NCIS Season 7 Episode 23 recap revisited: Consequences of Gibb's past surface

NCIS Season 7, Episode 23, shifts the show’s tone into an immediate, visceral crime drama focusing on a character driven by decades of guilt. The episode masterfully titled ‘Patriot Down’, focuses on complex present-day murder which acts as a major red herring and a pivotal piece of Gibbs's personal past in Mexico.

The high-stakes murder mystery tragically ties into decades-old secret haunting the NCIS team's leader.

NCIS Season 7 Episode 23: the investigation begins with a shocking discovery

The episode opens with a flash-forward, tracing Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs on a beach in Mexico. Four days have passed since the main events, where he found the blood-soaked body of a man before a gun was put to his head. The man who stood behind him said,

“Welcome to Mexico, Agent Gibbs.”

We are then taken to a homicide investigation in Annapolis. The NCIS team is called to find the charred remains of a body in a BBQ pit, later identified as belonging to NCIS Special Agent Lara Macy.

Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard observes that the murder weapon was not just any knife but one used in military. Combined with the fact that Macy was an agent and the nature of violent wounds on her body, Gibbs strongly felt that the crime was not random.

Season 7 Episode 23: an emotional breakthrough

The initial investigation leads the team to Macy’s latest case: the assault of Navy Petty Officer Kaylen Burrows. Tyler Hammond, a privileged college student, his father, Randall Hammond, are the first to be suspected. Randall was a wealthy DC construction executive.

Consequent evidence confirms that both Randall and Tyler were guilty of assaulting Burrows. Things take a twist when the Hammonds, despite their heinous assault crime, were not Macy’s murderers. This discovery marked a crucial detour in the case.

Meanwhile, the plot now steers towards Gibbs and the past he thought he had left behind. Abby Sciuto is torn, having stumbled upon the cold case of Pedro Hernandez, a murder from two decades earlier in Mexico that links Gibbs to the unfolding chaos.

After Gibbs seems reluctant to revisit his past, Abby takes an emotional tour to convince him. She plays a recording of his late daughter, Kelly, speaking the word "Daddy," which finally melts his shell and makes him to confront his past.

Season 7 Episode 23: the shocking beach climax

As the NCIS team tracks down leads, they discover a net of conspiracies laid out by Colonel Merton Bell, to take down Gibbs. Director Vance, pushing Bell’s lawyer, M. Allison Hart, for answers, reveals how Bell has been keeping an eye on Gibbs for months.

He was collecting ciritcal informations on Gibbs. Finally the true killer is marked as Lt. Dean, a dishonorably discharged former officer and Bell's close associate.

This revelation brings the narrative full circle on the opening scene’s Mexico beach. With Dean holding him at gunpoint, Gibbs is stunned to discover that the bloody corpse he found was not Mike Franks, as widely assumed, but is actually Colonel Merton Bell himself.

Dean pistol-whips a Gibbs, leaving him knocked out and completely under threat. He was lying next to the headless corpse of the man who sought to destroy him. This chilling scene closes the questions on Macy's murder while simultaneously placing Gibbs in an entirely new, challenging arc.

The episode crafted a brilliant cliffhanger that ensured the fatal ramifications of Gibbs’s actions which would lead us onto the plot of the following season.

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Also read: NCIS Season 23 Episode 1 recap: Parker and team race to catch his father's killer

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