'NCIS' and Failed Relationships

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NCIS fans know that relationships never last. Never get attached to a ship, because it will sink. Usually sooner rather than later. Someone'll die, or cheat, or love flames out.

Pauley Perrette once pointed out in an interview with CBS:

[There are] relationship problems with the characters of NCIS. No one can ever get it right. DiNozzo, that’s just been a disaster all the time. Abby has just been all over the place with her relationships. Vance, of course, had the most wonderful relationship, so [the writers] killed his wife. You just can’t [have a happy relationship] on NCIS. And Gibbs is the guy who has failed at every relationship he has ever been in. And then we have Ellie and Jake come in. And we think, ‘Oh, great, a happy, young married couple.’ And things were not as they appeared.

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We've got Gibbs, who's had so many failed relationships that it's almost hard to name them all (of course, we're superfans so here we go!):

First, you have the wives (or almost wives):

Shannon Gibbs (deceased)

Diane Sterling (divorced/deceased)

Rebecca Chase (divorced)

Stephanie Flynn (divorced)

Ellen Wallace (ex-fiancee/deceased)

Then some implied relationships:

Rose Tamayo (met with Gibbs during a mission in Colombia while he was a sniper--he later killed her son's real father).

Jenny Shepard (they were together when she was his partner).

In season 4, Gibbs was with Army CID Lt. Col. Hollis Mann (played by Susanna Thompson), but their relationship was over by season 5's start.

In season 7, lawyer Margaret Allison Hart (Rena Sofer).

In season 9, he begins a romance with Dr. Samantha Ryan (Jamie Lee Curtis).

And of course, we can't forget his daughter: Kelly Gibbs (deceased).

Next up is Anthony DiNozzo, known for pursuing women indiscriminately, with a high aversion to women who do not shave. Most of these relationships never progress past a certain point, and end in disastrous results. He's also owned up to commitment issues.

For Tony, there are not a lot of names we can give you, but we can describe a few instances of women, before Ziva (who was last seen on the show after faking her death, leaving the NCIS to live with Tony and their daughter Tali, so we can assume their relationship is going strong).

Tony was once attracted to a terrorist, a pre-op transsexual who was a murderer. A social worker named Michelle, NCIS Agent Paula Cassidy, a Navy lieutenant, and many more.

A distinctive woman in Tony's story was Dr. Jeanne Benoit, the daughter of a villain throughout a few of the shows seasons.

Wendy Miller, Tony's ex-fiancee.

Zoe Keats, an ATF Special Agent.

Tony and Ziva were never explicit, well, until season 11, when David's actress left the show.

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Abby Sciuto was with NCIS Agent Timothy McGee, however their romantic relationship turned into more of a "sibling love", and the reasoning behind this is that Tony-Ziva dynamic, while not acted on-screen, was a major part of the show's core.

She's had a terrible run with dating, once even admitted to dating a man who was stalking her, despite various restraining orders.

She attracts a sort of person, that enjoys the idea of death and the goth culture, while at the same time seems a bit 'off' in the head. Which probably plays into her tendency to work alone in her lab, too. Most of her relationships are off-screen or past relationships.

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Despite all their failed romantic relationships, the team does seem to manage to keep friendships and platonic relationships alive. Pauley might be right, and maybe the writers behind the show (and possibly even the actors themselves) find romantically happy characters boring.

Whatever the reason is, don't get attached to McGee, who is currently the only character on the show that seems to be in a happy relationship. We bet it'll end in fire and ice, total destruction of either McGee's character or the team's.