As a WMG subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
White female babies without disabilities are the most in-demand by potential adoptive parents in the U.S., as well as the rarest to be up for adoption. Abby's also gifted, so she was the Holy Grail of adoptable children. Additionally, the adoption process in general tends to be long and expensive. The Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted in 1990, and Abby was more or less Kelly Gibbs' age in 1989 (the teddy bear).
How come they gave Abby, a healthy white baby girl (even without showing her giftedness because baby), to deaf parents in a time before the ADA? Even today prospective parents with disabilities face challenges for adoption. Surely in the regular way back then they would've been denied the possibility to adopt, or they would've been given either a deaf child, a harder to place child (due to race or age or other factors), or a child that is both; and they would've placed Abby with a wealthier family without disabilities.
That's coupled with the fact that even though Abby has progressive views that probably also came from her family, yet her parents died without even insinuating that she was anything but their biological child, and the fact that she didn't know her brother at all makes me think there was something not right in the adoption process (think black market or some sort of corruption going on).
Or she could end up killing Bodnar. That could potentially piss off quite a few people, SecNav included.
As Cote De Pablo is in contract negotiations this year, her departure is a possibility. The Bodnar arc would allow for her to be written off in some way.
None of the main cast died. However, Ziva, Tony and McGee resigned, their ultimate fates unrevealed until season 11, and Gibbs is off on a sniper mission of some kind.
Unfortunately, the OP was right about Cote De Pablo leaving. At least she's been confirmed to do several guest appearances so it looks like she won't be leaving the show in a pine box.
Right WMG, wrong season finale...
Abby: Freya, she's the team's heart and hospitality and spends all her off-hours doing charity work for things like Habitat for Humanity. And no one but the Goddess of Magic could do forensics quite like her, all by herself.
DiNozzo: Loki, before he went to the darkside he was Thor's partner in crime: clearly why they're all being human is part of a trick to avoid repeating the same patterns again. He's silver-tongued, tricky, and Vitriolic Best Buds with...
Kate: Thor, The Protector of Midguard was assigned to protect the President and, aside from Gibbs, she was probably the toughest character before Ziva appeared. Kate did not die, she just went back to Asgard.
Ziva: Deadly dangerous, cold, beautiful, and her radio codename is usually Archangel. Do we even NEED to say Valkyrie? Chooser of the Slain indeed.
McGee: Bragi: Inspiration Poetry and Divination, his presence is the reason Everything Is Online. He's even a famous writer. And you know how for ages he had to go get the coffee? Sounds like mead of inspiration to me...
Ducky: a tricky one, Vakyrie is already covered for psychopomps and Hel was only goddess of the dishonered dead. But given he is the wise one in the basement, Gibbs confidant, and has to do with the handling of death, let's go with Mimir, guardian of the well of fate.
- Perhaps Jenny is Frigg, who allegedly knows the destiny of all, but never unveils it, but occasionally drops hints and perhaps her warnings to various characters were much deeper and insightful than anyone realizes, and like Kate she merely went back to Asgard.
- Alternately, Ziva could be Njord, who was came to live in Asgard after a long war, and who eventually became a trusted member of Asgard.
- And we never see her dead body.
- This was apparently a request on Lauren Holly's part - her sons watch the show - but that doesn't mean they can't use it for plot purposes.
- Thus, since we didn't definitively see her dead body, and we didn't see how Vance, Ziva, and Tony processed the scene before Gibbs arrived, perhaps there was a cover-up. It's not hard to imagine that Jenny wanted to fake her own death so that she could do her own investigating without the burden of another investigation into her activities as director. Perhaps moments after "Judgment Day Part I" faded out, Jenny sat up and explained things to Ziva and Tony, and gave them a big SHHH.
- And Mike Franks is the only person who knows Jenny's current whereabouts. Maybe.
- Didn't Jenny have a terminal illness and not long to live anyway? It was stated several times during that season.
- Ducky's in on it too! Because Jenny knew she couldn't hide her preparations for going underground from Gibbs, she distracted him with pretending she was dying of a fatal illness. We never DO find out what she's supposed to be dying from, and Ducky would have handled the autopsy personally like he did for Kate so no one else at NCIS would actually know.
- So, basically, what we have here is NCIS as a whole creating a conspiracy and leaving Gibbs out of the loop. Surely he'll be calm and understanding when he finds out.
- This has been the plot of many a Jibbs fanfic. No, he doesn't take it too well.
- Jenny's dead, and that's her eyeball. Now tell me, is that her father's Roaring Rampage of Revenge, or Jeanne Benoit's?
- We do see her body, in the reflection of some glass. She's dead.
- It's not a heavily publicized federal agency In-Universe. That might make it easier for a mole to get top secret intel once they burrowed in.
