Lily Mystery, Gibbs & Lala’s Relationship, and More Burning Questions for ‘NCIS’ & ‘Origins’ in 2025
While neither NCIS nor its prequel Origins ended on any major cliffhangers (i.e. a character’s life in danger), the first parts of both certainly set up quite a bit to explore in 2025.
NCIS has an ongoing mystery that was introduced at the end of Season 21 and about which we have more questions than answers at this point: Who is Lily, the young girl that Parker (Gary Cole) is having visions of after seeing her and his mother when he was bleeding out? There’s also the matter of the team’s personal lives: Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) is in a secret relationship.
Meanwhile, NCIS: Origins teed up two cases for the team at the end of its fall finale: What is Operation Sundown and who’s the second sniper? Plus, what will Gibbs (Austin Stowell) and Lala’s (Mariel Molino) dynamic be like now that she knows he killed the man who murdered his family and has decided to stay with the team?
Below, we take a look at those and more burning questions for the NCIS franchise when both shows return in January.
NCIS, Returns, Monday, January 27, 9/8c, CBS
NCIS: Origins, Returns, Monday, January 27, 10/9c, CBS
NCIS: Who is Torres dating?
The end of the fall finale revealed that Torres was lying about his Christmas plans because he’s been keeping a relationship from the others. (Earlier in the season, he gave online dating a try; it didn’t go well.) Thanks to executive producer Steven D. Binder‘s tease for TV Insider, it seems safe to assume that he’s dating Knight’s (Katrina Law) sister: “I can tell you that we’ve seen this person before. This will be a character who has been on the show before and will be back again and it’s going to cause some issues with some of his team members—one in particular, may or may not be related.” In fact, when we suggested that’s who it is, all he’d say was, “I can neither confirm nor deny this rumor.”
There’s more about this relationship coming up in the midseason premiere, but will it last?
NCIS: Who is Lily?
If that’s even her name! Binder pointed out that’s not “necessarily” the case. When Parker was bleeding out in the Season 21 finale, he saw a young girl and his mother. That young girl has since appeared to him again, with the latest clue a note she “left” behind that “you can’t tell anyone.” Binder has ruled out that she’s Parker’s sister. “If it’s a theory, it’s probably wrong,” he said.
“Every time we go back to the storyline, I do promise that we’re going to take it to a new and interesting place every single time. We’re not going to draw anything out. We’re going to take you through this and get you to the place where we’re going,” previewed Binder. “But it’s a really interesting sort of messed up history that Parker has and that we don’t want to blow all in one episode.”
Digging into Parker’s family history and specifically his mother (who left when he was young, then died) will mean a return from Francis X. McCarthy as his father. “Parker is going to go dig into some family lore and find out it’s not what he had been told, that he has a memory of events and then there were the events that his father told him and then there are the events that actually happened,” teased Binder. “We’re going to see Parker’s father again. Parker’s going to get a chance to go question his father about this and realize that what his life — or some life history that he thought was real is not actually his history.”
NCIS: Will McGee be able to bring down LaRoche?
McGee (Sean Murray) knows there’s something off about LaRoche (Seamus Dever), who got the deputy director position he’d wanted at the beginning of the season. (It looked like he was the mole in the Season 22 premiere who leaked that Torres was undercover.) But now the others are becoming privy to it as well. In the fall finale, he gave a press conference in which he spoke about how bold, decisive leadership will define the next chapter of NCIS. We can’t help but think that could put him into direct conflict with the agency’s director, Vance (Rocky Carroll).
McGee will continue to be the one to take the lead on looking into LaRoche. “Is this connected to the fact that this guy took the position McGee wanted? Maybe, but McGee’s a good agent, so if he smells smoke, there just might be fire,” said Binder. An upcoming episode, one like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner will even have McGee, LaRoche, and their families having dinner. “It’s one thing to hunt down a guy or be suspicious of a guy or track a guy who is in the next office or works across the way someplace in DC, but when they’re in your powder room, it becomes a little more entertaining,” the EP explained.
Most concerning? Binder’s warning that while the team doesn’t necessarily need to worry about their jobs as this investigation continues, “we play life and death a lot on this show, so I would think bigger.”
NCIS: Will Knight and Palmer get back together?
While Dr. Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) and Special Agent Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) ended 2024 still broken up after realizing that they both want different things at this point (for themselves and for each other), we can’t help but feel like there’s hope for these two in the future. But will it happen this season? That has yet to be seen. But both stars did say the door isn’t fully closed on that relationship when we spoke with them about that decision in Episode 4. If they don’t get back together this season, it does feel like there will at least be a hint that they’re heading in that direction by the finale.
