‘NCIS’: How Gibbs’ Absence Affects a Major Decision for Kasie (RECAP)

Meredith Jacobs November 29, 2021, 10:00 pm

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NCIS

Peaekeeper

Season 19 • Episode 8

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Collective Memory

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for NCIS Season 19 Episode 8 “Peacekeeper.”]

Mark Harmon’s last on-screen appearance may have come in the fourth episode of NCIS Season 19, but four episodes later, and his absence is very much felt — especially by forensic scientist Kasie Hines (Diona Reasonover).

For nine weeks, Kasie’s been going to Krav Maga classes, a fact that she doesn’t share until the case leads agents Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) and Alden Parker (Gary Cole) to the same gun salon she’s attending. Yes, she’s maybe in the market for a gun, she admits to Knight. (We love their friendship, especially since it makes us think of Abby and Kate’s in the early seasons.)

It’s been on her mind, she admits, since the serial-turned-contract-killer Paul Lemere (Jason Wiles) held her hostage in “Nearly Departed,” which came after she and Brian Dietzen’s Dr. Jimmy Palmer were hostages in the diner in Season 17’s “Blarney,” (Considering how serious both situations were and the circumstances surrounding them — plus the fact that not much time has passed between them and the nature of her job, which doesn’t put her in danger all the time — this isn’t too surprising.) She though that “brush with mortality” didn’t affect her, but it did. After hearing about the gun salon, she was curious, but having a gun on the nightstand, “it’s there to keep me safe, but maybe it just reminds me of what I’m afraid of,” she tells Knight.

But it’s to Palmer that she opens up about why she’s really considering buying a gun now. She does wonder WWGS (What Would Gibbs Say?). “I think he would say take a breath, you can be conflicted while still shopping,” he says. The medical examiner doesn’t own a gun because of the bullets he’s pulled from people over the years. Kasie’s leaning towards Palmer’s side, but she’s afraid. “Both times I was saved by Gibbs, meaning it’s on me when strike three happens,” she explains. She was never worried before. Palmer suggests she just needs more time to heal.

Robert Voets/CBS

Kasie then turns to Parker for his perspective. He’s never wished he didn’t have a gun, but there are people he wishes didn’t. Her uncle shot an intruder once and it haunted him for the rest of his life, she shares. She doesn’t know how any of that will help her get back to normal.

So what happens when Knight takes Kasie to the shooting range at the end of the episode? “It feels better than I thought it would,” Kasie says, but she’s not getting a gun. “I’m cool. I wouldn’t mind coming back to blow off steam every now and then.”