CBS Is Rewriting NCIS Franchise's Biggest Lie

While NCIS: Origins claimed to be the origin story of Mark Harmon’s NCIS franchise hero Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the prequel series actually expanded to focus more on Lala’s story, until now. When The Pitt's R. Scott Gemmill began work on the procedural show JAG back in the ‘90s, there’s no way that the writer/ director could have known just how huge a procedural spinoff the show would someday produce.

Although JAG itself lasted a perfectly respectable 10 seasons with an impressive 227 episodes, its legacy was dwarfed by its own spinoff. A rare procedural franchise that can go toe to toe with Dick Wolf’s Law & Order universe, NCIS has, to date, over 500 episodes of the original series, 323 episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles, 155 episodes of NCIS: New Orleans, another 55 episodes of NCIS: Hawaiʻi, and 10 more of the short-lived NCIS: Tony & Ziva.

As if this wasn’t enough, the prequel series NCIS: Origins started in 2024. The CBS show’s first two seasons promised to chronicle the story of how Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs became the inimitable hero of the original show, overcoming the murder of his first wife and daughter and using these tragedies as the motivation to become the leader of NCIS. However, the spinoff wasted no time revealing that the premise of NCIS: Origins was a lie, as the show was more concerned with the story of Cecilia "Lala" Dominguez than Gibbs’ origins.

NCIS: Origins Lied About Its Original Premise

As early as the end of the show’s first episode, original actor Harmon’s narration as an older version of Gibbs noted that the show’s plot was, in reality, “her story,” referring to his coworker Lala. Since then, the show has doubled down on this throughout its two seasons, exploring Lala’s life as she challenges Gibbs and the pair build a difficult but successful partnership early in his time on the force.

Not unlike the classic sitcom How I Met Your Mother, NCIS: Origins pulled off an ingenious bait-and-switch in its first episode, getting viewers invested in one plot while secretly sewing the seeds of another story. The big difference, of course, is that NCIS: Origins is a spinoff, so viewers who were familiar with the original show had more reason to be annoyed by its failure to fulfill its promised plot.

When Ted announced that the pilot's story explained how he met “Aunt Robin” rather than the mother of his children, viewers were still just getting to know all these characters, so it was merely a fun misdirection. In contrast, once Gibbs said that NCIS: Origins was really Lala’s story, this called the entire prequel series into question. After all, if the show was truly set to focus on Lala over Gibbs, it could have just been another location-based spinoff like LL Cool J’s upcoming NCIS: NY.

Thus, one could argue that the final lines of episode 1 were really a double feint, with NCIS: Origins thrusting Lala into the spotlight even though the show ultimately always intended to return its focus to the fan favorite character of Gibbs. Indeed, the latest trailer for NCIS: Origins season 3 seemingly confirms this beyond any doubt, as the show is now bringing back Harmon’s older version of Gibbs onscreen to continue Gibbs’s current-day story.

CBS Is Backtracking Gibbs' Claim About NCIS: Origins Being Just Lala's Story

In CBS’s first-look teaser for NCIS: Origins season 3, Harmon’s almost exclusively offscreen role as a narrator changes completely. Until now, Harmon’s older Gibbs narrated the action of the show, but the prequel didn’t really tell viewers much about his current life. Ever since he retired and moved to Naktok Bay, Alaska, Gibbs has been absent from NCIS itself, and his return to the show’s Washington DC setting seemed unlikely.

Thus, Harmon’s Gibbs functioned like Jim Parsons' older Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory’s spinoff Young Sheldon, with this older version of the original show’s hero narrating his past, but not updating viewers on his present life. Season 3’s trailer changes this, as Harmon’s older version of Gibbs admits that the peace of retirement is now finished, over footage of him returning to the NCIS bullpen.

Admittedly, viewers don’t yet know what specific storyline will bring Gibbs back to his old stomping ground, but it is abundantly clear that his older self will play an active, involved role in the story of season 3. The return of a present-day Gibbs means that NCIS: Origins season 3 clearly won’t be entirely Lala’s story as the show changes its formula to accommodate a contemporary story strand alongside its prequel plot.

What NCIS Has Revealed About Lala's Future After NCIS: Origins

This dual-timeline approach is a tricky thing for any show to pull off, as proven by Prime Video’s convoluted CSI replacement Scarpetta and its decades-spanning mystery plot. However, the difficulty of balancing these two storylines in different time periods doesn’t make Harmon’s onscreen return to the franchise any less exciting. What it does do is call the future of Lala’s unfolding storyline into question.

As of season 2, viewers know that Lala stayed at Camp Pendleton after surviving her horrific car crash in the season 1 finale. Not only did Lala recover and remain an agent, but her relationship with Gibbs finally took the almost inevitable next step when the pair kissed after two seasons of gradually mounting chemistry between them. Lala’s decision to stay at Camp Pendleton may have been shaped by this potential romance with Gibbs, but she didn’t explicitly say as much.

This information combines to put the NCIS: Origins heroine Lala in an unenviable position, and it might be time for fans of the character to get worried. For one thing, viewers know she wasn’t mentioned in the original series, so it seems pretty obvious that things don’t work out between Gibbs and Lala in the long term, romantically speaking.

For another, the fact that Gibbs said Lala’s story was “a story I don’t tell” that “isn’t like the others,” combined with him coming out of retirement in season 3’s trailer, really doesn’t bode well. While viewers don’t know for certain that NCIS: Origins will kill off Lala to set up the traumatized, brooding version of Gibbs seen throughout NCIS, it’s starting to seem like a foregone conclusion judging by all the available evidence.