NCIS: Los Angeles season 8: Sam’s wife Michelle and the big picture

What happened on NCIS: Los Angeles season 8 on Sunday night with Sam’s wife Michelle was truly shocking, but it speaks to something more with this show.

Specifically, the entire NCIS franchise may have an issue when it comes to killing off spouses / partners of main characters. This begins back with Gibbs on NCIS, but he is not the only example of this. Look at what happened to Bishop’s boyfriend earlier this season, what’s happened with Director Vance, and what could be happening to McGee over on that show. Meanwhile, you can also sort-of classify what happened to Ziva in this same group given that she and Tony were ultimately soulmates with each other and she’s been allegedly killed off as well (we say “allegedly” because we like to believe that she escaped death and is somewhere in the world in hiding).

The apparent death of Michelle on Sunday’s new episode of NCIS: Los Angeles only further adds to this trend, but we may consider this to be the most shocking of any of the loved ones we’ve seen die on the franchise over the years. One of the biggest reasons this was a jaw dropper was simply due to the fact that we’ve seen Michelle off and on so much over the years, and this close to the end of the season, it’s not something that we we thought the show had to do. It was devastating, but it does add some high stakes to Sam and his attempts to shut down Tahir and his entire operation.

Sometime, TV shows make big moves like this as a means of signifying that nobody is safe, though here they probably didn’t need to do this in order to prove the point. It’s not that NCIS: Los Angeles over the years has never killed anyone, though this may be one of the more significant deaths. Based on the information that is out there, it feels safe to say that LL Cool J’s character is going to be motivated more than ever over the course of the final episode to get revenge. The question that you’re left to wonder is this: How far will he go in order to make it happen? Is he going to be willing to sacrifice his own soul (or his job) for the sake of getting what he wants?

What do you think about the decision that NCIS: Los Angeles seemed to make tonight? Was it the right move? Share now in the comments below! If you are looking for more scoop on NCIS: Los Angeles then head on over to the link here for more stories. (Photo: CBS.)