The eleventh season of the police procedural drama NCIS premiered on September 24, 2013, in the same time slot as the previous seasons, Tuesdays at 8 pm.[1]
Special Agent Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), departs during the season with her final appearance being in "Past, Present and Future".[2] Also introduced NSA Analyst Eleanor "Ellie" Bishop to become NCIS Probationary Special Agent, loaned to NCIS on Joint Duty Assignment. The episode "Crescent City (Part I)", which aired on March 25, 2014, serves as the first of a two-part backdoor pilot of a second spin off from NCIS called NCIS: New Orleans based in New Orleans.
Cast
Main
Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, NCIS Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) of the Major Case Response Team (MCRT) assigned to Washington's Navy Yard
Emily Wickersham as Eleanor "Ellie" Bishop, NCIS Probationary Special Agent and Former NSA Analyst, loaned to NCIS on Joint Duty Assignment (episodes 9–24)
On February 1, 2013, CBS renewed NCIS for this season.[3] The same date Mark Harmon extended his contract on the show with a new "multiyear deal" with CBS.[4] It was announced on July 10, 2013, that Cote de Pablo, who plays Ziva David, had chosen not to return for the eleventh season as a regular. She will appear in enough episodes to close out her character's storylines.[2]
Because of de Pablo's exit, showrunner Gary Glasberg had to change his planned storyline for season 11. "Someone asked me if I was planning for this, but I really wasn't, so basically the minute that this became real, I had to throw out a lot of what I was planning to do and start from scratch".[5] Glasberg has stated that there will be rotating characters coming to fill Ziva's role.
The theme for the season is "unlocking demons", both figurative and literal according to Glasberg. A "pretty interesting adversary" about the theme will be introduced, and "that will carry through the season".[6]
Casting
Colin Hanks returned for the premiere episode as Defense Department investigator Richard Parsons, a character introduced at the end of the tenth season,[7] while Marina Sirtis returned in the second episode as Mossad Director Orli Elbaz. Joe Spano also reprised his role as Senior FBI Agent Tobias C. Fornell in the first two episodes. Muse Watson (as Mike Franks) appeared in the fourth episode. Ralph Waite (as Gibbs' father Jackson Gibbs) and Robert Wagner (as Tony's father Anthony DiNozzo, Sr.) are also confirmed to return.[8]Diane Neal reprises her role CGIS Special Agent Abigail Borin in episode six "Oil & Water".
The second episode includes a character named Sarah Porter, played by Leslie Hope, who is the new Secretary of the Navy,[9] while Margo Harshman has been cast in a potentially recurring role as Timothy McGee's girlfriend, Delilah Fielding.[10] The third episode introduces retiring NCIS Special Agent Vera Strickland (Roma Maffia) who has known Gibbs for many years.[11]
On August 13, 2013, "casting intel" on a new female character named Bishop was published, with filming scheduled to mid-October.[12] Bishop is described as a "twentysomething female[;] bright, educated, athletic, attractive, fresh-faced, focused and somewhat socially awkward. She has a mysterious mixture of analytic brilliance, fierce determination and idealism. She's traveled extensively, but only feels comfortable at home." Emily Wickersham was cast to play the character, named NSA Analyst Ellie Bishop.[13][14][15] Wickersham was promoted to the main cast, two weeks prior of her debut appearance.[16] Her first appearance is in episode nine, "Gut Check".[17]
A hotel bomb explodes killing Secretary of the Navy Clayton Jarvis and injuring Tom Morrow, with the NCIS team discovering that someone is trying to take them down one by one. Gibbs heads to Tehran to meet with an informant, while Tony books a flight to Tel Aviv to be with Ziva. He is ready to leave when attacked by a sniper. McGee tries to solve the mystery of the bomb's origins.
The team must seek assistance from Twitter in help to find a missing Navy lieutenant. Gibbs’ old friend temporarily joins the team for the case. Meanwhile, McGee somehow loses his badge.
Upon discovering a connection to an Afghan women's shelter that deceased Agent Mike Franks has supported for years, Gibbs and McGee travel to Afghanistan to investigate.
DiNozzo returns to his Baltimore Police Department days when he sees a felony suspect from a 15-year-old case at the NCIS crime scene of a murdered petty officer.
A suspicious explosion on board an oil rig has NCIS partnering up with the Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS), most notably CGIS Agent Abigail "Abby" Borin. Meanwhile, a mysterious prankster is targeting the NCIS team and no-one is safe from them.
The team comes to investigate the death of a Marine sergeant who was apparently killed trying to stop a robbery attempt in a clothing shop. Police call Gibbs as his father has had a motor accident, his father wants Gibbs to accompany him to meet a dying man who saved his life during world war 2.
The team goes out to investigate a fatal hit and run near Quantico. The prime suspect has an alibi, which he will not disclose to NCIS: he was murdering someone else at the time.
The Secretary of the Navy was discovered to have been bugged during a confidential meeting, and the team works with NSA Analyst Eleanor "Ellie" Bishop (Emily Wickersham) to find the person responsible.
The team investigate the death of a Marine and discover a link between the current boyfriend of Diane Sterling, Gibbs and Tobias Fornell's ex-wife. NSA agent Ellie Bishop struggles to adjust to being a member of the NCIS team.
