NCIS: Heartland (Season Six)

I can only think of one reason for the sudden change in quality of NCIS and that must be Mark Harmon's influence as new producer. After that disappointing fifth season, this season is dealing out new ideas and a little bit more backstory for the various characters and, perhaps unsurprisingly most of all, Gibbs. This episode sees Gibbs forced to return back to his hometown where we find that the murder of a marine and the attack of another is rooted in the relatively sordid personal problems of a group of high school thugs who grew up to run the town.

In terms of the mystery, there are a few surprising twists and turns and I certainly didn't predict the revelation at the end of the episode - and my wife believed she had predicted it, only to find out that she predicted the wrong thing. It's good that the series can still be surprising after all this time.

On the personal front, it's great to see DiNozzo being the guy who is most fascinated at the idea of travelling to Gibbs' hometown. His hero worship of Gibbs has developed into an intriguing fascination of the man's past which, as we've discovered over the last few seasons, is a little more surprising than we first thought. When he finally turns up, again we get to see Gibbs' fondness of his senior agent as he permits DiNozzo to ask two questions of his father. Ziva and McGee, meanwhile are mostly puppy dogs for much of the episode.

Gibbs, however, gets to reveal a lot more about his past, not least of which is the discovery that his first wife was a girl he met while in Stillwater. We also discover that his mother passed away and he never really forgave his father for getting on with his life. So, like most television heroes these days, he has issues with his father, but happily by the end of the episode these are mostly resolved, and the final scene between the two Gibbs is wonderfully played by both actors involved.

It's a great episode, not only because of the entertaining plot, but also because of the nice character development of Gibbs.

"A"