‘NCIS: LA’: Deeks’ Gibbs Reference Explained
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for NCIS: Los Angeles Season 13 Episode 19 “Live Free or Die Standing.”]
Compared with other shared universes, NCIS crossovers are very rare. And so it was especially surprising when on NCIS: Los Angeles, Marty Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen, who wrote the episode, which was directed by Daniela Ruah) referenced Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon, who exited NCIS earlier this year).
As Kensi Blye (Ruah) and Deeks learned from Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) upon arriving to work, they’d all received envelopes they could only open when everyone was there. (The three of them and Caleb Castille’s Devin Rountree ended up being enough.) Inside was a check for $10,000 — which they had to spend and couldn’t put in the bank — and a letter from Eric Beale (Barrett Foa): “In Silicon Valley, we are all drowning in data that we parade as knowledge, power’s confused with respect and success with happiness. I miss you guys and by sharing my wealth, I hope things brings us both happiness.” He’d also donated the same amount to their favorite charities.
After reading it, Deeks commented, “Maybe he was inspired by Gibbs.” Earlier this season on NCIS, in “Pledge of Allegiance,” Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) and Dr. Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) received $10,000. (Wilmer Valderrama‘s Nick Torres and Katrina Law‘s Jessica Knight did not.) Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) explained that they were the newest members of the Leroy Jethro Gibbs College Scholarship Club. He, too, received the same sum, and there was no use trying to give it back.
“It’s in memory of his daughter Kelly,” the director explained. “When she was young, he started a college fund. When she died, Gibbs never closed the account. In fact, he kept adding to it. Since then, he’s helped a lot of agents’ families. Kids all going to college in Kelly’s honor.”
But this leads to the question of how Deeks would have known about that, given the limited crossovers between the two shows, unless it became public knowledge in NCIS circles following McGee and Palmer receiving those deposits. Or maybe Deeks and Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly, who left NCIS after Season 13) — or Kensi and Tony — stayed in touch after his visit to L.A. in “Blame It on Rio”?
Whatever the case, this is just the latest in a long line of Gibbs’ references in the shared universe following Harmon’s exit. He has, of course, been mentioned numerous times on NCIS, and over on the newest spinoff, Hawai’i, we learned that Jane Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) worked with Gibbs (and Tony) and impressed him, and his rules came up during the recent crossover.
NCIS: Los Angeles, Sundays, 9/8c, CBS
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J
Did Beale even work with Rountree that much?? And what about Kilbride? I thought he got an envelope too, but Beale barely worked with him at all.
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C
Beale and Rountree worked together for at least 12 months But for me it wasn't so much about who got the cheques, and why. It was just so un-team-like of them to completely disregard Beales wishes and one sole directive which was to ensure that everyone in the team was present *before* opening their letters.
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J
I realized that Beale & Roundtree did work together to some degree, but my main point is that Eric was (apparently) sending money to people that I don't think he would have sent money to. The stipulation that all parties be present before opening was trivial and unimportant.
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G
While it came a little bit out of nowhere for LA (Though there have also been two recent mentions of MTAC at NCIS-HQ), I very much hope it's a sign of possible future things to come. At the NCIS Universe panel at Paleyfest last month, all three shows were asked about the possibility of a 3-way crossover event in the coming season. And all the showrunners at least said they wouldn't be opposed to it, it just comes down to logistics.
Regardless of if the characters have changed over since the shows last met up, they still belong to the same agency. It makes sense that they could have an idea of things going on at the other offices.
Honestly, I think CBS has just realized how behind the other networks they were on making these things happen since the other big franchises seem to do at least one per year (Fox with the 9-1-1s, NBC with the Chicago Shows, ABC with anything connected to Grey's Anatomy, and the CW and the shows in their Arrowverse). For a franchise with nearly 1000 episodes to its name (If we add JAG to the count, it's OVER 1000!), this should have been a thing LONG before now!
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O
Does no one remember the movie where Harmon becomes
Olsen’s stepdad?
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J
I sure don't. What movie was that?
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O
It's a film called Local Boys. It came out in 2002.
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R
I am always kind of amazed when the title of the article is just plain false. Nothing was "explained". There were theories put forth, but a theory is not an explanation.
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P
If you are a NCIS fan, it wasn’t out of the blue. Love NCIS and NCIS LA.
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C
Am I the only one who was annoyed that out of all the people to leave out of what should have been a special Team bonding moment, they chose to leave out their veteran Team Leader and very special Agent Callen? How appallingly rude and disrespectful.
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T
Don't see the point of the reference. This show has basically been as apart from OG NCIS as it gets since Season 7, and the only team member that's still around from the 2 part backdoor pilot alllll the way back in 2009 is Mcgee. Trying to make this show be an actual part of the Mothership again would more or less make almost zero sense now.
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O
I guess after all this time they feel that they can use poetic license !!
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