CBS' mega-hit drama NCIS took this most recent Tuesday off, which gave audiences a familiar repeat to spend primetime with instead of a new episode. Thankfully, though, the next two NCIS episodes sound like they'll be right up fans' alleys, as things will first get awkward and dangerous for Jimmy, and then similarly troublesome times come for Gibbs and Bishop.
Before we break down what to expect from the next two NCIS episodes, note that the crime drama will be taking another one-week hiatus in between those. So there won't be a new episode playing on Tuesday, March 18; that night, the October 30 ep "Beneath the Surface" will air instead. For now, though, let's focus on a couple of cases we haven't explored yet.
Jimmy's Double-Dad Drama
Brian Dietzen's Jimmy Palmer hasn't so often gotten mired in the thick of the action across NCIS' many seasons, but when he does, it's usually a fun watch. Such will likely be the case for the upcoming episode, titled "Bears and Cubs," which will team Jimmy up with a pair of familiar guest stars in patriarchal roles, only neither one of them is actually Jimmy's own father.
That's right, Jimmy will be putting in more face time with his father-in-law, as well as a former colleague's big papa, which means fans will get to reconnect with both Larry Miller's Ed Slater and Robert Wagner's Anthony DiNozzo Sr. Getting those two together sounds like a damned good time in my book, even if Jimmy will likely be made quite uncomfortable by the whole ordeal.
Here's the episode's official synopsis:
Jimmy is torn between family and work after his father-in-law, Ed, asks him to tamper with evidence from NCIS’ current murder investigation. Also, Ed’s poker buddy, Anthony DiNozzo, Sr., offers to help with the case.
Traditionally, TV characters' in-laws are portrayed as being the worst, and for his first appearance since first popping up in Season 9, Ed Slater isn't doing himself any favors through trying to get Jimmy to incriminate himself by messing with a case's evidence. And then, it'd be one thing if Ed was talking about tampering with evidence from a cold case that was shelved years earlier, but to hinder a murder case that is actively being investigated? That either takes chutzpah or stupidity.
Ed's request could possibly have some very important ramifications connected to it that put him in a place of sheer desperation. (Hopefully it doesn't involve the safety and well-being of his daughter and Jimmy's wife, Michelle Pierce's rarely seen Breena Palmer.) But Ed probably isn't doing himself any favors with Jimmy by allowing Tony's hustler-esque father to get involved, either. The elder DiNozzo may be a charmer, but he's also a troublesome guy for certain authorities.
Unfortunately for fans hoping to see TWO different DiNozzo males for the episode, it will only be Robert Wagner making a guest appearance on "Bears and Cubs." It's assumed that his son Tony is off doing something that possibly has to do with the shocking reveal that Ziva is still alive out there, and that portrayer Michael Weatherly is busy enough with Bull that an NCIS guest spot will have to wait.
And now for something not so completely different.
Gibbs and Bishop Go Missing, Kind Of
After taking March 19 off, NCIS will return to CBS on Tuesday, March 26, for the episode "Silent Service." As it was hinted at above, this may not be such a hunky-dory installment for the likes of Leroy Gibbs and Eleanor Bishop.
That title has a little something to do with their big problem, which is one that also makes life troublesome for Rocky Carroll's Director Leon Vance. Below is the episode's official synopsis.
Director Vance is notified by the Pentagon that the nuclear submarine Gibbs and Bishop are aboard to conduct a murder investigation has gone radio silent.
Cue the dramatic music that makes it sound like we might never see these characters again! In the first place, giant warning bells should sound at any point where there's a murder to be investigated onboard a nuclear submarine. Murderers and nukes should never be in close proximity to one another, even just in spoken sentences. But the NCIS backs down from nothing, and so Gibbs and Bishop are the unlucky souls tasked with the case.
It's obviously unclear what goes down that leads to the Pentagon and other powers-that-be suddenly losing contact with Gibbs and Bishop. Could it be foul play, or something slightly more innocent than that? I can't imagine that their absences would have made the cut for the synopsis if it's all just a meaningless understanding.
On the flip side, I'm also not of the blasphemy-adjacent belief that show vets Mark Harmon and Emily Wickersham are going to get killed off during the episode or anything like that. NCIS may be in its 16th season, but audiences are still tuning in as if it was still a new fad. So it'll likely take a cancellation or some other massive change for these characters/actors to be taken away from NCIS in the future.
All that said, it would be extremely interesting if NCIS brought about a nuclear threat during the episode to shake things up. The NCIS franchise has dealt with nuclear weapons before in various ways, but not so much in ways that make us worried about Gibbs and Bishop.
"Silent Service" is also noteworthy for a reason that has nothing to do with dangerous submarines (beyond the fact that they show up in the episode). It will be the tenth installment of NCIS directed by Leon Vance's actor himself, Rocky Carroll, and it's the second episode that he was at the helm for this season. (The first was January's "The Last Link," which featured a guest spot from TV veteran Dabney Coleman.)
NCIS airs Tuesday nights on CBS at 8:00 p.m. ET. To specify when the above episodes will be aired, Jimmy's other-people's-dads dilemma in "Bears and Cubs" will air on Tuesday, March 12, while Leon Vance will investigate Gibbs and Bishop's radio silence for "Silent Service" on Tuesday, March 26.
