Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS episode “The Stories We Leave Behind” are ahead!
When David McCallum died last September at the age of 90, it went without saying that NCIS, the show he’d been on for 20 years, would need to say goodbye to his character, Donald “Ducky” Mallard, too. That day finally came on February 19 with “The Stories We Leave Behind,” the Ducky tribute episode that saw the team taking on one of the character’s last cases as they mourned his passing. Although the end of the episode did feature a surprise appearance from Michael Weatherly’s Tony DiNozzo, NCIS co-showrunner Steven D. Binder explained why Mark Harmon didn’t also return for the special occasion on the 2024 TV schedule, and what he said made complete sense.
That’s not to say Harmon wasn’t technically present in NCIS Season 21’s second episode, as a few clips featuring Leroy Jethro Gibbs were included as part of looks back on Ducky’s life. That said, Binder told TV Line that when he and his team were crafting the story for “The Stories We Leave Behind,” they wondered if they could “get everybody” to appear, akin to all the people who showed up for Tony Stark’s funeral in Avengers: Endgame. It soon became clear that wouldn’t be possible not just for budgetary reasons, but because “actor availability and scheduling issues would have been insurmountable.” Binder then laid out:
We gave a lot of thought to who Ducky is connected to most, which on one level would be Gibbs. But it was Jimmy who was there, so it was [about] who Jimmy would connect with, and also bring some levity… and that was Michael Weatherly. It’s really a no-brainer.
While it is true that Gibbs was closer with Ducky than Tony was when they were all still on NCIS’ main cast together, and Gibbs and Jimmy certainly shared a few notable moments together, I get what Binder is saying about why Tony was selected for the cameo. He and Jimmy spent more time together during the former’s 13-season run, and there’s no question he can bring the levity in spades. He did so in this episode by imitating Ducky while tying a bow tie he brought for Jimmy, as well as dropping off one his trademark “Mc” nicknames for Sean Murray’s Timothy McGee. However, Tony also touchingly sprinkled in some words of wisdom about how we don’t just leave stories behind when we die, but also the lives we’ve touched along the way.
“The Stories We Leave Behind” marked Michael Weatherly’s return to NCIS for the first time since he departed the main cast in 2016, although we’ve since learned that he reunited with Cote de Pablo’s Ziva David, and the two are now raising their daughter Tali together. So that explains why Tony was brought back, and on the subject of what would be enough to bring Mark Harmon back into the NCIS fold, Steven D. Binder said this:
Of course the door is always open. When we bring him back, we’re not going to bring him back for two minutes. It’s got to be something special.
Whether that day will ever come remains to be seen, although Mark Harmon isn’t done with the NCIS franchise by a long shot. He’s attached to executive produce and narrate the prequel show NCIS: Origins, which will follow Gibbs in 1991. Looking back to Ducky’s tribute episode, along with the aforementioned clips, Gibb’s presence was also felt through a polaroid picture he sent of him, Ducky and McGee together. We also got a nod to Pauley Perrette’s Abby Sciuto, who sent a black wreath to honor her former coworker.
New episodes of NCIS premiere Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS, though as a result of last year’s writers and actors strikes delaying production, Season 21 consists of just 10 episodes. Revisit older seasons of the show with your Paramount+ subscription.
