NCIS rumors about what happened at the end of Season 18 continue to persist. As a quick reminder, just in case anyone needed one, viewers were shocked to see Gibbs’ boat explode with him in it right before the credits rolled.
Who blew up Gibbs’ boat and what is going to come next for the NCIS cast? Those two questions will need to be answered in Season 19, which gets started before the end of September.
There are a lot of theories out there about who might have been behind the boat bombing – and the theories don’t just stop with the suspected serial killer that Gibbs and Marcie Warren were looking for during the second half of Season 18.
And remember that these are just theories and rumors getting explored ahead, as none of this information has come up in spoilers from the show, CBS, or the writers. Still… there are some interesting tidbits in the mix.
What if Marcie Warren blew up Gibbs’ boat?
It could be a fun twist if it turned out that it was Marcie all along who had been setting up Gibbs. She had the opportunity to bug his home, she had access to his boat, and she has the intelligence to pull something like that off. Marcie is also played by the wife of Mark Harmon, so it could be fun for the couple to explore that story.
At the same time, why would Marcie go out of her way to involve Gibbs in the investigation, unless he ended up discovering something he wasn’t supposed to along the way?
What if Fornell snapped and blames Gibbs for the death of his daughter?
Midway through Season 18, Emily Fornell died on an episode of NCIS. Her father, Tobias Fornell, was gutted by what happened and he appeared to be at the beginning of a spiral. Though Gibbs had nothing to do with Emily’s death, what if it caused Fornell to cross a line? What if he blamed Gibbs for all of it?
Sure, this fan theory that has popped up does seem a tad far-fetched, especially with how close Gibbs was to Emily. She may as well have been his daughter, and Fornell definitely knows that. The friendship between Gibbs and Fornell also seems like something that could be celebrated as the final scene of the series finale.
Did Gibbs blow up his own boat in order to fake his death?
During the Season 18 finale, Agent Ellie Bishop set herself up to leave NCIS. She is now free to work on a project of her own, and maybe Gibbs got an idea from that. Maybe he blew up his boat because he knew that this would allow him to drop off the radar to investigate something else. Maybe he thought this was the only way to draw out that serial killer.
With Gibbs no longer responsible for reporting back to NCIS, he could do some off-the-books investigating of his own. That would also work with the news that Mark Harmon is going to be involved in fewer episodes this year. Giving Gibbs an excuse to not be on the screen each week would work well for the writers.
The season premiere for NCIS Season 19 is coming up on Monday, September 20, and that is when some of the questions about Gibbs’ future could get answered. That’s also when NCIS fans will learn more about the two new characters on the show.
NCIS airs Mondays at 9/8c on CBS.
All episodes of NCIS are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
The link above is an affiliate link. This means that for any qualifying purchase you make, we may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.
Now that the Taliban are back in charge it would be an interesting story line to see how Jack & the Afganistan girls she was caring for are doing. If she was a real person and living as an American, a women & worked for the US Navy she would be in serious danger & so would the young girls. Maybe the producers can shift that story over to NCIS LA? Abby isn’t a continuation problem-she left for London years ago. Maybe the destruction of Gibb’s boat has nothing to do with a serial kller. Maybe Gibbs decided to chuck it all away and assume a new identiy. BTW wasn’t Kensi’s ex fiance over there -he went “native” and considered that country his home and where his family also lives ?
I always thought that Gibbs intentionally blew up his own boat, to fake his death so he could investigate the killer he was onto with his real-life wife. I never considered any other option, especially once he was shown swimming away at the end of the episode.