10 Burning Questions for ‘NCIS,’ ‘Origins’ & ‘Sydney’ in Fall 2025
CBS is going to have an all-NCIS night in fall 2025, with the mothership back at 8/7c on Tuesdays, followed by the prequel Origins and the international Sydney. All ended their most recent seasons with quite a bit left in the air, including a character’s fate on one.
Gibbs (Austin Stowell) may have just suffered another loss, so soon after the deaths of his wife and daughter and landlord/friend on the prequel, and that comes not only after he and Lala (Mariel Molino) shared a moment in the pool but she also took a big risk to protect him. Parker (Gary Cole) faced off with his nemesis, Carla Marino (Rebecca De Mornay), and he suffered a major tragedy after she surprisingly didn’t kill him in the NCIS Season 22 finale. And over on Sydney, Blue’s (Mavournee Hazel) past came back to haunt her. Plus, all three shows did leave relationships up in the air.
Below, we take a look at the burning questions we have for NCIS, NCIS: Origins, and NCIS: Sydney this fall. Let us know yours in the comments section.
NCIS, Season 23, Fall 2025, Tuesdays, 8/7c CBS
NCIS: Origins, Season 2, Fall 2025, Tuesdays, 9/8c, CBS
NCIS: Sydney, Season 3, Fall 2025, Tuesdays, 10/9c, CBS
NCIS: How far will Parker go for revenge after his father's death?
At one point in the Season 22 finale, Carla had Parker on his knees and a gun to him after revealing she blamed him for her son’s death because he’d told him about her criminal activities. But rather than kill him, which would be too easy, as she put it, she left him unconscious on the side of the road. The episode then ended with Parker returning home to find his father murdered, lipstick on one of two wine glasses out — Carla had invited herself over for dinner earlier in the episode — and he knew who was responsible.
Parker already struggled when it came to his long-time nemesis’s involvement in cases. We can’t imagine he’s going to have an easy time or be able to control his anger and act like an agent should now that she’s killed his father. Based on what executive producer Steven D. Binder told TV Insider after the finale, that does seem to be true.
“He is not going to find his inner zen and not find a good place here. He’s going to be destabilized and he’s going to be out for revenge and out for blood in a way that it will seem very atypical for someone like him, not a way you’d expect a character like him to behave and yet entirely motivated and justified,” he said. “I believe last time Bishop [Emily Wickersham] was in this position and the target of her ire ended up dead, you’re left with a very strong notion that the reason Bishop didn’t go all the way to kill him is because Gibbs [Mark Harmon] got to him first. There’s that shadow of Gibbs in an elevator as the door slowly closes and slow motion. … That’s messy and that’s dirty, but it’s also protective in a way. It’s protected her from making a wrong decision by going and making the wrong decision first. It’s f**ked up, and I think we’re going to see some of that.”
NCIS: What did Palmer discover about Parker's mother's autopsy?
Parker started looking into his mother’s death, discovering that she died in a car accident … only for Palmer (Brian Dietzen) to find something that didn’t add up in her original death certificate while he was helping track down her burial site. Of course, we can’t help but think that it was something that could suggest she’s still alive, and Binder did tell us he couldn’t “rule anything out because it hasn’t been written yet.”
What he did share was that Palmer “saw something in the data that makes him think the conclusion in that autopsy was not accurate. And by implications, since we’re a cop show and not a kids’ show, someone’s covering something up.”
NCIS: Will Palmer and Knight get back together?
NCIS has never really been known for its romance; more than once, a potential couple has kissed onscreen for the first time (not undercover) when one of the actors exited as a series regular. But with Palmer and Knight (Katrina Law), that changed. There have been awkward moments, and it does feel that they will eventually get back together — they do have valid reasons for the split — but will it happen in Season 23?
