The defining moment in Gibbs' life was the murder of his beloved wife Shannon and daughter Kelly. Gibbs hunted and killed the man responsible, a Mexican in Mexico. Gibbs did this off the grid, and the legally unsanctioned but morally justified killing has vexed and directed just about everything that has happened in Gibbs' life since then, an implacable inner demon. Although the killing was not outrageous in the way that Vic Mackey's execution of a [spoiler] in the first episode of The Shield was, and although we didn't get to see what Gibbs did in Mexico until the NCIS series was well underway, the two killings are elephants in the psyches of the lead characters, and lurk behind most things they do, crying out for some kind of retribution.
That retribution begins to be taken in the NCIS Season 7 finale. The daughter and son of the man Gibbs killed have been planning this for some time. The son Alejandro, who is with the Mexican police, had earlier invited Abby down to Mexico, to get her to find a bullet she could trace to Gibbs - the bullet that had killed his father. Alejandro is dangerous, and almost shot Gibbs point blank dead in the finale, but he is not Gibbs' worst problem.
That comes from the daughter Paloma, who wants not to kill Gibbs, but destroy his spirit. She plans on doing this by insisting that Gibbs become her lackey, and if he refuses, she will kill people Gibbs cares about, starting with Mike Franks and proceeding to Gibbs' father. Franks has recently been in a shootout with these bad guys and their mercenaries (including Jason played by Dylan Bruno - good to see him after Numb3rs) in Mexico, and they shot off his index finger. We don't know until the end if Franks is dead, held hostage, or still at large. When it turns out he's out and about, and apparently no worse for the loss of his finger, that's good news. But-
Back in Washington, Gibbs is not about to do Paloma's bidding. He and Leon stage a nice faked conversation, but it's clear when Jason's killed that Giibs is working against not for Paloma. He earlier told his father Jackson to go someplace safe - but Gibbs' father is if nothing else even more stubborn than Gibbs - and in a final scene we see Paloma walk into Jackson's store ...
We'll have to wait until September to see whether she takes him hostage or kills him right there. Summers are always enjoyably tense times for NCIS fans (though, before this season, I had the pleasure of seeing every episode on NCIS on my own schedule, via Netflix).
5-min podcast review of NCIS 7 finale
See also NCIS ... NCIS 7.16: Gibbs' Mother-in-Law Dilemma ... NCIS 7.17: Ducky's Ties ... NCIS 7.18: Bogus Treasure and Real Locker ... NCIS 7.21: NCIS Meets Laura
The Plot to Save Socrates
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
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