Warning: Spoilers ahead! Earlier this season, Former FBI Agent Tobias Fornell (Joe Spano) and Gibbs (Mark Harmon) teamed up to take down the drug dealers responsible for putting Fornell’s daughter Emily (Juliette Angelo) in the hospital as the result of an opiate overdose. And they were successful in shutting down the drug ring. But it wasn’t enough. They may have been able to save a lot of other people’s lives, but it was too late for Emily. On this week’s episode, Fornell informed Gibbs that he had reached retirement age and wanted to move on with his life. Gibbs had filled Fornell in on Sloane’s original plan of moving to Costa Rica and that had inspired him so he researched it. He told Gibbs that the change of scenery was what he needed after everything he went through with the death of his wife Diane and then his daughter’s addiction and near death experience. But now Emily is squared away, and they are going to have dinner that night to work out the details. When Fornell pushed Gibbs to tell him what he thought of the idea, Gibbs grudgingly told him, “Go for it.” But he didn’t really mean it. But then, things took a turn for the worse. Fornell called Gibbs, his only friend, because Emily had been hospitalized again after a relapse. Gibbs left the crime scene he was working to go be by Fornell’s side at the Trauma Center of the hospital. The two men sat in the waiting room, hoping for good news, and Fornell explained that when Emily didn’t return his calls, he went home and he found her on the bed, a bottle of pills on her nightstand. She was breathing, but her skin was so cold. “I really thought she was past it,” he told Gibbs. “And I felt Diane’s presence.” Sadly, the good news never came. Emily died after succumbing to the overdose, and Gibbs did his best to comfort Fornell, including taking him home with him. Emily’s death comes on the heels of the death of Jimmy Palmer’s (Brian Dietzen) wife Breena (Michelle Pierce) from COVID-19, which makes even more poignant the loss of another young woman from the NCIS family. Then, Director Vance (Rocky Carroll) decided to meet Gibbs and Fornell at Gibbs’ house, and bring with him a copy of a poem that was sent to him by a friend when his wife was killed. But before he leaves, Bishop (Emily Wickersham) asks him to read it.
Epitaph poem from NCIS
EpitaphBy Merrit Malloy When I die Give what’s left of me away To children And old men that wait to die. And if you need to cry, Cry for your brother Walking the street beside you. And when you need me, Put your arms Around anyone And give them What you need to give to me. I want to leave you something, Something better Than words Or sounds. Look for me In the people I’ve known Or loved, And if you cannot give me away, At least let me live on in your eyes And not your mind. You can love me most By letting Hands touch hands, By letting bodies touch bodies, And by letting go Of children That need to be free. Love doesn’t die, People do. So, when all that’s left of me Is love, Give me away. NCIS airs Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Next, find out why Gibbs shot McGee in the Season 18 premiere of NCIS.
