Explaining ‘NCIS’ & ‘Origins’ Crossover: Connecting Timelines, Learning a Gibbs Rule & More

Fans know Gibbs has a rule for everything. And so it’s only fitting that in this NCIS and NCIS: Origins crossover, we’ll see young Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Austin Stowell) learning one. “You often hear [Gibbs’ rules] when they’re about to be broken. We’re going to see why the rule came about and why it should be a rule and yet why it’s so hard to obey your own rule sometimes,” teases NCIS executive producer Steven D. Binder. Adds Origins EP David J. North, “It’s really what both hours are all about.”

When it came to crafting this event, “There was a lot of communication back and forth. ‘Can you set this up in your episode?’ ‘Oh, can you pay this off in yours?’ It definitely was a unique challenge,” admits Origins exec producer Gina Lucita Monreal.

Adds Binder, “The question was how to come up with a case that could span decades and that was interesting and emotionally compelling. There’s a lot of sci-fi books that I love that span thousands of years and when they make the series… you don’t care when it’s different people. The trick was how to keep the people involved across decades? And, are there other opportunities to connect people other than that they’re still alive?”

Telling a story across two timelines does yield a unique crossover. “There’s nothing more poignant than the passage of time,” notes Monreal. “And so the fact that we could comment on that and use that in our storytelling with this crossover was really exciting.”

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The action begins in the ’90s-set Origins, with the shows swapping timeslots. Mark Harmon reprises his role onscreen for the first time since the prequel’s pilot in this half of the event, and his voiceover is “especially important for the crossover,” notes North. 

The case involves a small-town death of a naval officer that brings NIS to a small town, Serenity, where “nothing is what it seems,” North says. Older versions of characters introduced there will appear on NCIS. “It’s a really fun case. I know that the longtime NCIS fans are going to be very, very happy with what we deliver.”

This case also plays into “the legend of Mike Franks [Kyle Schmid]” and is an “enormous” one for Vera Strickland (Diany Rodriguez on Origins, with Roma Maffia reprising her role as the present-day version on NCIS). “There’s some fun banter between Franks and Vera that has to do with an office rumor, a misunderstanding, which is just fantastic,” North previews. Also appearing: Gary Callahan, NIS’s canine member.

Then, in NCIS’s present day, the case is reopened after a prison break — right before the person was set to be released. In addition to returning to Serenity and the aforementioned older versions of characters (including Origins‘ Bobby Moynihan and Ely Henry as Woody and Phil, as TV Insider exclusively revealed), so will case materials like files and interrogation tapes. “There’s a lot of fun with that,” says North. “Maybe they don’t even have a way to play [a tape] in 2025.”

Sonja Flemming/CBS

There’s also the return of Vera, who worked the case in the ’90s and remains as “fiery” as ever, according to Binder. She also hasn’t forgotten about Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) losing his badge and requiring her to go out in the field last time just as she was reaching retirement (Season 11 Episode 3 “Under the Radar”). “She’s back in the fold and she still hates McGee,” he says.

The crossover will reveal that Vera’s in touch with Gibbs, last seen in Alaska. “You’ll notice when you see it,” Binder teases. “That has an interesting quality to it.”

Picking up this case that Gibbs worked early on in his career allows the chance for the current team to see a “proto” version of the man who was once their boss. “McGee was the wet behind the ears probie. So I think it’s more meaning for McGee to see Gibbs at an age — when McGee started, he was a little guy at NCIS and there’s Gibbs, little guy at NIS,” Binder says.

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Mark Harmon, Roma Maffia Return in 'NCIS' and 'Origins' Crossover Photos

This crossover aptly comes just as the NCIS team is putting together a Navy time capsule in the present-day. “This case that they’re given gives them plenty of opportunity to think about their history. What is it that they want people, when they open this time capsule and they look back whatever it is, 50, 100 years, to think and feel?” the EP shares. “Everyone’s got a different idea, some heartfelt. Jimmy Palmer [Brian Dietzen] has an interesting idea of what should be in on time capsule, that’s for sure. That touches upon a lot of the themes we’re talking about, what it’s like for someone to look into the past. As we look into the past of Origins, our team is imagining what it’s like for someone to look into the past at them.”

All in all, expect surprises and twists. “A lot of these crimes that we investigate are about people being bad or stealing or murder or revenge. There certainly are some bad people in this episode,” Binder allows, “but what really drives this is love.”

NCIS: Origins & NCIS, 8/7c & 9/8c, CBS