‘NCIS: Origins’: Caleb Foote Explains Why Randy’s Best Team Member to Be Kidnapped

Uh-oh, is NCIS: Origins about to put Randy (Caleb Foote) through something that might change him from being the light of the team? Caleb Foote doesn’t think so, as he told TV Insider while discussing the shocking events of the Season 2 finale. Warning: Spoilers for the NCIS: Origins Season 2 finale ahead!

Throughout the finale, Lala (Mariel Molino) notices an SUV that’s seemingly following her. But, as is revealed near the end of the episode, it was actually tailing Randy, because of the work he’s been doing digitizing NIS’ files. “We didn’t know until later he was even gone,” Mark Harmon notes in his voiceover.

Below, Caleb Foote breaks down that shocking cliffhanger and ponders how Randy’s going to handle it in Season 3. (Plus, read what showrunners David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal had to say about the finale here and watch Mariel Molino break it down here.)

Randy’s right in the middle of that cliffhanger. All season we’re hearing he’s so excited about what he’s doing with the computers. And then that’s the thing that leads to him being kidnapped. So what was your reaction?

Caleb Foote: Let’s just go with the word surprised, because I mean, as everyone knows, Randy isn’t necessarily mentioned in the future. And so your guess is as good as mine. So to be quite Mike Franks [Kyle Schmid] about it or Frank about it… Yeah, Gibbs hasn’t brought up these members in the past, so it’s very malleable what can happen. I was just really, really excited to just be a part of such a major cliffhanger, though.

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How do you think Randy’s going to handle himself in this situation? Because he was kidnapped, which means that they want him alive for a reason. So there’s that going for him at least.

The last time I spoke to David about it, things have probably changed 12 times since then, and things are going to change another 12 times between now and then because they have all off-season to land this plane. But I think, depending on who’s kidnapping him, unless it’s cannibals, Randy probably isn’t going to lose his golden retriever fortitude. I think Randy is going to remain the same optimistic guy even in captivity.

Also, he’s come such a long way because just imagining how he would’ve dealt with this after Season 1, it would’ve been completely different.

Oh, yeah, totally. Because now as an audience, we understand where Randy gets that optimism from Episode 206, and we know that it can’t be broken. So I guess if anyone were to be kidnapped, you would want it to be Randy. I think he’s the guy that could get out of getting kidnapped the most unscathed. [Laughs]

Also he’s the kind of character that you need because you need someone with the levity that he has. So you have to keep that in mind.

Totally.

Randy with the caffeine was so funny.

Good, good. I’m glad you liked it. That was probably one of the hardest challenges or my biggest acting challenge this season because the stakes were so high, cars were getting blown up and people were dying, and so it was just really hard to navigate that kind of levity with the stakes being so high. And I think that’s what’s so fun about playing Randy, is that in a lot of ways he is a sitcom character, but he’s real and he makes sense and he’s not a goofy character at all. It actually really works for the world.

And then just seeing him with the Caf-Pow, I’m like, I wish we could see Randy with Abby (NCIS Pauley Perrette). I mean, that would’ve been just so fun.

I was so honored to be the first NCIS: Origins character to be drinking Caf-Pow. When I read it in the script, I was stoked. I was like, thank goodness it’s me. What an honor.

But then we also get Randy’s stand-up comedy this season, which was great to have the Carrot Top mention. Say Randy survives, do you think he might lean more on the standup comedy of it to try to escape what happened to him?

Sure. Absolutely. And I mean, your guess is as good as mine in terms of the future of Randy, because we don’t hear about him. Who knows? Maybe Randy becomes the head of a top-secret Navy division in Anchorage, or maybe he becomes a really huge stand-up comedian, and he changes his name, and he goes by an alias. [Laughs]

Erik Voake/CBS

You never know. I love the moment of Randy telling Lala that he may have sway to get them assigned together in Naples. In general, their friendship is just so sweet.

Totally. And a lot of that comes from the banter that Mariel and I have offscreen. We get along together really well, and it just kept evolving. And the showrunners and the writers, they saw that, they saw that in the table reads. Towards the beginning of the production of Season 1, we would pass notes that said, “Let’s just have fun because we’re here to have fun.” And I think that’s led to this wonderful, witty banter between the two of them because Lala can come off as hard. She’s a woman in a very male world, and so she has to have her guard up. And I think Randy allows her to bring that guard down.

Also, it’s easy to focus on the Gibbs (Austin Stowell) and Randy dynamic because it’s so fun. But Lala and Randy have a history that goes back before Gibbs joined the team.

Totally. But that being said, there was a nice three-episode stretch. I think it was Episodes 6, 7, 8 of Season 2 where Austin and I, we were so stoked because we called it Buddy Cop. We were in the middle of a Buddy Cop stretch.

But because of Randy’s relationships with both Gibbs and Lala separately… While Randy’s being kidnapped, they’re having their big rom-com moment. So how would he feel about them together? Because it’s not just as a friend, but it’s also as a coworker, and that can be two different reactions, right?

I think he’s so supportive because he’s been privy to it. He and Gail [Marisa Baram] are the office gossip. Gail is the office gossip unintentionally. Randy definitely leans into it. And I think he loves and supports both of them because at the end of the day, this team, we are a family, and we all have each other’s backs. And I think that’s what this show is about. And I think Randy really ships DominGibbs.

