Spoilers ahead for the November 1 episode of NCIS Season 19, called “False Start,” and light spoilers for next week’s “Docked.”
NCIS delivered the first full episode of Parker in Gibbs’ spot officially leading the team with "False Start," and it showed the rest of the agents adjusting to having him in the mix, bringing his own style as well as boxes of pastries. Although Mark Harmon remains top-billed in the opening credits, the show is moving into a post-Gibbs era, and next week’s episode is delivering a family connection to a deadly case for none other than McGee. The good news for McGee? Nobody in his extended family seems likely to have blood on their hands.
The next episode of NCIS that will air on November 8 is called “Docked,” and it’s not hard to figure out why. According to the episode description from CBS, this is what fans can expect from the episode:
NCIS investigates the death of a man on a cruise ship whose body is discovered in the ship’s sauna by none other than McGee’s mother-in-law, Judy (Patricia Richardson).
Patricia Richardson may be best-known for her long-running role as Jill Taylor on Home Improvement, but she is going to bring a special kind of character to NCIS as McGee’s mother-in-law. At the very least, it’s probably safe to say that McGee is going to be a special kind of dismayed to find out that Judy is the one who found a body in a sauna on a cruise ship. NCIS gets personal for the agents pretty frequently, but usually because they take cases too personally. Who could have seen this coming?
While a dead man in a sauna isn’t necessarily going to be a punchline, it does seem that “Docked” won’t be a heavy episode from start to finish. Even though episode descriptions don’t give away all the details of what’s going to happen, and it presumably won’t be easy on McGee so soon after losing Gibbs, it could be a fun break for fans. In fact, based on the promo, some of McGee’s fellow agents might be having some fun with McGee’s personal connection as well. Take a look:
Torres may be ready to bow out of observing McGee interviewing his mother-in-law about as soon as she mentioned that “one thing led to another” with the man who eventually died, but Knight looks like she’s having a good time with the ridiculousness of the situation, and Parker evidently isn’t going to be running out with his hands over his ears. I just hope that Kasie and Palmer get to react to the situation as well.
Will the entire episode be lighthearted reactions to McGee’s mother-in-law’s sexual cruise ship exploits? Almost certainly not, but it’s something to look forward to with at least part of “Docked.” See the arrival of Patricia Richardson as Judy with the next new episode of NCIS, airing on Monday, November 8 at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. The show is doing well enough in the fall TV schedule despite changing time slots for the first time in show history and despite losing Mark Harmon, so it should be interesting to see where the show goes from here.
