Note: The following story contains spoilers from “NCIS: Origins” Episode 9.
“NCIS: Origins” revisited Gibbs’ revenge against the cartel leader who killed his wife and child, which promises to send shockwaves across Mike Franks’ team.
Episode 9, titled “Vivo o Muerto,” revealed that the pain that’s haunted Gibbs (Austin Stowell) since the beginning of the series was not only the death of his family, but the fact that he found the man responsible for the murder and shot him dead shortly before he joined Franks’ (Kyle Schmid) team the NIS. Fans of the flagship “NCIS” will remember that the subject of Gibbs killing Pedro Hernandez was first revealed through flashbacks in Season 3.
Now the CBS drama is going into that painful moment from Gibbs’ past.
“We built a lot of the season around this moment,” “Origins” cocreator David J. North told TheWrap. “Once Mike showed him that folder we really wanted to show that Gibbs didn’t just magically end up in Mexico and killed Hernandez… This was a painstaking process for Gibbs.”
The truth came to the surface after Gibbs and Lala (Mariel Molino) took on a trafficking case after a naval officer went missing in Tijuana. The incident was tied to Hernandez’s cartel, and Lala promised a somber Gibbs she would do everything in her power to find Hernandez and bring him to justice.
When they got too close to finding the cartel, Lala and Gibbs were ambushed at their hideout and barely survived a shootout. But an assist from Franks and the rest of the team eventually led to the rescue of the naval officer and dozens of other women captured by the cartel.
The final twist of the investigation was Lala learning that Hernandez had been killed six months before this case — which the cartel covered up to not appear weak.
“Obvioisly Franks, but now Lala knows and this will add another wrinkle and complication to their relationship,” North teased of the aftermath of Lala learning the truth. “On one level, she understands that this man killed Gibbs’ family and was going to get away with it. But this is a team member, her partner. So can she trust that now? He had the opportunity to tell her what he did but he chose not to.”
“Gibbs has a bit of a hole to dig out of in making her believe again that he’s someone that she can fully trust,” he added.
With one episode left until the show goes on its winter break, we can expect Monday’s Episode 10 to deal with the aftermath of this reveal. The synopsis for the hour, titled “Blue Bayou,” teased Gibbs working through his first Christmas without his family, as we learn the story of how he ended up joining NIS in the first place.
“NCIS: Origins” airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and streams the next day on Paramount+.
The post ‘NCIS: Origins’ Writer Breaks Down That Killer Gibbs Reveal in Episode 9 appeared first on TheWrap.
