I’m Glad NCIS: Origins Wrapped Up Mike Franks’ Most Personal Case Yet, But It Came With A Bittersweet Twist That Has Me Concerned For The Character

Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS: Origins episode “From the Ashes” are ahead!

When Kyle Schmid’s younger Mike Franks was introduced on NCIS: Origins, we also met the love of his life, Tonantzin Carmelo’s Tish Kwa'la. It was clear he thought the world of his girlfriend, and we eventually learned how they met in 1982, but the fact that she had never been mentioned before when the Muse Watson-portrayed Franks appeared on NCIS didn’t bode well. Sure enough, Tish broke up with Franks at the end of “Monsoon,” and “From the Ashes,” the latest Origins episode to air on the 2025 TV schedule, put a bittersweet button on their time together as Franks concluded his search for Tish’s rapist.

As a quick refresher, Tish and Franks’ relationship came to an end when he admitted he lied about stopping his effort to find an apprehend the man who’d sexually assaulted her months earlier. Despite this, Franks continued his search, and it came to a head in “From the Ashes,” which can now be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription. His team was sent to investigate the death of Sergeant Joan Lewis, whose body was burned all over, and there was also evidence that she’d been raped.

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Because Joan was found in a parking garage and her driver’s license was missing, that led Mike Franks to suspect that she was killed by the same man who raped Tish, as he had the same kind of MO. Long story short, it wasn’t him. The true culprit was Raymond Garcia, the tow truck driver who was sent to pick up with Joan when her car broke down. Franks, Gibbs, Lala and Randy apprehended Garcia at the trailer park where he lived and he confessed to murdering Joan. Oh, and her license hadn’t been stolen, it’d melted in her bag from the fire.

But all was not for nought in Mike Franks’ personal case! The discovery of Joan’s corpse led him to reach out to Daniel Oakley, Special Agent in Charge Cliff Wheeler’s contact at the FBI, and he learned that they believed they identified the man who raped Tish and various other women was Anthony Cook. When Lala interrogated Cook at NIS about the Joan Lewis case, he mentioned how the night she was murdered, he was at a diner miles away reading a book. That was true… well, partially.

With help from Vera Strickland and Mary Jo Hayes, the team deduced that the diner where Cook spent his time was across the street from a nursing home, which just go happened to have his mother as one of its residents. The mother was just cognizant enough to tell them what a “hateful child” Cook had been, how her husband had left because of the boy, and how she burned her son with a hair iron once in self defense when he tried to attack her. Then they discovered the missing driver’s licenses hidden in a picture frame in the elderly woman’s room, including Tish’s. Needless to say that Cook was then arrested for his heinous crimes.

Unfortunately for those of you who were hoping that Franks and Tish would get back together after Cook was captured, it’s not to be. After learning that her rapist had been caught, Tish, who’d been staying with her uncle Témet Téngalkat (the Chief Medical Examiner), left town, as she finally felt free to pursue a new chapter of her life now that she knew her ex-boyfriend would be ok. She’s gone, and Franks looked shocked when he learned this from Témet.

Obviously I know Mike Franks is going to be ok in the long run, and for the sake of her mental health and emotional wellbeing, Tish probably made the right call getting a fresh start. Still, I imagine there being no chance of reconciliation with her will weigh on Franks for the rest of NCIS: Origins Season 1 and maybe even into Season 2. He spent a decade of his life with her, and she helped pull him out of the hole he’d fallen into post-Vietnam when he was transporting drugs across state lines and dealing with his own substance abuse issues. You don’t just get over losing someone like that for good quickly.

There are three episodes left to go in NCIS: Origins’ first season, so hopefully they won’t shy away from exploring the aftermath of Mike Franks’ life with Tish Kwa'la being over. While we know from NCIS how his story will ultimately end, I’d still like to see him find love again before he retires to Mexico. The guy’s been through so much!