The last few moments of the NCIS: Origins Season 2 finale, titled ‘Hollywood Ending,’ were indeed just that for Lala and Gibbs. The kiss we’d been waiting for, to the tune of ‘I Will Always Love You’ from The Bodyguard. Quite a message. And yet, even as we see the two lock lips, the voiceover is telling us this isn’t going to last. Because NCIS: Origins couldn’t let us have one moment without reminding us about the pesky continuity issues.
Ahead of the airing of the episode, we interviewed Lala Dominguez herself, Mariel Molino, about the weight of that scene, what she’s looking forward to seeing from Lala going forward, and playing a Latina whose entire arc isn’t about her identity.
Molino got to watch the final scene before we talked, which is very good because we just couldn’t get it out of our heads, and we needed to dissect it. “It’s so good,” she agreed. “I’m very, very critical when it comes to watching my performance, but I will watch it because I love to see, like, oh, that was wrong, or that was okay, you know? I like to learn. And this was one of those scenes that I was like, no notes. I just, I was so happy with it.”
We’re gonna have it on repeat the entire hiatus.
“I thought they did such a great job in editing and lighting. Even the doubts that I had about, you know, when we filmed that scene, the way that Niels [Arden Oplev, the episode’s director] and Gina [Monreal] and David [J. North] really wanted it to be like an echo or a mirror of The Bodyguard. Them finally just closing the gap between each other and being enveloped in this kind of, just like a 90s romance movie. And when we first did it, and we blocked it out, both Austin and I imagined that we would have this conversation more like here [mimicking two people standing really close], then we would kiss. So, we’re like, okay, great. We’re going to play it here, and then we’re going to see each other, and that’s good.”
But it wasn’t so. “And Niels was like, no, no, no, no. You’re on this end, and Gibbs is here. And so even though it doesn’t feel like that in the edit, we actually couldn’t see each other. I could see his face, but it was, like, blurry. And so, everything I was saying, I was kind of proclaiming almost to him but to myself. And that was kind of beautiful in a way, too. Because what ended up happening was this, like, rush to get to each other, and this energy, and it works so well.”
The magic of filming.
In many ways, we’ve spent the entire season leading up to this moment. Everyone’s pointed out Lala’s feelings for Gibbs and even Gibbs’ feelings for Lala. But before, it didn’t feel like it was going to happen. “I think at that point she just has to keep moving on, you know what I mean? And I think that’s also a big reason why she decides to leave NIS. Obviously, it’s come to a point where her feelings for Gibbs are so obvious to everyone, and people are starting to catch on that Gibbs also has those feelings for Lala. And in the last episode, we see that he makes it very clear that he’s not going to explore a romantic relationship ever again. It’s hurt him too much.”
“And so that, tied with NIS is shutting down, and then Lala has this beautiful man who loves her and wants her and wants to be with her. I think she’s like: what am I doing here? Why am I going to start over in a new office? Why am I trying to pursue a love with Gibbs when it’s impossible? I could start over. I could be with a man who loves me. Goodbye, you know?”
But if this is a story about her, we knew it could never have her leaving. Not that Manny didn’t make us worry a bit.
Molino shared that she enjoyed the relationship a lot, and to our note about how much Spanish she got to speak this season, explained, “That’s another reason I really loved Lala and Manny’s relationship. There’s something so special about sharing a language, sharing a culture, a way of being brought up. It’s obviously something that really brought them together and tied them in a lot of ways. And that can’t help but bring something beautiful out in you.”
“I think that’s why they also shared such a strong connection, which is why I loved getting to explore it, because you see a side of Lala that is romantic, that is childlike in a way. She really kind of melts with him. And you haven’t gotten to see that with her because you’ve only seen her in a relationship that she needed to get out of at the beginning of Season 1, and then this Jim and Pam style relationship, but taken to an extreme because they are also biting each other’s heads off all the time [with Gibbs]. You don’t really get to see the in love Lala, so that’s fun to explore.”
As a Latina, it’s been great to see Lala get to wear her identity but not be her identity in these two seasons of NCIS: Origins. And that’s something Molino was very aware of, and she loved to see pointed out. “I wanted to talk to Gina and David about it since I was cast,” she shared, because “I think sometimes being the Latina character on the show can put you in a box, where they immediately want to make the story perhaps about immigration or poverty. And those stories need to be told. They definitely have a place, especially being in California.”
“However, I also really wanted to try and showcase like, okay, but that’s not every Latino story. And if we just make it about that, then we’re kind of just giving you like a tiny piece of who we are as a culture, as people. And I love exploring characters that are more complex than that. Like, sure, being Latina is a part of Lala, but it’s also, you know, she’s half Mexican. What’s the other half? How does that add to the whole picture of who she is as a Latina?”
That part is something Molino would love to see explored next season, including “who her father is, who her mother is.” For her, “I’m interested in seeing like who those people are outside of the stereotypes of the Latino experience, you know? And I’m very, very thankful that thus far it’s been something that is part of my identity and that is explored when it also makes sense as an agent, right? Like she uses Spanish when she needs to on the field and when it makes sense, not just to be like, oh, you know, here’s a Latina.”
And though this might be a smaller detail, Molino promised us we’d see some stuff in Lala’s wardrobe in Season 3. Including suspenders.
In all this exploration of Lala, one thing becomes true. We get more and more attached. To the point that we (and Molino) cannot help but come up with the most outlandish theories about where Lala could be in the future. We just need her to be alive! Molino discussed the possibility that she was somewhere in that cabin in Alaska with Gibbs in the NCIS: Partners & Probies podcast. But where else could she be?
For Molino, the question is huge. “I didn’t think that fans loved her this much, you know? It’s like incredible to see how much people are trying to make canon work for them in a way that suits them so that Lala can live.”
She’s seen some theories, too. And she has a favorite. “I saw a theory about Lala being pregnant,” she told us. “I was like, wait, that’s kind of genius. Because obviously, Gibbs, after losing his wife and daughter, that’s too painful. To lose a partner is obviously incredibly painful, but a child? I mean, I don’t know how you come back from that. And so, I could see a world where… what if she got pregnant? What if something was scary about the potential of losing a child? And so, Lala was like, I just need to like remove myself from the situation because this person cannot go through this pain.”
We’ll take this ending. In fact, I’d suggested it in a previous review too. So, where do we sign? We’re all in favor. Especially if it means we get to keep Lala. We’re not ready to say goodbye. And we probably never will be.
NCIS: Origins aired Tuesdays on CBS. All episodes are available to stream on Paramount+.
I don’t know what you meant about a possible child. It feels like you are having a conversation with other people and I am listening in. But I watch this show faithfully and I know the characters. How would her becoming pregnant change anything? What did you mean by that? You said you want to keep her, but a lot of women leave when they realize they’re pregnant, they start a new life.