NCIS season 17 spotlight: The road ahead for Jack Sloane

Jack Sloane has become an integral part of NCIS in two seasons’ worth of time — and, of course, this shouldn’t be a shock. When you have an actress like Maria Bello as a part of your cast, you are basically setting things up for yourself to ensure that you’ve got a bulletproof product. She’s an incredible performer and we don’t think we’ve seen the best of her yet within this series – which is saying something because she has had some powerful stories, especially in season 16 with the storyline about her daughter. Just think about the material that is still left on the table for her, and that is the sort of material we want to lay out in this week’s season 17 spotlight.

Want some other NCIS scoop on Sloane subject? Then check out our video at the bottom of this article! Once you do that, subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube so you don’t miss out on upcoming NCIS videos and check out our show playlist.

1. Is the story of Jack’s daughter really done? We spent at least a few days earlier this spring thinking that the story of “Daughters”could involve Sloane and her daughter. We knew that it was going to involve Fornell’s daughter, the pain of losing his own, and we already knew how Sloane was feeling over hers so we thought there might be more on that. There was a good case to be made for including her, but since that didn’t happen we have another opportunity for Sloane to try to get close to her in season 17. Maybe there’s another case that will take her to the hospital, or maybe Sloane’s daughter realizes that she wants something more with her mother after all.

While these two characters may not be close, and nor do we think that they would come together out of the blue, there are chances to bring them together.

2. Sloane’s relationships – There is a part of us hoping that this season will offer an opportunity to explore the relationship between Gibbs and Sloane. We’ve been steering this ‘ship for a while now! We would like to see some more development there, but we would be foolish to think that the premiere is going to roll around and they will pour their heart out to each other. If something does happen between the two of them, it’s not going to be the sort of thing that happens overnight. It’s going to take time and it’s going to take Gibbs realizing that it’s okay to actually steer away from some of his other rules.

We don’t want to just minimize Sloane’s relationship life to just Gibbs, given that it is possible the character could be linked up romantically to someone else (even if we don’t want to imagine it). You could also just build up some of her friendships! We like the idea of her and Kasie maybe going out to lunch together, or seeing her go over to McGee and Delilah’s for maybe dinner and board games. We think that Sloane would be really fun at Pictionary and we already know she loves poker!

3. Is Sloane’s past all that settled? – We have a feeling that there are more demons and issues buried way back when that need to be resolved; season 17 could be the opportunity to fully resolve those, whether that be looking into unexplored corners or finding some new characters to bring in who do the exploration themselves. We think that for a character like Jack, someone who is such a survivor who has clear enemies, it does make sense for her to encounter a few personal threats each season.

4. Embrace her being out in the field – Maybe she gets called out with Nick Torres for a case, or she ends up being stranded somewhere with Bishop and the rest of the team has to locate her. We want Sloane out in the field more because it’s a chance to further challenge her … but it’s also a chance to explore different relationship dynamics beyond the typical procedure you get back within those office walls.

Interested in hunting down more NCIS news?

Then be sure to visit the link here, as that’s where you can get our new spotlight that is all about McGee. NCIS season 17 will premiere in late September on CBS.

What do you want to see from Sloane on NCIS season 17? Be sure to share now in the comments, and remember to come back soon for some other news. (Photo: CBS.)

This article was written by Jessica Carter and you can follow her on Twitter here.