NCIS: Origins Season 3, Episode 1 ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’ is perhaps one of the best episodes of a show that has already set a pretty high bar for itself. Sure, we knew Mark Harmon was coming back for a season-long arc, but no one would have blamed fans for wondering if NCIS: Origins could keep up with the return of Sam Hanna in the new kid on the block, NCIS: New York, and the return of Tony DiNozzo to the mothership NCIS. Turns out, it very much can.
The thing I have always enjoyed about NCIS: Origins, the thing that has made it different from all other shows in the franchise, is that yes, this is a procedural. The format remains. But this show is also telling bigger stories, and I don’t just mean it’s got an overarching arc. I mean, it’s telling real stories about family, friends, and what makes us people, and with a voiceover, it can damn well make sure the messages land.
‘Don’t You Forget About Me’ brings a lot of that full circle, and yet it opens up the story in a way that feels very natural. Because yes, this was always a story about her. About Lala. But I think we all knew from the beginning, or at least from a while ago, that the story of her was also the story of Gibbs. And that story isn’t over quite yet.
SAVING RANDY CAME WITH A PRICE
The episode delivers perfectly when it comes to not just the Randy kidnapping but the reaction from everyone to Randy being taken. From Franks calling Randy “my boy” to even Wheeler looking concerned, to Lala blaming herself, without forgetting Gibbs playing with Junior, everyone locks in. And it’s actually so fun to see that Randy saves himself thanks to Gibbs’ party trick, and how that party trick ties into what happens to Gibbs in the present and how he saves himself.
Now, the real question is whether that’s the only tie this case has with what happened to Gibbs, or if there’s anything else we missed. Either way, the return to Alaska feels very natural, because I think everyone who watched Gibbs for all those years on NCIS and then came back for NCIS: Origins had this feeling that his story just couldn’t end there. He had to be wrong. There was still more to the tale.
It’s pretty satisfying to find out we’re right. And it sets up quite a journey for the season to come. Not just for Gibbs in the present, but Gibbs in the past and the entire team around him. NCIS: Origins has always been very good at giving people their due, and we have no doubt they will continue to do just that.
THE FINAL CHAPTER IS STILL BEING WRITTEN
Gibbs’ line about how Lala is “the one” shouldn’t even work as well as it does, especially since we know Gibbs will indeed get married again, and not just once. So, what’s going to happen? How can we reconcile this Gibbs with the one we’ll meet on NCIS? Right now, it doesn’t really matter and that’s the miracle of this show. We not only trust the writers to be telling a story that will make sense in the end, we also trust the actors with the emotions they’re portraying.
I first met Austin Stowell at a TCA panel months before the show premiered. We didn’t even have footage back then, but I remember him talking about how serious he was about embodying Gibbs. For two seasons, I’ve believed that. But in this episode, I also realized Stowell has done something else I didn’t expect him to be able to do: he’s become Gibbs. I’m not just watching him and comparing anything anymore. Instead, he is Gibbs, this Gibbs, as much as Harmon is the older version.
And we believe that this Gibbs loves Lala. Even before he said it, it’s become very obvious. How can she be the one and this story be so much about her when we’ve never met her has been the question of the show. I’ve had my theories about Lala still being in hiding, about a hidden child, about so many things that could make it make some level of sense.
I know I’m not alone. And if we’re all holding on to that possibility, it’s because Stowell and Molino have made us invest in a ship that felt doomed by the prequel curse. And they’ve also made us invest in this story. The story of her. No, the story of them.
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Things I think I think:
- Rude to start with “I only wish it could have lasted forever” once again.
- Alaska, 2026. Hi, Gibbs.
- “I came to Alaska to find peace, and to put pen to paper so Lala’s story didn’t die with me. Five years later I had that peace. I liked my life here.”
- Look, I was like, this is weird; is he gonna get shot? And then he got shot, and I still yelped.
- “One down, one to go”?
- Is the other one Lala?
- “Thirty four years after I first kissed her, the ghost from my past found me. And it all started that night.” Were you counting?
- No way he’s dead, not just because it makes no storyline sense, but because he seemed to be deliberately playing dead.
- Keep kissing! Ignore Franks
- Lol at Franks going “you’re quitting to go make the biggest mistake of your life.”
- I knew no one was going to ignore him.
- “In that moment, I couldn’t believe it took me so long to trust my gut, which had always been telling me she was all I’d ever needed.”
- Gibbs, why you such a poet?
- “If I knew then what I know now, I would have never let us walk out that door.”
- Ominous.
- Vera is actually a fun drunk.
- The buttons thing is hilarious. Them thinking Franks wouldn’t notice is even more hilarious.
- Randy baby. I can’t see him like this.
- “Randy of all people, he’s like a frolicking ray of sunshine.” HE IS.
- Did you just say “my boy,” Mike?
- Lala, not everything is on you.
- Look, I think this former director dude is shady, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did fail up.
- “God help us all” indeed, Mary Jo.
- Morse Code! I knew it!
- Anyone who takes their food into the bathroom needs to stay away from me.
- They found Randy too quickly; I’m concerned now.
- “Are you too banged up for a hug?”/”Never”
- Love Vera and Lala, always.
- “I wasn’t running to Manny, I was running from Gibbs.”
- Randy, you should have known better than to write down your password!
- Okay, Gail. I see now how it happened.
- Told you it was creepy dude.
- Do I mind this wrinkle they threw at Lala and Gibbs? Not that much. He did hurt her. He does seem like he doesn’t know what he wants.
- “I deserve someone who won’t let anyone or anything get in the way.”
- “You’re not the next one. You’re THE one” is a line, Gibbs. A line.
- “I’ll wait as long as it takes.”
- “Without getting married again?”/”Well, that’s kind of a big ask.” LOL
- “Saving Randy came with a price, and what I didn’t know was that 34 years later I’d be paying mine.”
- “Don’t go too far, Gibbs.”
- Okay, but that someone close to you has to be someone from your old team, but can we see the new team as well?
- “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” absolutely had to be said.
- “The story of hers isn’t hers alone. It’s ours. And the final chapter is still being written.”
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS: Origins Season 3, Episode 1 ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’? Share with us in the comments below!
NCIS: Origins airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on CBS.
