Farewell, Ducky: Which NCIS Vets Should Return for Inevitable Tribute to David McCallum?

LAST APPEARED: Gibbs was tooling around in his newly finished boat when it shockingly went “boom” in the Season 18 finale. In the fourth episode of Season 19 — after Gibbs, McGee et al solved the case of a contract killer hired by a conglomerate to clear the way for an environment-poisoning copper mine  — “boss” decided to stay put in “the middle of nowhere,” in Alaska, where the multi-episode arc had led him.

CHARACTER STATUS: As EP Steven Binder told TVLine a year ago, “There’s this feeling among the writing staff — and I share it — that we left [Gibbs] sort of nowhere but also everywhere. Like, when I think of Gibbs, I don’t think of him living in an apartment in Alaska. Instead, I imagine he’s sort of melted into pixie dust and is floating around in the sky until he is called back to duty.”

What better “call to duty” than to pay D.C. a quick visit to say a proper farewell to longtime friend and esteemed colleague “Duck”?

LAST APPEARED: Original cast member Weatherly’s run ended with the Season 13 finale, after Tony learned that longtime romantic interest Ziva David had years earlier — prior to her “death” — given birth to their daughter, Tali. Weatherly has often teased some sort of NCIS encore (sometimes even a “Tiva” two-fer), but even in the wake of Bull‘s cancellation, that has not yet come to fruition.

CHARACTER STATUS: As detailed in the “Ziva” recap below, Tony and Tali presumably enjoyed a reunion with Ziva sometime in late Season 17. Since both former NCIS agents really should be on hand for any Ducky remembrance, the series could deliver some overdue fan service along the way.

LAST APPEARED: Original cast member Perrette’s NCIS run ended after 15 seasons, in May 2018.

CHARACTER STATUS: After Clayton Revees fatally took a bullet for her during a seemingly random (but not) street mugging, Abby committed herself to following in the MI6 agent’s footsteps by shepherding a charity for homeless women. She then accompanied Reeves’ body back to his London home, before embarking on this new chapter in her life. Abby, like Ducky, was all about the science, so it’d be odd to not hear from her, in some way, in any sendoff episode. (She just might not share a scene with Gibbs.)

LAST APPEARED: After exiting NCIS at the start of Season 11 (ending an eight-season run), de Pablo’s enigmatic Ziva most unexpectedly resurfaced in the Season 16 finale, then recurred in a handful of Season 17 episodes.

CHARACTER STATUS: In de Pablo’s mid-Season 17 mini-arc, Gibbs helped Ziva with the “one thing” she needed to tend to before reuniting with Tony and their daughter Tali: making sure that Adam Eshel was OK. Once that was handled, Ziva told Gibbs that she had slipped word to Tony to get Tali into hiding, and that once he and Tali are safe and settled, she would reach out. So presumably the DiNozzo-Davids are reunited and well. But having one show up to honor Ducky without the other could be narratively clunky.

LAST APPEARED: In the Season 18 finale, “Rule 91” (as in the Gibbs rule, “When you walk away, don’t look back”)

CHARACTER STATUS: Special Agent Bishop famously — and abruptly! — dipped on romantic interest Nick Torres and the rest of NCIS at large in order to prep for a super-secret undercover op on behalf of Odette, a former CIA operative and Ziva David’s onetime cohort. While it’d be nice to somehow bring Ellie in “from the cold,” it might create more closure issues with Nick than any one guest spot can resolve.

LAST APPEARED: Bello’s swan song as forensic psychologist Jack Sloane aired in March 2021, ending a three-season run.

CHARACTER STATUS: Jack had hinted that she was leaving NCIS to retire to “Costa Rica”; instead, she stayed put in Afghanistan after a mission with Gibbs, to continue a friend’s work protecting young girls from abduction by the Taliban. Having been around for Ducky’s transition from Chief M.E. to NCIS Historian, it’d be fitting to hear from Jack again.

LAST APPEARED: Campbell’s fourth turn as Young Donald Mallard, in flashbacks, aired early in Season 18.

CHARACTER STATUS: Alive and well… in the past. But what a sweet touch it could be to serve up even the briefest new flashback to bring the good doctor’s colorful story full circle.