'NCIS' Season 18 Episode 2: While Ducky and Gibbs found each other who was the one that got away?
While the 400th episode is all about celebrating the fabulous friendship between Ducky and Gibbs, like every 'NCIS' episode, there is a twist. The 400th episode will show exactly how these seemingly different personalities bonded but as far as 'meet cutes' go, it was a rocky one. In a sneak peek clip, we first see medical examiner Jimmy Palmer talking to Gibbs about a corpse on his table who has been identified as "Maurice Zuccato". As soon as Gibbs hears the surname, he is on high alert and he preempts Palmer's statement that he comes from "a family of bad guys". Palmer, curious about Gibbs' reaction, asks, "Do you know him?", to which Gibbs replied that he ran into a "cousin of his".
We then get a flashback to a much younger Gibbs (played by actor Mark Harmon's son Sean) who is told by an agent that he is very lucky to have survived an encounter with one of the four Zuccato cousins -- "Ringo" Zuccato. Turns out Gibbs ended up being locked in the trunk of his car but he managed to escape with his life because Ducky was driving on the wrong side of the road and had an accident with Ringo's car. Gibbs is obviously not with NCIS at this time but Ducky is. Gibbs offers to take out Ducky for drinks, bourbon to be precise, and it is the start of a beautiful friendship.
Gibbs also has a flashback to Ringo Zuccato's more dangerous cousin, Johnny Zuccato, as a younger man. In an advance spoiler-filled extended promo for the episode on Instagram, we see this Johnny Zuccato hold both the young Gibbs and Ducky hostage, threatening Gibbs with a gun and punching him in the face while Ducky flinches visibly in the background. At the start of this promo, we see the older Ducky ask the older Gibbs if he thought they would "ever see that face again" to which Gibbs replies, "I was hoping not," after Kasie Hines pulls up evidence that Johnny is involved in a fresh murder case in the present.
The much older Johnny Zuccato, the murderer who "got away", taunts Gibbs with the line, "you didn't get me 40 years ago and you won't get me now". Gibbs however looks determined to right the wrong as he says that they can get him for murder because he has come out of hiding. This means that the murder case that Gibbs and Ducky met on was committed by Johnny who escaped and this unfinished business is something Ducky and Gibbs will wrap up in this episode.
There is obviously also some residual trauma from the incident as both Gibbs and Ducky remember Johnny with trepidation since they were in a hostage situation back then. Their bond was forged after being in an adversity-filled situation together and we will find out if 40 years later they can catch the man who brought them together as fellow survivors. In fact, the case might have been what motivated Gibbs to join NCIS too. The logic being that since a murderer had escaped on his watch, he would make sure to become the agent and stop others like the Zuccattos.
'NCIS' Season 18 Episode 2, the 400th episode, airs on CBS at 8/7c tonight, November 24.