Warning: SPOILERS ahead for NCIS: Origins season 1, episode 8, “Sick as Our Secrets.“NCIS: Originsepisode 8 focuses on Caleb Foote’s Randy character and explains the special agent’s more profound connection to Austin Stowell’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs.NCIS: Origins’cast of charactersincludes familiar faces fromNCIS,like Roma Maffia’s Vera Strickland and Muse Watson’s Mike Franks. Diany Rodriguez and Kyle Schmid revived the characters for the prequel series, but the show has a few new faces, too. Foote’sSpecial Agent Benjamin “Randy” Randolf is an entirely new character to theNCISfranchise. So is the story’s unadvertised muse, Mariel Molino’s Lala Dominguez.
In episode 8, “Sick as our Secrets,” theNCIS: Originsstoryfinally highlights Randy, revealingthe new father was initially assigned to protect Gibbs' wife and daughter. The outing establishes how Randy’s baby was sick. The father was strung out and exhausted, causing him to relieve himself of Shannon and Kelly’s case. Thus, Randy feels responsible for what happened to Gibbs' family, with a focus on how it affected his colleague, Special Agent Kurt Mitchell.NCIS: Originsepisode 8brings Randy’s guilt to a breaking point, as the weekly case into the murder of a Catholic priest compels his confession.
NCIS: Origins Finally Using Randy Ties The Story Back To Leroy Jethro Gibbs
Caleb Martin Foote’s Randy Shines In Episode 8
In “Sick as Our Secrets,” the prequel series utilizes one of its new characters while tying Randy’s story back to its central Gibbs character.NCIS: Originswas billed as the backstory explaining Gibbs' start at the agency. However, storylines have distracted from the series' focus on Gibbs, compromising its core premise and justification for production. Rather than rewrite Gibbs' story by introducing a new subplot,NCIS: Originsintricately places Randy in a sensitive moment in Gibbs' life. In this way, the prequel honorsMark Harmon’sNCISlegacyand adds narratives that embellish the original series.
Randy’s revelation that he was supposed to protect Shannon and Kelly and his feeling that he should have died in Agent Mitchell’s place add richness to the existingNCIStapestry.
Randy’s revelation that he was supposed to protect Shannon and Kelly and his feeling that he should have died in Agent Mitchell’s place add richness to the existingNCIStapestry. It places a new character into the mix — a new experience for longtime viewers to consider — makingwhat happened to Gibbs' wife and daughter inNCISall the more heartbreaking. To be frank — Gibbs’NCIS: Originsstory should be tragic, adding layers of complexity to the emotion Harmon established. Randy’s parenting storyline does that successfully. Thus, episode 8 creates a model for something the show needs to improve.
Randy’s Story In NCIS: Origins Episode 8 Highlights The Problem With Lala’s Arc
Randy’s NCIS: Origins Story Doesn’t Distract From Gibbs
Randy’s arc inNCIS: Originsepisode 8 successfully establishes the right model to balance old and new story elements, and watching the series get the mix right highlights what it can do better.Watching Gibbs get his start at NIS was sold as the heartbeat of the prequel series, intriguing longtime viewers who fell in love with Harmon’s character while taking the risk of recreating him. However, theNCIS: Originspremiere"her"twistrevealed thatNCIS: Originsis"largely"the story of Lala Dominguez, explained by showrunner David J. North in an interview withTVLine.
CBS Makes NCIS: Hawai’i’s Abrupt Ending Worse 5 Months After It Was Canceled
A new development within the NCIS franchise makes the cancelation of NCIS: Hawai’i even worse five months after CBS pulled the plug on the spinoff.
NCIS: Origins' split focus on trying to tell Gibbs and Lala’s stories in tandem caused the series to lose focus quickly.Lala’s story distracts from the show’s heartbeatbecause it is packaged separately from Gibbs'. Therefore,Originsdedicates significant screen time to a narrative the show shouldn’t be about. While the show may eventually bring the agents together in a way that adds meaning to their narrative arcs so far, it would probably be in the form of aGibbs and Lala romance arc inNCIS: Origins,which would sell the story of Gibbs' grief short and undercut his original tragedy.
How NCIS: Origins Should Utilize Lala
Lala Was An Interesting Adversary
NCIS: Originsshould utilize Lala differently to circle the story back to Gibbs. Molino’s character has an interesting story arc in theNCIS: Originspremiere. The series establishes her contentious relationship with Gibbs when she clarifies that she doesn’t initially like or trust Gibbs. Lala’s skepticism of Gibbs, telling him he failed his NIS psych evaluation, introduced a lot of tension into the series and made Gibbs' journey more compelling. However, Lala quickly reveals that she also fumbled her psych eval and begins to let up on him, underutilizing everything the story did to set up their initial tension.
Implanting Lala in an existing Gibbs story fromNCISwould better use Molino’s character.
Implanting Lala in an existing Gibbs story fromNCISwould better use Molino’s character. The series likely has a massive development coming up, with Gibbs honing in on Pedro Hernandez, his wife and daughter’s killer, who shot Special Agent Kurt Mitchell. We know from the double “Hiatus” episode, one of thebest episodes ofNCIS,that Gibbs tracks Hernandez to Mexico and decides his fate.NCIS: Originscould have had Lala secretly working with Gibbs to complete his mission, using her Latinx heritage to help guide him through Mexico and potentially tagging along.
NCIS: Origins
Cast
NCIS: Origins is set in 1991, preceding the events of the original series. The series introduces Leroy Jethro Gibbs as a new special agent at NCIS Camp Pendleton. Under the leadership of NCIS legend Mike Franks, Gibbs navigates his role within a tenacious, unconventional team.
