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‘NCIS’ Season 17 Episode 9 promo shows petty officer murdered wearing online game mascot costume, Gibbs babysits Phineas

Season 17 of 'NCIS' has focussed on Gibbs' personal life more than previous seasons. In earlier episodes, Gibbs had been guiding the boy, from teaching him to play baseball to helping him build a miniature volcano for a school science project

It's game-time in more than one way in 'IRL', the upcoming episode 9 of season 17 of 'NCIS'. The team has to figure out why a petty officer was murdered and why the killing was live-streamed on an online gaming app.

As per the promo, when the team finds the dead body, it is wearing the online game mascot's teddy bear head. The case will need Tim McGee's (Sean Murray) geek knowledge for insight into what might have happened.

Leroy Gibbs (Mark Harmon) however will be preoccupied with another job -- that of babysitting his 11-year-old neighbor, Phineas (Jack Fisher), when his mother has to go out of town on short notice. Will Gibbs be up to the task?

The episode will explore Gibbs' parenting style as he confiscates all of Phineas’ digital screen devices and asks him to “grab your gear” when it is time to go to school. Season 17 of 'NCIS' has focussed on Gibbs' personal life more than previous seasons -- from his will-they-won't-they dance with Jacqueline "Jack" Sloane (Maria Bello), to his sudden disappearance in last week's episode to take care of Emily Fornell, his ex-wife's daughter, to him bonding with Phineas.

Let's not even get into the father-daughter relationship Ziva and he shares that will be explored in the mid-season finale December 17. For now, he is playing the main male role model in Phineas' life, who has appeared in two episodes this season.

One, in episode 5 'Wide Awake' and two, episode 7 'No Vacancy'. In both episodes, Gibbs has been involved in guiding the boy, from teaching him to play baseball to helping him build a miniature volcano for a school science project.  

The upcoming episode will also be the last episode to be aired in the next few weeks. There will be no new episodes on December 3 or 10. We will join the NCIS team again December 17 for the final episode of 2019, which will feature the return of Ziva David (Cote de Pablo). 

Check out the promo for the upcoming episode below:

'NCIS' airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. only on CBS.