NCIS: Origins just ended season 2 with a huge moment, but is it breaking the show's established canon?
Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for NCIS: Origins season 2 finale
As a prequel to NCIS, Origins has to maintain a tricky balancing act. It needs to deliver exciting tales of how a young Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Austin Stowell) works for the NIS division in the 1990s. But it also has to follow the long-established canon of the original show (meaning, for example, Gibbs can’t meet Anthony DiNozzo for a long time).
The show has played with it at times, like a young Ducky dropping by in a few episodes. Season 2 showed Gibbs impulsively marrying his second wife, Diane (Kathleen Kenny). Yet that has hit some problems already with Diane heading to L.A.
That enhances Gibbs’ feelings toward fellow agent Lala (Mariel Molino). The second-season finale had the team thrown at hearing that Camp Pendleton might be shut down and fighting to keep the team from being broken up. In the end, they saved it by adding the “C” to the agency name.
Meanwhile, after a harrowing shootout with criminal Abe Pruitt, Gibbs learned that Lala had quit to become the sheriff of the same small town where her own love, Manny, was hiding under witness protection. It looked like Gibbs was going to let her go, only to come to her apartment and the pair kissed.
Speaking to Parade magazine, showrunner Gina Lucita Monreal discussed how cutting to black after the kiss may hint that Gibbs and Lala’s happiness is short-lived.
“You can’t assume anything. Who knows what happened after we cut to black? That’s why we’ve got to savor that kiss. It was an epic moment for the two of them.”
Tellingly, the older Gibbs's (Mark Harmon) narration includes the haunting line, “I wish it could have lasted forever.” That adds to the worries of fans even as they question how this fits into Gibbs’ timeline.
It’s been established that Gibbs and Diane got married early and lasted longer than Gibbs’ other marriages. They had moved to Washington, D.C. in 1995, where Gibbs’ obsession with a serial killer drove a wedge between them for their divorce. As of the season 2 finale, Origins is still set in early 1993.
This means any relationship between Gibbs and Lala would have to be short-lived, since Gibbs and Diane would still be together for a few more years. That has fans concerned if the show may mess with the canon timeline, but Monreal insisted they’re still following it.
“So, they are married for longer, and we are following canon there. We followed this very closely, but they’re technically still married at this point. He says, 'She’s going to file for divorce and I’m going to sign the papers,' but he also says, 'I don’t know why we didn’t want to sign the papers right away. Maybe we didn’t want that finality on it.' So, technically, they are still married, though they’re separated.”
It may be splitting hairs a bit to say the pair remained married for a couple more years only on paper, and that each was already dating other people. That would free up Gibbs and Lala to continue their romance, with the idea that Gibbs and Diane tried to give their marriage one last go.
This only adds to the mystery of what happened to Lala. Her complete absence from NCIS storylines hints that something occurred with ideas ranging from her dying to just staying away from Gibbs. We’ll see how season 3 develops this even as the writers insist this romance won’t mess up NCIS history.
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