‘NCIS: Origins’: Kyle Schmid Previews Franks Brothers’ Reunion — Watch Sneak Peek (VIDEO)

NCIS: Origins is finally going to reveal just why the Franks brothers have been estranged in the Tuesday, November 4, episode, and Kyle Schmid is very proud of the hour.

Philip Winchester debuts as Mason Franks — he’s recurring this season — and as TV Insider’s exclusive sneak peek, which you can watch above, shows he turns up at Mike’s door because he owes the wrong people a lot of money. Below, Schmid discusses the great Mike Franks and Ducky (Adam Campbell) scene from Episode 3 and previews the Franks brothers’ reunion in Episode 4.

I want to start with this past episode because we got the great Mike Franks and Ducky stuff.

Kyle Schmid: I know. Wasn’t it great?

It was so good. Franks opens up to someone the most that we’ve seen since Tish left with Ducky. He sees what everyone else sees in him. Talk about playing that and working with Adam.

I actually haven’t seen it. And when you’ve shot, I think we’ve done 26 episodes of the show so far, we just finished Episode 8, they really do start to blur together. But Episode 3 is the one episode that I remember everything from for the reasons, as you just said. Adam Campbell is an incredible guy to work with. He’s a sweetheart on and off set, and he is that kind of disarming person on and off camera, which I think is really cool.

I really enjoyed that scene in the freezer container with him. We really just got to feel each other out organically, and the words were so powerful, always David [J. North] and Gina [Lucita Monreal]. But it’s so cool to see one of the OG characters step into our life, like Austin [Stowell] and I are the OG characters, and it’s nice to finally meet somebody who has that energy that you know is going to stick around. Adam is so good, and when he steps onto set, you know that his performance is just going to move so far beyond what we’re shooting in that present day. And he does that exactly, and it moves on so much more in that present day where that character lives for the next 30 years, 40 years. And it’s such a beautiful ode to the original Ducky, and we got to use [David McCallum‘s] song, and I know how much it meant to Gina and David, who knew him so well, that we got to kind of say our thanks to him. And so Episode 3 was incredible to shoot.

Related

Mark Harmon Returning as Gibbs for 'NCIS' & Origins' Crossover

That leads perfectly into Mike Franks reuniting with his brother. There’s so much to unpack between these two characters. But Mason shows up, and he owes some people a lot of money and is in some trouble. Is he just there because he needs the money, or is there something else also going on?

We painted such a beautiful picture of the Franks brothers in flashbacks last season. And when you have a relationship with your brother that is as close to what that one was in particular, I think no matter what happens in any relationship, there’s always going to be that deep-down love between two people. Now we get to see in Episode 4 what it is that drives the two brothers apart, and it is so heavy, it’s so beautiful. When we shot last year, I talked to David and Gina, and they said, “Well, you’re not close with your brother anymore.” I went, “How? What could have happened that was so monumental that these two beautiful characters are still hitched to one another?” And they just said, “Just wait and see.” And when I read this script, I mean, we finished the read through and everybody was in tears, and that just kind of set the stage for us to be able to play and then kind of go there emotionally.

This episode for me in particular, is something — I have a half-brother who’s my real brother. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him. And so our ages are flipped in reality, but the relationship is very much that ride or die, I’d do anything for him. And we get to explore what happens with the Franks brothers’ family, the mom. We get to see what happens with the ranch. We get to see a lot. This episode is just so jam packed of just incredible writing and storytelling, where we really get to pull back the layers of this onion. And then, typical David and Gina, who work magic with these scripts, we have action and car chases and a bank robbery threaded through all of it, where you might be almost weeping in one moment and then you’re in there on the edge of your seat in the next moment. And that’s really what I think makes this episode so special. I do think it stands out this season, and I’m very proud of it, for sure.

How does Mike feel about his brother just showing up? And is he ready to unpack all that you’re talking about that we’re going to see? It feels like it’s kind of just thrust upon him suddenly.

Well, I think the cool part about that is as an audience, we need to know what has happened between the two of them. Franks isn’t an emotional character. He is, but he’s not. He buries everything deep, and he moves forward with a head of steam, and he hides everything under his anger and his temper, and he’s not the best at conveying his emotions, as we all know. So to see him in a situation where he’s forced to meet eye to eye with probably the only person he’s ever loved beyond Tish, I think, is going to be very interesting.

