NCIS Season 12: new episode Blast From the Past episode hails Season 1

By Mike Valdez | February 27, 2015

NCIS went old-school in more ways than one with the new Season 12 episode Blast From The Past, which was centered around the mysterious resurfacing of one of Agent Gibbs’ decades-old fake identities. It opened the door for the cast to discuss the days in which the agency was still called NIS, and to dig into Gibbs’ professional past. But the episode went far beyond that, and ended up evoking some of the feel of the show from back in its Season One days.

There was the cameo from the original boss, who still pops into the storyline now and then as a current DHS official. But the throwbacks went far deeper. Timothy McGee, who has long since evolved into a more world-aware veteran agent, was suddenly back to being naive enough to think he could get the technology-averse Gibbs to switch to a smartphone, and old theme from back when the latter had trouble with even his flip-phones. There was Tony DiNozzo showing off his movie obsession when he learned that Ellie Bishop had just seen Top Gun for the first time. And there was Abby talking about her tattoos again.

It’s not that any of these NCIS character aspects have completely faded away by Season 12. Rather it’s that Blast From The Past made a point of re-emphasizing them, in a specific attempt to evoke the feeling of the show from its earliest days. And for a show that has usually earned its pull by being snappy fun even as it indulges in serious crime investigations and action sequences, it was precisely the right note to hit.

Perhaps most tellingly, the retro themes of the episode didn’t feel like an out-of-place stunt. Rather it was a reminder that, even as the characters have evolved over twelve years, the show hasn’t lost its sense of whimsy.