‘NCIS: Origins’ Bosses Explain Lala’s Fate, What’s Next for Gibbs & More

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the NCIS: Origins Season 2 premiere “The Funky Bunch.”]

“Without Lala…” Those two words are part of Mark Harmon‘s voiceover to kick off the NCIS: Origins Season 2 premiere, which does, pretty quickly, reveal if Lala (Mariel Molino) survived that horrific car accident from the finale.

But the great news is that Lala survives! She even returns to work in the Season 2 premiere, though working without her isn’t the only adjustment for Gibbs (Austin Stowell) and Franks (Kyle Schmid) when we pick up with them. Randy’s (Caleb Foote) also on a desk, and Wheeler’s (Patrick Fischler‘s) been demoted to work in the field on Franks’ team after the events at the end of last season. (No one’s happy.)

Below, showrunners Gina Lucita Monreal and David J. North unpack the finale, tease what’s ahead for Gibbs and Lala as they find their footing again after their almost kiss and him now dating Diane (Kathleen Kenny), and more. Plus, they preview the upcoming NCIS crossover and Adam Campbell reprising his role as young Ducky.

Lala is alive! Did you ever seriously consider killing her off?

Gina Lucita Monreal: No. No, we didn’t, but we also didn’t expect everybody across the board to think that she was dead. I personally thought it would be like half and half, but literally everyone thought she was dead and it was emotional, actually, to see the outpouring of love for this character and for Mariel as an actress, and that really affected us, so we’re so grateful for the fans who embraced her.

David J. North: And to see the passion that people had. I mean, my own mother texted me and said, “Why would you do that?”

It’s probably because the story of her being the one that Gibbs doesn’t tell. Speaking of, is that a story he doesn’t tell because of what could have been and he wasn’t ready for that kind of relationship yet at that point?

North: We’re still telling that story, so we just have to wait and see.

But now the tension between Gibbs and Lala is stronger than ever. Do they feel like that moment in the pool was their last chance and they’ve maybe let it slip by?

Monreal: I think there are definitely elements of that, but there is still a lot of conversation and a lot of feelings to unpack surrounding that moment in the pool and what happened afterwards. So we’re going to continue to dig into that this season.

It’s true that dating Diane is safer. Mary Jo’s (Tyla Abercrumbie) right when she says he’s dating Diane because he can’t stand the thought of losing Lala, but what does that mean for any struggles we’re going to see in Gibbs when it comes to his personal life?

North: Where we start as people and Gibbs is the same in these relationships are, they don’t stay the same, right? And Mary Jo is right. Lala is scary to Gibbs. He’s scared that he almost lost her. He is scared to lose anyone else. Diane was safer, but that doesn’t mean that she stays in that box.

With that and the tension between Gibbs and Lala on the job, what is the dynamic like on and off the clock? How are they finding their footing again?

Monreal: I think at first they keep it very professional, but as we know, there’s a lot of underlying feelings that are there, and so sooner or later, those come to a head.

The team seems to be back in the swing of things at the end of the episode. I loved the sing along in the car. I feel like that was a moment that the characters and fans needed. But Lala is still recovering and Randy did have real concerns at the end of Season 1. So how are they moving forward as a unit?

North: Well, I think for Randy being on the desk showed him, “This isn’t for me. I signed up to do this job and there’s risks to it and it’s difficult, but I’ve got my team to support me and I’m going back out there.”

Monreal: And with Randy, we’re going to get a peek into why he is the way he is in one of the future episodes, which we’re pretty excited about.

So the team is gelling going forward?

Monreal: Well, I mean there are always issues, right? There are always conflicts that come up, but I think we’re going to see them work as a unit. We’re going to see why and how they work so well together and work through those conflicts. So yeah, I do think that we’re going to see a lot of the team coming together this season, even despite the disagreements they have.

North: Last year, Gibbs was new. There was so much that he was dealing with fresh off the murder of his wife and daughter. And this year, this team is a found family. But like any family, there’s problems.

We’re seeing the early days of Gibbs and Diane’s relationship. And in that we’re also seeing hints that they won’t work out, that she maybe seems to be more into it than he is at this point, at least. How are you finding that balance of introducing this as a relationship to root for while at least some fans know that there’s a clock on them?

Monreal: Yeah, I mean, it’s a difficult line to walk, but ultimately we’re just trying to be true to the character, and to us, it felt right. It felt like it was realistic that Gibbs would see Diane as a safer choice in this moment, but as the season goes, we’re going to see their relationship grow and we’re going to understand why what we know happened in canon actually did happen.

You have Gibbs preparing for his first interrogation in the next episode, and that’s a big moment for the character because we know what he’s like in interrogations in the future. How did you approach that and what can you say about what we’ll see from the preparation and the interrogation itself?