There are reflections of my personal life in this episode that are so personal, and it was such an incredible opportunity to deal with some of my personal emotions that I hadn’t been able to deal with, similar to Franks, where he puts his head down, he buries himself from work, and he just goes full bore. [This episode] was a very ethereal experience and very therapeutic to kind of explore these emotions from a character perspective that mirrored my own life experience so closely.

Erik Voake/CBS

And poor Franks is going through this emotional stuff without Gary Callahan with him now.

[Laughs] I know! I love that dog. We all love that dog so much. David North never comes to the set. He’s chained up in the writers’ room, working his butt off. But when Gary Callahan is on set, there is a 100% guarantee that David North will be there. And I think what Franks does with Gary when he gives him to Randy [Caleb Foote] is so beautiful and kind of sad as well in a way because he’s unable to fix himself so he can be a better parent, partner, friend to Gary Callahan. And so to willingly give something up that you love so dearly so that it might have the chance of its own happiness is maybe a little bit Tish Franks as well. He doesn’t chase her down. He wants the best for her, and he knows he can’t change. But I think this season, getting into the family stuff, getting more into Franks’ history, exploring more of how the office works, and Franks kind of being the cog of the wheel and seeing how everybody clicks on that wheel at the office and seeing everything kind of expand is an opportunity for this season to see hopefully a lighter side of Franks down the road as well.

Talk about working with Philip on the brothers’ relationship because it’s so complicated, there’s so much history.

We are protective as actors of our storylines — me perhaps more than others. I’m a stickler for details. I want to fall in love with who I’m working with. And David and Gina kept this one close to the chest, and I did bug them, and I went sending them texts going like, “Who are we going to get? Come on, man, you better make sure they’re good. I want somebody to challenge me. I want somebody to be perfect for this. If you need me to call in favors, I’ll call in favors.” And they went, “Nope, nope, dude, I think we got somebody.” And they got Philip, and I had known Philip from Strike Back as a fan of that show. And so they got Philip, and they put us in touch, and I went, “Dude, I’m so f**king happy they got you. This isn’t NCIS, this is Origins, man. This isn’t a procedural of your normal accord. We want to dig deep, and we want to do good work.” And Philip was just excited. He knew the show. He was excited to be part of it. We were excited to work with one another. He knew me from some of my work as well.

And from that first day, and you’ll see these scenes, they’re heavy, man — from that first day we clicked and we trusted each other. And it was just one of those moments where they cast this character, and you just go, “Thank God, thank you so much. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to grow as an actor as well.” I think we both work with each other in a way where we push — it’s important to push your comfort level on a regular basis. And when you can get stuck in the procedural stuff, which we do, it is a big part of our show, we have the opportunity with that other third of that show, that other 33% to really flex our creative muscles as actors. And this episode, as I said, is something that I’m so incredibly proud of. I couldn’t be happier when they cast Philip Winchester. He’s a wonderful talent, and I can’t wait for him to be as much of the show as possible. I don’t know what happens next, but so far it’s been just a pleasure to work with him.

Erik Voake/CBS

What can you say about how the episode leaves the brothers in terms of what it means for future episodes with him? Because Philip is recurring, this is just the start. There’s way too much for the brothers to unpack and deal with in this one episode.

There’s a line in the beginning of this episode — actually, it might be in Episode 5, but I say something along the lines of, “You know how it feels when your older brother comes in and all of a sudden now he’s acting like the younger brother and you got to be the older brother?” And I’m talking to somebody in the office, and they’re just like, “What the hell are you talking about?” But the tables are turned very much so for Franks. He was young, he joined the military with Mason, and you very much saw that deeply rooted older brother who just wanted to take care of Mike. And when Mason shows up at Mike’s door, and he owes money and his life is falling apart, and Mike now all of a sudden is the head honcho at NIS.

He’s gone from the military to doing something that’s really quite important to the US government, to California, to the United States. He has all this responsibility. And you see those tables turned, and that’s a lot for Mike to digest. When your older brother comes back into your life, you want your older brother back. And he doesn’t get that. And so we do have so much to dig up between the two as they learn to be friendly with one another again.

And so, as we leave it at the end of the episode, as you know, he’s recurring. He’s very much alive. As I said, I hope he can do as many episodes as he can. I love working with the guy, Phillip’s a great dude. But there is very much a story to tell throughout the first two-thirds of the season, at least, that I think is a beautiful unveiling of what it means to be family. And as we all know, family is complicated. You can pick your friends, you can’t pick your family. And people change. And Mike is willing to die for everybody at NIS. What’s he willing to do for his real family? And I think that’s something that’s going to be really cool to be able to explore throughout the season.

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