NCIS: Origins Season 1, Episode 1 & 2 Review: ‘Enter Sandman’

NCIS: Origins Season 1, Episode 1 & 2 ‘Enter Sandman’ is a pretty good introductory two-parter, particularly because the “Pilot” is an outstanding episode, and ‘Enter Sandman, Part 2’ does a good enough job of tying up the loose ends left by the first hour and setting up the possible storyline threads the show is going to follow going forward.

Gibbs’ show this is not, even though in many ways, it is. Austin Stowell’s young Gibbs might be at the center of the story. He is the one telling us this tale. But as he tells us at the end of the Pilot, this story …well, it’s about someone else entirely. And that, well, that makes it a more interesting story, we’re not going to lie.

MORE: Is NCIS: Origins worth the watch? Here’s our spoiler-free NCIS: Origins review!

THIS IS A STORY OF HER

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this line since I heard it. Because this line reframes the entire show as not just Gibbs’ story, but as the story of Lala Dominguez, and considering we actually already know so much about Gibbs that the entire premise of this show felt a little unnecessary, that is a much better story. And the reframing doesn’t actually take Gibbs out of the equation completely. This is still, in many ways, a story he is telling us, so he is very important to it. We still have many questions.

Why is Lala important to Gibbs? What makes this story one of the ones that is always with him? Why, exactly, is the story of Lala Dominguez one of the stories Gibbs doesn’t tell? And almost as importantly, is she still alive somewhere, in the continuity of NCIS? Or is this actually a story framed by loss for Gibbs? We don’t have the answers yet, even if we have suspicions, and we know very little of the characters populating this show, at least for now.

But we do know that Lala Dominguez is smart, funny, and the kind of woman who is chaffing against what is expected of her as a woman in the military in the early 90s. Because Lala wants to do things. She wants to make a difference. She’s good at her job. And in those days, all of those things didn’t matter as much if you were a woman. You were lucky to get where she did. The next rung, well …there was always a man who deserved it more.

MORE: How much will the show focus on Gibbs’ grief? We have the information here!

WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE

NCIS: Origins Season 1, Episode 1 & 2 are about loss, because what else could they be about? We’re picking up Gibbs’ story at a time in his life that’s marked by what he lost. And at one point, we’ll meet him again, a man who carries that loss, but who has made a life for himself beyond it. That’s not this Gibbs. This is a man trying to stay afloat, a man Mike Franks threw a lifeline to.

This just leads to many more interesting questions the first two episodes do a great job of setting up. Why did Franks throw him a lifeline? What did he see in Gibbs that made him want to help him? Or …did he just need Gibbs for some reason that we’re not privy to yet? Does it have something to do with what he and Strickland were talking about at the end of the two-part premiere?

“There is no such thing as a clean slate,” Harmon says in the voiceover for the first hour. And there really shouldn’t be. If NCIS: Origins was ever going to be something interesting, it was always going to need to dig deep, not just into who Gibbs is, but who Franks is, what their relationship was really like, and how these people we don’t know shaped Gibbs into the man we will one day meet.

But it isn’t just about the story Gibbs is telling now, a story he himself tells us, he could never tell before. It’s also about the whys. Why now? Why not before? We might know what story he is trying to tell, but those are still very important answers for the show to provide going forward.

MORE: Who else is starring in NCIS: Origins? Well, Bobby Moynihan for one! And as we can see from these pictures, Patrick Fischler and Julian Black Antelope!

TO GET TO AN END WE COULD LIVE WITH

“The stories go where you go,” implies that whatever we’re going to learn in NCIS: Origins is going to resonate with the man Gibbs will one day become. But there’s a line in that opening monologue that feels ominous. He does, after all, refer to this story he’s telling as a “story that got cut short.” Whether that means someone’s life or his intervention in the story, we don’t yet know. Maybe the people behind the show haven’t really decided yet. But that’s at the center of what makes this two-parter interesting, what makes this show stand out as more than just a prequel about a fairly well-known character.

“It’s our job to tell those stories, no matter how much they took from us,” the voiceover also says. But we have to reconcile that with the thought that Gibbs has never told this story before, and with the knowledge that a man who knows as much about loss as he does could not hesitate to share this story before for anything but big reasons.

So, what is the end of this story? If Gibbs is to be believed, part of the job is to “tell an ending of justice, no matter the cost.” And he would know. He’s paid the cost one too many times. We just weren’t there to see it. If there’s a cost now, well …it’s going to hurt a lot more than the things that happened just before this show started ever did.

Things I think I think:

• As someone who was on this set a few months ago, the way they’ve incorporated 90s “tech” is kinda genius, especially when considering I remember the conversations about how hard it was to source some of these things in the first place.
• We get very little from Mary Jo in the two-part premiere, which just makes me feel like I want so much more from Mary Jo.
• Honestly, we don’t get enough from Vera either, but at least there’s a twist there to what she’s doing which I LIKE. Diany Rodriguez is outstanding, and I love how she’s bringing a sense of rebelliousness to a character who could just be “another woman on the job.”
• And the convo between Vera and Lala? I will pay good money for this show to make their friendship an important touchstone going forward. We barely get to see two Latinas like this on shows set in 2024! Imagine on a show set in the 90s and in Camp Pendleton. Might not be the path I would ever choose, but I’m always pretty glad when I can say see, we belong everywhere.
• Randy Randolf is a funny name, but Caleb Foote, who is btw a delightful individual, fits so damn well with this show that I wouldn’t be surprised if the recurring is dropped from his status really soon. Imagine what kind of show we’ll have if we leave all the serious people alone by themselves!
• Also, give them ten episodes and the bromance between him and Gibbs will be A+.
• Did I expect to like Mike Franks as much as I do? Can’t say I saw that coming!

Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS: Origins Season 1, Episode 1 & 2 ‘Enter Sandman’? Share with us in the comments below!

NCIS: Origins airs Mondays at 10/9c on CBS.