- And now the Los Angeles branch has been compromised: someone found out Callen's real identity and copied all of their case files from their mainframe. They seriously need to update their security protocols.
- Well there was that whole Riley McAllister thing. He wasn't exactly a mole but he was definitely a traitor and he was there for ages.
- There must still be a mole, because in "Pyramid" Tony is given a mission to flush out a suspected mole.
- I second this theory. She seemed much too personally pissed at Gibbs' entire method of investigating for it just to be because her boss told her to.
- And now that she's showing up in cases that have nothing to do with her boss...
- As a follow up to the above. Allyson Hart will have a 'My God, What Have I Done?' moment in the season finale or in the build up to it, and end up working for NCIS next season. She'll be the Cuddy Character to counter-balance Gibbs.
- There is another link between both series: Booth is the nephew of Gibbs. Based on the fact that Gibbs' father and Booth's grandfather are played by Ralph Waite playing practically the same role. Gibbs can't be Booth's father because Booth used to be beaten by his dad and Gibbs would rather kill himself than hurt a kid.
- Gibbs is an only child, so Booth can't be his nephew, but if Jackson has a twin brother (Booth's Gramps) than they could be cousins
- They don't talk about Gibbs' brother, due to the abusive bit
- Also, that warehouse manager from "One Shot, One Kill" is the long lost twin brother of Jack Hodgins. Sibling Yin-Yang is in effect because the warehouse manager has a lot more faith in the FBI than Hodgins does.
- This crossover would have to reveal that Cam has been in the witness relocation program, since she used to be NCIS agent Cassie Yates...
- Gibbs is an only child, so Booth can't be his nephew, but if Jackson has a twin brother (Booth's Gramps) than they could be cousins
- If FOX and CBS ever team up they could explore this under the guise of a murder at a Mystery Writers convention. After all both Brennan and McGee are writers. Heck, ABC could get in on the act and add Castle.
- I dunno about Castle, but Bones and NCIS seem to be just begging for a Crossover.
- I'd vote to throw Castle in the mix. They could be doing a joint book signing, which is how they meet, and then... Yeah, I'm going to stop before this stops being a theory and turns into a fanfic outline.
- Feel free. Meanwhile, this troper will simply sit in awe of the potential of David Boreanaz, Mark Harmon, and Nathan Fillion all leading an investigation together.
- I actually saw a prompt like that on the BBC Sherlock kinkmeme, with the addition of John Watson, of course. Sadly, it was prompted over a year ago and never filled.
- Well, since Angela's dad recently appeared on CSI: Miami...
- By that argument, one could claim that both CSI: Miami and Bones are non-fiction, as Billy Gibbons exists in Real Life too.
- Where does the wood go?
- Storage.
- Apparently the one named Diane just got lit on fire.
- Jossed by the fact that he gave the Kelly to Mike Franks.
- So he gives away his finished boats (or, if he can't find a person to take it, throws it away) because he has no interest in it after he finishes the construction?
- Or, if he's not already a spy, if/when he's rescued he'll be suffering from a bad case of Brainwashed and Crazy, More than Mind Control, or possibly just some Laser-Guided Amnesia.
- This entire theory is Jossed...* sniff*
- She's not a Reaper! She's immortal.
- She's not immortal! She's the Undead.
- She's not Undead! She's actually dead.
- She's not Angelic! She's still dead, though.
- She's not that dead! She's still very dead, though.
- She's not even that dead! But she ''is'' dead, though.
- She's not that dead either! She's just a little dead.
- She's very much dead. She's, luckily for her, mostly dead.
- She's not even really quite dead! Just a little.
- She's been dead for ages! But she never let that stop her.
- She's not dead and she never had been! Because she was never alive in the first place.
- She regenerated after being buried and escaped from her grave!
- She regenerated into Ziva!
- Ziva then regenerated into Bishop!
- She didn't die at all because she's been in witness protection and got a job as a medical examiner.
- She's not in witness protection, she was thrown through a time wound into the future!
- I personally think she'll die at some point.
- Because McGee would be the only one to get the reference, except maybe Abby. Not that Tony would need to get the reference.
- Who said it had to be a reference on Gibbs's part?
- He went the Salem Academy, the American magic school in the Potterverse.
- No, Gibbs broke the bottle. Just like those ships in bottles....Wait...that would mean that Gibbs took his house down. Yeah, it's not the other kind of bottle breaking that is revolved around ships.
- Alternatively, Gibbs fixed the boat with his most piercing glare and simply intimidated it out of the basement.
- Another theory I've seen is that he's a former companion of The Doctor and every time he finishes a boat he calls his old friend up and they use the TARDIS to get it out.
