‘NCIS: Origins’ Reveals More About Wheeler & Oakley’s Romantic Past

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for NCIS: Origins Season 2 Episode 4 “No Man Left Behind.”]

NCIS: Origins delivers a reunion for the Franks brothers (Kyle Schmid‘s Mike and guest star Philip Winchester‘s Mason) that dives into why they’ve been estranged and reveals a bit more about Wheeler’s (Patrick Fischler) past with the FBI’s Oakley (DaJuan Johnson) in the Tuesday, November 4, episode.

Franks is thrown, to say the last, when Mason shows up at his house; his team is thrown to learn he has a brother. Franks is even more surprised to learn that their mother sent Mason a letter while they were in Vietnam that revealed the ranch was going under. She sold it to the Hendersons and had a handshake agreement they could rent it back, stay in the house, and work the land. The plan was to work the ranch back to profit and buy it back, explains Mason, but after the floods, he started taking loans from people you don’t want to owe. The Henderson kids are now selling to a developer, and he has to be out in 14 days. He’s hoping Franks knows some sort of legal tactic that could help.

Franks asks Gibbs (Austin Stowell) to get his girlfriend, Diane (Kathleen Kenny) involved, since she’s in real estate, but unfortunately, she can’t find a legal loophole to help. Franks argues that Mason should have told him sooner, but his brother insists it wouldn’t have made a difference. It wasn’t right, him not knowing, Franks continues — and he’s not just talking about the current problems.

Erik Voake/CBS

Rather, as flashbacks reveal, during and post-Vietnam, Franks was so busy and high on drugs that it got to the point that Mason kicked him off the ranch so he wouldn’t keep breaking their mother’s heart.

But now, it’s been 16 years since Franks got sober, and because Mason kicked him out of the house, he wasn’t there to say goodbye to their mom. He didn’t even know she was sick. Mason argues he was protecting her. But Franks didn’t get to say goodbye to tell her he loved her. “You took that from me,” an emotional Franks, crying, says. And then Mason, heartbreakingly, reveals that their mother was sick before Franks left — he was just “too doped up to notice.” Franks then tells Mason to leave.

But when Franks gets home at the end of the episode, it’s to Mason looking at family photos. He didn’t want to go without telling his brother how proud of him he is — and how proud their mother would’ve been, too. When Mason goes to leave, however, Franks stops him and instead sets him up at The Range, leaving him at the community with a hug. Franks also goes and packs up the ranch, and when he takes a moment to sit on the porch, he notices a ladybug on his shoe — their mom used to say seeing one is a sign of someone who’s no longer there saying hello.

Meanwhile, the episode continues to dive into Wheeler and Oakley’s romantic history, as was revealed in Season 1. The two share a tender moment when Oakley asks Wheeler about his family. His wife thinks divorce is for people with a more disposable income, so he has that going for him, Wheeler remarks. Oakley takes his hand, rubbing his thumb across it. Both pull away when they hear a noise in the neighboring room.

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By the end of this episode, Mary Jo (Tyla Abercrumbie) knows. First, Wheeler tells her about a horrible date he had before his wife. “The relationship was doomed, we were screaming at each other in the car” and due to the 8-track jamming, “Daniel” by Elton John kept repeating over and over. There are some things that even a perfect song can’t fix, he says. Later, upon hearing her singing it, Oakley remarks that he had a horrible date once where that 8-track was stuck in his car stereo and played 50 times while they sat there fighting.

There’s clearly still affection there between the two, and we can’t help but hope that NCIS: Origins continues to explore their past — and potential present — this season. After all, that moment they shared holding hands can’t be it!

What did you think of the latest NCIS: Origins? What are you hoping to see in upcoming episodes with the Franks brothers and Wheeler and Oakley? Let us know in the comments section below.

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