In addition to learning that Gibbs was previously married and together they had a child , the details of their demise is also explained which sets the stage for a few future episodes concerning the fate of the person responsible for their deaths and the ensuing investigation.
The episode where everyone at NCIS learns about Gibbs having a wife and a child before the three marriages they had been aware of.
In a parody of Gibbs' rules, DiNozzo declares his rule number 3 to be: Never underestimate your opponent.
It is mentioned Gibbs joined NIS in August of 1991 after the death of his family and meeting Mike Franks. The prequel series NCIS: Origins (2024) reveals that he joined NIS in October of 1991, about nine months after Shannon and Kelly's death.
The frigate intercepting the Cape Fear has the hull number 19, identifying it as the USS John A. Moore (FFG-19), a Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigate named after Commander John Anderson Moore, a submarine warfare officer who was the commanding officer of the submarine USS Grayback when it was torpedoed during a patrol during World War II and was lost with all hands; Commander Moore came up with the "wolfpack" submarine attack method and was awarded three Navy Crosses and a Purple Heart. The USS John A. Moore was launched in October of 1979 and was deployed to support Operation Desert Storm in 1990; she was decommissioned in September of 2000 (before this episode's events) and was sold to the Turkish Navy in 2001.