‘NCIS’ Season 18, Episode 11: What Will Happen in ‘Gut Punch’?

NCIS Season 18 has kept the action at full throttle so far, and the cliffhanger at the end of Season 10, “Watchdog,” was no exception. Now, fans are picking apart all the clues about what Season 18, Episode 11, “Gut Punch” has in store for them. A few trailers and teasers give the best hints we have so far.

NCIS has been on hiatus for two weeks now, and its last episode ended with some major cliffhangers. For one thing, Gibbs (Mark Harmon) was suspended from the team, and fans are doubtful that this issue will be resolved in the next installment. The official synopsis for the upcoming episode from CBS says: “Vance [Rocky Carroll, who also directed the episode] assigns McGee [Sean Murray], Torres [Wilmer Valderama] and Bishop [Emily Wickersham] to COVID compliance duty at a foreign affairs summit, where they discover a link to another NCIS team’s murder case.”

In addition to this, fans have a few major clues from sneak peeks and trailers. One reveals that some NCIS agents will be moved from the night shift in order to help pick up the slack after Gibbs’ suspension. These new characters include the arrogant Dale Sawyer (Zane Holtz) and the prim Veronica Tyler (Victoria Gabrielle Pitt). Tyler was featured once before in the season premiere, though Sawyer is a brand new character.

Their roles may be further illuminated in a report by TV Line, which says that the main cast will need to “play nice and work with other agents” in the upcoming episode. That seems to tie into McGee and Torres’ storyline since McGee says: “This is not our case, we can’t do that… right?” in one of the teasers.

The newcomers may need to learn to play nice as well, however. The clip shows Sawyer confronting Bishop, saying: “There haven’t been any consequences — I mean, Gibbs took it on the chin but his disciples barely got a reprimand… why?”

Finally, we do know that Gibbs will appear in the episode, even if he remains out of uniform. A clip shows him spending time with investigative journalist Marcie Warren, who is played by Harmon’s real-life wife Pam Dawber. The two seem to be developing an unlikely alliance of some kind.

NCIS Season 18 has rocked the fandom with more cliffhangers and long-running stories than fans are used to. Hopefully, that will help make up for the shortened season. The show is only getting 16 episodes in total this year due to filming complications caused by the coronavirus pandemic. After “Gut Punch,” the show will take another week off before returning for two brand new episodes in a row later on in April. For now, NCIS Season 18, Episode 11 airs on Tuesday, April 6 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.