There are a few things from the flagship NCIS series that we knew would have to come up in NCIS: Origins. One of those was Pedro Hernandez. We needed to see how Gibbs would deal with him.
The flagship series has already laid out the basic framework for the prequel series. We knew that it would pick up off the back of the deaths of Shannon and Kelly, which would mean a dark period in Gibbs’s life. It would also mean a period where he needed revenge.
Throughout the flagship series, we’ve always been told that Gibbs killed Hernandez. When Gibbs and Lala ended up down in Mexico to help save some women, we wondered if he would decide to stick around and take care of his revenge needs. Well, the show offered something a little different.
Gibbs had already killed Hernandez in NCIS: Origins
The prequel series has told us that Lala has continued to look for Hernandez. There has been no trace of the man, but there was some hope that she would find out something while in Mexico.
She certainly found out something, but it wasn’t what she expected. She learned that Hernandez was already dead. He’d been killed by a sniper six months earlier.
This led to a flashback. As Gibbs struggled to find Hernandez, he realized that the clues were right in front of him the whole time. So, he ripped off the cast around his leg and headed to Mexico. Yes, he took care of Hernandez.
Mike Franks knew what Gibbs had done
As Lala shared the information she got, it was clear that Mike Franks already knew everything. Not only did Gibbs remain stoic, but Franks didn’t say a word. He didn’t question Gibbs, and he didn’t clarify anything Lala had said. He knew exactly what Gibbs had done.
Sure enough, we ended up seeing that play out in the NCIS: Origins fall finale. Franks knew what Gibbs had done, but he wasn’t happy about it. In fact, he was angry that Gibbs took revenge. There was a team of people trying to find Hernandez, and now Franks had to remain silent about Gibbs’s very criminal decision.
It’s no wonder Lala couldn’t trust the two of them together, but she had no idea how much of a hard time Franks gave Gibbs after all that. It took a friend, a cancer diagnosis, and questions of the future for Franks to even consider giving Gibbs a chance on his NIS team.
NCIS: Origins returns on Monday, Jan. 27 at 10/9c on CBS. Catch up the following day on Paramount+.
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