In the new NCIS prequel, young Gibbs experiences a key event that explains a trademark habit of the investigator in the original series.
NCIS: Origins, the prequel to Navy CIS, in which Austin Stowell plays the Jethro Gibbs role established by Mark Harmon, has been on US television since this month. As a prequel, the series also shows the origin of a classic Gibbs tactic in the third episode (Bend, Don’t Break): It explains why the competent investigator always stops the elevator between floors.
That’s behind NCIS star Gibbs’ elevator habit
According to TVLine, the latest NCIS: Origins episode will see the team investigating a crime at a shopping center where a security guard named Danny Prado (Richard Blackmon) works. Not only did he have dealings with a murder victim, but he was also accidentally responsible for the victim’s death. When the suspect makes his way home, Gibbs joins him in the elevator and stops it between floors using the emergency stop button.
While the older Gibbs usually carried out this maneuver in order to have a personal conversation with colleagues, the young Gibbs had a much more case-related motive here: he either wanted to squeeze a confession out of the suspect or at least give his team enough time to secure evidence against him – which actually worked.
In addition, the smuggling of stolen weapons to El Salvador was foiled, but team leader Mike Franks (Kyle Schmid) was still not happy. Gibbs’ argument for the unconventional approach:
“When you stop an elevator, you stop the world. You can look inside a person to see what’s real.”
