NCIS Season Finale Recap Season 7, Episode 24 – The title of NCIS Season is “Rule Fifty-One” and it reads, “Sometimes you’re wrong.” Gibbs wrote this rule on the back of Rule 13 which reads, “never, ever involve a lawyer.”

From tenet 13 to 51, we can see that a lot has changed in Gibbs’ life since 13 as we see his late wife reading Rule 44 in a flashback. It also appears that Gibbs has a new fan in one time adversary, Margaret Allison Hart, the lawyer for now-deceased Colonel Merton Bell.

I had read the spoilers and thought that Mike Franks might have been done so it was nice to see him at the end. I had also heard there would be some serious violence and I immediately started wondering about the fate of those like Abby, McGee and DiNozzo since they have yet to sign on for next season.

I was also worried about the fate of my cast t-shirt for the very same reason.

The one thing I was THRILLED about was that Gibbs did not ask Abby to compromise her principles in regards to submitting her case report about Pedro Hernandez. Yes, Gibbs seems to be leading a somewhat hypocritical life in that he killed a drug dealer to avenge the death of his family and then decided to become a cop, but he is steadfastly loyal to those who respect and believe in him and won’t ask for more in order to deceive people for his own gain.

While this cliff-hanger drama didn’t really surprise us (don’t tell tell me you didn’t know Alejandro Rivera and Paloma Reynosa were siblings or that you didn’t see Paloma walking into Jack Gibbs’ store as soon as the threat was dropped on Jethro,) it left us with loose ends that will need to be cleared up.

First, of course, is the capture of Paloma. Will Jack be safe? Seeing as how Abby suddenly found herself with a body guard, you can bet Dad did, too. It isn’t nice to mess with Family Gibbs. Plus, it appears as there was a time jump as one minute, DiNozzo is in Director Vance’s office and the next, he’s in Mexico, so anything could have been put into play for protecting Jack Gibbs.

Will Jethro be brought up on charges for the assassination of Pedro Hernandez? Sure, but I don’t think the story arc will get dragged on for more than 3 or 4 episodes. His new lawyer friend thinks it’s a winnable case.

Will Mike Franks be successful in completing DiNozzo’s mission to, ‘observe and report’? Knowing Franks as we do, more than likely, especially since he probably still feels he owes Jethro for what happened to Jenny Shepard.

Are we supposed to be worried about Ducky’s mental health? I wouldn’t put too much weight on this one. His blank moment was a nice catalyst for a warm David McCallum spotlight monologue and those are always welcome.

In the end, no fireworks in the NCIS season 7 finale like when Ziva was captured (btw – congrats to Ziva on her new citizenship!) or when Agent Caitlin Todd was killed (that one still sticks with me,) but there’s enough of a mystery to bring us back next Fall.

Like we would go anywhere else.