NCIS: Origins season 3, episode 5, led us on a journey into discovering Lala’s backstory. Plus, in the present, Ellie and Gibbs discovered the location of Roland Briggs, the man who thought he had helped to kill Gibbs. What did they find out as the team learned more about Lala’s time helping her con man father?
The case in 1993 found the team looking into a car accident involving a young woman named Lily. However, when they discovered she was faking a pregnancy, the investigation took a turn. They figured out where she had been staying, and when they arrived, Lala discovered a poster board where their victim, who apparently had identification with another name, was making a collage connecting members of a powerful family.
Lala determined their accident victim was running a con, faking a pregnancy with a billionaire named Victor Banks, who recently passed away. This led to her informing Gibbs and Randy about her past in helping her dad run cons as a little girl.
The con their victim was running was a Royal Bastard scam, where you faked a pregnancy to extort money from a wealthy family. However, the family of her latest mark were suspicious and wanted a paternity test to make sure her baby actually was related to them. Through the interviews, Lala and Gibbs learned that she had a Mexican lawyer who tried to shake them down for payment.
The description of the man led Lala to believe it might be her father; however, she doesn’t think he could be a killer. More flashbacks show how Lala was worried about helping him with another con, especially after her mom had already found out.
While working on the case, they look into letters Lily had used to forge Banks’s handwriting. Lala knew a CI who was good at forging and went to talk to him with Gibbs. They learn that Lily and her partner had a rare stamp that would be part of another con they were running.
They looked through the evidence files to determine where the partner would likely take the stamp, as the thrill of running a con would likely draw out their suspect. Even though it’s possible that the partner is Lala’s father, she is determined to take him down. We also learn that this sort of con is the very last one she ever did with her father.
The team goes undercover at the expo, and while there, Lala looks back on when she discovered her dad had used her. She found out from a police interrogation that her dad’s real partner had pretended to beat him up in front of her so that Lala would help him.
They finally discover the man posing as a lawyer, but he isn’t Lala’s father. He also informs them that he didn’t kill Lily and had been away on another con. This brings the team back to square one, especially once they determine that the Banks family had kept Victor’s stroke a secret, so it had to be an inside job.
After looking into the family, they find out that a former housekeeper had overheard Victor Banks confronting his wife, Audrey, for cheating on him. He was angry enough that he likely had cut her out of the will. Once they reread it, they learned was left with worthless stocks and Victor’s fishing cabin.
They determine Audrey killed Lily there, and then Lily tried to escape but crashed her car. Once the case was closed, Franks made sure to credit the hard work Lala put in to Wheeler. We also learned he was the one who went to bat for Lala when she was hired at NIS.
Lala then went to meet with Gibbs at the bar, where he had found her dad’s number to offer her the chance of calling him. However, she instead throws it away and uses the quarter Gibbs gave her to play Baila Esta Cumbia by Selena on the jukebox before they dance.
Back in the present, Gibbs and Bishop interrogate Briggs, and it’s noticeable that Gibbs has reinjured his wound. However, he asks Briggs who hired him. He didn’t know much about the guy, only that he wanted two agents found, and it sounded personal. One of them was Lala, but Gibbs tells him she died.
However, he finds out that according to the man who hired Briggs, she never got on the plane that had crashed. It’s stunning news for Gibbs, who clearly did think this entire time that she had passed away. Now it looks like he will have to find out where she is before the main suspect finds her.
Now the question is, where is Lala, and did anyone else on the team know she was alive the whole time? With Muse Watson set to return as Mike Franks in episode 6, we're curious to learn how Gibbs would be able to find out if he knew if he was unable to speak to him directly. Until the new episode airs, we can only speculate on who knew the truth the whole time.
NCIS: Origins airs Tuesdays on CBS at 10/9c.
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