Hiatus (Part II)

I like the bit where Gibbs speed into the garbage bin

In the two Hiatus episodes viewers learn the backstory that makes Gibbs who he is. It is such an important backstory, that they made an entire series to expand on those events and take up his story from there, before the first NCIS episode. The details are surprisingly consistent.

Here, there are two sequences that are incredibly emotional and compelling. The first is with Ziva. I wrote early into Season 3 that Ziva transformed the series. She took it from juvenile games laid over a crime drama and made it a more reasonable thing. There are still some juvenile pranks and innuendo, but not nearly as silly. And Ziva David is a much more complex character and extraordinary agent. (Kate was a good agent, but not in the same class. As S2E22 demonstrated, there was potential for romance with Tony, but it could not have been so deep that it resulted in a spinoff about it 20 years later.) But this sequence has nothing to do with Tony. Cote de Pablo brings tears not only to Gibbs, but to the viewer as well.

That is followed by a sequence that is Mark Harmon as Gibbs at his best. It is shocking enough, but ends with an even more shocking twist.