We can’t imagine NCIS: Origins without Bernard “Randy” Randolph (played by Caleb Foote). But the actor revealed just recently on the NCIS: Partners & Probies podcast that we almost had to, as his character was almost killed off in Season 1. What? Ahead of the Season 2 finale of the show titled ‘Hollywood Ending,’ we chatted with Foote about that horrible possibility, the terrible cliffhanger for Randy in Season 2, and what he wants to see in Season 3.
Just in case you haven’t watched the episode (SPOILERS AHEAD!), it ends with a bang. Not literally, but almost. On the one hand, Randy is kidnapped. On the other hand, Lala and Gibbs run into each other’s arms to the tune of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” from The Bodyguard and finally have that long-awaited kiss.
Ironically, Foote told Fangirlish that Austin [Stowell] and Mariel [Molino] were both on set when he filmed that kidnapping scene for Randy. So, of course, “in one of the takes while I was getting kidnapped, I was screaming ‘Gibbs, Lala, where are you?’”
Watching it wasn’t quite as fun.
“I think David [J. North] and Gina [Monreal] are masterminds of the finale. We know that from Season 1, Episode 18, with the Lala car flip. They’ve just figured out this way to leave the audience satisfied. We cleaned up all of these storylines; we defeated Abbe Pruitt. We still exist as an office, and boom, we get the kiss, but then you have to ask more questions. There has to be a reason to keep going. And selfishly, it was so cool as an actor to be part of that cliffhanger.”
He also joked that Randy might be missing a couple of digits next season, but we’re gonna ignore that and focus on Foote’s revelation that Randy wasn’t actually supposed to make it past the first few episodes.
“When I started the show, they never said that they were going to kill me. I never went into it with a clear date. We kind of went into it very open-ended, and it wasn’t until about a year later, until after we wrapped the finale, or we were shooting the finale, that David and Gina said, “Yeah, we wanted this.” This was their quote: that they wanted to make a character so lovable that you couldn’t kill them. And then we were going to kill them off because NCIS: Origins means business.”
As Foote said, to their credit, they successfully did the first part. And we’re very glad they didn’t do the second part.
Randy, bless his soul, gets kidnapped because he’s the one who has been putting in the extra work digitizing all the case files. “What’s cool about NCIS is that it is very tech-oriented, and they do have access to state-of-the-art technology, even back in the day. What makes our show so special is that we’re very analog, but Randy is at the forefront of that technology. So, it’s really neat to be that guy who’s breaking that barrier, who’s going to make so many changes. I mean, obviously, to make an omelet, you have to crack some eggs. And one of those eggs getting cracked is Randy getting kidnapped.”
Too soon for the joke. Too soon.
But Foote jokes about as much as Randy does, which is a lot. And yet, though Randy often acts like the comedic relief, the character has proven to be so much more. “When we first started the show,” Foote shared, “we were doing press for the show before we even shot anything.” Back then, he was asked if he was the comedic relief, and he said no. “Because I think at first, I wanted to fight that trope, and I wanted to avoid it being a trope.”
“I think now I really have to lean into it, and I think it really works for this character. And it’s so fun to play someone who is intelligent and comedic.” But he’s not just that, either. “I get to be, I get to be a perceptive, silly guy. At the end of the day, he’s still very savvy, and he’s still a great detective. He just goes about it a little differently.”
As an aside, Foote and I agreed that Randy’s love language is words of affirmation, but he’s just very good at all the love languages. His red flag? “I think we can be walked over,” he said. “I think people taking advantage of him. And I think that’s what’s so important about his team is that they have his back, and Randy will seldom speak up, but luckily, he has some very outspoken team members who will always have his back who will fight for him if needed.”
Foote might be sharing a screen often with Gibbs and Franks (played by Kyle Schmidt), but it’s not like he’s the weak link. Randy can hold his own. He doesn’t really need anyone to throw a punch for him, even if he can sometimes appreciate people having his back. Foote knows it. The showrunners know it. And, he teased, we might get “the return of sexy Randy” in Season 3. We even brainstormed ways Randy could save himself from whoever kidnapped him.
No matter how sexy Randy is at any particular moment, Foote will likely be the guy giving exposition in the show. And that’s not always easy. “It’s always a delicious challenge, and every single time you get a large chunk of dialogue, it’s always different,” he said. “Our showrunners, they trusted me with that challenge pretty early on. And it’s fun to take a huge block of text and make it real and make it human.”
There’s a lot of Foote in Randy, in all the best ways. “That’s what’s so great about the television medium, they lay the track while the train is coming. So, while you’re filming, they actually see who we are as people, and then they kind of adjust the characters as the season goes on. And so, yeah, pretty soon they’ll just be calling Randy ‘Caleb’.”
We’ll take it, as long as it gets us more Randy. There are still a lot of stories to be told from where NCIS: Origins is now to where we meet Gibbs on NCIS. And a lot of grey hairs for Gibbs.
And when the show returns for Season 3, it’ll do so with a new agency name: NCIS, at last. “It just feels right, Lizzie,” Foote told me. “When we put on the hats, and we put on the jackets, it fits so perfectly. It makes sense that the mothership has been going for 23 years. That hat is just perfect.”
We got a soft spot for this prequel, too, and we hope we get a lot more time with these characters and a lot more of Randy.
NCIS: Origins aired Tuesdays on CBS. All episodes are available to stream on Paramount+.
He’s always great, whether he’s being sweet or funny. I liked the episodes where he was singing “Feel the Vibration” and the one where he was amped up on caffeine. They have to keep Randy, because he is the one whose life was saved when he switched with someone to help care for his colicy baby. Come on!