NCIS season 16 finale spoilers: Why ‘Daughters’ matters to Gibbs
Let’s start here with some discussion about the title itself: Despite heavy internet rumors, the end of this season is not called”Alternate Twilight.” When writing about it recently we cautioned that there were no first-hand sources and that Wikipedia and IMDb are often wrong since anyone can go in and submit information, and in this case, they clearly have been proven to be. “Daughters” is the official title (per CBS), and for Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs, this is a story about his past meeting his present … and also one that does throw rule 10 back into the picture. This rule, that you cannot be personally invested in a case, is one that he burned in a fire following the events of “She” a little bit earlier this season. It also came into focus after what happened to his former fiancée. Now, it’s hugely important in this finale because of what is happening to Fornell and his daughter.
For a few more details, take a look at the attached synopsis:
Former FBI Agent Tobias Fornell (Joe Spano) pleads with Gibbs (Mark Harmon) to do whatever’s necessary to take down local drug dealers and suppliers after his daughter, Emily Fornell (Juliette Angelo), is hospitalized from an opiate overdose.
At the same time, Gibbs is haunted by the personal aspects of the case and his history with vigilante justice in “Daughters.”
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Why does all of this matter to Gibbs so much?
If you remember, the cartel is responsible for what happened to his first wife Shannon Gibbs and his daughter Kelly. He lost them because of violent, dangerous people within the drug trade. As someone who knows what it’s like to lose a daughter, he won’t want that for Fornell. Tobias also is familiar with loss because of what happened to Diane Sterling, who was also murdered. This is an emotionally-charged case like no other and one that could have some dire consequences depending on how Gibbs and Fornell choose to handle it.
Gibbs knows that not all rules can be broken; yet, is getting rogue justice really where he wants to go in this particular situation? Is he going to be okay with adding more dark and difficult things to process into his own head and heart, as well as into Fornell’s? This entire episode could be about Gibbs figuring out who he is at this point in his life — really, 2019 to date has been all about change for Gibbs, and this is a continuation of that. When it comes to this change in Gibbs it’s something that we really welcome at this point in the series, because as much as we like Gibbs sticking by his rules that he uses for stability and guidance in his life, we really like seeing growth in a character like this and seeing sides of him that we either have never seen before or forgot was there.
With the direction that this story seems to be going, we aren’t suddenly expecting a whole lot of information when it comes to the Ziva storyline. If it’s there, it may just be either a small moment underneath the surface or a big surprise at the very end. It’s going to be disappointing if there’s no update at all through the very end of the season, mostly because so much time has been invested, but since they have pretty much mentioned this arc in almost every episode since “She” we feel like they aren’t going to not continue it. For us, if we don’t have a big Ziva reveal or spotlight in the finale and this whole episode is a Fornell and Gibbs spotlight, we are fine with that since we live for a good Fornell story and we wouldn’t want anything to take away from that – BUT they do need to mention something to show us that this arc will be continued into season 17. We don’t mind a slow ride to Ziva Town as long as we are still on the train moving forward.
For some more news when it comes to NCIS…
Remember to visit the link here! That’s where you can get more discussion about whether or not Gibbs knows about Ziva’s secret already.
What do you want to see when it comes to the NCIS season 16 finale? Be sure to share in the comments! (Photo: CBS.)
This article was written by Jessica Carter and you can follow her on Twitter here.