NCIS: Origins Showed What Gibbs Did Immediately After Learning His Wife And Daughter Were Killed, And It’s Heartbreaking

Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS: Origins episode “All’s Not Lost” are ahead!

Throughout the course of Mark Harmon’s nearly-two-decade run on NCIS, viewers learned quite a bit about his character, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, including how his first wife, Shannon, and daughter, Kelly, were murdered by a drug dealer named Pedro Hernandez in 1991. Now NCIS: Origins has provided a platform to further explore this tragic period of Gibbs’ life, with Austin Stowell playing the younger version of the character. “All’s Not Lost,” the latest episode of the CBS prequel to premiere on the 2024 TV schedule, particularly emphasized the pain he’s going through just months after Shannon and Kelly’s deaths, but what was really heartbreaking was seeing how he reacted immediately after learning they’d been killed.

How Gibbs Reacted To The News Of His Wife And Daughter’s Deaths

Gibbs was deployed in Operation Desert Storm when Shannon and Kelly, the former of whom witnessed Pedro Hernandez killing a Marine and agreed to testify against him, died in a car crash when their driver was shot in the head by Hernandez. His commanding officer informed him of the news and told the emotionally-devastated man that he’d be on the next flight back to the United States. Mere seconds later, their unit was attacked, and rather than hit the ground like the other Marines, Gibbs stood up after getting his bearings and started walking towards the direction of the gunfire and explosions.

In the midst of retconning Jackson Gibbs and Mike Franks’ relationship, last week’s NCIS: Origins episode, “Bend, Don’t Break,” saw the former telling the latter that he suspects his son has a death wish and only joined NIS so he could one day kill Pedro Hernandez. Jackson wasn’t aware that Leroy had already tracked down and sniped the drug dealer, but he was certainly on the right track with that death wish idea. Leroy was clearly looking to die after learning that Shannon and Kelly were dead, not caring if he was hit by enemy fire. It was devastating to watch, because

Although the episode doesn’t show what happened to Leroy Jethro Gibbs, we know from NCIS that he was wounded and ended up in a coma for nearly three weeks. This explains why Jackson Gibbs spent so much time with Mike Franks prior to his son’s return, as he was keeping tabs on the investigation in his absence. Gibbs was still comatose when Shannon and Kelly were buried, but he later had a memorial for them, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we see this later on into Origins’ run. Who knows, maybe this will be when he and Mike Franks first crossed paths.

How Kelly’s Death Played Into This Week’s Case For Gibbs

As far as the present day storyline of “All’s Not Lost” goes, Gibbs, Franks, Lala Dominguez (someone who will become important in the lead protagonist’s life) and Bernard “Randy” Randolph investigated the death of an 8th grade science teacher named Brianna Davis, who was killed while looking after her boyfriend Derrick Jones’ daughter, Mildred, while he was deployed. Long story short, the girl was missing for bit, but eventually found, and the assassin who gunned Brianna down was hired to do so by a neighbor who ran a nearby dairy farm and wanted to prevent Brianna from talking after she discovered the farm had been dumping its chemicals into the nearby lake. It was pretty cut and dry stuff.

That said, this case also marked a big turning point for Leroy Jethro Gibbs starting to heal from the loss of his wife and daughter, although we know he’ll never find a full sense of peace until his departure early into NCIS Season 19. For one thing, because of his experience as a father, he was able to get through to the frightened Mildred and got her to identify Hatcher, the assassin who was hired to kill Brianna. Also, when Mildred was still missing, Mike Franks and Lala Dominguez were worried that the potential of a dead little girl would set Gibbs off given what happened to his own daughter. In the end, Gibbs managed to keep his cool throughout the case, though when he visited his daughter’s bedroom after getting the identification from Mildred, he understandably started crying.

Through narration from Mark Harmon’s older Gibbs, we also learned that after Shannon and Kelly died, he felt like he was all alone in the world. He made it pretty clear to Franks last week that this job is the only thing he has left to keep him going, but he was still pretty distant towards his coworkers, to the point that he kept ducking invitations to have dinner with Franks and his partner Trish. But the case with Mildred gave him enough of a push to stop by the Franks residence and enjoy a good home cooked meal. So while this NCIS: Origins episode showed a heartbreaking moment in Gibbs’ life, at least it ended on a heartwarming note.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs will never become the warmest individual to spend time with, but it feels like now he’s at a place where he’s open to getting to know his coworkers on a deeper level. Exactly how much time he’ll have to do so is uncertain though, because while we know Mike Franks ends up retiring from NIS in 1996, we have no idea what the future holds in store for Lala and Randy. Still, I’d like to think his experiences with them will help pave the way for him to be open to being part of a found family with characters like Tony DiNozzo, Ziva David, Timothy McGee, Abby Sciuto and Ducky Mallard.

New episodes of NCIS: Origins premiere Mondays at 9 pm ET, immediately after new episodes of NCIS Season 22. You can also stream the series alongside the other NCIS-verse offerings with a Paramount+ subscription, and you’ll definitely need access to that platform if you intend to watch the next upcoming show in the franchise, NCIS: Tony & Ziva.