NCIS: Origins

NCIS: Origins – Touchstones

  • Title: NCIS: Origins – Touchstones
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A break-in of the evidence room and the theft of $41,000 dollars allows the show to explore the backstory of one of the show’s recurring characters in property master Kowalski (Michael Harney) as events bring old memories and feelings to the surface that cause him to resign (although he’s back with NIS by the end of the episode). The Kowalski situation is also notable for exploring his relationship with Granville (Daniel Bellomy) while the search for the missing money implicates a member of NIS and also allows for another appearance by Special Agent Gary Callahan and ends up being tied to events in “All’s Not Lost” as well.

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NCIS: Origins – Flight of Icarus

  • Title: NCIS: Origins – Flight of Icarus
  • wiki: link

NCIS takes on a case involving the apparent suicide of a general’s son just days before the soldier’s redeployment which have elements that hit home for Franks through a series of flashbacks. While I don’t have an issue with exploring Franks’ past, nor using a current case to provide the framework for those flashbacks, I’m not sure the script of “Flight of the Icarus” was necessarily the best episode to do so (when you think the actions of the dead solider would hit harder for our main character who attempted suicide himself not all that long ago). With so much time focused on Franks, Gibbs (Austin Stowell) and his new romantic relationship with Dominguez (Mariel Molino) gets mostly pushed to the side without an immediate follow up, although one of their colleagues appears to have sniffed out the change in their relationship.

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NCIS: Origins – Blue Bayou

  • Title: NCIS: Origins – Blue Bayou
  • wiki: link

More than the cold shoulder that Gibbs (Austin Stowell) from Dominguez (Mariel Molino) after returning from Mexico over events which aren’t discussed, “Blue Bayou” stands out for filling in more of Gibbs’ backstory following his murder of Pedro Hernandez and what exactly the former Marine was doing with himself before Franks (Kyle Schmid) hired him. In what’s been a theme of the show introducing characters who helped save his life after the death of his family, we see the unlikely friendship that not only helps Gibbs get through the months following his Mexican mission of revenge but ultimately puts him on a path to NIS forever changing the course of his life.

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NCIS: Origins – Vivo o Muerto

  • Title: NCIS: Origins – Vivo o Muerto
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The case of a Navy seaman abducted by a human trafficking ring leads Gibbs (Austin Stowell) and Dominguez (Mariel Molino). However, things get more interesting when cartel responsible is revealed to be the same cartel that killed Gibbs’ family. “Vivo o Muerto” plays the “everyone on deck” trope with lots of work in the office while Gibbs and Dominguez, and eventually Franks (Kyle Schmid), work to track down not only the seaman but several other women all held by the cartel whose members include the man Gibbs has been hunting since his return from overseas.

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NCIS: Origins – Sick as Our Secrets

  • Title: NCIS: Origins – Sick as Our Secrets
  • wiki: link

The primary focus of “Sick as Our Secrets” deals with  Gibbs (Austin Stowell) and Randy (Caleb Foote) being assigned the protection detail for a priest (Jonah Wharton) who knows the identity of a killer but cannot share it because it came through the confessional. The episode really exists to explore the guilt Randy has been carrying around for months, volunteering for every protection detail, after another agent took his place protecting Gibbs’ wife and daughter. As for the case of the week, it’s fine, and includes an interesting segment of Gibbs and Randy mistaking a pair of robbers as killers, but ultimately anticlimactic as the pair end up not protecting him from the killer and the priest simply gives them the name (meaning no one is asked to solve a crime). 

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