NCIS season 16 episode 16 review: Will a lie ruin Gibbs, Jimmy’s relationship forever?

There is a lot to love going into tonight’s episode of NCIS. First off, we have have the return of David McCallum as Ducky (who we haven’t seen in forever) and he’s coming in at just the right time when the team is really going to need his unbiased opinion – he’ll give it to you straight! While Jimmy is normally like this as well, he’s going to find himself in a really stressful situation at work involving a case and his father in law, so Ducky coming in can really help separate the two for Jimmy (and the team). We’ve been waiting two weeks for this episode and it’s felt like a really long wait because not only are we getting more Ducky, and not only are we getting a good Jimmy storyline (who we just love!), but we also have the return of Robert Wagner as Tony senior! There has been so much to look forward to, so let’s jump in and see if it was worth the wait.

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This episode starts off with our team finding the body of petty officer Logan who appears to have been attacked by a bear, but things are not always as they seems… just like when Jimmy’s father in law (Ed) shows up at his work and asks to take Jimmy out to lunch… something he never does. His real reason for his surprise lunch becomes clear quite quick when Jimmy notices a stab wound hidden under the fake bear marks. Ed begs Jimmy to overlook the stab wound saying that it’s a matter of life and death and begs him to call it death by a bear attack. Jimmy is put on the spot in a really bad way and before he can really think about what he’s going to do Gibbs shows up asking if it’s really a bear attack – and Jimmy says yes and boom, the lie has been told! After Gibbs leaves he feels immediately regretful and Ed has a lot of explaining to do on this one.

So what’s going on Ed???? Ed has been gambling and he thought that it was with local merchants, but when he lost $50,000 and couldn’t pay he was offered a deal to erase his debt. Logan’s body was brought to his funeral home and Ed was asked to cover up the stab wounds and to make this look like a bear attack knowing that it would end up on Jimmy’s table. After hearing that Tony Senior was also at the game Jimmy decides to get in touch and find out more information and the three of them sit down and really pull apart who brought in Logan.When Jimmy finds out that there is a hostage as well (Ed’s son Stevie who was $200,000 in debt from gambling!) and that’s the bigger reason as to why Ed covered up the murder things get even more messy. Jimmy really needs to call Gibbs and tell the truth!

Even if they do find out who the real killer is, what Ed did is still a crime (and a pretty bad one at that). As a licensed funeral director we can tell you that covering up a crime and desecrating a dead body through the funeral home is going to have severe criminal consequences. There are checks and balances put in place (at least in Canada which is where we are licensed) to stop stuff like this from happening. We get that Ed was desperate enough to do something like this, but it wouldn’t be without very real consequences. Since this is NCIS Ed will not be carted off to jail for this, but he really should be facing some punishment – hostage situation or not.

Jimmy is having a really hard time holding on to this lie, especially when Kasie doesn’t find any bear saliva in the samples he gave her and with Ducky back in the lab Jimmy is really up the creek. Jimmy is a good soul and this is really eating him up. He’s lying to everyone he cares about at work and is covering up a crime for someone who has never put into him what people like Gibbs and Ducky have. Jimmy can’t keep this lie up and is ready to get this mess cleaned up.

He goes to Gibbs and tells him the truth about everything and the story sounds crazy as he’s telling it, but Gibbs knows it’s true. Jimmy is of course worried that he’s going to lose his job and while he doesn’t lose his job he does lose some credibility with Gibbs. With the help of the team they are able to get Stevie back and clear up this situation, but this isn’t a case that’s wrapped up with a big red bow – there will be lasting affects form Jimmy’s actions. How can there not be?

Related News – Be sure to get some more news when it comes to the next new NCIS!

CarterMatt Verdict

We feel that eventually Jimmy and Gibbs are going to be okay, but it’s not something that is going to be mended in just one episode or even before the end of the season. This isn’t just a lie, this is a major lie! Jimmy did a good job trying to repair things the best he could with other members of the team like Ducky (and they gave each other such a big hug that we felt that hug right through our television set!), but Gibbs will take some work. We love a good Jimmy episode, and Brian Dietzen did not disappoint tonight (he never does).

Is Ducky leaving NCIS? We know he’s going to be back in the next episode, but he’s not going to be back working with NCIS anymore. He told Gibbs tonight that it’s time for him to move on and that Jimmy is the right person to be chief medical examiner. You can read more about that here.

Also, a bit off topic here, but when fans heard that Tony Senior was in this episode many wondered if there would be any further reference to Ziva being alive. There was nothing mentioned, but for us we were okay with that. This was a Jimmy spotlight and we wanted to be about him and not get overshadowed by anything else.

What did you think of NCIS season 16 episode 16? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below!  (Photo: CBS.)