NCIS - Stop the Bleeding (Season Premiere) - Review: "Things are changing"

NCIS returned with its 13th season last week. The season premiere picked up after the season 12 finale saw Gibbs getting shot in the leg and chest at the hands of Luke Harris.

And that's exactly where the episode kicks off. Gibbs is brought to an aircraft carrier, where he gets medical treatment from Dr. Cyril Taft, all while seeing Mike Franks saying "I told you so". Taft, a former chief trauma surgeon, is quite talkative while operating on Gibbs and even puts on some music. Not that Gibbs notices too much, since he is somewhere else in his dreams/subconscious. That somewhere else is in the NCIS office at first, but when Gibbs sees the Most wanted wall full of pictures with people he's lost, his daughter Kelly is there and takes him to a white light. The two end up on a beach, where they look at one of the good old days when Shannon and Kelly were still alive. Kelly tells her father he doesn't have good days anymore and that there are still people counting on him. Shortly thereafter, Kelly disappears and Gibbs' surgery is done.

Cut to four months later, and Gibbs returns to HQ while Tony and Joanna are still tracking down The Calling. That search takes them to Shangai, where one of Teague's contacts, CIA Officer Kenny Young, has received a tip on the location of Daniel Budd. After Budd once again calls Tony to taunt him, Tony, Teague and Young enter a warehouse where they find a bunch of children being used by The Calling. One of them is Luke Harris, whose distraction leads to one of the other children setting off explosives. The children make it out alive, while Luke has run to the roof. He feels guilty for shooting Gibbs, but Teague and Tony manage to convince him Gibbs has survived the shooting. Luke and Gibbs later make contact via a video call.

Meanwhile, in DC, the team makes every effort to back up Tony and Joanna, and Gibbs takes it matter in his own hands. He visits Matthew Rousseau and sticks his pen in Rousseau's hand to get some answers from him. However, Vance later informs Gibbs that Rousseau has hung himself, although Ducky later determines he was murdered. Also, an additional problem arises for our DC team when they are informed by the Secretary of Defense that North Korea is arming a nuclear warhead on a submarine. The signal is traced back to NCIS, specifically to the late Dorneget's laptop. However, Abby, McGee and Bishop deduce that his laptop was actually backdoored by Daniel Budd. McGee makes the signal disappear, while Budd has a meeting with the Chinese government to show what he's capable of. Tony waits for him outside, but Budd makes a run for it and shoots Young in the process. However, Tony and Budd face-off in an alley. Tony shoots Budd in the leg after the latter makes a 'threat' and, when Budd pulls a gun, Tony shoots him dead.

Afterwards, Luke is admitted to a halfway house, Teague gets her son's laptop and Tony asks Gibbs if they need to talk. Gibbs asks Tony what he would like to talk about before walking off to a meeting with Dr. Taft. Gibbs shares with him that he's still hurting, both physically from his knee and mentally from everybody thinking he will break. Taft in turn tells Gibbs about returning to work after his son died of leukemia, to which Gibbs responds that he's glad Taft is back at it. Taft isn't so sure about that, as he knows there are patients who revere him for saving their lives, and those who despise him for the same reason. Taft isn't sure which one Gibbs is and it looks like Gibbs himself doesn't know either. "Things are changing. I can't do it alone," Gibbs says, to which Taft answers that he has a team so he shouldn't be alone. But again, Gibbs isn't so sure about that.

This was a decent season premiere, though I have to say I didn't love it. I liked it all right, but there are various things that I didn't love about it. First of all, the four-month time jump felt weird and misplaced. I know the show always plays out in real time, but I wouldn't have minded if there would be a time jump between episodes 1 and 2. Now, it feels like we missed a whole lot of the storyline. Especially the way they dealt with The Calling in this episode felt rushed. Budd was taken down a bit too easily if you ask me, though I am happy that it was Tony who killed him. Besides that, there are still a dozen questions I have about The Calling that will probably never get answered. For example, why did they shoot Gibbs in the first place? What was the group trying to accomplish with all their terrorist attacks? What meeting did Budd have with the Chinese? What did he offer them and what did he want from the Chinese? Who killed Matthew Rousseau? Is there still a fraction of The Calling walking around? All these questions will likely never be answered. All in all, Daniel Budd and The Calling are pretty forgettable villains. I even liked Matthew Rousseau more than Budd.

Of course there was also quite some good stuff in this episode. Probably the best thing was the acting. Mark Harmon killed it in every scene he was in, from the conversation with daughter Kelly to the little chat with Dr. Taft. Speaking of which, Jon Cryer put in an excellent performance as Taft. Not only did he show a quirky doctor who uses humor in his operating room, but Cryer also showed the layers of Taft in the last scene with Gibbs. Cryer got an honorable mention in TVLine's Performer of the Week and I think that is totally deserved. I also liked that Tony stepped up in this episode and it was great seeing him work with Teague in Shangai. There is obviously a bit of tension between Gibbs and Tony and I am looking forward to seeing how that continues. The premiere set up that storyline nicely so now we can just watch how that unfolds.

What did you think of "Stop the Bleeding"? Did you enjoy the episode? How do you feel about the way they wrapped up The Calling storyline? What is your opinion on Gibbs' storyline? Do you agree that the acting was excellent in this episode? And lastly, how do you think the tension between Tony and Gibbs will unfold? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

About the Author - Daniel van der Veer

Daniel van der Veer is a Dutch university student studying Psychology. On SpoilerTV he is a reviewer of NCIS, The 100, Madam Secretary and Quantico. He also enjoys LOST, Arrow, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, Nikita, The Blacklist, Scorpion and How To Get Away With Murder.

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