At one point in "NCIS" Season 10, Episode 12, titled "Shiva," deputy director of Mossad Ilan Bodnar (Oded Fehr) visits the NCIS team as they investigate a series of Mossad-related murders that have impacted some of their lives personally. When Ilan arrives at the team headquarters, he demands answers out from Ducky, who responds by telling him to get in line, so to speak. Ilan angrily asks, "Excuse me. And whose grandfather would you be?" to which Ducky replies "Well that depends. Who's your grandmother?"
While this exchange isn't all that incendiary in a vacuum, numerous fans have singled out this moment due to the fact that the typically buttoned-up Ducky holds his ground against a jocular secret service agent. One Reddit user in 2015, for example, started a thread about the scene calling Ducky's comeback "the best line ever." A few years later, another Reddit user started a similar thread dedicated wholly to this exchange. Even as recently as October 2020 — more than seven years after "Shiva" first aired — yet another Reddit user started a thread predicated entirely on the fact that they enjoyed Ducky's back-and-forth.
Given how much discussion this episode generated over a character oftentimes relegated to the show's secondary or tertiary storylines, "Shiva" is as good a candidate as any to take the crown as the ultimate Ducky episode from throughout all of "NCIS."
