NCIS season 16 finale debate: Early cliffhanger possibilities

We recognize that the NCIS season 16 finale is still a number of weeks away, but is really too early to start talking about the finale? We don’t think so! As a matter of fact, we actually are starting to get a sense as to what the finale could be about … at least if the show is continuing some of its current trends.

For one story suggestion, just look at the possible corruption within the Department of Defense. Wynn Crawford, the man at the top of the department, may be into some shady stuff and NCIS could team up with some other branches of law enforcement to take him down. Anytime you’ve got a showdown involving a possible Big Bad, it’s exciting — especially when that Big Bad is played by Mitch Pileggi.

Then, there’s another possibility courtesy of what is happening at the moment with Bishop and Ziva. By far, this is one of the most-discussed storylines we’ve seen on NCIS in years, largely because we’re talking here about one of the most beloved characters in the entire history of the show. We’ve gotten little teases along the way about Ziva’s old office and Bishop’s decision to work out of it for a little while … so could this be something that builds towards the finale?

For some other NCIS video discussion, check out our thoughts on the season 17 renewal at the bottom of this article! On the other side of this, remember to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube and also take a look at our playlist. You don’t want to miss any other updates on the show…

When thinking about the optimal cliffhanger, one thing that we are doing our best to try to do is take our own bias out of it. Since we love Ziva, of course we’re inevitably going to think that this has better cliffhanger potential of the two … but as it turns out, we actually do think that Ziva’s whereabouts is the better way to conclude the season.

With the Wynn Crawford story, we are going to have an epic storyline of government corruption and that could be exciting — yet, we’re not sure that it has great cliffhanger potential unless either someone’s job or someone’s life is on the line. It’s a little less risky because you already have a lot of the cast on your show, but we’re not sure that much here will leave viewers’ jaws on the floor.

With the Ziva story, there’s a chance that the writers could deliver something truly epic — but, at the same time, this is the riskier idea of the two. Let’s say you craft something that suggests that we could be seeing Ziva again during season 17. That’s incredible, but if you go that far down the rabbit hole, you better be confident that Cote de Pablo is actually going to appear. This is a storyline that could make a lot of people happy, but it also could make these said people infuriated if there is no payoff.

One way or another, we’re sure there will be some sort of cliffhanger at the end of season 16 — it’s really all just up to the writers to determine how big they’re willing to go and what they think is a compelling-enough tease to get people ready for season 17. It also depends on how much they choose to tie together the rest of the story this season. It’s possible that either Ziva’s whereabouts or Wynn could be played out by the finale … nothing is 100% confirmed just yet!

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What do you want to see when it comes to the NCIS season 16 finale, and do you think that there could be a big cliffhanger coming at the end of it? Share right now in the comments. (Photo: CBS.)