‘NCIS: Origins’: Tyla Abercrumbie Talks Mary Jo’s Big Secret, Her Impact on NIS, and What’s Coming Next (Exclusive)

Tonight’s episode of NCIS: Origins was a big one for Tyla Abercrumbie’s Mary Jo Hayes, and she spoke to PopCulture.com all about it.

In “The Gambler,” the NIS Regional Director tries to transfer Mary Jo, who reveals a secret in-office romance she’s been having.

It was a roller coaster of an episode. Between Mary Jo’s possible transfer, her secret relationship with an NIS special agent who mostly keeps to himself, and the case that the team is working on involving two Marines, there was quite a lot going on. Abercrumbie broke it all down with PopCulture and shared what’s coming up for the rest of the season and what to hope for. (Interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

PopCulture: In the episode, there’s a big surprise that fans aren’t expecting. It’s revealed that Mary Jo and Dalton “Basement” are actually in a secret relationship. What do you think about this pairing?

Tyla Abercrumbie: I think that initially, it feels like, really, I didn’t see that happening. But what I appreciate about it is if you’ve seen Season 1, you learn that Mary Jo’s marriage, it had come to an end years before. But she was still sort of holding on to the marriage without the relationship because of the loss of her children. And what Season 2 does, and this relationship with Dalton, is it totally shows a break free. So the divorce was finalized.

We learned that she’s lost four children, and now we see her moving into her own future and dating. And this person who is a light to everyone else, we get to see that she is a light in her own life as well. I enjoy that he is surprising. He is not what you would think Mary Jo would go for, and he’s at her job. I think that’s a very risky thing for her to do, to leave work and an intimate relationship. But it shows that she’s like, “I can be risky. I can push my own comfort zone.” So I like that about it being Dalton Basement, that it pushes not only you all’s comfort zone, but it pushes Mary Jo’s comfort zone past what she’s used to.

And let us not ignore the fact that it’s 1992, and we had interracial relationships all over the place. But we didn’t really have them blatantly out and on television in ’92. So I think it’s great. It does that thing that we’re like, “Oh, Mary Jo. Mary Jo!”

PC: One of the bigger storylines of the episode is that the Regional Director wants to do a swap, bringing Mary Jo to Regional and bringing one of his secretaries over in place of her. Word quickly spreads, and it’s such a shock, and the team is quick to try to come up with a plan. It really shows how essential she is to NIS. What do you think it means to her to have such an impact on everyone, especially in this time?

Abercrumbie: I think it’s important because when you do your job well, you do it because that’s your standard. You do it because it’s how I handle my job. I’m good at it. I work very hard. I have integrity. And you’re not there to be loved by your coworkers. You’re there to do the work that you’ve been assigned to do. And sometimes you forget that people are appreciating you because they’re demanding or they’re throwing their needs at you.

So to have this moment where they could lose her from working in their office and everyone comes together and say, “No. That’s not gonna happen. Not just because she’s the secretary here, whether she helps us, but we care. She’s part of our team. She’s the glue that keeps our team together.” That is very reaffirming when you get that from your coworkers. Because sometimes I think that we do just take people for granted and don’t even realize we’re doing it until either they’ve hit their wall and they’re like, “I’m not gonna take it anymore,” or something like this happens, and you have to say, “No. I gotta fight for this.” And when people fight for you out of love, that’s important.

PC: She goes to an old friend named Lou from Atlantic City for help with the case, after we find out that she used to be a dealer there. Could we be learning more about her Atlantic City background in the future?

Abercrumbie: Well, if we do, I will find out when you all do. And I say that not to be specific to the beauty of television. The episodes are not written yet. So, there is maybe in the writer’s head a direction where they want Mary Jo to go and what they want to reveal. But as the artist in the role, I don’t find out until they tell me. So I think what’s always great about television is it’s new for me, and it’s new for you, because it’s ever unfolding, and it’s a living change. It’s always happening. So we’ll see. We’ll see what we find out.

PC: Is there anything from that storyline that you would wanna see brought up?

Abercrumbie: I would love to see that. I enjoy the idea of me and Dalton Basement being together, but I would like that to just be temporary. Not because it’s Dalton Basement, but because I want to see a lived life for Mary Jo, where it becomes work and her relationship at work. You go into the idea that this is a woman that’s still young and vibrant, and she has a life that she is still planning to unfold like everyone else. We know that Gibbs goes on to have multiple wives if you watched NCIS. We know that Franks had Tish. Well, he’s not gonna be single forever. And, of course, Randy has his family and his baby. And, eventually, in future seasons, that baby’s gotta grow up.

And we know that Lala’s had a couple of relationships. And Vera is forever trying to move her career forward and land some dude. So I think the same should be applied to Mary Jo, that we consistently see her moving in her life, not just with that relationship, but more relationships, and being involved in the cases. Love that aspect of it. So I would love to see more of Mary Jo at home, Mary Jo’s best friend and her having lunch or something. Whatever. So I think there’s a great future for it.

PC: Towards the end of the episode, we find out that Mary Jo is going to be staying right where she is at NIS after Cliff sent off notes about the secretaries he interviewed after learning about some inappropriate behavior, with Barrett being placed on leave. Even though you probably knew that she was gonna be staying, how relieved were you to learn that she wasn’t gonna be going anywhere?

Abercrumbie: That’s a wonderful question. Because when we got that script, and I was just reading it at home, when it said Mary Jo’s gonna be transferred, I was like, “What?” Because all things go through your head artistically. You’re like, “Oh my god. Are they writing me off?” And then, No. 2, you’re like, “Wow. How are they gonna make that happen?” Fortunately, a script read is only 20, 25 minutes when you sit down alone with your coffee.

So I found out very quickly that Mary Jo was staying. But it was definitely a moment where you feel like, “Oh, no. How are they gonna solve this?” Because this guy’s in charge. He can’t make anything happen. So it was very nice to see them come together to stop that, but very shocking for me to read it at first.

PC: At the very end of the episode, Mary Jo and Dalton make their relationship mostly public by telling the core team, so Dalton still has his shot at being SAC. I know you talked about this a little bit already, but what can we expect from the two of them moving forward, at least in these next few episodes?

Abercrumbie: What we’ve seen of Mary Jo is that she really values her job and takes her job very seriously. So in-house romances always have to be curated. You gotta take care to know what you should show and what you shouldn’t. And what they did in 12 is they revealed it to her core group. And to everyone else, I feel it should be maintained, be responsible at work. And I think that that’s where we are trying to keep it, that we know it’s there, wherever we see signs of it now in the episodes. And they’ve done a nice job with that, but I’ll leave it at that. I think that the most important thing is that you must remember that Mary Jo respects her work. And like any of us, you need to keep your personal life and your professional life as separated as possible, especially if you have an in-house role.

PC: Is there anything else you can tease to the fans about the rest of the season?

Abercrumbie: I love surprises, so I’m always kinda like, I don’t wanna tell you any more than you’d already know. I used to say that if you are intrigued now, the end of the season is gonna kinda take you over the edge. But there’s a Season 3. So hurry up. We’ll be back.

New episodes of NCIS: Origins air on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS, streaming the next day on Paramount+.