‘NCIS’ season 11, episode 18 preview: Mark Harmon, Scott Bakula in New Orleans

You’ve heard about it for weeks and weeks, but the moment is finally here for the “NCIS” spin-off! The first half of “Crescent City,” the backdoor pilot for the potential version of the show set in New Orleans, will air next week, and based on the first promo below, it does seem like a pretty fun episode!

First of all, we have the arrival of Scott Bakula as Special Agent Pride, a guy who has a history with both Mark Harmon’s Gibbs and Pauley Perrette’s Abby. While you may not have seen him on the show before now, we suppose that these people kept in touch somehow off-camera until now. Part of the team is going to travel down to the Big Easy in order to work on a joint case, and given that this episode was filmed at least in part in New Orleans, you better get ready to see a little bit of particular flair.

In case you missed it previously, be sure to look below at the full synopsis for this one:

“When the body of Congressman Dan McLane, a former NCIS agent, washes ashore in New Orleans, Gibbs reunites with his former colleague, NCIS Special Agent Dwayne Cassius Pride, in a joint case between the two field offices and the FBI. The teams must work together to determine if the murder was politically based or linked to McLane’s most well-known case, the arrest of the Privileged Killer, a serial murderer who targeted military and public servants.”

Whatever happens on the story this week is going to carry over directly to the second part of this episode, which will likely be the last you see of any one of these characters before the fate of the spin-off is revealed. CBS doesn’t have a lot of space for new shows, but it will be in contention.

We’ll have a full review of tonight’s “NCIS” episode “Rock and a Hard Place” later tonight at this link. For now, just be sure to sign up for our CarterMatt Newsletter, where you can get more updates via email.

Photo: CBS, video via SpoilerTV