Before NCIS: Origins premiered on the 2024 TV schedule, lead actor Austin Stowell said that Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Mariel Molino’s Lala Dominguez would not have a “romantic vibe” between them. And yet, six episodes into the CBS prequel series, a unique connection seems to be forming between these characters, and the older Gibbs (reprised by Mark Harmon) even said at the end of Origins’ first episode that he’s looking back on this time of his life because he’s telling the story about “her,” i.e. Lala. So could she be the reason Gibbs came up with Rule 12, “Never date a coworker”? Stowell has shared his take on this, and I’m almost convinced this is the case.
NCIS: Origins takes place in late 1991, several months after Gibbs’ first wife, Shannon, and his daughter, Kelly, were murdered by Pedro Hernandez, and he was so heartbroken by this news that he deliberately walked into enemy fire. Now he has new purpose in life thanks to being recruited into NIS (as the government agency was known back then) by Mike Franks, and Lala is one of his teammates. Chemistry is starting to brew between those two, but as Austin Stowell told Us Weekly, the timing on his is horrible. As he put it:
There’s a reason that people who work together sometimes end up getting together. It’s that they understand each other. There’s a lot of Lala in Gibbs and vice versa that they see a bit of a mirror image. But they’re both very stubborn. . . . At this point, we’re still just months after Gibbs lost his wife and child. Even if those emotions are creeping in, he probably is quieting them and feeling as if he shouldn’t have those feelings.
This was certainly evident in last week’s episode, “Incognito,” which saw Gibbs going undercover for the first time, and Lala was by his side, as they were posing as a couple. Per Austin Stowell, this is where their “bond is created,” and their mission could be the “catalyst for something more.” However, considering that Lala Dominguez was never mentioned during NCIS and the older Gibbs said he doesn’t like to tell the story about her, it can be surmised that whatever’s ahead for these two doesn’t end well.
Longtime NCIS watchers know about the rules Leroy Jethro Gibbs has come up with to live his life by and teach others in his life. While some of these rules, which he was inspired to write by Shannon, have been written when the events of Origins begins, many still have yet to be drafted, although it’s unclear if that includes Rule 12. Austin Stowell noted that Gibbs and Lala are “very cognizant” of the fact that they’re coworkers, adding:
It would not be a good idea. Rule 12, we haven’t seen that rule get written yet. It might be in [Gibbs’] box, I’m not sure. But he might not have had a reason to write that rule if he was with [his wife] Shannon already. So there might be some edits to the rules coming up.
To be clear, Austin Stowell said he doesn’t actually know if NCIS: Origins will show how Rule 12 came to be, but he did acknowledge that Gibbs’ attraction to Lala “has as much to do with who she is as a person as her aesthetic value,” and that he “sees something inside her that lights him up.” Taking all this information into account, I would not be shocked at all if we are getting the Rule 12 origin story, although then that begs the question about if this will be chronicled in the recently-expanded Season 1 or potential future seasons. That said, as mentioned earlier, if Gibbs has been so unwilling to reflect on Lala, I can’t help but think that the creation of Rule 12 could be created in response to especially heartbreaking or even tragic events.
We’ll see what ends up happening as NCIS: Origins airs new episodes Mondays at 10 pm ET on CBS. The series can also be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription alongside all the other NCIS shows.
