NCIS Season 18, Episode 10: Is Agent Gibbs leaving NCIS?

NCIS Season 18, Episode 10 found a team member make a surprising decision during an investigation into animal abuse. After a dog is found shot, the team is stunned to discover that the dog was one in three recently found shot near a particular road.

Unfortunately, the other two did not make it. Gibbs, who has come back to work instead of taking time off, is bound and determined to find the perpetrator.

Without keeping his emotions in check after returning to NCIS, Gibbs stakes out the road where the dog was found. Thanks to evidence from Kasie, he is able to find the area where the dog likely came from.

The property he stumbles across belongs to an elderly woman, who directs him to a man, Luke Stana, in a trailer who comes to the pond every night.

NCIS Season 18, Episode 10 finds Gibbs making a career-altering decision

When Gibbs discovers a dead dog in a kennel, he angrily approaches the man and beats him up before the team can grab him. Due to assaulting a suspect, Gibbs is placed under arrest, leaving McGee, Bishop, and Torres in a tough spot.

Even though Gibbs tells the team to be truthful about what they saw, they end up trying to protect him instead. While McGee was planning on telling the truth, he couldn’t do that to Gibbs. It doesn’t help that they are unable to find the evidence they need to connect their suspect to dogfighting.

The dog that survived, Lucy, is brought to NCIS so Kasie can get evidence from her fur. Since she did not find steroids in any of the three dogs, she believes something may have been applied to them topically.

Just as Stana appears to get away with his crimes, video footage of the assault reveals new information. McGee had been beta testing a video camera to wear and did not realize it was on. It did not help Gibbs’s case, but it did lead to evidence that Lucy’s blood was on Stana’s shirt.

Does this mean actor Mark Harmon is leaving the show?

NCIS may have stopped an illegal dogfighting ring, but it still left ripple effects. Gibbs was willing to confess to what he did in exchange for his team not to lose their jobs for lying. But it appears even the Inspector General was unwilling to take Gibbs’ career over this case. It’s Vance who has to make the decision on his punishment and he chooses an indefinite suspension.

What does this mean for Gibbs? Will he eventually return? There is no word on a Season 19 renewal as of yet and actor Mark Harmon’s contract will be up at the end of the season. This could mean we won’t see him in as many episodes if the show returns for the next season if renewed.

However, we will get to see him act alongside his real-life wife, actress Pam Dawber, starting April 6. She is slated to a four-episode guest appearance on the show as an investigative journalist.

Do you think Gibbs will return to NCIS? Let us know in the comments below what you thought of NCIS Season 18, Episode 10.

Watch NCIS every Tuesday on CBS. Catch up the next day on Paramount+.