Gibbs decides not to help Michael. On the day that Gibbs is shot, he draws his pistol but refuses to fire when he realises that the shooter is Steven. Steven fires, but only hits Gibbs in the shoulder. Steven is subdued by several bystanders and he apologises for shooting Gibbs as they wait for the police to arrive and arrest Steven for attempted murder of a Federal lawman. The next day, McGee tells the rest of the team that he turned down Director Vance's offer for a promotion to Okinawa since he feels there is still a lot of good he can do where he is right now. Despite being injured, Gibbs returns to work, freshly inspired by his near death experience. "Life Before His Eyes" is written by Gary Glasberg and directed by Tony Wharmby. Glasberg got the idea of how to make the episode back in July 2011, and wanted it to be an episode for the fans. "In all of its quirkiness, "Life Before His Eyes" was meant to be one thing - a gift to the fans. Believe me, we know it was a departure from the usual formula. An intentionally unique idea because we all felt episode #200 couldn't be 'just another NCIS'". One big part of the episode was all of the "what if"-stories, which showed some alternative development if Gibbs' didn't do what he did. "Our 200th episode was a fun opportunity to get a glimpse of what could have happened or could be in the future". "Gibbs is given an opportunity in a millisecond to see what the world would have been like if key moments in NCIS history and lore had unfolded differently. We've taken some of those moments and we let people see them unfold differently." An alternate reality scene between Tony and Ziva was advertised before the episode aired, in which Tony meets Ziva while interrogating her. Michael Weatherly commented that the scene would, in part, show the negative effects of Ziva having never known Gibbs: "You get a real glimpse into the hellcat she might have become without that guiding hand." However, most of the scene was later cut due to time constraints, and Weatherly subsequently tweeted "Where's the big Tiva interrogation in Ep200? Fans were misled.-We Shot a longer scene but it was edited down! Show biz is tough!" A lot of familiar characters are shown in the episode, some who died years ago. The return of Kate Todd, Mike Franks, Ari Haswari and Jenny Shepard, and how some of these characters still could have been a part of the show made it a special episode.