NCIS: Episode 23.7: “God Only Knows”

Name: NCIS: Episode 23.7: “God Only Knows”
Item: NCIS: Episode 23.7: “God Only Knows”
Author: Review

"Pondering God and the Problem of Evil"

Family Content: -1 Caution advised for older children, including teenagers, and sensitive adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

In “God Only Knows,” Episode 7 of NCIS: Season 23 on CBS, Agent Parker, the leader of the NCIS team, is still having a crisis of faith because of his Bible-believing father’s recent brutal and senseless murder. Parker learns that a suspect in a murder case has also been suffering a crisis of faith and went to see a Naval chaplain. However, the chaplain refuses to tell Parker what they discussed. This really irks Parker, because he thinks the suspect may kill again.

The NCIS episode “God Only Knows” is brilliantly structured, exciting, stirring, and even profound. A series of twists leads to a big twist that changes the investigation’s direction. “God Only Knows” is also about finding answers to the problem of evil. The chaplain character, who tries to help Agent Parker with answers, is superbly written. He has many good Christian lines to ponder. At one point, he reminds Parker, “I answer to a higher power.” He also cites James 2:14, which admonishes Christians to put their faith into action. “God Only Knows” is a rewarding NCIS episode with faith and values.

Content:

(CCC, BBB, PPP, L, VV, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Very strong Christian, moral, pro-family, patriotic worldview where Navy chaplain advises heroic leader of a Naval investigation and law enforcement team who has doubts about God and evil, Chaplain quotes James 2:4 and says “I answer to a higher power” at one point, there’s some discussion about God and getting answers from Him about serious questions and troubling personal issues, images of crosses in small Navy chapel, episode promotes doing the right thing and family, team solves a case of American servicepeople getting sick from a small military base overseas contaminated by radioactive and chemical waste from a previous war more than 40 years ago, American soldier says he’s proud of his country, and American soldier says he’s a “good Christian man” with faith (wife supports man’s comment about his strong faith) but admits he had a crisis of faith and tried examining other religions when he saw the effects of war and received a terminal diagnosis from an infection he caught overseas, but he concludes at the end, “I am blessed,” so he seems to have an attitude of gratitude despite terrible bad circumstances, and he’s happily greeted by his wife and young son after his comment;

Foul Language:

Eight obscenities (six “h” words and two “d” words) and one OMG profanity;

Violence:

Light violence such as man points a gun at father and teenage son to take father’s car, bad guy threatens another man with a gun, but the man uses judo on him to take the gun away and lay the assailant on his back, photo image of a dead man with bullet holes in his lower torso, and man lifts lower part of shirt to show melanoma splotches on his tummy, plus talk about a parachute not opening and being held by the Taliban for two years;

Sex:

No sex or sex scenes, but law enforcement agents wonder whether a man killed another man because the man was having an affair with his wife;

Nudity:

No nudity (an image of a man’s lower tummy);

Alcohol Use:

No alcohol use;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Man carjacks a vehicle with a father’s teenage son sitting in driver’s seat and people hide things from government investigators.

More Detail:

The Problem of Evil is considered one of the hardest theological problems a believer in God, encounters. Christian theologians, clergymen, philosophers, and laypeople have given many different answers to the problem and all of its ramifications. We can’t solve the problem here, but the problem breaks down into two main categories, Natural Evil and Moral Evil. Natural Evil has to do with disease, killer storms, earthquakes, and accidents that injure or kill people. Moral Evil has to do with the evil or sins that people commit against other people, such as murder, stealing, rape, adultery, slander, fraud, etc. Questions about these evils become really acute when people discuss young children having terminal cancer or being struck dead by lightning, or a criminal torturing and murdering a young child, or acts of genocide like The Holocaust.

The seventh episode in Season 23 of NCIS, the second most popular TV drama in the United States and the fifth most popular streaming title last year, is all about the Problem of Evil. It focuses on Natural Evil, a deadly disease, but the disease is created by radioactive contamination of a location by uncaring humans. However, there is also a villain, who has framed a man of murder. So, the episode also deals with Moral Evil.

In the episode, Agent Parker, the leader of the NCIS team, is still having a crisis of faith because of his Bible-believing father’s recent, brutal and senseless murder at the hands of Parker’s criminal nemesis. A suspect in a murder case eventually tells Parker that he’s also been suffering a crisis of faith. The man went to see a Naval chaplain about it, but the chaplain refuses to tell Parker what they discussed in the confessional booth. This upsets Parker because he thinks the suspect might kill again or even commit a terrorist act of mass murder.

However, the big twist in this case is not the murder itself, a question of moral evil. In fact, bringing the real killer to justice will help solve that particular moral problem. No, the big twist in the episode, titled “God Only Knows,” is that Parker learns the suspect is faced with a heartbreaking case of Natural Evil. Despite his situation, the man declares to Parker, “I am blessed,” even though the terrible natural evil he’s facing won’t be resolved in his favor.

So, Parker returns to the chaplain to deal with his own crisis of faith. Parker is perplexed that the suspect still thinks he’s blessed, despite the deadly fate he’s facing. He’s also perplexed why God hasn’t provided any answers to the man’s situation or to his own pain over his father’s recent death and about a mysterious wound found on his mother when she died in a traffic accident years ago. How can this man truthfully say he’s blessed, Parker asks the chaplain.

The chaplain tells Parker a few things. First, he says perhaps God has provided Parker with an answer, but he refuses to listen. Secondly, he reminds Parker that God seldom gives answers to people from a burning bush or a booming voice. “Most of the time, they come from the people closest to us,” he says. Parker isn’t totally satisfied with that answer, but the episode’s final scene shows Parker asking the medical examiner to help him look into his mother’s death.

The NCIS episode “God Only Knows” is a brilliantly structured, exciting, stirring, and even profound episode about wrestling with God. A series of little twists in the investigation lead to the big twist concerning the prime suspect dire circumstances in the story. “God Only Knows” is also about finding answers to the problem of evil. The chaplain character, who tries to help Agent Parker with answers, is superbly written. He has many good Christian lines for viewers to ponder. At one point, he reminds Parker, “I answer to a higher power.” He also cites James 2:14, which admonishes Christians to put their faith into action. Thus, NCIS: “God Only Knows” is a rewarding piece of entertainment with strong, inspiring faith and values.

The episode also promotes doing the right thing and has strong patriotic elements. For example, after he’s exonerated, the murder suspect says he’s proud of his country when the government decides to do the right thing and compensate the military victims of an overseas base that’s been contaminated by radioactive and chemical waste in a previous war. He also says, “I have my family again.” So, the episode has a great, touching scene about family bonds.