Sometimes, I forget what a good actor Mark Harmon is. Maybe it is because he makes it look so easy, or maybe he never has fallen short of expectations after all these years. From the goofball teacher in SUMMER SCHOOL to the AIDS-stricken Dr. Bobby Caldwell on ST. ELSEWHERE and the wide range of characters Harmon has portrayed throughout his career, the Emmy nominee continues to run the emotional gauntlet, making us laugh and cry, all with a deft touch. That is why I am stocking up the tissues for a full-on crying jag on tonight’s NCIS. (No, not that JAG.)
We have seen Gibbs evolve over the years, but especially this season. The man whose belief system rarely wavers has been riding a wave of change for the past 23 episodes. He even burned Rule #10: Never get involved personally on a case.
But tonight, it looks as though Gibbs’s emotional turmoil is boiling over when his and Fornell’s deceased ex-wife, Diane Sterling (recurring guest star, Melinda McGraw) returns from the dead to plunge Gibbs into deeper doubt about his own emotional stability. Diane was a force to be reckoned with in life, and there is little doubt that death has not changed her. Of course she is back, even if it is only in Gibbs’s mind.
Her daughter with Fornell (recurring guest star, Joe Spano) is hospitalized after someone drugs her at a campus party. When Gibbs and Jack (Maria Bello) arrive at the hospital to help Tobias, the doctor tells them that Emily’s condition is critical. Gibbs sees how Emily’s (Juliette Angelo) brush with death is affecting his buddy, Fornell, and thoughts of his own deceased daughter, Kelly, and first wife, Shannon, have to be weighing heavily on his mind.
Still reeling from his admission to the NCIS team that he exacted vigilante justice on the drug dealer responsible for Shannon and Kelly’s death, Tobias’s plea for Gibbs to join him in doing whatever is necessary to take down local drug dealers is bound to exacerbate Jethro’s conflicted feelings. Can Emily’s “Uncle Gibbs” be persuaded to dabble in more vigilante justice while he still is riding an emotional roller coaster? Are Emily and Kelly the only daughters in tonight’s episode, titled “Daughters”? Or is another “daughter” going to follow Diane’s lead and return from the “dead,” even if it’s just to launch an arc for next season?
NCIS has been renewed for Season 17 and will be returning in September. “Daughters” was written by Steven D. Binder and directed by Tony Wharmby.
NCIS airs at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT tonight (May 21) on CBS in the U.S. and on Global TV in Canada.
