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'NCIS' Season 18 Premiere: Why did Gibbs shoot McGee? Fans complain 'these guys lost me tonight'

NCIS just premiered with the weirdest, most nailbiting cold opening ever before tailing off to a series of flashbacks from October 2019. What really happens after Gibbs shoots McGee?

Spoilers for 'NCIS' Season 18 Episode 1

It's a good day to be an 'NCIS' fan because Season 18 just premiered. But along with that also came a bunch of nail-biting situations, especially the one right at the beginning of the episode. Call it a cold opening of sorts, but Episode 1 kickstarts with team lead Jethro Gibbs shooting McGee in the leg and the episode thereafter sort of tails off, never addressing the incident. And that has prompted fans to feel everything is too scripted.

The cold opening sees McGee practically cut off a private jet, only for Gibbs to end up shooting him twice. Once in the arm, and once in the leg, all the while being hidden in his sniper position. The hows, whys, whens or wheres of this never gets addressed in the episode, and once the opening credits roll in, the episode just pans to a series of flashbacks. One of them happens to be a scene from October 2019, where we see Gibbs and McGee once again, and this time Fornell's daughter Emily is involved. Gibbs can be seen shrugging off McGee's head on the opioid supplied that had nearly killed Emily via an overdose. 

Apart from another point in the episode where McGee is investigating the matters of Emily's crisis, we don't really see him in the same space as Gibbs. The shooting never gets addressed, with no before or after, and this seems to have made fans quite upset. Taking to Twitter, a fan wrote: "So the new season starts with Gibbs shooting McGee and the episode never addresses it? WTF? Episode seemed too scripted and rehearsed.. new writer or director?" Another also proclaimed: "These guys lost me tonight. Nothing in this episode tied to Gibbs shooting McGee in the beginning. And all the way to the end!"

Others expressed the same, complaining: "I am so f***ing confused. Why was McGee shot by Gibbs and had nothing to do with this episode???" And others were sure "Well that opener with McGee and Gibbs has to do with Fornell." Amidst several exasperated claims of when and how we might finally get to find out just why Gibbs shot McGee, a fan noted: "They will have gotten close to head of the snake but he's threatening to kill someone or the person on the plane is or has Fornell. Gibbs probably had to shoot McGee to stop him....or its a misdirect: Gibbs is NCIS sniper but McGee was shot by someone else."

Perhaps they are right. Maybe this will be an ongoing arc this season and push comes to such an intense shove that Gibbs has to end up hurting his own loyal teammate to catch the vipers underneath this game. To find out catch 'NCIS' Season 18 as it will air on Tuesdays at 8 pm on CBS.