SPOILER ALERT! This story contains details from the season 2 premiere of NCIS: Origins on CBS.
The NCIS prequel left viewers in limbo last spring when it put Mariel Molino’s Lala in serious jeopardy. After she and Austin Stowell‘s Gibbs almost locked lips during the show’s special version of Adult Swim, Lala was seriously injured in a car accident while swerving to avoid a child.
Showrunners David. J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal certainly fueled speculation that Lala was gone for good after telling Deadline in April that “I think everyone has had these experiences where you wake up one morning, and life’s ho-humming along and then all of a sudden something unthinkable happens.” North even added “she didn’t look very good there at the end. She looked in rough shape.”
Good news for viewers: Lala lives! Here, North and Monreal reveal how they never wanted to take out Lala, and explain how her return to NIS only serves to torture Gibbs (that is, more than he already is).
DEADLINE Sneaky! I really thought that Lala was truly done for.
DAVID J. NORTH That’s a good thing, right?
DEADLINE Of course. How long had you been planning that?
GINA LUCITA MONREAL Pretty early on. We knew what we were going to do with the season finale, and we knew for sure she was coming back.
NORTH What we didn’t know was that 95% of the viewers would really think she’s dead. That was what surprised us when we got back here and were breaking season two. I would go down and wander onto our sets on the Paramount lot. They do tours through the sets. We weren’t shooting, and there was a group coming through and I told them who I was, and I said, “do you guys watch the show?” And this guy from Australia said, yeah. And he said, “I think Lala’s dead, and I think you made a huge mistake.” I mean, that’s what the response has been.
DEADLINE You had Gibbs get busy pretty quickly with Diane (Kathleen Kenny). He’s obviously denying his feelings with Lala. Why?
MONREAL He’s afraid of losing her. I mean, he lost the love of his life in Shannon. Now he has these unique and strong feelings for Lala. She almost died and he backed away. All of that is going to be explored this season. We’re not just going to leave it there.
DEADLINE Will we see a wedding this year between Gibbs and Diane? Will they move quickly?
NORTH We plan to stick to canon, so obviously at some point, we know Gibbs will be getting married on Origins. We sort of play with time a little bit. If you pay close attention, you can see there’s not a week in between each case. We’ve slowed time down, so you’ll just have to stay tuned to see what happens.
DEADLINE You really had some fun with the premiere, so let’s break it down. You went deep with Marky Mark.
MONREAL I wanted to juxtapose the two versions of Good Vibrations in the beginning and in the end, just to show the growth of the team and how when they come together. They embrace this sunnier teamwork side that is so embedded in the Randy character (played by Caleb Foote). And to me that Good vibrations Marky Mark version is just so Randy. Having him spread a little bit of his sunshine to the team when they are coming back together was pretty much the goal. I think our actors really delivered in that moment in the car.
DEADLINE You incorporated those shoes that light up!
MONREAL Someone in the writers room brought that in. It was so ’90s. We love the idea of bringing in these ’90s elements that coincide really well with the way we do our investigative work without computers and all of that kind of stuff.
DEADLINE When will we meet Frank’s brother, played by Philip Winchester?
NORTH Early on in the season, we will meet him in a very meaningful and powerful way. It’ll affect Frank forever.
DEADLINE Are we still going to hear Mark Harmon’s voice every week?
NORTH Yep. Mark’s a huge part of what we’re doing and a huge supporter and partner in this. Gina and I were just with him yesterday, talking about the show and life and everything else. You can expect to have Mark be a very big presence in this. He’s incredibly proud of what we’re doing here.
DEADLINE Can you envision doing another cliffhanger for the end of season 2?
NORTH Yeah, I mean, we know what the end of the season will be. It will definitely be a cliffhanger.
The post ‘NCIS: Origins’ Season Premiere Reveals Lala’s Fate & How It Impacts Gibbs Going Into Season 2 appeared first on Deadline.