With everything that goes on at the end of the episode, was it nice to have that celebratory moment where it’s like, the office isn’t being shut down, here’s our new name, here’s our new gear, and everything?

Oh, yes. And the hat, it fit perfect. And that was the very last scene that we shot of the season. And it was just this perfect aligning of the stars. Our amazing unit production manager, Michelle Greco, knew what he was doing, but the very last thing we shot, everyone was together, and it was just so fun, except for Lala. Lala wasn’t there in that scene because it’s like, is she quitting?

Fortunately, she is staying, but how tough would it have been on Randy if Lala had left?

I think yes, it would’ve been really hard for Randy, but what we’ve learned from him and basically from everyone is how adaptable they are and how adaptable Randy is. Even in the wake of them getting disbanded, he was going to pick up his whole family and move to Italy. But I think he probably would’ve tried to send her some letters and tried to phone her to convince her to come back because she is the heartbeat of the team.

Speaking of his plans to move to Naples, how much had he thought that through? Because he was really going for it.

Randy’s a romantic. He was dreaming about that Vespa. And even though it maybe wasn’t all the way thought through, I think it would’ve been a great alternative. I’m still kind of picturing Randy drinking some Chianti Classico.

Who’s on your bucket list for younger versions of characters to not just show up on Origins, but to interact with Randy?

Oh, I mean, it’s got to be Abby. Just to see her as an intern with the forensics guys would just be so fricking hilarious. That would just be the best banter. Randy, who’s a very comical character, goes in there, and I become the straight man. I just become the guy that’s watching these goofballs. And so to throw a young Abby into the mix, it could be college intern age, right?

I think so? I do like it when Randy goes over to the lab because Randy with Woody (Bobby Moynihan) and Phil (Ely Henry), it’s just fun.

It’s some of my favorite days just to sit back and just to watch these guys work because very seldom are we allowed to change what is scripted. And these guys, they don’t have free range, but they make a lot of liberties, and it always works.

What are your hopes for Season 3 besides Randy being alive?

Yeah, I want Randy to have all of his fingers. [Laughs] I hope they don’t remove all the fingers in the ransom note. I want to see what happens with Lala and Gibbs because, well, we know that Gibbs hasn’t really mentioned her, so I want to know what happens with that love. And I’m just really looking forward to seeing this team in the NCIS gear because it feels right. The jackets fit perfect. The hat just fits like a glove. We look good in the NCIS swag.

Erik Voake/CBS

It’s very true. Franks went through a lot in this finale. What was Randy seeing in his boss?

Oh, Franks did go through a lot. Something that comes to mind, it’s kind of diverting the question, but when Franks is going through the compound, and he’s clearing out, and you see Randy, and he yells at Randy as I’m chasing after one of the guys, I’m in the background, but one of the guys hits me with an AK-47 in the belly. You can’t really see it. And I actually kind of bruised a rib from that. Yeah, I kind of actually got hit. And so if you keep an eye out for it, as Caleb, I was kind of overwhelmed with that. Sorry, I’m changing your question. So if you keep an eye out for it, you could see where I get popped and get a little bruised rib, if you keep an eye out for it.

Wow.

Blink, and you’ll miss it.

Last time we talked, you had a whole idea about where Randy is in the future with your dream, he’s in Alaska with Gibbs and Lala. And you said Brian Dietzen had the idea to introduce older Randy without an arm. Who knows what’s going to happen to him now when he’s kidnapped? Maybe Brian’s right. Has anything changed about your theory, especially after that cliffhanger?

Brian is so funny because I’ve mentioned to Brian that I was kidnapped, and because his show’s been going on for 23 years, Brian said his character’s probably been kidnapped a dozen times, which obviously, for a show running that long, that’s going to happen. But for our show, it’s so new. Nothing like this has ever happened to a character. So, it’s very exciting to have it be happening to me.

Where is Randy now? He might be an anchor on ZNN or he could be running NCIS Anchorage. I like picturing him up there in Anchorage. He’s still working and he’s closer to Gibbs. That’s where I’m picturing him.

Say Randy survives this experience, who do you think he’s most likely to lean on? Because it could really be any of them.

Yeah. I think it’ll probably be Franks because even though he comes off as a pretty coarse guy, he has a huge heart, and he really cares for his team. And I think Frank’s being the leader, he isn’t responsible for it, but he’s probably going to feel responsible. And I think Franks is going to be a big shoulder for Randy’s recovery because we need Randy to be Randy. We don’t want him to be changed from this experience. And I think if anyone is going to be unchanged, it would be Randy. He’s very strong-willed, and he’s a very positive guy. And I don’t think any cannibalistic kidnappers are going to change that. The cannibal thing…

Where is that coming from?!

I’m just absolutely raising the stakes on it because it can’t be aliens because they drove away in a large SUV. So I’m just making jokes. Whenever people mention it, I say that just to raise the stakes.

My mom’s going to be so surprised. She has no idea that I was kidnapped, and she visited the set, and people were like, “Oh, did you hear?” And I would just have to shush them, “No, no, no, no, no, no.” Because my mom is a super fan. She’s going to be blown away when I’m in the cliffhanger.

NCIS: Origins, Season 3, Fall 2026, CBS