Cote De Pablo Let ‘NCIS’ Viewers Know The Gut-Punching Reason Behind A Character’s Strange Habit

NCIS characters have collectively been through some sh*t. You gotta fuel two decades of the flagship show’s personalities (not to mention several spinoffs including NCIS: LA, NCIS: Sydney, NCIS: New Orleans, and NCIS: Hawai’i) with something other than mere procedural stories. And with NCIS: Origins soon to debut the early naval-investigative career of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, there’s every reason for the Off-Duty: An NCIS Podcast to explore the nitty gritty behind a leading character’s idiosyncrasy.

Sometimes, such explanations are less “quirky” (picture Abby Sciuto dancing in her lab) than downright sad. Cote de Pablo made such a revelation on that podcast while she gears up for NCIS: Tony And Ziva, and the subject of an unusual Gibbs habit came up in conversation (via Screenrant): why does Gibbs never bother to lock doors when he knows the evils that humanity can commit?

The answer to that has to do with an evil (the murder of his wife and daughter while Gibbs was deployed for Operation Desert Storm) that has, in fact, already happened, as de Pablo reasoned: “The answer is because he has already lost what was most important to him, so he actually doesn’t care.”

Yeah, that hurts. Gibbs is also such a reserved character when it comes to discussing personal details, too, but we might see more of that side of him in NCIS: Origins. That spin off will reportedly start in 1991, yet it remains to be seen how much the series will address Gibbs’ unfathomable family tragedy. We will find out more when that show debuts in late 2024 or early 2025.

(Via Screenrant & Off-Duty: An NCIS Podcast)