This is a list of episodes for the seventh season of the police procedural

Police procedural

The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...

 drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

 NCIS

NCIS (TV series)

NCIS, formerly known as NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S...

. The seventh season of NCIS started on September 22, 2009 with NCIS: Los Angeles premiering afterwards. At the end of season 6 Ziva had left the NCIS team in Israel, returning to work as a Mossad officer. In the closing seconds of the sixth season, Ziva was shown to have been captured and tortured for information about NCIS.

In the first episode of season 7, Ziva was rescued by Gibbs, Tony and McGee and upon her return to Washington, she eventually became an NCIS Agent after resigning from Mossad for good. Much of the season's story arc then focused on the Mexican Drug War

Mexican Drug War

The Mexican Drug War is an ongoing armed conflict taking place among rival drug cartels who fight each other for regional control, and Mexican government forces who seek to combat drug trafficking. However, the government's principal goal has been to put down the drug-related violence that was...

 and Colonel Merton Bell, a suspected murderer who hired the lawyer M. Allison Hart to represent him. Hart quickly became a thorn in Gibbs's side by regularly showing up and protecting possible suspects while they were being investigated, claiming that they were her clients.

The season drew to a close as Gibbs was later kidnapped by someone working for Paloma Reynosa, the daughter of the late Pedro Hernandez, a drug dealer Gibbs himself shot dead twenty years previously as Hernadez had been responsible for killing Gibbs's first wife Shannon and daughter Kelly. While being held prisoner, Paloma informed Gibbs that he would work for her or she would have everyone he ever knew and cared about die if he didn't go through with her demands.

It also ended on a cliffhanger

Cliffhanger

A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction...

 with Paloma herself travelling to Stillwater and confronting Jackson Gibbs in his shop, leaving his fate unknown.

Cast

Character	Portrayed by	Main cast	Notes
Leroy Jethro Gibbs Leroy Jethro Gibbs Leroy Jethro Gibbs is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the CBS TV series NCIS. He is portrayed by Mark Harmon.-Background:...	Mark Harmon Mark Harmon Mark Harmon is an American actor who has been starring in American television programs and films since the mid-1970s, after a career as a collegiate football player with the UCLA Bruins. Since 2003, Harmon has starred as Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the CBS series NCIS.-Early life:Harmon was born Thomas...	entire season
Anthony DiNozzo Anthony DiNozzo Anthony "Tony" D. DiNozzo Jr. is a fictional character from the CBS TV series NCIS. He is portrayed by Michael Weatherly.-Background:Tony comes from a wealthy family from Long Island, New York. He is an only child, but has been cut off from his family's fortune. His mother, maiden name Paddington,...	Michael Weatherly Michael Weatherly Michael Manning Weatherly, Jr. is an American actor, best known for his roles as Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo on the television series NCIS, and Logan Cale on the television series Dark Angel.-Early life:...	entire season
Ziva David Ziva David Ziva David is a fictional character from the NCIS television series by CBS Television, portrayed by Chilean actress Coté de Pablo....	Cote de Pablo Cote de Pablo María José de Pablo Fernández, better known as Coté de Pablo , is a Chilean-American actress and recording artist. De Pablo has won an ALMA Award for her role as NCIS Special Agent Ziva David in the television series NCIS...	entire season
Abby Sciuto Abby Sciuto Abigail "Abby" Sciuto is a fictional character from the NCIS television series by CBS Television, and is portrayed by Pauley Perrette. Like Jethro Gibbs, Anthony DiNozzo and Donald Mallard, Abby was first introduced in the episodes "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown" in the television show JAG, and has...	Pauley Perrette Pauley Perrette Pauley Perrette is an American actress, best known for playing Abby Sciuto[p] on the U.S. TV series NCIS, a role that has made her the most popular actress on U.S. primetime television. She is also a published writer, a singer and civil rights advocate.-Early life:Perrette was born in New Orleans...	entire season
Timothy McGee Timothy McGee Timothy "Tim" McGee is a fictional character from the CBS television series NCIS. He is portrayed by Sean Murray. Timothy McGee is a special agent investigating crime in this police procedural show...	Sean Murray	entire season
Leon Vance	Rocky Carroll Rocky Carroll Roscoe "Rocky" Carroll is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Joey Emerson on the FOX comedy-drama Roc, as Dr. Keith Wilkes on the medical drama Chicago Hope, and as Leon Vance on the CBS drama NCIS and its spinoff NCIS: Los Angeles.-Early life:Carroll was born Roscoe Fulton Carroll...	entire season
Donald 'Ducky' Mallard	David McCallum David McCallum David Keith McCallum, Jr. is a Scottish actor and musician. He is best known for his roles as Illya Kuryakin, a Russian-born secret agent, in the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., as interdimensional operative Steel in Sapphire & Steel, and Dr...	entire season
Jimmy Palmer	Brian Dietzen Brian Dietzen Brian Dietzen is an American actor who has played the supporting role of Jimmy Palmer on NCIS since 2004.-Early life:Dietzen was born in Colorado...	entire season	credited as "Also Starring"

