one be exhausted. In 5x20-Windfall, he is mature enough for Hetty to feel confident about his deductive skills and ask his assessment about Kensi, after her return from Afghanistan. Eric admits to Hetty that Kensi is bored and restless but emotionally is rock-solid. Hetty is also confident, though exhausted, Eric would survive the work alone without Nell in the Ops room, if situation demands that he has to work alone. After all, she had been preparing him from 5x08-Fallout to think like Nell, when he feels likes he needs her support. And in 5x20-Windfall, we actually start seeing Eric, knowing exactly what Nell would do to support him. We see through the case investigation in retrospect, how much Eric and Nell actually keep applying their inductive and deductive methods at gathering Intel and provide leads to the Agents on the Field. They know to dig for clues within given virtual datasets. And this comes out starkly as Eric feels exhausted with the amount of data-mining he has to do all by himself, when Kensi is assigned to work with him. Neither Kensi is motivated enough to take enterprise until ordered by Eric nor Eric is motivated enough to delegate work to Kensi until she asks for it. Eric Beale is not the same person as of Season 1 where he could use Kensi's help in whichever form he gets. Now Eric after having worked with Nell Jones, misses her at work for how much she shares his Intel gathering work and how she complements and supplements him at work. After getting used to that level of higher skills, Eric just cannot adapt to non-technical team members such as Kensi. He feels relieved when Nell joins him in Ops room for few minutes and they get to cracking on important piece of info.
I am sure, we are going to see more coming our way in the left over episodes of this season. And I shall continue updating that...
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