Crime investigation is bound to be filled with twists and turns, as is evidenced in NCIS, which focuses on the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), led by Leroy Jethro Gibbs. The series includes a colorful narrative about some engaging personalities who investigate different crimes.
In a show filled with action like NCIS, one could possibly forgive the writers for getting one or two details muddled up. Plot holes and narrative mistakes in the series definitely add debate and interest to the much-loved script. Here’s some holes we spotted in the narrative, which you may or may not have noticed.
Sometimes kosher, sometimes not
Ziva’s fluctuating devotion to all things kosher has raised some eyebrows from fans. Fans of the series would have noticed that sometimes Ziva eats kosher, and sometimes she just doesn’t. This seems a minor fluctuation but as far as the rules of going kosher go, it is a major flaw in the series’ script.
Which believable character would change her culture born-and-bred habits at the drop of a hat, and then slip effortlessly back into them before a person can say, ‘bacon’. To go kosher or not to go kosher, that is the question?
Unexpected twists and turns
Ardent fans of the show who comb through the narrative with a fine-toothed comb would have realized some questionable twists and turns in the plot. To give an example, early on in the series Gibbs and Tobias don't know each other from a bar of soap. So says the script.
However, an interesting development in the narrative emerges as the series develops. It would seem these two strangers share an ex-wife and something of a history. This could not have been foreseen earlier on in the series when they met, completely oblivious to the other’s existence.
Palestine or Morocco?
It can be difficult picking up those subtle nuances in meaning when enthralled by the greater narrative. Still, some audience members have noticed very obvious mistakes in particulars of the script. For example, when Gibbs and Ziva first meet, he mentions to her the Munich Assassinations.
In his mention of this, he adds that the waiter involved in the scenario was from Palestine. However, according to Discovery, he was from Morocco. A seemingly small error but an error nonetheless. Whoops!
Friends forever
It’s easy to get carried away when writing the dialogue exchange between good friends. Gibbs and Ducky have supposedly only known each other for just 10 years. That’s a relatively long period of time.
However, when they start speaking to each other and sharing memories as they recall days gone by, it would seem (in their opinion, at least) they have known each other a lot longer.
Did we read that right?
Cultural assumptions are everywhere, and it’s easy to default into a certain way of perceiving or doing something without questioning whether it is done this way by a person of another culture.
Even narrators and directors of a show can get caught in this trap. When viewers watch Ziva in Season 4, Grace Period, reading a piece of Arabic script after the suspect has been killed, most will not think anything unusual about her reading the script from left to right. However, considering this is Arabic script, her eyes should be travelling from right to left!
One keyboard, many outcomes
NCIS showcases some actual real-life forensic technology and its usage. However, the narratives around such use of technology don’t always add up. An example would be when Goth Girl and Nerd Guy both get hacked and decide to use one keyboard to catch the hacker.
Amazingly, this one keyboard is able to power two separate screens. How did the producers film this without realizing something was amiss!
A misfired shot
Action scenes always leave big impressions on viewers which is why it is important to get them right. In Gibbs’ flashbacks of the killing of Pedro Hernandez by Gibbs, he shoots Hernandez with his sniper’s rifle and the bullet enters the front windshield of the vehicle, before hitting Hernandez in the forehead.
However, much later in Season 7, the trajectory of the bullet is completely changed in a recall of the event. It is seen entering through the driver’s side of the vehicle and hitting Hernandez in the left side of his head.
The sailor suit debacle
We know Tony very much loved his mother. Also, we are told she died when he was just eight years old. However, much later in the series, he confesses that his mother dressed him as a sailor until he was 10 years old.
Not only is dressing your son as a sailor a relatively strange thing to do but so too is the scripted account of a mother, who has been dead for two years, stepping into the story’s narrative to dress her son as a sailor. A silly thing to do and a silly, unnecessary hole in the narrative!
Muddled up time
It would seem the narrators of NCIS have a habit of forgetting who is alive and who is dead. In the episode, Honor Code, Gibbs has a flashback of working alongside Kelly on his boat. Kelly is wearing an NCIS shirt.
This is a distinct hole in the narrative since Kelly died before Gibbs even joined NCIS. At the same time, Gibbs is depicted as having grey hair in the flashback, whereas from other scenes in the series it is evident his hair remained black for a relatively long period of time following Kelly’s death.
Which year was it again?
In the episode, Bikini Wax, Tony tells viewers that he graduated from Ohio State in 1989.
However, this date later changes and he tells others his graduation was in 1992. What he more than likely meant in his initial statement was that his pledge year was in 1989 and that this was the year he joined his fraternity. According to the show’s narrative, 1992 was his senior year, during which he broke his leg during a basketball game.