NCIS has been one of the most popular TV shows for several of its 21 seasons, and it has at least one more on the way. In that time the show has created multiple equally beloved spinoffs, though NCIS Hawai'i was recently canceled. Now there are so many characters, storylines, and histories that it’s hard to keep track of them all, but even though Mark Harmon has been off the show for several years now, his Agent Gibbs is still the standard bearer. And the character with the most questions left unanswered.
Gibbs was a unique character, an FBI agent who lived a nearly monastic existence, avoided any technology he was able to ignore, and hand-built boats in his basement without even the use of electric tools. However, one of Gibbs' oddest quirks was that he never locked the front door of his house. The reason for this was never entirely clear, but during a segment on the Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch podcast hosted by Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo, ahead of their own NCIS spinoff, de Pablo revealed the apparent reason, and it’s absolutely heartbreaking…
The answer is because he has already lost what was most important to him, so he actually doesn’t care.
Throughout NCIS, we learn a great deal about Agent Gibbs, and that includes the fact that his first wife and his daughter were killed, leading Gibbs on a mission of vengeance where he ultimately murdered the man who killed them. It’s made clear that Gibbs has never really gotten over the experience, and it manifested in part in the lifestyle he has on the show.
Honestly, if somebody did want to break in and steal stuff, they wouldn’t get much. Gibbs doesn’t own anything beyond the necessities. But that can potentially be traced back to the same reason.
It’s unclear exactly where this information de Pablo reveals came from, since it doesn’t appear the show itself ever directly addressed why Gibbs doesn’t lock the door. This may be something the writers came up with as an idea while building Gibbs' character but never felt a need to say. It could also be something they came up with after the fact to explain what was originally meant to just be a personality quirk. Michael Weatherly had suggested he doesn’t lock the door because he wants it open in case his wife and daughter ever come back, which is maybe a more optimistic take on the same idea.
Unless somebody says otherwise, this certainly feels like a perfectly acceptable canon reason for any fans who need such a thing. With the NCIS: Origins premiere date approaching, a new spinoff focused on the early days of Gibbs, we’ll certainly learn a lot about how he became the man we know, and perhaps this detail will be included officially.
