Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS: Origins episode “Flight of Icarus” are ahead!
NCIS: Origins resumed airing its first season last night by delivering “Flight of Icarus” to the 2025 TV schedule. While the episode, which can be streamed now with a Paramount+ subscription, chiefly revolved around Mike Franks, both by looking back at when he was 21 years old and following him in the “present day” looking into the death of an infantry officer, there was also an interesting development concerning where Mariel Molino’s Lala Dominguez stands with Austin Stowell’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs that Origins showrunners David J. North and Gina Luctia Monreal talked to CinemaBlend about. Additionally, they also opened up a new storyline for Gibbs coming up that has me intrigued.
Lala Is Interested In Gibbs On Two Fronts
During “Flight of Icarus,” Randy attempted to set Gibbs up on a date with a friend of his wife Junie, but Gibbs said he wasn’t ready for something like that, which is understandable given that his wife and daughter were killed less than a year ago. After the team confirmed that Cameron Reid died by suicide, Lala learned from Randy that the set-up wouldn’t happen, and she told her coworker that whenever Gibbs is ready to date, make sure the woman is “good enough for him.” I asked North and Monreal if this was a sign of romantic interest on Lala’s part or if she was merely concerned about Gibbs’ well being, and North told me:
Both. She is concerned about him, but there's definitely something there for her. There's for sure a twinge of jealousy in that question.
Before NCIS: Origins premiered, Austin Stowell said that there wouldn’t be a “romantic vibe” between Gibbs and Lala, but clearly that’s no longer the case anymore. In addition to Mariel Molino’s character simply wanting to look out for her teammate, she’s also feeling a spark between them, even though Gibbs isn’t wanting to explore something like that himself just yet. We know that he’ll go on to marry three and divorce three women, none of whom Lala, but that doesn’t mean these crazy kids can’t together during Origins’ early seasons, assuming it continues past this freshman outing.
Gibbs Will Be Attending Veterans Support Meetings
Leroy Jethro Gibbs found a pamphlet for a veterans support group during the investigation into Cameron Reid’s death, and while he was interviewing the man who ran the group, he was extended an offer to stop by for a meeting. Gina Lucita Monreal confirmed to me that we will indeed see Gibbs in the group later this season, saying:
There will be a storyline with him attending these meetings and how that affects him, for sure. But again, something that we're interested in delving into is the mental health of our characters, especially within a job like this, in a world like this. So it just allows us to dig deeper.
While Gibbs arguably never finds true peace over the tragedy of losing Kelly and Shannon until early into NCIS Season 19, when Mark Harmon left the series, he does at least have to get to a place where he can function more healthily. Working at NIS provides the younger Gibbs with the stability he needs in his life, but I’m definitely interested to see how going to these veterans support meetings will help his state of mind. Perhaps working through those issues will lead him to being open to explore romantic relationships again.
Because NCIS: Origins Season 1 was expanded from 13 episodes to 18 episodes last November, we have a few more months to spend with these characters, though there’s been no word yet on if Season 2 is in the cards. New episodes drop Mondays at 10 pm ET on CBS.
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