House Rules

Using Tim writing a letter to his father with whom he has always had a strained relationship, this episode explores seeming discrepancies in Gibbs' rules, Tim's father's rules, and Tim's rules. The exploration includes Tim's thoughts about the purpose of rules and parenting while providing in one episode a great number of Gibb's rules. Viewers of the series will remember Gibb's wife, Shannon starting his list-making effort. Each rule is born of a life lesson.

Most episodes of NCIS contain at least a bit of humor, usually from the mouth of Tony. But "House Rules" gets its humor from the three guest stars who previously had small roles in earlier episodes. There is Heidi, a former kindergarten teacher turned dark web master. There's Kahn who fell for an NCIS trap which convinced him he had been sent to Gitmo. Then there's IT Kevin, the former NCIS IT guy who truly regrets his turn to the dark side.

All three are brought in from prison to help locate a cyber criminal who hacked into congressional servers. The script is outstanding, giving each of the three great lines with a touch of humor, snark, and just a little bit of humanity (like Kahn complaining he is missing Christmas dinner at prison because they get an extra roll).

Meanwhile, the entire episode is narrated by McGee as he writes a Christmas Eve letter to his father. Overall, a well-written, well- cast, well-acted, and well-directed episode that I love to watch over and over.