Kudos for the Gay Storyline on This Week's "NCIS"

**SPOILER ALERT** This post contains major plot details from Tuesday night's episode of NCIS.

AfterElton has written at length about CBS and its appalling track record of including LGBT characters in its scripted programming. AE reviewed the major networks back in 2008, noting the invisibility of GLBT characters on CBS's scripted programming. Last year GLAAD gave the network a failing grade in its Network Responsibility Index for the 2008-09 season for gay visibility, noting that just 5% of the network's 1,148 hours of primetime programming was LGBT-inclusive. CBS continued in its failing ways for the 2009-2010 season.

Responding to her network's poor performance, CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler told AfterElton in 2008 that network policy was one of inclusion and that a goal of CBS's programming is "to reflect what our audience looks like." The issue of GLBT representation was important to her personally, she said, because of her background in the New York theater and her friendships with gay and lesbian people. Tassler also pointed to individual episodes of series like Cold Case and How I Met Your Mother with pride but acknowledged that these were isolated episodes of individual series as opposed to ongoing representation. "I know we haven’t done enough. And I know we can do more."

Cut to a year later and in the wake of GLAAD's failing grade for the 2008-09 season, Tassler again said all the right things about gay about gay visibility and was even able to report a slight uptick in her network’s
 gay-inclusivity, noting that The Good Wife and $#*! My Dad Says would each feature a recurring gay character (Owen Cavanaugh, portrayed by Dallas Roberts, and Tim, played by Tim Bagley, respectively).

While an improvement, the increase will unlikely be enough to get the network a good grade from GLAAD.

One CBS series that has included GLBT-related content on several occasions is NCIS. Its track record for positive portrayals, however, is less than stellar. NCIS has featured: a murderous transwoman ("Dead Man Talking") whom the characters refer to as a "tranny" and a "he-she" in later episodes, along with teasing the hyper-masculine Agent Tony DiNozzo about kissing "a man"; a Navy SEAL who commits suicide after his wife confronts him about his affair with another man ("The Weak Link"); a lesbian officer who murders her lover ("Lt. Jane Doe"); and a sailor who kills himself rather than be exposed as a transvestite ("An Eye for an Eye").

NCIS's spin-off series NCIS: Los Angeles also had a gay-inclusive episode, "Chinatown," featuring a Chinese-American submariner who kills himself rather than betray his country.

One thing all of these episodes have in common? No gay character (except the lesbian murderer) makes it out alive. Even the submariner's boyfriend manages to get himself killed along the way.

So when I realized that last night's NCIS episode "Recruited" featured a gay story line, I felt some trepidation.

Chad Michael Collins as the victim: Petty Officer Simon Craig

The episode opens with an attractive young sailor at a high school recruitment fair. At the end of the day, he packs up his pamphlets and heads out. Alone in a dark stairwell, he is accosted by a shadowy figure, who throws the sailor down a flight of stairs. Standing over his broken body, the assailant delivers the killing blow, a boot stomp to the head.

The NCIS team identifies the victim as Petty Officer First Class Simon Craig. Craig had served two tours of duty overseas before requesting a transfer back home. Lead investigator Jethro Gibbs orders his team to check for students with disciplinary problems and to speak to Craig's commanding officer. His CO points them to a rejected recruit named Zinetti, but he has an ironclad alibi.

Next the agents obtain a list of five students who Craig was advising. Gibbs next interviews Craig's sister Nina who, saying "I guess it won't do any harm now," tells Gibbs that the victim was gay. She points him to Glenn Block, Craig's married boyfriend. From there the trail leads to Block's wife, Penny, a drunken harridan who admits to paying someone to beat Craig but denies having him killed. She also alibis out.