NCIS: Origins Season 2, Episode 9 ‘Fools Rush In’ sees our characters make bad decision after bad decision, and all those choices they’re making will surely end up having long-term consequences. From Gibbs deciding he and Diane are going to stay married to Franks antagonizing Agent Swanson when she was just doing her job to Lala sleeping with a “gangbanger” (her words), there’s a lot to side-eye this hour, from everyone.
Well, not Randy. Randy innocent.
Ironically, or perhaps fittingly, Gibbs sums up what they’re all doing with his voiceover at the end. He tends to do that, particularly because this is just Gibbs looking back, and hindsight is 20/20. And in hindsight, well… Gibbs and Diane might make sense for now, and Lala might want to hide her feelings with bad decisions. But it’s impossible to really escape from the truth—and Gibbs and Lala will both have to face it sooner or later.
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THE KIND OF LOVE THAT LASTS FOREVER
We knew Lala was going to end up being very important in Gibbs’ life from the beginning. This story is, after all, about her. But in Season 1, we thought this would end up being a story of loss—of a possibility cut short too soon. Instead, it seems like it will be a different kind of story. One we already know will have a lot of bumps, but one that perhaps doesn’t have to end in tragedy.
In ‘Fools Rush In’, it’s clear that both Gibbs and Lala are trying to run from their feelings. It’s much easier for Leroy Gibbs to be with Diane, because she’s fun and she cares… but most importantly, because the thought of losing her doesn’t break him. And yeah, that is in some ways settling, but for someone who has lost as much as he has, sometimes a choice that feels like self-preservation can seem the right one.
Lala, meanwhile, is done being the careful, analytical person. This has less to do with Gibbs and more with her accident, but this Lala might have taken a chance on whatever she and Gibbs have going on. Except, once again, right person, wrong time. So, she looks elsewhere, even if that goes against every instinct she has. Even if she knows it’s a bad idea.
But NCIS: Origins has already told us where to look, where to invest. In Gibbs and Lala. Even if we’re in the angst part of the story.
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IS THAT SEXUAL TENSION?
Woody doesn’t just hit the nail on the head, calling the sexual tension between Gibbs and Lala, even if Lala decides to ignore it, he always kinda clocks the antagonism between Franks and Swanson as something that could end up being much more. If Swanson is just a character NCIS: Origins brought up to rattle Franks a bit for one episode, then why is she basically the female version of Mike in so many ways?
Oh, and Woody called the sexual tension here, too!
There’s certainly an interesting dynamic there that would be fun to explore, particularly because it’s so different from what Mike had with Tish. And look, we might have grown to love Mike Franks, but we’re not blind to his faults. Swanson looks like the kind of woman who could teach him a thing or twenty.
Did I expect to be interested in Mike Franks’ love life? No. Could I be, if this materializes? Yes, yes, I could.
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Things I think I think:
- I mean your gut was telling you annulment first, Gibbs.
- They find the weirdest reasons for NCIS to have jurisdiction, I swear.
- “Please do not address me as woman.” Tell him!
- There is sexual tension. We feel it.
- “I think he’s still drunk. He’s only funny when he’s drunk.”
- Lala’s face at Gibbs’ news. And Randy clocking it, too. Ouch.
- I adored every second of Kowalski trying to help Gibbs this episode. It does a really great job of showing how this family has expanded way past the core four.
- Just say you’re upset, Lala.
- “Sometimes I see that gangbanger at Church and we talk about our day, you’re the one that got drunk married in Vegas.”
- Funny because Gibbs listening to his gut will become quintessential Gibbs.
- Woody and Phil, the shippers that they are.
- “Life, man.” I should not like Wheeler as much as I do these days.
- They might as well have brought popcorn to watch Gibbs’ interrogation. But it’s nice, don’t get me wrong.
- The Gibbs and Lala of it all is so obvious, and that’s part of the problem. It’s almost too obvious to face at this point. Like looking into the sun.
- “Right place, right time. It’s easy. It’s simple.”
- Just what you want to hear about the woman you just married.
- “But it only complicates the kind of love that lasts forever.”
- So, you still love Lala?
- That’s what I’m getting. You still love Lala.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS: Origins Season 2, Episode 9 ‘Fools Rush In’? Share with us in the comments below! And if you have any thoughts about the show, share them with us in our NCIS: Origins hub!
NCIS: Origins airs on Tuesdays at 9/8c on CBS.
