What Happened To Gibbs' Wife & Daughter On NCIS

Network TV dramas love suspense. These shows are designed to leave questions unanswered for as long as possible, bringing viewers back time after time with teases and cliffhangers before finally explaining themselves with a flashback episode or big reveal. It's a tried and true formula; the mystery is sweet, but the emotional payoff (and the "I told you so" that comes with a correct guess) is sweeter.

Unless that show is "NCIS," a series that has been on seemingly since the dawn of time but didn't actually answer vital questions about the death of its protagonist's first wife until 2024. The CBS drama about a naval crimes investigative unit wasn't actually the show that broke the news, either: Mark Harmon left "NCIS" in 2021, but his character, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, lives on in the form of Austin Stowell, who now plays a younger, greener version of the agent on the prequel series "NCIS: Origins." It's that show, which explores Gibbs' earliest days as an NIS agent, that has shed some light on a long-dormant storyline involving Gibbs' dead wife and daughter in a complete shocker of a twist.

If you didn't remember Gibbs' wife Shannon (played by Darby Stanchfield in the original series) before tuning into "NCIS: Origins," that's probably because he had four of them before the 22-season long series even started. Shannon was the first, most beloved, and the only one he didn't divorce. After her came Diane (Melinda McGraw), an IRS investigator who gets killed in season 12; Rebecca (Jeri Ryan), who cheated on him; and Stephanie (Kathleen York), whose marriage to Gibbs was brief. Before all of them came Shannon, who's portrayed in flashbacks in the glowy way only ethereal dead wives of TV cops can be. She was mother to Kelly (played by various actors), but the pair died in an auto accident when Kelly was just eight years old.

The accident took place in 1991, and a season 3 "NCIS" episode revealed that "accident" may not be the best word for what happened to the pair. In the two-part season finale "Hiatus," Gibbs develops a bad case of amnesia that leaves him convinced he's fresh out of Desert Storm. It also gives him flashbacks to life with the wife and daughter he rarely talks about, who we learn were killed after their driver was assassinated in an attempt to stop Shannon from testifying as a witness to a shooting. The driver's death caused the car to crash, and the man responsible was the same guy who Shannon saw shoot a man before: Pedro Hernandez (Thomas Rosales Jr.), a cartel drug dealer.

At one point during "NCIS," the organization's files had Hernandez marked down as a wanted man who had never been caught, but members of Gibbs' team eventually found out that he was killed in an apparent "execution-style" killing. Forensics expert Abby (Pauley Perrette, who left the show in season 15) ultimately discovered that the most logical theory about his death didn't match the official records at all. Long story short, it turned out that Gibbs went to Mexico after his family was killed, tracked down Hernandez, and shot him. The show later revealed that Gibbs was haunted by his choice to seek revenge but felt it was necessary. In season 16, decades after he killed Hernandez, Gibbs finally told the truth about what happened.

This might sound like the end of the story, but the writers behind the "NCIS" prequel series would've missed a huge opportunity if they hadn't revisited the formative and emotional moment in Gibbs' early career. With so many details of the event already fleshed out by "NCIS," though, "NCIS: Origins" had to get a little bit creative with its own big twist. It did so in episode 9, "Vivo o Muerto," which revealed that Gibbs actually hunted down Hernandez before he joined the Naval Investigative Service.

On paper, this is a minor distinction, but in terms of character-building, it casts Gibbs in an entirely different light. He didn't use the power of his badge to cover up a murder, but instead committed an extrajudicial killing and then joined law enforcement. As TV Fanatic's review of the episode points out, the twist makes Gibbs' feelings for Lala (Mariel Molino) seem awkwardly timed, but otherwise, it's the most compelling thing the show has contributed to the overall "NCIS" universe so far.

It also makes Gibbs seem a lot less heartless for being able to pay attention to his NIS cases in the early episodes of "Origins" instead of obsessively spending his time connecting thumb tacks and string on a murder board in a basement like any new TV widower cop would. Plus, as Comic Book Resources has pointed out, the prequel series' first season reveals ways in which other team members, like original series mentor Mike Franks (Muse Watson), felt complicit in the avoidable deaths of Gibbs' wife and daughter.

More man-pain and more surprises are no doubt in store for "NCIS: Origins" viewers: The series has been renewed for a second season at CBS, with a premiere date yet to be announced.