- A fanfic (''Famous Last Words'') provides a more mundane solution (for a certain definition of "mundane"): he uses explosives to blow out the concrete floor of his garage, creating a hole into his basement, and uses a rented hydraulic lift to raise it out of the basement through that hole.
- No, Gibbs broke the bottle. Just like those ships in bottles....Wait...that would mean that Gibbs took his house down. Yeah, it's not the other kind of bottle breaking that is revolved around ships.
- His mother, grandmothers, great-grandmothers. All it actually requires is having a redhead SOMEWHERE in the family tree.
- Perhaps, but this theory is that it was his mom.
- As of the 200th episode, we know know for fact that Gibbs' mother was a redhead, and a pretty one at that.
- Perhaps, but this theory is that it was his mom.
Further to this, in a Much Wilder Mass Guess, Gibbs may have inherited the condition that made his mother deaf, based on his statement, when asked if he was deaf or stupid, that he's "a little of both".
- Possibly one of his ex-wives was deaf.
- No, the eye has been confirmed as belonging to CIA agent Trent Kort.
- ...it's almost certainly about Agent Mitchell, who was the leak.
- I'd say the leak is Agent EJ Barrett, given that she removed some sort of nanochip device from her partner's arm once he was dead. Even if she's not selling/leaking it, it does raise the question of how she even knew it was there. Hence Tony's reaction to the file, seeing as he's dating her.
- Jossed, as the man in the file is explicitly a man. In between Seasons 8 and 9, Tony will have killed him.
- Unlikely, given the ratings. The only thing that would stop the show now would be one of the main actors leaving (and even that could be covered, as we saw with Kate)
- Jossed, just got renewed for season 10.
- Nope. we know what the G stands for now. The boats are still a mystery
- Huh? When did we find that out? I didn't see that in the newest episode! Either I missed something or you are very misinformed.
- Not sure what they're talking about, the closest thing to a reveal of Callen's name that I can recall is his grandfather's name was Gerald.
- Revealed that Callen's full name is Grisha Aleksandrovich Nikolaev-Callen in season 7, or at least, his first name. The remaining bits of his name is revealed in bits and pieces after that.
- While he could possibly be Batman, he most certainly is not the Goddamn Batman, since he isn't a hobo named Crazy Steve.
- No, Gibbs is Superman!
- So they're making Tony and Ziva the Harm and Mac of this series? That actually makes a lot of sense. Both Harm and Tony had many interests who went bust. They also had a relationship which ended with the death of the woman they liked. Ziva, like Mac, enjoyed a few relationships with similar guys. Both had a relationship with a non-American who loved them and went to great lengths for the, Mic the Aussie and Michael. Both then moved onto a CIA man, Clayton and Ray. I wonder if they will debate on who will quit by flipping a coin like in the JAG series finale.
- It is hinted rather heavily that the UST between Tony and Ziva has been resolved quite a while ago, and that they are just keeping up appearances. It doesn't break this theory, but it will soften the emotional impact if the ending is "they were a couple all along, but they just kept it a secret."
- But the obvious reason they AREN'T an explicit on-screen couple is because the writers know the Will They or Won't They? of Ziva and Tony's relationship is a big contributor to the great character dynamic of the show, and they'd risk Shipping Bed Death if they resolved it before the end of the series.
- It is hinted rather heavily that the UST between Tony and Ziva has been resolved quite a while ago, and that they are just keeping up appearances. It doesn't break this theory, but it will soften the emotional impact if the ending is "they were a couple all along, but they just kept it a secret."
- Don't know what Ziva's up to but Tony's currently attempting to pursue a relationship with someone he knew from when he was a cop.
- I think if she really as a Spark she'd be inventing or at least improving her devices on her own like Angela.
- The episode in question will have a large amount of meta-humor. And McGee will have to go undercover as his "Gemcity" persona again to get into a famous person party.
- That would be U.N.C.L.E., not MI-6.
- Gibbs tells Kate in the Season 2 episode Meat Puzzle that Ducky looked like Illya Kuryakin when he was a young man, but it's never explicitly stated that Illya Kuryakin was a character on a TV show, so, in-universe, Kuryakin could have been a well-known exposed spy.
- Ducky's history is largely a mystery, so, really, it's possible. And so was Illya's. His backstory was never explored in any detail on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; even the first-season episode in which it's strongly implied that Illya holds a commission in the Soviet Navy could be a Red Herring.
- If one takes the 1983 TV movie "The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E." as canon, rather than having been exposed as per the above speculation, Illya resigned from U.N.C.L.E. in high dudgeon over the death of an innocent in a mission several years after the series' end, and decided to dabble in fashion design as getting as far away from the world of espionage and law enforcement as he could. He rejoined the organization for a while in the 1980's, but left again, took up a new scientific interest (forensic and pathological medicine), changed his name, became a naturalized U.S. citizen and eventually joined NCIS.
