‘NCIS’ Preview: Will Gibbs Get His Badge Back? (VIDEO)

Meredith Jacobs September 21, 2021

Now that the NCIS Season 19 premiere has revealed Gibbs’ (Mark Harmon) fate, it’s time for the team to focus on the investigation into the serial killer he and reporter Marcie Warren (Pam Dawber) have been trying to track down. But who exactly is going to be part of the case?

Well, Gibbs is alive and he did agree to come back, as McGee (Sean Murray) requested at the end of the premiere. As he pointed out, they might not need him, but “we are better together. … You built us. Now we got a serial killer to catch, but in order to do that, we need to be a team. We need to be your team.” And it looks like Gibbs is in all-in on hunting down the person responsible for killing multiple women and blowing up his boat. (He also sees no reason for anyone to ask how he’s feeling, despite that explosion he was just in.) Is it any wonder he seems to be getting a bit frustrated in the promo for the next episode, “Nearly Departed”?

The question, of course, is how back is Gibbs exactly? Director Vance (Rocky Carroll) seems a bit reluctant to give him back his gun and badge, at least in the beginning. But it does appear that Gibbs joins the team at a crime scene for another of the killer’s victims, going off the camera in his hands (he is wearing a plain black hat, however, without NCIS on it). He also has a gun when he confronts someone.

Watch the promo below for more.

So is Gibbs going to be an NCIS agent again? “He either comes back and he’s an agent or we make permanent his separation,” executive producer Steven D. Binder told TV Insider. It sounds like we may not have an answer to that until Episode 4.

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“Nearly Departed” is also going to introduce Gary Cole as FBI Special Agent Alden Parker. According to CBS, “while trying to find the serial killer Gibbs was after, the NCIS team discovers another person has been tracking the case as well.” Based on the photos, Parker is that person.

NCIS, Mondays, 9/8c, CBS