It's a great time to be a shipper of Gibbs and Lala in NCIS: Origins after the season 2 finale. Since the beginning of the NCIS prequel series, there has been an obvious connection between the characters that has been the central point of the origin story. While their relationship with each other, both working and romantic, has been spotty, we just got a pretty big moment for the franchise.
As long-time NCIS fans know by know, the romantic pairings in the series have typically been slow burns. David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal, the showrunners of NCIS: Origins, know as much and admit to the fact that with Gibbs' and Lala's kiss in the season 2 finale, protocol has been broken. But fans probably aren't complaining about this new and exciting development.
Monreal and North chatted with TV Line after the season 2 finale and Monreal explained why the finale took the risk to include the big kiss: "I think we wanted to do something surprising, yet something that felt very earned. With the way that the NCIS franchise usually does it, that would be teased out a lot longer. We really felt like character-wise and story-wise, it was the right time, but we also just wanted to surprise people. A lot of people are really pulling for them."
Echoing Monreal's sentiment, North agreed that the kiss felt "honest" regarding where the Gibbs and Lala love story was heading. He also joked that with NCIS, oftentimes 15 seasons would fly by and viewers would find out that two characters had a romantic history together that happened off camera, but that's the kind of situation they wanted to avoid.
Rather than being strung along for season upon season, NCIS: Origins gave fans great payoff with Gibbs and Lala after only two seasons and 36 episodes. The risk to have them kiss in the season 2 finale was well worth it, even though they still might not be on the fast track to being in a real relationship. Gibbs has been in a long-distance relationship with Diane and has also had some complicated feelings about relationships as a whole, but the showrunners insist he loves Lala.
Thankfully, as we know, the feelings aren't one-sided. "I think she really does love Manny in her own way. She did make a true effort with that. But again, you can't control how your heart feels, and I think truly her heart is with Gibbs," Monreal told TV Line about the status of Lala's romantic feelings. And her heart will continue to be pulled in different directions in season 3.
As North shares, Manny wasn't just a distraction for Lala on the path to eventually getting together with Gibbs, and their relationship won't be over. We can anticipated further fallout from the big Gibbs and Lala kiss, but Manny will also continue to be a presence in Lala's life in NCIS: Origins season 3. Sure, that's frustrating for shippers, but it's also great storytelling.
There's a lot to look forward to for Gibbs and Lala and the angst of their working and personal relationship, which continues to get deeper and closer. It's not going to be an overnight development, but you know what they say, getting there is half the fun. Unraveling this piece of Gibbs' past is all part of what Origins is all about, but we have just taken a very big step forward.
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