NCIS season 19: What stories are left for Mark Harmon’s Gibbs?

Gibbs

Alas, we are now firmly entrenched in the NCIS hiatus — the season 18 finale aired two weeks ago, and we are now waiting until fall to see what’s next. What better way to spend this hiatus than looking over what the future could look like for some of the NCIS characters moving forward into the new season?

Mark Harmon’s character of Jethro Gibbs gets top billing, as he very-much should at this point. He is the series’ most-popular character, the face of the franchise, and also a man with an uncertain future. We know that he will be back, and he may also have a renewed sense of purpose after almost getting blown up on his boat in the closing minutes of the finale.

Check out our NCIS season 18 finale video! Make sure you SUBSCRIBE to Matt & Jess on YouTube where you can find coverage of all of NCIS season 18. We will also have videos of other great shows this summer including Yellowstone and Animal Kingdom. You don’t want to miss out!

Below, take a look at five different things NCIS should examine with Gibbs at some point over the course of season 19…

Episode Count – It’s still not 100% clear how many episodes Harmon will be a part of, but if he’s not going to be in all of them, we feel that he should still be in the majority of them. Another consideration is if Mark’s shooting schedule could be adjusted where he could appear in every episode while only working a certain number of days — think in a way that is similar to Tom Selleck over on Blue Bloods, who appears constantly even if he only makes up a small percentage of overall screen time.

Cliffhanger Aftermath – It goes without saying that we need to see how Gibbs survives the boat explosion, plus what he does after the fact. Will Marcie return, and will he loop in NCIS after such an attempt on his life? With him being a potential victim, it certainly falls under their jurisdiction even if they’d all be personally invested in the case. Who blew up his boat!?!?!

Relationship Updates – Is he still speaking with Sloane? We’d love to know about this, especially since if Gibbs ever was to leave for a while, we’d at least understand it more if it involved him going off to be with her. With Phineas bringing Sloane up after they said goodbye, it feels like the show might not be done with them.

What Will Drive Him Now? – Let’s say he finds who blew up his boat and justice is serves (assuming he didn’t blow up his own boat, which is a popular theory) — what’s next? We would hope personally that this near-death experience could inspire him to rejoin NCIS or at least push Vance for a partial reinstatement.

More Fornell – We wrote about this recently, but it bears repeating that we need to see more of Joe Spano in action alongside Gibbs. The more of Jethro’s friendships we get, the happier we will be. We love the back and forth between them.

What do you want to see for Mark Harmon’s Gibbs on NCIS season 19?

Be sure to share right now in the comments! Stick around for more updates on the show (and the entire NCIS franchise) throughout the offseason. (Photo: CBS.)

This article was written by Jess Carter. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.

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