Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS: Origins episode “Incognito” are ahead!
Mariel Molino was the first actress to be announced for NCIS: Origins, and ahead of the prequel’s debut on the 2024 TV schedule, lead actor Austin Stowell clarified that Leroy Jethro Gibbs and her character, Lala Dominguez, won’t become love interests. Nevertheless, at the end of Origins’ first episode, Mark Harmon’s older Gibbs narrated that the reason he’s looking back on this period of his life is because he’s recalling the story about “her,” i.e. Lala.
In the weeks since, we’ve seen Lala and Gibbs get to know each other, and this week’s episode, titled “Incognito,” added new layers to their dynamic. Molino and Origins co-creator Gina Lucita Monreal have now teased what’s coming up for these two, but before we go over that, let’s talk about the long-running NCIS character who made a cameo in “Incognito.”
Tobias Fornell Cameoed On NCIS: Origins
This week’s episode focused on the death of Petty Officer Second Class Greg Piccolo, who worked at the Naval Weapons Station overseeing the facility’s classifiers. Although it initially looked like Piccolo had died by suicide, It was revealed that he’d had stolen a microfiche showing the latest schematics for the Tomahawk missiles. He was working with a man named Baker to handle the transfer of the microfiche, but Baker had one of his underlings kill Piccolo and make it look like a suicide.
When Mike Franks and Cliff Wheeler, head of NIS's Camp Pendleton branch, met with one of Wheeler’s FBI contacts at a Mexican restaurant for intel on Piccolo, they also met another FBI agent named Tobias. That’s right, NCIS: Origins brought in the younger version of Tobias Fornell, whom Joe Spano has been playing on NCIS since the show’s debuted in 2003 (though he’s never wanted to be one of the series regulars) and is one of Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ closest friends. On Origins, he’s played by Lucas Dixon, who’s guest-starred on shows like Blindspot and The Tick. So now that the younger Fornell has been established in the prequel, we can count down to when he and Stowell’s Gibbs will meet and begin forming their unique dynamic.
Lala And Gibbs Are About To Become Closer
In order to retrieve the Tomahawk microfiche, Gibbs and Lala went undercover to a members-only club to meet Baker, with Gibbs pretending to be Samuel Rhodes, the man who’d inquired about the schematics, and Lala acting as Rhodes’ girlfriend. While their cover ended up being blown, the agents still managed to obtain the schematics and apprehend Baker and his goons. However, “Incognito” was also difficult for Lala on a personal level.
As the older Gibbs reunited, Mariel Molino’s character felt like she was trapped in a “box” both professionally and personally. The former was reflected through the sexism and toxicity from her NIS coworkers, and the latter came from her boyfriend moving in with her, which led to her making out with a random guy outside of a bar. Gibbs was able to sense something was bothering Lala during the episode, and here’s what Molino told The Wrap about where the two characters go from here:
With what we’ve filmed so far, her feelings toward Gibbs are starting to really get deeper, and that starts to get scarier for her. But it is evolving in a really lovely way because it’s coming from a place of protection and truly wanting to have Gibbs’ back.
Clearly Lala Dominguez will become someone especially important in Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ life, albeit in a complicated way. She was never mentioned during Gibbs’ nearly two decades as NCIS’ leading character, and that’s because, as Mark Harmon’s version of the character stated, this is a story he doesn’t like to tell. Gina Lucita Monreal said that Lala’s story “the big question” at the center of NCIS: Origins, saying:
What happened to her is the big question, so a lot of the stakes and the mystery is embedded in that question. We talk about it daily in the writers’ room. We are excited to show all the twists and turns of that story and really deliver on that promise.
Monreal also promised that NCIS: Origins will deliver “some answers” about this mystery before the recently-expanded Season 1 is over. Once those details are finally shared, we’ll pass them along. Until then, remember that Origins, and every other NCIS franchise show, can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription.