‘NCIS: Origins’ Series Premiere Hints at Bigger Origin Story

Spoilers ahead for the series premiere of NCIS: Origins (“Enter Sandman”).

NCIS: Origins premiered on CBS, and there could be something bigger at play. The main concept of the prequel series is to follow a young and newly-minted NIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs at Camp Pendleton in 1991, not long after the death of his wife and daughter. However, the first hour of the two-hour series premiere hinted that someone else’s origin story could be a big part of the series.

At the end of the first hour, the series was flashing between 1991 when Gibbs was working a case with the rest of the team and to the present, where Mark Harmon’s Gibbs was writing in a journal and telling the story he never told. He ends his monologue about telling stories by saying, “It was our job to get to an end we could live with. To tell an ending of justice, no matter the cost. But this one wasn’t like the others. This is a story I don’t tell. This is the story of her.”

As for who that her is, the series had flashed back to 1991 with Gibbs working the case, and the camera pans to Mariel Molino’s Special Agent Cecilia “Lala” Dominguez, one of the new characters in the franchise. Dominguez is “a former Marine who navigates her 1990s male-dominated field with a steely resolve and a dark sense of humor. When a tormented Leroy Jethro Gibbs joins her team, the ensuing story between these two enigmatic outsiders is filled with sparks and turns that will keep the audience guessing.”

Fans still don’t know too much about Lala, and if it really is her story that is going to be told, there is no telling what will happen. She’s already proven to be an interesting character, and she cares a lot about her team, so whatever her story turns out to be, it will be an entertaining one. Of course, the series will still very likely focus mostly on Gibbs’ backstory, but the NCIS: Origins cast is pretty filled. There are bound to be other origin stories coming into the fold. Lala’s is just going to be a tad more important, it seems.

Tune in to see more of Lala’s story in new episodes of NCIS: Origins, airing on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS following NCIS.