The eighteenth season of NCIS, an American police procedural drama television series, originally aired on CBS from November 17, 2020 through May 25, 2021.[1] The season only contained 16 episodes,[2] making it the second shortest in the series behind season 21, and includes the series' 400th episode. This is the first season to not premiere in the usual September. The season was produced by Belisarius Productions and CBS Studios.[3]
Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, NCIS Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) of the Major Case Response Team (MCRT) assigned to Washington's Navy Yard (episodes 1–10) / suspended (episodes 11–16)
While the team tries to figure out the whereabouts of a missing body, Gibbs assists Fornell in tracking down the leader of the drug ring that supplied opioids to Fornell's daughter Emily.
The discovery of a dead body in the basement of NCIS headquarters is linked to a group Gibbs investigated in his past. Flashbacks reveal how Gibbs was introduced to Ducky and the agency. The episode ends with Gibbs accepting invitations from the team to go out for drinks.
A murder investigation is linked to a years-long treasure hunt. The team investigates while recovering from their night of drinking. Also, Gibbs and Fornell continue their secret investigation into the drug ring, with Fornell going undercover as a fast food restaurant employee.
McGee and Delilah's vacation in the Bahamas turns into a high-risk mission when a case NCIS is tracking from a dead escape room manager has ties to the island. Gibbs fears the worst when his search for Fornell leads to blood.
Gibbs and Fornell's crusade to find the head of the drug gang responsible for Fornell's daughter Emily's overdose, climaxes. In addition, Gibbs and Vance finally inform the team about a case that has dangerous implications.
Following a lead on arms smuggling, Bishop and Torres engage in a shootout at the home of a former sheriff which is now a historic site, only to find themselves locked in abandoned cells there.
While the team investigates the murder of a Navy officer who was killed while driving home a recently released inmate, Palmer grieves the loss of his wife Breena from COVID-19. In addition, Sloane confides in Gibbs that she is "ready for a change", hinting she may leave the team.
"Sloane NCIS" is written on an abandoned school bus in Afghanistan that contained girls thought to have been kidnapped by the Taliban. At NCIS, Sloane admits to Gibbs that she wants to put an offer down on a house in Costa Rica. Their conversation is interrupted by Vance, who gives them the green light to search for the missing girls in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the rest of the team tries to determine who killed a "hacktivist" suspected of providing GPS coordinates of the bus to the Taliban. In Afghanistan, Sloane is reacquainted with Darya, a woman who helped Sloane during her torturous time there. Darya’s death at the hands of terrorists is the last straw for an emotionally exhausted Sloane, the stress of one bad guy taking the place of another having built up over time. After rescuing the girls, Sloane voices her intention to stay in Afghanistan to help other young girls in similar predicaments and shares a goodbye kiss with Gibbs.
Note: Final appearance of Maria Bello as Jacqueline Sloane.
When a Navy Officer is found dead in a freezer truck, the team get stuck in the middle of a battle between two competing food trucks. Meanwhile, after Sloane's departure from NCIS, Gibbs comforts Fornell when his daughter Emily unexpectedly dies from a drug relapse.
When a stray pitbull accidentally tumbles a navy convoy with a missile carried on, the team discovers the dog was abused. Gibbs confronts the abuser, Luke Stana, with force, which has him arrested. The rest of the team tries to prove Gibbs’ innocence and arrest Stana, but although they are successful, Gibbs confesses his role in the attack to Inspector General Eugene Coyle. As such, Vance is forced to suspend Gibbs indefinitely. Additionally, Gibbs takes the abused dog, Lucy, home with him.
As punishment for their actions in the case against Gibbs, the team is assigned to be COVID-19 officers for an event the Secretary of Defense is hosting with the Yemeni Government, while night shift agents spearhead a murder investigation. McGee, Bishop, and Torres discover a link between that case and the SecDef's event, and later have to intervene when they find out that the SecDef has been targeted by a hitman. Meanwhile, Gibbs is met at the diner by investigative reporter Marcie Warren (Pam Dawber, Harmon's real life spouse) and reluctantly tells her the truth about his confrontation with Stana. With the story out there for the public, Vance visits Gibbs and tells him he cannot save him from the fallout this time.
The lead suspect in the death of a Marine sergeant in an open house is Torres' father, who walked out on Torres when he was young. Meanwhile, Gibbs takes the opportunity to get caught up on household chores while suspended from the agency. He is visited by Marcie Warren, who asks him to review some of her work.
411
13
"Misconduct"
Tawnia McKiernan
Brendan Fehily & Margaret Rose Lester & David J. North
While biking with a friend, a petty officer is killed in a hit-and-run. The team comes to realize the friend was the intended target, as he was an accountant set to testify against Parker James, accused of a Ponzi scheme against sailors. The team later finds the witness dead, and though Gibbs testifies against James, the prosecutor is reluctant to put him on the stand due to his suspension from NCIS. James' lawyer attacks Gibbs' credibility, and the jury finds the defendant not guilty. However, NCIS is able to arrest him and his estranged wife for ordering the hit on his accountant.
