NCIS Season Twelve - The Quiet American

Twelve years on, he's remained NCIS's strong, silent type: Zen and the art of Mark Harmon

- CHRIS WILLMAN

IT'S TALK LIKE a Pirate Day a few days early on the set of NCIS, at least for one guest actor who is waving a gun in the faces of a handful of hostages aboard a ship that has been commandeered in international waters. Among the captives is one Leroy Jethro Gibbs, taken by surprise while investigating what had looked to be an empty vessel. There's just enough of an echo of Tom Hanks' movie Captain Phillips in this scenario that you can picture the pirate in question suddenly declaring, "I'm the special agent now."

Instead, the hijacker is on the phone with Michael Weatherly and recurring guest star Diane Neal...or he will be, when the episode airs, at which point editors will have cut in footage of those two arguing on the other end of the line about who's in charge of the negotiation. Whatever they are or will be saying, the pirate is not impressed, because he barks, “I don't need a boat. This isn't a negotiation; it's a demand! Blood's on your hands now." He grabs a woman to take up top and presumably execute, then gives his knee to the groin of a fellow hostage who tries to object. “You want to take her place?” That poor guy doesn't, but there is some greater gallantry down the row. "I do," says Gibbs, quietly offering himself in the woman's stead while staring down the barrel of a semiautomatic.