Warning! The following contains spoilers for the NCIS episode "Blarney." Read at your own risk!
NCIS is a franchise with violence, high stakes, and even the occasional major death, but it tends to keep the gore to a minimum. Tonight was a rare exception in which the series, which airs at 8:00 p.m. ET, leaned a little more on the gore than I'm used to as a frequent viewer. Personally, I thought it was too much, especially given how early it airs on primetime.
For those that may have missed out on the action, "Blarney" largely focused on Kasie and Jimmy being locked in an diner with criminals after their botched diamond heist. After some back and forth with Mark Harmon's Gibbs, the criminals believed they were going to get a helicopter to the airport so they could make a grand escape. This wasn't arranged until after they lost a man to their job, which created a problem they needed Jimmy to fix.
All the criminals swallowed condoms full of diamonds, and Jimmy was asked to cut the diamonds out of the criminals' fallen comrade. At this point, I wasn't too grossed out, mostly because I knew NCIS isn't a show where particularly gory stuff happens. That changed pretty quickly when Jimmy plunged a knife into the dead criminal's stomach, and NCIS showed the inside of said criminal's stomach, blood and all.
As someone who is no stranger to violent television but a little squeamish watching the average medical drama surgery scene, it was hard to watch. It was the kind of thing I wouldn't be surprised to have seen on Criminal Minds, which aired at a much later hour. Seeing such a graphic scene on network television to kick off the night though is rare, and not typically something NCIS does.
Not that it's entirely uncommon though. Quite a few NCIS fans on social media were reminded of a past episode where a similar incident occurred.
Ultimately, more NCIS fans were sickened by the requests of the criminals than they were seeing a criminal's stomach cut open. Even more were impressed to see Jimmy and Kasie save the day, as it's not like anyone expected the lab team to handle the situation like they were a couple of seasoned field agents. I can't say I'm surprised given NCIS' recent streak of making Team Gibbs a bunch of superheroes, but it was cool to see Jimmy and Kasie getting some shine for a change.
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