“What we’re probably not going to do is now they’re dating again and then they’re just dating again. We did that. We had that,” explained Binder. “I want to make sure that this season is reflective of the fact they had a relationship and find a place that’s more interesting or conflict is the wrong word, because that sounds like I’m implying conflict between two of these characters, but I’m using that word in a dramatic narrative writer sense. Where’s it interesting? Where’s the conflict for this dynamic between these two? And I think we’re going to go there now. Could they end back together again? Absolutely. But for now, we broke them up to bring them to a new place.”
NCIS: Will any other franchise characters show up?
This franchise doesn’t have crossovers as often as others (One Chicago, Law & Order), but it has had some over the years and has individual characters appearing on other shows. In Season 22, LL Cool J reprised his role from NCIS: Los Angeles, Sam Hanna, in an episode, and it certainly ended in a way that left a return possible: He quit his non-NCIS job but was going to follow up on a lead on Hetty before returning to the agency. Binder is all for a return from him or an appearance from any other franchise character.
He’s also up for a crossover with the new Paramount+ spinoff, NCIS: Tony & Ziva, which will see Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo reprise their roles. “I can tell you because of the timeline — we are on a network production schedule and they are on a streaming much longer term, dates aren’t necessarily set yet, production dates — it was very difficult for us to do something like that where we were able to set something up for Tony & Ziva,” he shared. “Now that it’s been shot, I would love to. I think that would be great.”
Plus, we’d love to see a two-hour crossover with NCIS: Sydney, though production and schedules will likely make that nearly impossible, given where the two shows film.
NCIS: Origins: Is Lala dead?
In the prequel’s finale, Lala’s friend Macy (Claire Berger) began digging into what happened to the man who killed Gibbs’ wife and daughter, and she put the pieces together. But Lala convinced her not to pursue it by lying about just how much she knew (and when ) about Gibbs killing Pedro Hernandez. Lala was then on his way to tell Gibbs he was in the clear — he’d been ready to throw himself on his sword to protect his team — when she got into a car accident. Her car flipping over and that final shot of her? Uh-oh.
Unsurprisingly, the executive producers, when TV Insider spoke with them about the finale, are being very vague about Lala’s fate. “Going into this project, Gina [Lucita Monreal] and I knew we wanted to take big swings. Amy Reisenbach at the network has just been so supportive, everyone at the network and David Stapf at the studio. Mariel, the whole cast knew what we were doing, that we were going to take big swings and they just show up every day and are willing to do the work at an exceptional level. And all that said, tune into Season 2 to see Lala’s fate,” David J. North told us.
Gibbs’ voiceover (Mark Harmon narrating) and the fact that we know that he never found out what Lala did for him certainly suggest she could very well be dead, but we’re holding out hope. Lala’s such a great character and we’re not ready to say goodbye to her just yet. Plus, Gibbs has suffered enough loss!
NCIS: Origins: What will we see between Gibbs and Diane?
One of the fun parts of this prequel is getting to see the origin stories of people and aspects of Gibbs’ life we only heard about on NCIS. And, thanks to timelines, we also know when to expect certain things … like his ex-wife Diane (Kathleen Kenny) making her first appearance in his life in the Season 1 finale as the real estate agent as he packed up his family’s house.
“We know in canon that Diane shows up now in our timeline. It comes at such a crazy moment because of what is happening with him and Lala, and I think that’s reflective of life. You’re not looking for anything to happen, and suddenly, it happens. So we know what happens with Diane and Gibbs, that they do get married. We knew that we owed that to canon, to the audience, to introduce that character at that time,” said Monreal. “A lot of times in the room will realize these things, ‘Oh, in canon we have to do this at this moment,’ and it feels like a huge hurdle or a huge roadblock because we wanted Gibbs to do this or that. But what we’ve found is that these hurdles or these things that we are tied to in canon really a lot of times turn out to be better, more interesting stories. And I think that this is a great example of that.”
While it is unclear just how much we’ll see of Diane in Season 2, Kenny will have “a presence,” confirmed Monreal. It should be interesting to see Gibbs in those early stages of their relationship, especially when you factor in the fact that this is a man still grieving his family, possibly mourning his teammate and what-if love interest, and just generally being Gibbs.
