NCIS season 17 theories: The meaning of Kendra Allston, mystery photo
Within this piece, we’re focusing mostly on a photo that surfaced within the season 16 finale “Daughters,” one of a woman named Kendra Allston who passed by in almost a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment. This is something that only an eagle-eyed fan may have caught — we’ve got a screengrab above for reference!
At first glance, we almost wondered if the woman in the photo was Ziva or someone else we knew, just because it went by so quickly and in the moment, nobody would’ve really thought to focus on this for any period of time longer than just a few seconds.
So now, let’s go ahead and move towards the next important question — who is Kendra Allston? Why does she matter in the grander scheme of things so that Gibbs would still have a photo of her? It all dates back to season 16 episode 15 entitled “Crossing a Line,” where it was revealed that Kendra accidentally overdosed her brother, who died after taking an energy drink laced with dangerous drugs. These drinks were apparently meant for a dealer but sent to Kendra’s brother by mistake.
Given that the case in “Crossing a Line” was “solved,” why circle back to it now? Well, it really has to do with the fact that Gibbs, clearly, never considered the case closed. He always thought that there was something more here and it was something that he planned to revisit down the line.
Steven D. Binder, co-showrunner of NCIS, has even commented on the Allston photo — albeit in a cryptic way (see below).
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Will Allston matter in season 17?
Maybe not directly, but clearly Gibbs thinks that there’s a connection between the dealer in the Allston case and potential suppliers and other people dangling at the end of “Daughters.”
Think about things this way — the writers of NCIS are at this moment putting a lot of care into their storylines. They specifically hinted at Ziva through much of the second half of season 16 so that her eventual appearance wasn’t out of left field, and we have to think that the Kendra photo was an intentional Easter egg to suggest that there is a larger drug-related epidemic that will become a central component of season 17. This is a sort of home-grown problem that it makes sense for NCIS to investigate. It’s a very pressing storyline that many people in present-day America are trying to take on. It’s, unfortunately, not the sort of thing that can be defeated or thwarted in just one episode. It’s a crisis that could take many years to unravel, and clearly, that is something that the entire NCIS team is currently nodding to.
Ultimately, this is a reminder that none of this story in “Daughters” came out of nowhere and maybe, Gibbs on some level recognizes that he could have done even more.
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What do you think NCIS is going to do moving forward when it comes to this story, and how do you feel about the mystery Allston photo? Share in the comments. (Photo: CBS.)