NCIS: Origins Season 3, Episode 5 ‘Baila Esta Cumbia‘ delivers on both storylines, giving us an emotional backstory episode on Lala that Mariel Molino absolutely nails, down to that final moment when she breaks down in Gibbs’ arms. In the present, the episode does quick work of Gibbs and Bishop tracking down one of the guys who shot Gibbs, only to throw a curveball at us just one week after the show revealed that Lala was dead in the present timeline.
Turns out she isn’t. (I told you!). And Gibbs didn’t know. (Told you!). So now, this has become not just a race towards finding out who’s trying to harm a mysterious person in Gibbs’ life, but a race towards finding out what happened to Lala, where she has been all these years, and why someone would want to hurt both her and Gibbs.
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IT’S OKAY TO TRUST
Perhaps the most important part of the Lala backstory is what it tells us about her and what hints it gives us at what could have kept her from Gibbs for all these years. When this show started, I thought for sure the only future possible for Lala was a tragic death. But after a while I started to see that there was so much more the show could do, and that Gibbs’ storyline being so open-ended in the present gave the show such a huge opportunity to provide closure for the character, or at least, a new beginning that felt happy for a man we’ve invested over two decades in.
‘Baila Esta Cumbia’ gives us a glimpse of why Lala has trust issues, and I will say it’s very much deserved. Her dad might think, even to this day, that what he did wasn’t so bad. He wasn’t abusive, like Gibbs assumed. But he did his damage anyway, as Lala made clear. And that damage is affecting whatever relationship she can have with Gibbs.
At the end of this hour, we see Lala lower a wall and let herself break in Gibbs’ arms. It’s a huge step forward, because for any relationship to work, she needs to make herself emotionally vulnerable. Gibbs, for all his faults, has already done that. Now the issue is… what will happen between them for Lala to hide herself from Gibbs for over three decades? And was that even her choice?
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THE STORY OF US
Even when Gibbs thought this was the story of Lala and only of Lala, he still thought there was something about it worth telling. Now, present Gibbs has realized all his preconceptions have been wrong. This woman who was so important to him that her death apparently changed him profoundly is perhaps not dead. And by perhaps I mean she’s absolutely not dead because this is TV and they’re not gonna do all of that to then go, oh, joke’s on you, she did die.
But there’s still the question of why this story needed to be told even before he knew Lala was alive. What happened between them? Why was she so important? Ironically, I also at one point thought that when we had the answer to what happened to Lala in the present, there would be no more story to tell. I’ve even changed my mind on that. This season can take us to that answer, and even reconnect Lala and Gibbs, and there will still be story to be told.
This is no longer just about bridging the gap between one show and the other; this is about how the NCISverse was built. Well, that and how the love story between Gibbs and Lala became the one thing he would hold onto in exile. And there’s always space for more of that.
Things I think I think:
- “In this line of work, it always comes down to a chase.”
- You aren’t exactly up to this, Gibbs.
- The whole sometimes you don’t realize you’re chasing until you catch them thing is very ominous.
- Mike, don’t tell!
- Cumbia?
- I mean, that is actually not predictable. I’ll give you that.
- “Is that on account of his undying love for you?”
- LET’S ROLL! It’ll catch on.
- Lala’s dad makes me so angry.
- “Should I tell them?”/”Ain’t my life.”
- Look, sometimes it’s hard to love Mike Franks. But sometimes, it’s really, really easy.
- Did the dad set it up so she would help?
- The Spanish in the younger Lala storyline is…eh, shaky at best.
- Vera being there for Lala always gives me feels.
- “I’m proud of her.” Mike, what is this? Feelings?
- “You pushed me to hire her despite everything.”
- Mike Franks, stop making me feel things.
- Maybe you should use your powers for good more often, Vera.
- “It’s okay to trust.”
- “If you don’t let it go, there will never be room for another love to grow.”
- At some point, the dad will show up, I think. Today is not that day. Today was just about Gibbs’ gesture.
- “Come on, white boy, show me those moves.”
- Two former feds?
- What girl is next?
- “Cecilia “Lala” Dominguez. Your old partner.”
- I know I’ve been saying it from the beginning of the season, but I knew it!
- WHAT PLANE AND WHY WASN’T SHE ON THE PLANE AND WHY DIDN’T GIBBS KNOW AND AND…
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS: Origins Season 3, Episode 5 ‘Baila Esta Cumbia’? Share with us in the comments below!
NCIS: Origins airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on CBS.