NCIS: Origins: Will Randy leave the team?
Say it isn’t so! Well, Randy (Caleb Foote) did start to think that a desk job could be a good long-term goal due to some close calls in the field — he was thinking about his family — as well as getting on track for being a special agent in charge. But his questions led Regional Director Ron Barrett (Toby Huss) to wonder if he should be in the field at all, leaving us questioning his future on the team.
North promised that “there’s going to be plenty of Randy” in Season 2, but will we see him transitioning into a different role at NIS? Besides Franks (Kyle Schmid), there’s so little known about Gibbs’ team back then, so anything is possible.
NCIS: Origins: Will Mark Harmon appear onscreen again?
Mark Harmon’s last onscreen appearance on NCIS came in Season 19, when Gibbs stayed in Alaska. He has been mentioned multiple times since his exit on the mothership, including this most recent season, and it would be great to see him again. (The tribute episode to David McCallum and his character, Ducky, would have been the perfect time for a guest spot.) But will that happen before the series finale? It would be great to see him show up before then — as a surprise cameo, like Weatherly did for the aforementioned tribute episode.
Harmon also now narrates Origins, and he even appeared onscreen in the series premiere. There are no plans for him to appear again, with the focus on Gibbs’ story in 1992, but North said they’re “always open to any ideas. And if that’s where it feels like the narrative wants to take us, Mark’s all in on this show. …Anything is possible. The fans could tune in any week and see Mark, I’ll say that.”
NCIS: Sydney: Who was that woman waiting for Blue?
The international edition ended with a cliffhanger involving Blue, who found a woman waiting for her when she walked into her home. “Been looking for you,” she said. But who was that woman? Showrunner Morgan O’Neill wouldn’t say but laughed when we brought up the question of if that was Blue’s mother or another relative or if that would be too obvious. “I hate to be coy,” he said, “But that’s a good place to be, from my perspective.”
Whoever that woman is, it was clear that Blue was not happy to see her and she’d made a point of keeping herself off anyone’s radar, including avoiding being photographed (until the one that led the woman her way) and not having a digital footprint.
“There’s an element of menace, at least I feel like there’s an element of real menace, in who this woman is,” O’Neill said, promising answers “very early on in Season 3.”
NCIS: Sydney: Will Mackey and JD get together?
It’s a question that has to be asked with any partners on a procedural, and there did seem to be some jealous on JD’s (Todd Lasance) part when he met Mackey’s (Olivia Swann) old friend, Etienne (John Fabry), though there was the question of whether it was just (rightful) concern. NCIS, in general, as we said above, doesn’t tend to have too much romance across the franchise, though some series do have more than others (NCIS: LA and Hawai’i, for example). But it does seem like there’s at least the potential for Mackey and JD to go there.
“They’re both very, very aware of the fact that if there’s an emotional bond that’s building between them, it’s not something that anyone wants to entertain. They’re work colleagues. They’re heads of an office, which is this blended family between America and Australia, and to go there romantically would risk a whole lot. So there’s a lot of reasons for them not to succumb to any kind of romantic tension. But that being said, that’s me being logical,” said O’Neill. “As we know, our emotions aren’t necessarily always that logical, and so Season 3 will see a fair bit of that tussle between head and heart, I suspect, with Mackey and JD.”
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R
I absolutely love Origins. It is emotional in the memories it evokes and the new connections it makes. The writing is superb! I am very impressed with the efforts to adhere to the tangled web of the original show - a timeline that is contradictory in and of itself. The most exciting part of this interview is the dangling of the possibility of another Mark Harmon appearance along with his narration. Please make this happen!
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P
Since Le Roy left the original it has lost some of its appeal . Sydney is great and Origins is building so I am glad you have developed other stories to cover for the loss of the real Gibbs
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C
I refuse to watch NCIS SYDNEY nor do I watch NCIS ORIGINS. They only need one: the original. As far as LL Cool J, don't make him a regular in NCIS. Please.
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