It’s hard to believe NCIS is into its 13th season. When we left off last season, we were dealing with a terror cell called the Calling that recruited young children into their web. Gibbs tries to help one of them and in the cliffhanger, he gets shot for his effort. Fast forward to the new season, Gibbs undergoes serious surgery, and the rest of the team keeps hunting the Calling’s leader.

The episode was decent but wrapped up the Calling a little too neatly for my tastes. I don’t know if it is truly “dead”, but considering the investment in it last season, it all ended in one episode. Gibbs is restricted to desk duty, so it’s more of a DiNozzo and team show, but that was okay for the episode. Apparently, the trauma of the shooting is going to “change Gibbs” and he is going to have to deal with those changes this season, whatever that means. It’s not like in 13 years you have seen any character growth in Gibbs, other than he gets quieter and quieter each year.

The only real bright spot in the episode was Jon Cryer, jokingly referred to by Abby as Gibbs’ own Ducky (since he was called Ducky back in his John Hughes pics), as the surgeon who saves Gibbs’ life. I love when there’s a cameo and you see a character played so well by the actor that the character walks in fully formed, almost like they have lives off screen that are rich, complicated, exciting, boring, and everything in between. Some refer to it as gravitas, others just as presence, but Cryer has it in spades as the doctor, and supposedly he will show up for a few episodes to keep an eye on Gibbs’ health. A welcome edition, even if the EP wasn’t a hit out of the park.