Let’s face it—we all adore Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs. He is the face of NCIS, and without his unwavering direction and stoic charm, it’s difficult to see the show reaching its current level of success. After choosing to depart the program in season 19, there have been persistent reports that Gibbs will be returning.
Even while it would be thrilling to watch Gibbs rejoin the NCIS team, we believe that having him return so soon after his shocking departure would be detrimental to both the show and his legacy. We came to this conclusion primarily for the following reasons:
Gibbs would face legal action for what he did in NCIS season 19
Let’s start with the practical reasons. Gibbs effectively went rogue in the season 19 finale, ditching FBI Alden Parker (Gary Cole) and helping a professional hitman (Jason Wiles) to get to Alaska so he could kill himself. The reasons why he did these things were sound, in so much as they helped put an end to a tangled criminal conspiracy, but he still broke several laws in the process.
Gibbs told Parker where to find him, but the fact that he never came back in to the NCIS office meant that he effectively evaded legal punishment. There’s a sense that he will be exempt from punishment as long as he lays low in Alaska. If he were to suddenly return to the show, then the legal system would have a field day.
Gibbs returning to NCIS season 21 would lessen the impact of his exit
The execution of Gibbs’ exit was excellent, giving fans a worthy sendoff without having to resort to twists and or sudden deaths. It would have been cheap to kill the character off, or simply have him retire in a more traditional fashion. The NCIS writers managed to toe the line between unexpected and satisfying, and bringing Gibbs back would risk undoing all of that.
Mark Harmon is still credited as an executive producer on NCIS, and he’s made it clear that Gibbs isn’t technically retired, but we could easily see a world in which the character stays in Alaska and lives out the rest of his days in relative peace. He has, after all, been through quite a lot of trauma on the job. He deserves some time to himself.
Gibbs doesn’t have a personal reason to return to NCIS
Going into season 19, Gibbs was one of the few remaining members of the original cast of the program. The majority of the individuals he had developed relationships with were either killed while performing their duties or chose to depart to pursue other professional endeavors.
It only made sense to have him do the same after a certain point. We love to see our characters develop, and it seemed fitting that Gibbs begin his next chapter of life after twenty years of service on screen (and who knows how many years off).