North: Mark Harmon’s Gibbs is this legendary guy that you always see him get his guy in interrogation. We like the idea of seeing Austin’s Gibbs learn those techniques, and a lot of times we learn by our mistakes and we’re going to see young Gibbs both make mistakes and also see how he overcomes them to start becoming the Gibbs that we all have watched for years.

So we have that. We see he has the wood. He doesn’t know what he’s going to start building yet. What can you say about what we’ll see from him when it comes to the wood building this season?

Monreal: There will be wood building this season, and I think people will be excited to see that progress.

Is a boat even on his radar?

North: Possibly.

Are there any other moments coming up hinting at his future for things that we know about Gibbs?

North: Yes, absolutely. We have a big crossover with the original NCIS planned in Week 5, and we’ll see Gibbs learn one of his rules in that episode — which one you’ll have to tune in to see — but there’s a lot of the fans will be very happy with that episode, we’ll say that.

Monreal: And we have the Ducky episode where I think we’ll see both Gibbs and Ducky realize something about themselves that we know to be true about their characters in the future.

Speaking of young Ducky, this is still the very early days of his and Gibbs’ dynamic after they met. What’s that dynamic like this time?

North: Well, they had shared one moment together, which would’ve been 12 years, I think, prior to when they meet again in this episode. But you see the connection that they have that Gibbs and Ducky shared and Mark and David McCallum shared, you see it through Austin and Adam Campbell’s portrayal of young Ducky. Gina and I were just in the sound studio with Mark Harmon doing his narration for that episode and seeing the emotion that Mark has towards David, and Mark is a huge fan of Adam who plays young Ducky, as was David McCallum. So we’re really excited. It’s going to be a really special episode.

How many Easter eggs are you packing into that episode?

North: It’s quite a few.

It’s also a tribute to David McCallum. So how are you going about honoring him? There’s the music…

Monreal: There’s three songs that he performed and he was very proud of his music, and we are so proud to put it in the episode and you’ll see, it just fits so beautifully within what we were doing in the episode. We also used David’s hat, the hat that David used as Ducky, Adam has on in the show. I believe his bag, too, and then it was just so special to go shoot in autopsy, where the mothership plays autopsy where David McCallum spent years.

North: It was his stage for 20 years and to be up there,  that felt wonderful, and it’s really beautiful scenes that we did there. But Mark said to us, there is no greater way to honor David than to put his music, because David felt so passionate about his music. And Mark said, “I didn’t know you guys were doing that, and there was no greater way to honor him.”

Is there anything you can say about those scenes that you shot in autopsy?

North: In those scenes, we will learn something pivotal about Ducky’s character. Everything will suddenly make sense for people of something pivotal about him.

Are there any other young versions of characters that we know from any of the NCISes coming in this season that you can talk about?

North: Well, we have one. It’s an enormous one that people are going to be thrilled about, but we don’t want to give away who that character is yet.

Can you say why now was the right time to bring that character in?

North: Well, it’s the right time because for us creatively, we wanted to introduce someone. We know how much the fans love that. And also it’s the right time in canon for the show. So it’s always great when canon matches what we’re wanting to do as storytellers.

You mentioned the crossover coming up, which I’m so excited to see how these two shows are actually doing this crossover. So because they’re in two different time periods, how are we going to see the shows and characters mixing together?

North: It’s going to be a case that’s gone over 33 years. And so we’ll be on at 8 o’clock Origins and then OG NCIS will pick up 33 years later on that case. But it’s been great working with them. Gina and I both, of course, were writers and executive producers there for a long time, and so it’s been awesome, a lot of fun.

We’re about to meet Franks’ brother. They haven’t been having the best of luck communicating over the phone, as we see in the premiere. So what can you preview about what brings his brother onscreen and how being face-to-face changes their relationship as it’s been since they’ve been so estranged?

Monreal: Yeah, it’s a big deal when Mason comes back into Franks’ life. So we’re really excited about playing that, but also answering the questions that I think fans have about what actually happened between these two to create such a rift. So we’re going to dig into all of that, and these two actors are just phenomenal. So I think people will be really pleased.

Who does Franks lean on? Because he doesn’t have Tish.

North: Gary Callahan, the dog, Gary’s his emotional support dog, and we’re going to have an episode later on in the season where we learn a whole lot more about Gary Callahan, the origin story of Gary Callahan. We’re even going to learn why he’s named Gary Callahan.

Mary Jo had that great episode last season, but it was heavy. What’s coming up for this season? Is it something lighter?

Monreal: That was really heavy. She has a couple storylines this season, one is definitely lighter. Tyla’s range is just enormous, and so we love writing to that. She has a scene coming up kind of midway through that I’d say that it’s just a phenomenal scene where you’re going to see just how deep those acting chops go. She’s amazing. But yeah, we’re excited to play out a couple storylines with Mary Jo this season. She’s a fan favorite and a favorite of ours as well.

Will we see Mark Harmon onscreen this season?

North: Anything is possible.

NCIS: Origins, Tuesdays, 9/8c, CBS