This was easily one of the most fascinating episodes of NCIS ever, certainly it creates tons of discussion. Gibbs walks into a diner and after a quick cup of his necessary coffee, someone pulls out a gun and shoots at him. And then a freeze frame appears, and then the flashbacks begin. Some of them are real, while others are imaginery.
The plot from the case that started the day before the shooting of Gibbs: a naval officer is from dead on a nearly abandoned ship, and another critically injured civilian man is found in the next room. As it turns out both people have been found to have huge deposits deposited in their bank accounts in the past few days. A third man, Michael Rose, is found to be a part of their group as well. They have been selling intelligence to the Chinese, and Michael has been having second thoughts about this, though he did need the money to keep his home from bankrupcy and send his son to college. But Michael just couldn't do that, and so he killed his comrades to save the lives of others. He begs Gibbs to help him, but Gibbs refuses. Stephen (Michael's son) is the one that shoots at Gibbs the following day.
That case certainly wasn't the most interesting, but the flashbacks made up for it.
Weird Scenario #1: Gibbs had seen Ari and was able to keep him from shooting and killing Kate, something he had always regretted. This scenario was interesting. It flashes forward to a hosiptal scene where Tony comes running in, Abby telling him that Kate will kill him, and then a weird shot of Sasha Alexander before a doctor hands Tony a baby. Yes, that's right. Kate and Tony got married and successfully reproduced. I was shocked too. My mind was blown. But in this alternate reality, Ziva was still with Mossad, and Tony had to interrogate her for some reason. And he fumbled purposely with her name, including calling her Tiva (the combined name for the two ot them as a couple). It was certainly the most fascinating alternate reality.
Weird Scenario #2: Gibbs tracked down Hernandez (the man responsible for Shannon's and Kelly's death) but couldn't follow through on the shooting. This caused him to become anger and bitter. When Abby and McGee (who are dating) and Ducky arrive to tell him the good news about Kate's baby, whom she names Kelly (in this alterante reality, we don't know who the father is, but I assuming that it is still Tony), however, Gibbs cares little. Not even poor Ducky can get through to him
However, it was Weird Scenario #3 that really finally hit a cord with Gibbs: In this one, Kelly and Shannon were never killed, but instead they are the ones who receive the bad news, Gibbs has been killed while still overseas. He never became an agent, he never helped all those families, never caught all those killers, and who knows what even happened to everyone else in the show. Gibbs finally realizes that he could never have both: a family and his wonderful, vivid career. He realizes how important his career is.
Back to Reality: Gibbs suffers a shot in the shoulder but doesn't fire the gun, instead two other men grab Stephen and prevent him from doing anymore damage. He returns the next day to solving cases. All is right in the world, or is it? We'll never know.
Although the episode was fascinating and told us so much about Gibbs, including meeting his mother, some major players were missing. Namely Sasha Alexander. Because the episode was filmed over the holidays, Sasha and Lauren Holly (who portrayed Director Jenny Shepherd) were unable to come for the filming, so tricky techinques had to be used to get them in the episode. For the brief scene with Kate, when Tony finally comes into the hosiptal room and tells her that she lost weight, any seasoned NCIS watcher would be able to tell that the footage had come from the season 2 episode SWAK, but somehow they did manage to get away with it. Although another question remains, why would they film such a pivotal episode over the holidays? One can only wonder, still, this was a great episode and one that I will certainly watch again. Grade: A-
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