‘NCIS’ Season 15 Takes Short Break; Episode 14 Reunites Gibbs and Fornell

“NCIS” fans will surely miss the squad this week. The series will take a quick break to give way to President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address. The long-running procedural series will come back next week and solve another case along with former FBI Agent Tobias Fornell.
In the episode titled “Keep Your Friends Close,” NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ (Mark Harmon) and the rest of his team will be called in to investigate a case of a missing Navy commander. Director Vance (Rocky Carroll) will order the team to work alongside Fornell (Joe Spano) when the dead body of the commander was found.
After his retirement from the FBI, Fornell becomes a private investigator. He was hired by the commander’s family to locate him. Fornell and the NCIS team will search for evidence that will eventually point out to the events leading to the commander’s death.
It will be interesting to see Gibbs and Fornell solving a case together again. This will be the first time this BFFs will work together again after some kind of falling out in “NCIS” Season 15 Episode 7. More of that below.
Meanwhile, Ellie Bishop (Emily Wickersham) and Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) will team up once again. They will interview Albert Hathaway (Kevin Pollak), an investment advisor who was found guilty of stealing millions from his clients.
Apparently, there is a connection between the dead Navy commander and Hathaway’s highly publicized trial. It looks like the dead commander is a member of the jury in his trial. The NCIS agents want to know if Hathaway has something to do with the commander’s death.

More “NCIS” Season 15 Episode 14 Spoilers

Reports indicate that season villain Gabriel Hicks (Graham Hamilton) will return in this episode although the official synopsis of Episode 14 did not mention it. Hicks was first introduced in the seventh episode of Season 5 in which he deceived Gibbs.
He accused NCIS of framing him for the murder of Lt. Edward O’Connell about 10 years ago. NCIS reopened an investigation. This led Gibbs to find out Fornell intentionally buried an evidence to ensure that Hicks will be convicted. Fornell along with another NCIS agent, who is already dead, handled Hicks’ case a decade ago.
After gathering new evidence, Gibbs took the stand in court and Hicks’ conviction is vacated. It, however, also forced Fornell to leave the FBI. At the end, it was revealed that Hicks tricked Gibbs. He made the NCIS senior agent believe he was innocent of the crime he served in jail. Gibbs declared that the battle between him and Hicks is not yet over.
Apparently, Hicks will come back in the succeeding episode reportedly titled, “Keep Your Enemies Closer.” Fans are hoping that Fornell will return as well since he was a lead investigator in Hicks’ previous murder case.
“NCIS” Season 15 will return on February 6 at 8 pm ET/PT n CBS.