‘NCIS’: How Gibbs Got His Boat out of the Basement

When NCIS returned Monday night with an all-new episode of Season 19, it finally solved one of the longest-running mysteries in the show’s history. For nearly two decades now, fans of the CBS police procedural series have questioned and theorized over one baffling sticking point: How did Mark Harmon’s Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs get his boat out of the basement? It turns out, the answer is pretty simple.

The resolution came during the jaw-dropping episode, titled “Great Wide Open,” as FBI Agent Parker Alden went looking for Gibbs at his home. After searching the main floor, Alden ventured to the basement, where the age-old question was answered with the shine of a flashlight. As Alden looked around the basement, he saw a cinder block wall with a boat-shaped hole, meaning Gibbs sledgehammers the wall each time he needs to get a boat through and then patches it up. The answer led to plenty of reactions online, with one NCIS viewer tweeting, “that’s how he gets the boats out! After 17+ years is the mystery finally solved??”

Over the course of the show’s 18-season run, the question has remained a running gag and first arose all the way back in Season 1 when Pauley Perrett’s Abby Scuito told Tim McGee to search for cracks in the floor and walls. According to Just Jared, Abby also theorized that Gibbs disassembled his boat and then resembled it. The question arose several more times throughout the following seasons, with NCIS not sparing the jokes during Season 18, when Phineas, a young kid who befriended Gibbs several seasons back, asked, “speaking of the boat, how are you gonna get it out of the basement?” Harmon himself even seemed baffled by the mystery, offering up a possible theory when previously speaking to Crave Online.

“I don’t know. They didn’t tell me that either. All I know is one day I got there and it wasn’t there,” he told the outlet. “Yet I did read an article about a guy in Rhode Island who actually did this, a friend knocked down a basement wall and pulled it up and they did launch it.”

The excitement at the resolution to the years-long mystery was dimmed significantly by another major moment in Monday night’s premiere, however, as Gibbs ultimately bowed out of the show when he opted to remain in Alaska instead of rejoining the team when Director Leon Vance offered him his badge back. Catch up on the aftermath of Harmon’s exit when NCIS returns with new Season 19 episodes Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. Stay tuned to PopCulture.com for the latest updates!