NCIS fall finale recap: Who does the child belong to?

NCIS gets a case that throws their holiday plans off. What looks like a normal murder in the NCIS fall finale turns into a case that involves a baby.

Who does the child belong to? That’s the big question for the team in the NCIS fall finale. Just as it looks like they’re wrapping their last case before the holidays, but it’s soon jinxed thanks to Jack and Torres. When Gibbs comes in with a case, the team is called back out in the field.

At first, it looks like a basic case. When they head to the apartment of the suspected murderer, Vicious, and Bishop is shot at, the team find out that there’s a baby. Who is the mother? That’s something for the team to find out.

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A rite of passage for parents

While Kasie is able to confirm the blood on the knife found at the scene matches both the victim and the suspect, the case isn’t closed. The baby definitely doesn’t belong to the suspect, so now it’s time to find out who stole the baby.

Since it’s the holidays, social services keeps hanging up on Torres so he and Bishop decide to bring the baby back to HQ. Of course, McGee refuses to bond with the baby so he gets to see his own twins for the holiday, Gibbs has no interest in the baby, and Vance isn’t overly happy but does find the baby cute. It’s up to Bishop and Torres to play parents, going through the rite of passage for all parents: feeling inadequate; Jimmy’s word’s, not mine!

McGee heads off to his family, leaving the rest of the team to figure out what to do with the baby. Refusing to call social services, everyone ends up crashing at Gibbs’ house, giving Bishop and Torres a chance to talk about life and what’s left behind. However, it’s back on the case the following morning when they get more details about the case.

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Kasie gets a case close to her heart

When Kasie gets a look at the victim, Jerome, she goes quiet. The case brings up memories of the past. Her dad was a vet and nearly ended up homeless like Jerome. She feels a duty to make sure Jerome is buried with the Purple Heart he was awarded that’s gone missing.

While at the vet shelter, Kasie and Jimmy learn that Jerome had seen Vicious do something and was going to the police. While the vet with the info doesn’t know what Jerome saw, he does share where and when it happened.

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At HQ, the team (including McGee who unrealistically just booked a later flight because he couldn’t sleep — sorry, but as someone who flies a lot, it’s just not as simple as “I booked a later flight”) check out the security footage. The baby wasn’t stolen but sold and Jerome saw it. It doesn’t take long for the team to find the mother now they have her face on camera.

With that, they get to the bottom of the case. Vicious had bought the baby from one of his former clients to sell onto his lawyer, who had three adoptions fall through. The birth mother agrees to allow the original people who were going to adopt her baby to adopt him now thanks to a few wise words from Jack, who clearly gave up her daughter for adoption years earlier.

Kasie deals with the past

While NCIS deal with the case, Kasie deals with her own family issues. She admits that Jerome reminds her of her father, who turned out to be the first dead body she ever saw. They’d argued at Christmas when she mentioned quitting grad school and a month later he died of a heart attack. This is the first Christmas without him.

It’s no wonder she doesn’t want to go home for Christmas. Jimmy understands, but he also knows her mother and sister will be feeling bad, too. The chat with Jimmy is just what Kasie needs to encourage her to go home now that she’s faced feelings that she’s held in.

And it’s not just a happy ending for Kasie. The people who were originally going to adopt the baby get their Christmas miracle, hand-delivered by Bishop and Torres, who have definitely grown attached to the wee thing. Still nothing between them, but there are certainly sparks flying (as well as between Gibbs and Jack).

What did you think of the NCIS fall finale? Did the storyline play out as you expected? What did you think of Kasie’s emotional backstory? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

NCIS Season 16 has wrapped for 2018. It will return on Jan. 8, 2019. (Although NCIS tweeted the 4th, which is a Friday, so trying to figure that one out)