NCIS 1000th Episode Disrespects Gibbs’ Inaugural Team By Snubbing Two Original Character

Warning! Spoilers ahead for NCIS’ 1000th episode.

NCIS‘ 1000th episode celebrates the franchise’s history, but it fails to include two important members from Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ original team. Even after years since Mark Harmon left the show, his impact looms large in the universe, especially in the mothership series. Alden Parker has already taken over his old spot and is doing a great job leading the new squad, but Gibbs will unlikely be replaced as the poster character of the show. While NCIS has never forgotten to pay tribute to him, the 1000th episode ignoring some of his original members is a disservice to his legacy.

For its milestone offering, NCIS‘ 1000th episode titled “A Thousand Yards,” sees Director Leon Vance getting shot and the agency subsequently being under attack from an unknown suspect. As it turns out, the perpetrator is the disillusioned daughter of the sleeper agent from NCIS‘ pilot episode, “Yankee White.” While no agent from that case is still with the agency, the return of ex-FBI liaison, Tobias Fornell gives Parker’s team the first-hand knowledge they need to crack the case. In the end, the surviving Vance tells his son the importance of his work over a montage of some of NCIS‘ biggest moments.

NCIS 1000th Episode Montage Tribute Ignores Ducky And Abby

Ducky And Abby Had Been Part Of Gibbs’ Team Since JAG.

While the NCIS‘ 1000th episode cannot bring all integral characters back, it is able to honor them through several flashback scenes. For the mothership show, there are snippets of Gibbs, Tony DiNozzo, Caitlin Todd, Ziva David, and Eleanor Bishop, as well as active agency members, Tim McGee and Jimmy Palmer. Oddly, however, it snubs Ducky Mallard and Abby Sciuto — two members of Gibbs’ inaugural team when NCIS premiered in 2003. In fact, their services predated the police procedural, as they were introduced in JAG. Sadly, there is no official reason for their exclusion.

Why Snubbing Ducky And Abby Hurts NCIS’ 1000th Episode

Gibbs’ Relied So Much On Ducky And Abby’s Work.

Since Ducky and Abby were part of NCIS‘ original team, it was absolutely imperative that they were included in the montage. That being said, that isn’t even the worst part of it. “A Thousand Yards” case prompts the team to look back at their history as their foe knows about it, hence why the deaths of Todd and former NCIS director Tom Morrow are re-examined. Ignoring Abby and Ducky while incorporating the events of “Yankee White” in the NCIS‘ 1000th episode is a massive disservice to their legacy because both of them were vital in cracking that case.

Granted that it was Gibbs who was aboard Air Force One and stopped the sleeper agent’s assassination plan, but he wouldn’t have been able to figure that out without the information from Ducky’s autopsy and Abby’s lab tests. Subsequently, this had been the case throughout the majority of Gibbs’ tenure in NCIS. Despite his frosty demeanor, Abby and Ducky were the two members of the team that he was always mellow with because he knew of their softer (albeit not weak) personalities. NCIS couldn’t have taken that much time to include a snippet of them in the tribute scene.