Episodes

No. in series		|Title		|Written by		|U.S. viewers (millions)

Ratings

Episode	U.S. ratings				Canada ratings				Australian ratings
	Original airdate	Viewers (millions)	Rank		Original airdate	Viewers (millions)	Rank		Original airdate	Viewers (millions)	Rank
			Night	Week			Night	Week			Night	Week
"Truth or Consequences"	September 22, 2009	20.60	1	1	September 22, 2009	2.699	1	7	September 29, 2009	1.97	3	8
"Reunion"	September 29, 2009	21.37	1	1	September 29, 2009	2.542	1	8	October 6, 2009	1.94	3	9
"The Inside Man"	October 6, 2009	20.70	1	1	October 6, 2009	2.839	1	4	October 13, 2009	1.97	2	7
"Good Cop, Bad Cop"	October 13, 2009	21.04	1	1	October 13, 2009	2.473	1	6	October 20, 2009	1.84	3	11
"Code Of Conduct"	October 20, 2009	21.25	1	1	October 20, 2009	2.404	1	8	October 27, 2009	1.90	5	10
"Outlaws and In-Laws"	November 3, 2009	20.18	1	3	November 3, 2009	2.194	1	9	November 10, 2009	1.68	5	15
"Endgame"	November 10, 2009	20.96	1	2	November 10, 2009	2.646	1	7	November 17, 2009	1.78	2	10
"Power Down"	November 17, 2009	20.34	1	1	November 17, 2009	2.470	1	7	February 9, 2010	1.96	2	2
"Child's Play"	November 24, 2009	20.27	1	2	November 24, 2009	2.587	1	4	February 16, 2010	1.86	2	6
"Faith"	December 15, 2009	20.69	1	1	December 15, 2009	2.296	1	4	February 23, 2010	1.86	2	2
"Ignition"	January 5, 2010	21.37	1	4	January 5, 2010	2.215	3	3	March 2, 2010	1.86	4	4
"Flesh and Blood"	January 12, 2010	20.85	2	5	January 12, 2010	2.147	2	8	March 9, 2010	2.08	1	1
"Jet Lag"	January 26, 2010	20.22	2	4	January 26, 2010	2.005	2	6	March 16, 2010	1.97	2	2
"Masquerade"	February 2, 2010	19.23	2	6	February 2, 2010	2.180	2	10	March 23, 2010	2.07	1	1
"Jack-Knife"	February 9, 2010	19.75	2	6	February 9, 2010	2.172	2	11	April 13, 2010	1.61	8	23
"Mother's Day"	March 2, 2010	19.67	2	5	March 2, 2010	2.406	1	5	April 20, 2010	1.86	5	13
"Double Identity"	March 9, 2010	19.58	2	3	March 9, 2010	2.359	1	7	April 27, 2010	1.89	6	7
"Jurisdiction"	March 16, 2010	18.00	2	3	March 16, 2010	2.515	2	3	May 4, 2010	2.15	4	2
"Guilty Pleasure"	April 6, 2010	16.45	2	5	April 6, 2010	2.209	2	8	May 11, 2010	2.02	5	7
"Moonlighting"	April 27, 2010	16.29	2	4	April 27, 2010	2.316	2	7	May 18, 2010	2.06	3	7
"Obsession"	May 4, 2010	15.10	2	5	May 4, 2010	2.135	2	6	May 25, 2010	2.07	6	10
"Borderland"	May 11, 2010	17.23	2	4	May 11, 2010	2.257	3	9	June 1, 2010	2.18	7	9
"Patriot Down"	May 18, 2010	15.96	2	4	May 18, 2010	2.201	3	8	June 8, 2010	2.23	6	10
"Rule Fifty-One"	May 25, 2010	16.30	3	5	May 25, 2010	2.332	3	7	June 15, 2010	2.120