Gibbs’ rule No. 10 says to never get personally involved in a case, but that’s a lesson Lala Dominguez (Mariel Molino) still needs to learn in the NCIS prequel’s fall finale, airing December 9. When the NIS agent’s criminal informant Twitchy Tony (Travis Hammer) is shot, she’s determined to find out who’s responsible.
“Funny enough that Twitchy Tony was just a throwaway thing that I had written in the pilot of NCIS: Origins, just a criminal informant that I needed to come up with a name, and then leave it to Gina [Lucita Monreal, executive producer] to craft an entire beautiful sort of platonic love story around that name,” says executive producer David J. North.
This episode, titled “End of the Road,” “explores how our agents cultivate CIs, specifically Lala and how she sees them as people, what they mean to her,” Monreal adds. “It really does tell this sort of platonic love story, this brother-sister story between Twitchy Tony and Lala.”
Speaking of love (but not the platonic kind), Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Austin Stowell) faces a major decision in his relationship with future ex-wife Diane Sterling (Kathleen Kenny). A job is taking her to Los Angeles, and she wants him to go with her. But we can’t forget about his obvious feelings for Lala; the two nearly kissed in the Season 1 finale, and things have been tense between them since she returned to work following her horrific car crash.
“I think that Diane, for him, is someone who is truly supportive and in his life right now, truly necessary. She came in, the right person at the right time, and I think that his feelings for her are strong and they are real,” says Monreal, before acknowledging, “They’re just not the same as the feelings he has for Lala. So I think he’s very torn.”
We’ll see the struggle in Gibbs when it comes to the two “a lot” in the fall finale, North teases.
Philip Winchester also returns as Mike Franks’ (Kyle Schmid) brother, Mason, when the agent visits him at the compound he’s now living. “Those two have a very interesting dynamic. Older brother, younger brother. There’s been sort of a role reversal there with Mason down and out. But Mason’s now living out on the compound with Abe Pruitt, and so we’re excited to see the Franks brothers’ relationship continue to develop out there,” North says.
And, as with any fall finale, expect “a couple enormous cliffhangers,” he adds.
Well, there’s always woodworking to pass the time until the 2026 return!
NCIS: Origins, Tuesdays, 9/8c, CBS
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