As much as we give NCIS a little flack for making some of their killers obvious at the beginning, we can excuse NCIS: Origins for this since it is Gibbs’s story he is narrating himself. This was no different for season 2, episode 17, when a car bomb went off outside of NIS, killing Abe Pruitt’s lawyer, Doug Westmont. We already knew who made the bomb, but how did the team figure out who was responsible?
Doug Westmont had stopped at NIS when Cliff called for assistance concerning his son. Jason had gotten in trouble for firing paintballs at passing cars. Doug helped him figure out how to get his son off on a lighter sentence of probation before heading to leave the office. He also provided Cliff with a business card to a local gun range to give Jason an outlet so he didn’t target any vehicles.
A car bombing outside NIS has everyone on alert
As Lala arrived at work and saw Cliff, they were talking when a bomb went off in the car Westmont had just started. Cliff immediately began evacuation procedures once he knew Jason was safe. Now it was time for the team to find out who killed Westmont and if NIS was a target.
Westmont wasn’t originally scheduled to go to NIS, and the team learned he was supposed to meet with AUSA Monica Adams, who was stunned to learn he had been killed. At first, they almost did not find out about his schedule due to confidentiality laws, which irritated Mike Franks.
We also learned Mike’s hatred for lawyers stemmed from his family’s ranch being sold, and so this entire case ended up inspiring Gibbs’s Rule 13: Never involve lawyers.
Cliff, Gibbs, and Randy ended up visiting the gun range because Jason wound up there on his own. At the same time, the guys were getting into it with the store associated, who kept trying to tell them that someone had been tailing Westmont.
After getting into a brawl with the men, Cliff and Gibbs were chastised by Mary Jo while Randy was sleeping off an insane amount of caffeine he had been inhaling. In the time this was happening, Lala and Franks managed to get the information they needed, much to the other three’s dismay.
Once they learned that the red vehicle following them had a missing bumper, they called around to see who may have fixed the bumper of that particular car. Randy learned one vehicle was fixed, belonging to Linus Eckles.
Eckles had done a month in prison, which was the same one as Abe Pruitt. He began joining Pruitt’s chapel services he had taken to doing in prison. A reporter doing a story had found out Westmont was claiming to be working on an appeal, which Abe didn’t know about.
Once Eckles was released, it appeared he may have been told to follow Westmont, where he learned he was using the appeal as an excuse to have an affair with Monica. She had confirmed it after attempting to kill herself when she realized she was supposed to be with Westmont when the car bomb went off.
Unfortunately, there was no evidence that Eckles and Pruitt spoke with one another after he was released. But the theory was that Abe wanted to expose the affair to lead to possible mistrials, his being one of them.
This meant Abe was a free man, and from the narration, we can conclude that he very likely would do something that would bring Mike Franks once again knocking on his door.
Overall, this episode was pretty funny while also showing the seriousness of how an enemy could be difficult to contain for good. Plus, we got the origin story of how Rule 13 came to be, and Cliff’s son, Jason, ended up being a big help to the team.
He was able to read the journalist’s notes that helped them figure out Westmont was up to something. Seeing his dad in action also inspired him to want to be like his dad, and Cliff even told him if he could stay out of trouble, they could discuss the possibility of him working for NIS.
The episode also showed Gibbs and Lala discussing the ending of his marriage to Diane, for which he was still waiting for the divorce papers to be signed. He told Lala that he was done with relationships, which clearly affected her.
However, she left without saying much, and it did seem like Gibbs regretted his words. We don’t know if they will eventually become an item, but with Diane no longer in the picture, we could see something going on.
The next episode will be the season finale, and based on the promo, it looks like this will be the beginning of NIS officially becoming NCIS. It’s hard to believe we’re already here, but season 2 has been so fun to watch, and we’re looking forward to seeing how it ends!
NCIS: Origins airs Tuesdays on CBS at 9/8c.
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