The holiday mood is ruined when the team is called up by the Naval Medical Research Center and CDC to investigate a potential bioterrorist threat after eight children from Navy and Marine families are hospitalized in the ICU with similar symptoms. The team finds out the outbreak is not a deliberate attack: a returning serviceman accidentally acted as a carrier for a rare African disease, which can be treated once diagnosed. Meanwhile, Vance receives a visit from his deceased wife's father, who he bears a grudge for abandoning his wife when she was young.
A stolen drone is later revealed to be linked to the elusive terrorist, Benham Parsa, forcing the team to join forces with the Department of Defense which brings the team back into contact with retired Lt. Colonel Hollis Mann who is also Gibbs' ex-girlfriend. As such, both teams must track down and recover the device before it is used for a large scale attack. Meanwhile, McGee is struggling with the possibility of asking for time off as he wants to attend a black-tie gala honoring his girlfriend Delilah Fielding.
In an attempt to find the terrorist Parsa, Gibbs and the team track down one of Parsa's minions using evidence from his drone attack (in the previous episode) while McGee is left struggling to come to terms with what happened at the black-tie gala evening. While the team fails to catch Parsa, they do get a clue on where he might have gone.
The murder of a port authority officer reveals Parsa's possible whereabouts, as the team continues their tireless hunt. Meanwhile, Bishop reveals her past association with the elusive terrorist.
The team examine a crash and soon discover bulletproof vests associated with the United States Marine Corps but the investigation takes a turn after Abby's tests determine that the supposedly safe vests are actually faulty.
After meeting his father, DiNozzo confronts a man dressed as a Navy commander. The man runs and is followed by DiNozzo who ultimately shoots and kills him. The only witness is DiNozzo's father.
The speakers explode in the dressing room of a military charity event, but the team realize someone else was targeted deliberately after finding shrapnel from a World War II-era Mark 24 warhead and that it was accidentally triggered earlier than the intended time of detonation. Meanwhile, Jimmy Palmer prepares to become a father and Tony received an unwanted task from his father.
A Congressman is found murdered in New Orleans, Gibbs and his team join forces with Fornell's FBI team and the local NOLA field office. Gibbs reunites with long-time compatriot and friend NCIS Special Agent Dwayne "King" Pride (Scott Bakula). With that, Gibbs and Eleanor Bishop head to New Orleans while DiNozzo and McGee stay in D.C. to work the case with Fornell. Things soon become personal as the Congressman was a former NCIS agent and their contemporary and his murder could possibly be linked to one of their old cases. The episode ends with Gibbs, Pride and Agents Meredith Brody (Zoe McLellan) and Christopher LaSalle (Lucas Black) standing in a square while from a hotel room, the unrevealed killer begins taking surveillance photographs of the NCIS team as Gibbs and Pride look on. This episode is the first part of the NCIS: New Orleans pilot.
Another victim is found in the wetlands, dead at least two weeks. His throat had been cut with a steel blade and jet fuel is found in tire tracks near his body. Abby calls Gibbs to say the jet fuel matched the fuel found on the car mats belonging to victim Agent Doyle. A suspect, believed to have been obsessed with Congressman McLane and the Privileged Killer case, is also found dead. Gibbs and Pride track the killer, the son of a McClane contributor, Spencer Hanlon (Drew Waters) to a military bar and a nearby cemetery, after Gibbs recalls marble dust also being found in Doyle's car. Gibbs and Pride later kill Hanlon who is in the process of attempting to murder Petty Officer Carla Meade. After solving this case, Pride and his team receive another one while Gibbs waits for Bishop in order to return home while Meredith Brody eventually becomes a permanent member of the NCIS: New Orleans team. This episode is the second part of the NCIS: New Orleans pilot.
When Delilah finds an encrypted email relating to the murder of a Navy lieutenant in Budapest, she is ordered to ignore it but instead she goes to Gibbs and NCIS opens an investigation. The team realizes that there may be more to the case when they run into a CIA operative tailing them. Meanwhile, McGee wants to take his relationship with Delilah further and asks her to move in with him.
A female Navy officer's rape is brought to light when one of her colleagues is accidentally killed in a bar. It turns out her executive officer was responsible for hers and several other rapes.
A Marine photographer who disappeared prior to his testifying at a court martial is later found dead of an apparent drug overdose. The team is confronted with the situation of homeless veterans in the DC area whom the photographer was documenting. During the case, Abby decides to help a homeless woman reconnect with her family.
Tony is assigned to escort Amanda, the daughter of the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from Marseille due to her extravagant partying ways, to only find all the employees and agents dead. He and Amanda find themselves on the run from a rogue French policewoman. The team back home work on a supposedly separate case involving a corpse found in a septic tank at Norfolk with a link to Amanda's father. Things become complicated when Tony discovers that Amanda's party-girl persona was a mere cover for her work with the Defense Clandestine Service.
As the team hunts escapees from Navy vessel which served as a classified detention site for indicted terrorists, Gibbs returns home after learning of the death of his father, Jackson, due to a stroke. The episode serves as a tribute to Jackson Gibbs' actor Ralph Waite, who died in February of 2014.
