Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS: Origins episode “Darlin’, Don’t Refrain” are ahead!
The Sandman case from NCIS: Origins’ two-part premiere seemed pretty open and shut at first, with Jameson “Bugs” Boyd being arrested as the sniper who gunned down four people, including his own girlfriend. Then in Origins’ Season 1 midseason finale, it was revealed that Bugs had not only worked with a second sniper, but was involved with the “catastrophic mishandling” of Operation Sundown. Cut to last week on the 2025 TV schedule, “Bugs” revealed that Bugs hadn’t actually killed any of those people, though he was murdered before he could name the culprit. Thanks to the events of “Darlin’, Don’t Refrain,” we now know the identity of the real Sandman killer, and it turns out that Leroy Jethro Gibbs had a personal connection to them, which legitimately surprised me.
The events that unfolded in Origins’ latest episode, which can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription, led the team learning that the late Dustin Cruz was a private military contractor who’d organized off the books jobs for the CIA during the Gulf War. The CIA hired an organization called Flintport to run a protection detail in Kuwait for a CIA asset named Abad Safar. Four snipers were tasked by Cruz, who was supervising Operation Sundown, to protect Safar, his wife and his son. Unfortunately, the family was killed by insurgents when they discovered his collaboration, and this happen after the sniper team was mysteriously called away.
Flintport was dissolved after the incident, and then within the last few months leading up to “Darlin’, Don’t Refrain,” three of its top four executives had been killed in various parts of the country. The lone survivor, company head Kevin Rayburn, was tracked down and discovered to be in hiding. He revealed that he pulled all his guys, including the snipers, off their ops to help cap the oil wells Sadaam Hussein burned, as the United States was willing to pay millions to get it done. The Safar family died because of Rayburn’s greed, which led to Sandman enact his revenge.
You see, Bugs was on that team of snipers, as was, to my shock, Luke Fletcher. The name may not sound familiar to some, but regular NCIS: Origins viewers will definitely recognize him as the man who’s been running the veterans support group meetings that Gibbs has been attending. Gibbs figured this out when he was combing through footage of Vera Strickland’s interviews with Bugs and noticed that the incarcerated sniper has mentioned a quote from Napoleon that Luke had also mentioned during one of the meetings.
Gibbs went to Luke’s home to try and discreetly get proof about his suspicions, but he was soon discovered. Luke claimed he truly cared about the vets he was helping, but Gibbs also pieced together that Luke was using the group as a way to gain access to military records in the camps and bases he visited. Luke was also the one who planted the listening devices at the Camp Pendleton office, which is how he learned that Bugs was getting ready to spill the beans last week.
A fight soon broke out between Gibbs and Luke that ended with the latter’s death. Before he passed though, he confessed why he’d carried out those killings. While Gibbs seemed to mostly be ok after the fight, Lala Dominguez stuck around his apartment to make sure he didn’t have a concussion.
Then there was Special Agent in Charge Cliff Wheeler, head of the NIS Pendleton Office, who already had enough on his plate dealing with his son acting out and catching heat for fumbling the Sandman case, resulting in the FBI taking it over. By the end of the episode, Wheeler admitted that he’d shredded the document mentioning Bugs’ partner and Operation Sundown, feeling at the time that they’d captured the right Sandman and felt it was in his best interest to keep the case closed. He’s now suspended indefinitely, leaving it unclear if he’ll be back for NCIS: Origins Season 2.
What we do know is that next week brings us the Origins Season 1 finale, titled “Cecilia.” The episode will see Gibbs meeting Lara Macy, the investigator who’s looking to uncover the truth behind Pedro Hernandez’s murder, prompting Lala and Mike Franks to do what they can to protect their teammate.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
