Review: 'NCIS' "Life Before His Eyes", It Makes You Think

Me and likely over 20 million others tuned in to see #NCIS200 (NCIS's 200th episode), and in my opinion it was well above average, it's all I can really say for the episode. No real big-bang with it, I was more interested in the case at hand and McGee's (Sean Murray) possible transfer than a "Gibbs-back" (Mark Harmon, flashback).

SPOILERS AHEAD, SKIP THIS IF YOU WANT TO:

In "Life Before His Eyes" (written by: Gary Glasberg, directed by: Tony Wharmby) Gibbs is shot in a cafe and everything freezes and with help from the late-great Mike Franks (Muse Watson), Gibbs flashes back to things and ponders how thing would go differently if:

He had protected deceased Special Agent Kate Todd (Sasha Alexander) from Ari Haswari (Rudolf Martin) - she would have lived and married DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) would just be some Israeli chick in a world of trouble instead of kick-ass Special Agent Ziva David.

Special Agent Gibbs (Mark Harmon, left) and deceased Mike Franks (Muse Watson, right) in the 200th NCIS episode, "Life Before His Eyes".

If Gibbs would have convinced his wife not to testify, she and their daughter would still be alive, though Gibbs would have likely died in combat since he would have stayed a Marine. If Gibbs hadn't killed the drug dealer that killed his family, Gibbs would have secluded himself from everyone.

Plus we see other past characters we've seen in previous flashbacks or episodes like: deceased NCIS director Jenny Shepard (Lauren Holly), Gibb's father Jackson Gibbs (Ralph Wiate) and Mark Harmon's own son Sean playing a younger Gibbs (which to be truthful, they look so much alike until it's not even funny).

Meanwhile the case at hand, NCIS has to deal with the typical dead Marine but the son of the suspect is the one with the shocker in this episode. At the end, it's discovered he shot Gibbs. At the end of the episode, McGee sticks with NCIS in D.C. and Gibbs returns to his job, and he wouldn't have it any other way. The NCIS credits thanking their fans for 200 episodes.

DONE WITH SPOILING.

As for "Life Before His Eyes", it's a good episode for Mark Harmon, we haven't seen him do his thing in a minute on NCIS, but me personally I like NCIS when they deal with the case at hand primarily and the personal drama is in a mix. This felt like an episode of House M.D. to me to see Gibbs in the "alive-dead" state. I could have done without that; Shane Brennan really needs to let someone else run NCIS: Los Angeles and return to the flagship NCIS. Next week's NCIS looks very stupid, "someone's killing superhero's", really?! 7/10 NCIS, could have been better but it's could have been worse; at least E.J. Barret (Sarah Jane Morris) wasn't in this episode.

NCIS airs Tuesdays 8PM/7c on CBS, only CBS.