A FAREWELL TO GIBBS

They don’t make ’em like Gibbs anymore. He cared about his team and doing what was right, no matter the cost. Here’s why we’ll miss having him around

- KATE HAHN

Gibbs has left the bullpen. The tight-lipped, steely-eyed NCIS boss man, played by Mark Harmon since 2003, retired in the October 11 episode and was last seen happily fly-fishing in Alaska. Although indefinitely suspended, he’d just gone very rogue in helping take down a mining company CEO. But instead of catching a seaplane to D.C., he dropped this bombshell: “I’m not going back home.”

Since last spring, rumors had been swirling that the actor (who is also an exec producer) was ready to exit the CBS hit, with reports that his Season 19 participation would be limited. But no one expected it to be this limited! Gibbs said his goodbyes to most team members in flashback—he even dunked that good old flip phone in a cup of coffee! Is there even the slightest chance we’ll hear his gruff “Grab your gear” again? The farewell seemed definitive, but, says executive producer Steven D. Binder, “Never count Leroy Jethro Gibbs out.”

When the job is done, walk away.” That gem is No. 11 in Gibbs’ rules, the self-written code that onetime NCIS special agent in charge Leroy Jethro Gibbs lives by. Well, it seems the brave, taciturn hero finally considers his work at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service complete. “Any actor can depart this show, and it will survive,” Harmon told TV GUIDE MAGAZINE in 2017. It’s a theory no one wanted him to test—and certainly not without giving us time to prepare emotionally.

He first walked into our lives—with, it should be noted, quiet confidence rather than the swagger that would be fully justified for a former Marine marksman— in the military drama JAG. That 2003 episode served as a backdoor pilot for NCIS, which became a ratings juggernaut. Harmon based aspects of the character on David Lytle, a real-life NCIS agent.