- This could mean that the mysterious enemy behind everyone's problems is THRUSH.
- In addition, Tony's father is actually Alexander Mundy. He and Ducky each politely refuse to recognize one another from a few (undocumented) crossings of paths during their earlier careers.
- It's how he gets the boats out.
- It's how he catches up to every bad guy by taking the long way.
- It's how he moved from the hill where he sniped the terrorists to the building, about half a mile away, in twenty seconds.
- They'd already slept in the same bed before, so the awkwardness probably wouldn't be that high. Telling other people though might cause unwanted attention of Did They or Didn't They when they probably didn't for the viewers' sake of keeping up the UST.
- Since they both asked why the other lied at the end of the episode, it is heavily implied that they shared the bed.
- The boats. He gets them out with his powers, and he does carpentry as a Homage and to experience creation rather than destruction.
- The fact that his gut is always right, even when all the other characters have been wrong at one time or another. He already knows who the murderer is in any given case; he just can't let it be known until proof is found.
- Being able to cross a mile in less than two minutes without any fatigue- in a desert, clad in full combat gear, carrying a sniper rifle, while being over the age of 50.
- He became the Angel of Death after taking his revenge for the deaths of his family. The position is an acknowledgement of his will to protect people and punishment for the sin of taking judgement into his own hands.
- Gibbs is grooming Tony and/or Ziva to be his replacement once he moves on.
- Ducky knows what Gibbs is and helps him keep it hidden. Why else would a cornor be one of his friend? They're co-workers in a company besides NCIS.
- OP here: I'm going to put a Jossed on this myself, and be on my way out.
- And that would be sad. And that would lead to the show's catastrophic meltdown. And that's terrible.
- Jossed. He left after Ziva's death to raise their child.
- Alternate suggestion: since CBS is working on a new NCIS spin-off set in New Orleans, and Abby is a New Orleans native, she may consider transferring to the new show.
So what? Well if you've watched the Columbo films, you'd know that he'd made the news multiple times over his career- he was already regarded as a top detective when the series began, some of his cases made Los Angeles news, his case aboard the cruise ship made national Mexican newspapers, and the incident from "Columbo Cries Wolf" made major international news. Lt. Columbo is a major celebrity amongst law enforcement, so it's not unlikely that McGee would know who the man is.
Perhaps the production staff was hoping for Peter Falk to make a cameo by name dropping Columbo in such a manner? It didn't happen as Falk's health was already in bad shape by then, and he died a few years ago.
- Half-confirmed. The shot wasn't meant to kill Fornell, or to save him: it was meant to save other people. The shot was aimed at a cell phone that was set to trigger a bomb nearby, and was located just a little past Fornell's rear. Fornell complains loudly about being Shot in the Ass - the bullet grazed him when it went past - afterward.
- Not quite but still a brilliant call and still might end up being confirmed.
- Jossed
- And there was an episode where she really was up a tree — and not, as McGee insisted, up a creek.
- Possibly confirmed; in "Cabin Fever," Vance, McGee, and DiNozzo suspect this, stating that it's the best explanation for his hatred of Gibbs. However, given Mishnev's death, it's never said for certain.
- Jossed: Mishnev dies in "Cabin Fever."
- Jake is the "regular channel" version of Sgt. Brody (not to be confused with NCIS: New Orleans' Agent Brody) from Homeland: straight-laced-looking Fake American in US intelligence escapes deadly situation after being turned by the enemy (before the blast, obviously, unless the cabdriver threatened his loved ones during the ride).
- Related to the above, Jake didn't have an affair—his confession sounded very fake and rehearsed, IMO. The woman Ellie saw him with was indeed reprimanding him. He told her he was cheating so that she'd get angry and dump him, but ultimately be safe from whoever was threatening him.
- DiNozzo seems to leave the door open for this in his dialogue, talking about how Ziva "loves Paris" (note the choice of verb tense).
- Tony's dad visited him and Tali in Paris, and never mentioned Ziva. Unless Tony swore him to secrecy (even from Team Gibbs), this may be Jossed.
- Alternatively, they may have simply decided that Senior can't keep the secret and so kept it from him when he visited. Rule 4 says that the best way to keep a secret is to keep it to yourself or one other person IF YOU MUST, and it would be entirely fitting to have Ziva applying the rules to her life, considering that Gibbs told her early on that his job was to teach them to her.
- Tony's dad visited him and Tali in Paris, and never mentioned Ziva. Unless Tony swore him to secrecy (even from Team Gibbs), this may be Jossed.
- Hinted at in "She" where an unknown woman fulfilled one of Ziva's promises and left a note telling Ellie not to reveal her existence.
- Amazingly, in all four years of the Trump Presidency, the subject never comes up once.