NCIS' investigation into the murder of a captain in the National Military Command Center leads them to Hassan Sayegh, the biological uncle of Gibbs' former neighbor Phineas (Jack Fisher). Hassan was after the captain's laptop to hack into NCIS case history so he can get to Phineas after causing his foster parents' car to crash. Phineas runs to Gibbs' house and bonds with Lucy. The team arrests Hassan, but not before he reveals his own son needs a bone marrow transplant, which Phineas agrees to donate, and Gibbs allows Phineas to take Lucy home. Elsewhere, Torres and Bishop agree to discuss their apparent feelings for each other after questioning by Palmer and Kasie.
NCIS REACT agent Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) successfully talks down a hostage situation, but then an explosion kills her team. Knight joins in the investigation, which leads to the revelation that the REACT team was the target all along. Elsewhere, Gibbs and Marcie Warren investigate a cold case off the books.
While pursuing a dangerous arms dealer, the team is shocked when Bishop is implicated in an old NSA leak. McGee and Knight attempt to prove her innocence, but ultimately Bishop reveals her complicity and quits. Torres realizes that Bishop's exit was a planned maneuver between her and Odette Malone (Ziva David's contact), so as to set Bishop up on a long-term, undercover mission which required her to be a "disgraced NCIS agent." The two share a goodbye kiss after an intense argument, and Bishop leaves. Meanwhile, Gibbs and Marcie realize that the killer they've been tracking may be on to them. The episode ends with Gibbs' newly completed boat, named "Rule 91", blowing up and Gibbs swimming away from the wreckage.
Note: Final appearance of Emily Wickersham as Eleanor Bishop.
Production
Development
The season was ordered on May 6, 2020.[3] On June 3, 2020, Steven D. Binder announced that the writers had begun working on the season.[21] Scripts initially written for cancelled Season 17 episodes were integrated into this season's second and fourth episodes, "Everything Starts Somewhere" and "Sunburn." The exit of Maria Bello's Jacqueline Sloane, which would have occurred in the unproduced Season 17 finale, was integrated into the season's eighth episode, "True Believer," though similarities to the originally planned storyline remain undetermined. On August 12, 2020, it was announced that CBS Television Studios had signed a deal with the law enforcement advisory group 21CP Solutions, to consult on its crime and legal dramas, which includes NCIS. 21CP Solutions would help the series to more accurately portray law enforcement; this comes after the George Floyd protests, which caused the television industry to rethink their portrayal of law enforcement.[22] On September 21, 2020, it was announced that the season would start by exploring where Gibbs, played by series star Mark Harmon, disappeared to during the episode "Musical Chairs" from the previous season, before returning to the present day.[23] On October 27, 2020, it was announced that season would comprise sixteen episodes.[2]
Filming
The planned twenty-first episode of the seventeenth season, which was postponed due to production on the season being shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, was the first episode filmed of season eighteen. The planned twenty-second episode of season seventeen, which would have been the 400th episode of the series, was filmed and aired second, which kept it as the 400th episode.[24] Production on the eighteenth season began on September 9, 2020, and the series continued to be filmed in Los Angeles.[25] Filming for season 18 wrapped up on March 29, 2021.[26]
Casting
On May 6, 2020, it was announced that Harmon had closed a new deal with CBS Television Studios.[27] On July 24, 2020, it was announced that series regular Maria Bello is set to leave the show during the season, and appear in eight episodes to wrap up her character's storyline.[4] On September 9, 2020, it was announced that Harmon's son Sean, would return in episode two as a younger version of his father's character.[28] On October 21, 2020, it was announced that Adam Campbell would also return in episode two, as a younger version of Ducky.[29] In March 2021, Katrina Law was cast in the role of Jessica Knight.[30] Law appeared in the final two episodes of the season with the potential to become a series regular if the series is renewed for a nineteenth season.[31] On May 26, 2021, it was confirmed that series regular Emily Wickersham would leave the series after 8 years.[5]
Release
The season is set to premiere during the 2020–21 television season as part of CBS's Tuesday lineup with FBI and FBI: Most Wanted.[32] On August 26, 2020, it was announced that CBS hoped to begin airing the season in November 2020.[33] On October 13, 2020, it was announced that the season would premiere on November 17, 2020.[1] It was also announced that this will be the final season on the Tuesday timeslot, it will be moved on Mondays on its 19th season leading into its new spinoff series NCIS: Hawaiʻi.[34]
Ratings
Viewership and ratings per episode of NCIS season 18