Jeremy asked for my reactions to several crime show season finales as well as my thoughts on where the shows might go from here.
The finale for NCIS‘s seventh season aired May 25. The last few episodes of the season set up a reckoning for Gibbs in the twenty-year-old case of his killing Pedro Hernandez, the Mexican drug dealer who murdered his first wife Shannon and daughter Kelly. The Mexican Department of Justice had invited Abby to re-open a cold case she later realized was Gibbs’. The finale picked up with Gibbs captured in Mexico by Hernandez’s son and daughter.
I thought Gibbs was almost too cool in reacting to his captors, saying things like, “I know something about convictions. I get ’em, and I got ’em.” The episode itself, though, was full of doubletalk and twists to maintain suspense. I liked that Vance, whose relationship with Gibbs has been rocky, supported Gibbs in the end.
After seven seasons, putting Gibbs in the hot seat was probably the most harrowing thing the writers could do. The finale ended with Hernandez’s daughter showing up at Gibbs’s father’s store in Pennsylvania. I think we’re supposed to worry she might kill him, but I don’t think it will happen. NCIS has stayed fresh thanks to the timely deaths of characters like Kate Todd, Jenny Shepard, and Paula Cassidy, but I don’t think Jackson Gibbs is next in line.
On another note, contracts are up for Michael Weatherly, Pauley Perrette, and Sean Murray. If they aren’t renewed, the faces of NCIS could change dramatically anyway.
–Gerald So
