Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS: Sydney episode “Back in the USSR” are ahead!
The latest NCIS: Sydney episode to air on the 2025 TV schedule was a treat for those who appreciated Cold War era vibes. It started with the discovery of a body that had been buried in concrete since the mid-‘80s and led to the discovery of a spy who’d been working for the KGB. However, the real scene stealer in “Back in the USSR,” which can be viewed now with a Paramount+ subscription, was the yellow vest donned by Todd Lasance’s JD, as he kept getting roasted for his flashy wardrobe choice. But the vest was meant to “demonstrate the authenticity of Australia” when it comes to showing appreciation for people you care about, as Sydney showrunner Morgan O’Neill told me personally.
My conversation with O’Neill on behalf of CinemaBlend touched on a number of key points from the opening NCIS: Sydney Season 2 episodes, including the major reveal about Mackey’s past shared in the premiere, when we’ll meet this season’s big bad, and how DeShawn and Evie’s dynamic is similar to Tony and Ziva’s from the earlier NCIS days. But I also jokingly asked the showrunner what I considered the most “important” question of the interview: will we see the yellow vest again? O’Neill laughed at this and started off with the following:
From a story perspective, what's so cool about that is it really does go to the heart of, ‘What it is to be working in an office?’ I was telling someone the other day, I said the show… it's a police procedural, but the other two elements that hold the show up are that it's a family drama and it's a workplace comedy. And where we go with JD and that jacket satisfies the family drama and workplace comedy perfectly, because that's what you do.
The yellow vest came into play at the beginning of “Back in the USSR” when a package came containing it and new NCIS jackets for Mackey, DeShawn and Evie. JD opted for the vest over the jacket because of how “functional, breathable and lightweight” it was. Even better, it came with some extra features, including a headphone holder, tactical d-rings, a retractable hood and a whistle. The downside of keeping the vest on for the entirety of this NCIS: Sydney was the teasing JD endured, like how Evie and Rosie respectively called him SpongeBob and Cornpuff. But this was just a way to highlight the gentle ribbing that happens between coworkers who are close, with Morgan O’Neill continuing:
It's like when your sister or your dad or your grandma or your mom or your son comes in wearing a thing. You're like, ‘What the hell is that? When did you think that was a good idea? Who did you consult before you put that on?’ And when you wear it to work, it just gets amplified again. So we felt like it was a really elegant way to remind everyone that at the core of our show are six people that we want to hang out with, six people that we're gently, or even perhaps not gently, falling in love with, and what it is to be a human in that world. What Australians do a lot, our love language is to take the piss.
See? All the grief that JD got for that yellow vest was just reflective of how people in Australia show affection for their friends, families and colleagues. In fact, O’Neill then recalled how he met someone from the United States who didn’t feel at home in Australia until those around her started receiving this unique form of “love language.” In the showrunner’s words:
Funnily enough, I was speaking to a very high ranking American who worked for the State Department who'd been out here for a long time. And I said, ‘Did you ever feel like you belonged here?’ And she said, ‘Only when they started to take the piss I knew I was welcome.’ So that is our love language. So when when JD wears this thing in and everyone piles on, it's actually them saying, ‘Man, I love you. I really do, I really care for you, and that's how we do it.’ I felt like that was it was a key way to demonstrate the authenticity of of Australia, and also perhaps the slight difference in, in our cultures. But yeah, for me, it was one of the more fun moments of Season 2.
I should note that not everyone in “Back in the USSR” gave JD a hard time about his vest. DeShawn was pretty enthusiastic about it right from the get go, Foreign Minister Quinn expressed her approval of it after checking in on the team’s case (she has the same vest in lilac), and the vest was the only piece of clothing that was instantly returned to JD and Mackey after they were exposed to a deadly nerve agent (not worry, they quickly received the antidote). Evidently it’s extremely contaminant resistant, and the hazmat guy even stated that all cops should be wearing those kinds of vests.
We’re only three episodes into NCIS: Sydney Season 2 (and Season 3 is also on the way), so there’s a lot more to look forward to in the coming weeks as the show airs Fridays at 8 pm ET on CBS. Me, I’ll be over here crossing my fingers that JD’s yellow vest will return, as it deserves more time to shine onscreen.
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