NCIS season 16 spotlight: The future of Jack Sloane

Moving into NCIS season 16, we now know the character of Jack Sloane in a way we certainly didn’t a year ago! Maria Bello was introduced during season 15 as a new full-fledged member of the team, someone who was incredibly skilled and capable of solving all sorts of problems. She also was able to provide a psychological angle on things that other characters cannot.

Yet, she also had a tortured and traumatic past, something that was addressed in the season 15 finale and could very easily still be a part of the show during the season 16 premiere.

So, should that part of Sloane’s story stick around? We’re going to touch on that and some other ideas for the character below in this week’s edition of our ongoing character spotlight series.

1. Resolve Sloane’s past – While we do think there are some interesting storylines that can come from diving into this, we personally think that the present is just as interesting as Jack’s past. With that, our feeling is to tie together several loose ends within the first episode or two of the new season.

2. Present a new threat – What we’d love to see is Bello share some scenes with some sort of new villain, someone who doesn’t have the same hold over her character. We can see an epic battle of wits and minds go on from the very beginning and it, in turn, could be a story that lasts much of season 16. While we know NCIS is never going to be overly serialized, it does feel like this is a story the show could highlight on a few occasions.

3. Mix things up with different characters – It’d be fun to see a storyline where it was just Torres and Sloane, just as we’d like to see more exclusively with Bishop and Sloane. The more different chemistries to explore, the better.

4. More of Sloane in interrogation – This is where she can really shine, and also where she can present the perfect counterpoint to Gibbs.

5. Build up the relationship she has with Gibbs – It doesn’t have to be romantic, though we know there are plenty of people rooting for it to be that way. We just want to see the show really broach Sloane convincing Gibbs to let down some of the walls and open up. He needs that, and we think the show needs that reflection at this point in its run.

NCIS season 16 officially premieres on CBS in September — to get some more news as to what’s coming, including other character spotlights, be sure to click here.

Meanwhile, be sure to like CarterMatt on Facebook to see even more updates on NCIS coming up! (Photo: CBS.)