This week on NCIS there's an investigation into a crime by the team. But the more important investigation belongs to Abby. This week's episode changes her life forever.

Good Deed, Not So Good Reactions

Good news! Abby's a match for an 18 year-old kid who needs a kidney transplant. There's no question that she's going to do it. Gibbs, DiNozzo and McGee aren't so gung ho about it, while Ziva thinks it's noble. I tend to side with Ziva. People who literally give themselves to other people are a special kind of selfless. The boys just don't understand.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Abby returns from her meeting with the transplant coordinator in decidedly somber spirits. There's another person who was a donor match for the kidney. Awesome, right? Except that according to the standard DNA tests they ran, the other match is a relative of Abby's. She has a long-lost brother. What a way to get that kind of news! One minute you think you're going to do this wonderful thing for another person. The next, your life is turned upside down. That seems rather unfair.

Ms. Sciuto is so distracted at work that Gibbs assigns McGee to find info on Abby's brother. Abby's only link to her family is an aunt with dementia who thinks Abby's still a cheerleader (which I would love to see pictures of). McGee comes through in record time, and Abby has to decide what to do next. Should she meet her brother, Kyle?

Crime of the Week

Oh, there was a case to solve, too. Something about a Lt. Commander working with the House Armed Services Committee getting kickbacks. Things were going fine until his partner got herself into hot water with gambling debts and decided the best way to deal with them would be to put out a hit on the good officer. Instead, she wound up dead. Bad guys were caught and all was well. I honestly barely paid attention to this storyline because I was so worried about our Abby.

Family Ties

Abby decides to track down her brother and check him out. He looks amazingly like her, which is funny since the actor is Pauley Perrette's ex-boyfriend. She actually lobbied for him to get the part. Although I think it would be weird to date someone who looks that much like you.

Our girl doesn't let on who she is, but spends some time with her bio bro. She's not ready to hit him with that kind of heavy info, especially not right before he goes in to donate a kidney. So she goes to Gibbs, who's the closest thing she has to a father. You see, she's the one who's adopted, not Kyle. Being the forensic genius she is, she ran DNA on a strand of her mother's hair. With nobody left to tell her the real story, what's she going to do? Gibbs holds her and reassures her that the NCIS team is her family and they take care of each other. That sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

My heart broke for Abby over this news. A long-lost brother, AND finding out you're the adopted one. That's a lot for anyone to take, but for someone as open and sensitive as Abby? Who knows what this will do to her in the long run. At least she has Gibbs on her side, and that's a lot.

Crystal Waters
Contributing Writer

(Image courtesy of CBS)