NCIS: Will there be any set-up for the new Tony & Ziva spinoff?
The NCIS franchise is expanding to streaming with Tony & Ziva, with Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo reprising their roles for a new show set in Europe. Both have returned to NCIS since their exits as series regulars, though not together. Could that change leading up to the new show and we see both stop by to set up what’s to come? Binder wouldn’t answer that.
NCIS: Origins: What is Gibbs and Lala’s relationship like moving forward?
After being so determined to—and promising Gibbs she would—bring the man who killed his family to justice, Lala learned that he had already taken Pedro Hernandez off the board. At first, she’d planned to leave Franks’ (Kyle Schmid) team. “Lala is herself a character who is far from a goody two shoes, but she’s also someone that needs to trust the people that she works with. And when she told Gibbs, I’m going to get him, I’m going to get Hernandez, and I’m going get him for you, Gibbs didn’t say anything. He didn’t tell her the truth, which is that he already got him,” co-showrunner David J. North told us. “So that’s something that Lala is going to have to wrestle with and whether or not, Gibbs as a partner on her team is someone that she can trust moving forward.”
Lala did ultimately decide to stay with the team, but “they’re on thin ice, for sure, with their relationship and their feelings and all of that,” teased North.
The series premiere did set up the question of the story of “her” and why Gibbs never talked about Lala on NCIS. North confirmed that there is a “clear … undercurrent of there being an attraction between” them. “I think sometimes we meet people at different times in our lives and the timing isn’t right, and that’s certainly the case with Lala and Gibbs, but there’s a magnetic pole between them,” he said. “As far as the story of her, everyone’s just going to have to stay tuned. I will say that by the end of the season they’ll know much more.” It could have something to do with Rule 12 (“Never date a coworker”).
NCIS: Origins: What is Operation Sundown?
In the fall finale, Gibbs builds shelves in one of the rooms in the basement of the office, and in there are shredded documents. One that the camera focuses on reads, “They labeled Operation Sundown ‘a catastrophic mishandling of.” North wouldn’t say anything other than we’ll find out “exactly” what that was in coming episodes.
NCIS: Origins: Who’s the second sniper?
The other piece of shredded paper in the fall finale reads, “That Boyd, AKA Bugs, had worked closely with a second sniper.” That had already been set up by Gibbs’ narration (Mark Harmon) in the two-part premiere. The plan was always to use Boyd with Vera’s (Diany Rodriguez) pilot profiling program. When it comes to the second sniper, all North would tease is, “Bugs certainly was a part of this, but there is a bigger bad out there that needs to be reckoned with.”
Vera will work with the team more as a result, as “an integral part of this and getting into the mind of Bugs and what made him tick is really going to be a crucial part in us finding out who else was involved,” the co-showrunner previewed. “As secrets begin to be unearthed, Franks will find himself pulled back into a case he wishes would’ve remained closed forever.”
NCIS: Origins: When will Gibbs find out Randy's secret?
The audience learned that Randy (Caleb Foote) was supposed to be the one protecting Gibbs’ wife and daughter the day they were killed. Gibbs does not know that yet, and it does feel inevitable he’ll find out (probably at the worst time possible and in the worst way). “At one point we will build to a point where he and Gibbs can have the conversation,” North shared. The good news? It doesn’t sound like it will affect them. “I don’t think it’s something that Gibbs would hold a grudge over.”
NCIS: Origins: Will Mark Harmon appear onscreen again in Season 1?
It was a surprise when Harmon appeared onscreen in the series premiere, in Alaska, sitting by a campfire to explain the “story I don’t tell.” He has since only been heard in episodes as the narrator. When it comes to seeing him onscreen again, North said, “Right now we’re keeping the focus on 1991, but you never know, anything is possible.”
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B
I love this new show
Keep It going!
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C
Love this show. Delighted it is continuing. Really entertaining show and good acting!
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P
Honestly, I would prefer that there was no Gibbs storytelling on the show. Let Origins stand alone without the voiceover which I find annoying . It’s a good show that doesn’t need the distraction. Just my opinion 🤷♀️
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O
I'm OK with all the NCIS questions.... EXCEPT the one about the two former agents who are no longer on the show. I don't care about them and don't want to see them.
Also, I don't watch the Origins show, as I'm not interested in anything related to Gibbs. He retired, he's not on a show now, just let it go.
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