The Most Heartbreaking Sloane Moment From NCIS

For nearly two full decades, "NCIS" has entertained audiences around the world with the tales of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (via IMDb). Beyond the details of the numerous cases investigated on the series, many episodes also take time to delve into the heartbreaking personal lives of the agents on the central team. Few "NCIS" fans will ever forget learning the sad origin story of NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) or the sorrowful childhood of Mossad operative Ziva David (Cote de Pablo).

For whatever reason, the "NCIS" writing team would seem to have a special place in its heart for tragic stories about parents and children. The Season 15 introduction of NCIS Special Agent Jacqueline "Jack" Sloane (Maria Bello) offered writers the opportunity to explore yet another troubled parent-child relationship. In Season 16, Episode 13 ("She"), it is revealed that Sloane previously had a daughter, but she only got the opportunity to hold her once. According to Sloane, she loved her daughter so much that she "had to send her away."

However, only six episodes later, Sloane is reunited with her adult daughter in a most shocking and heartbreaking fashion.

In Season 16, Episode 19 ("Perennial"), the NCIS team is dispatched to Liberty Naval Hospital to investigate a shooting. Gibbs asks Sloane to begin taking statements from the various witnesses, but Sloane immediately appears distracted. After a quick scan of the casualties list, Sloane announces that she is recusing herself from the investigation and refuses to tell Gibbs why. However, It doesn't take long for Gibbs to uncover the truth. As it turns out, Sloane's long-lost daughter, Faith Tolliver (Kate Hamilton), is a nurse at this very same hospital. Though she has never met her daughter, Sloane has kept tabs on her from afar throughout her life. 

Sloane doesn't think Faith knows who she is, but she can't resist joining Gibbs in her daughter's debriefing later at NCIS headquarters. The debriefing occurs unremarkably, but Sloane becomes convinced that Faith could be targeted again because she is a witness. When Faith declines an NCIS protective detail, Sloane opts to take matters into her own hands, parking in front of her daughter's home. However, it is suddenly revealed that Faith has known her mother's identity the entire time and doesn't want anything to do with her. "This is the one thing you taught me," Faith says as she rejects her mother's entreaties for a relationship. "How to walk away without looking back." 

Though the two later reconcile and form a close bond, Faith's initial dismissal devastates her mother for sometime. In the aftermath of this episode, the "NCIS" fan community on Reddit was split on Sloane's behavior towards her daughter.