Longtime fans of NCIS know that Agent Leroy Gibbs and NCIS: New Orleans’s Dwayne Pride had a long-lasting friendship that spanned decades. But how exactly did they get their start? NCIS: Origins season 2, episode 11 answered this question with a flashback to how things started before the two future friends reunited.
Flashbacks showed that Gibbs and his dad were in a bar in New Orleans, where his dad was visiting the young Gibbs. Jackson had gone to ask the piano player, who was Pride, to play a specific song. However, he refused, and while Gibbs was gone, he heard a commotion. He returned just in time to see Pride take a swing at his father before they were kicked out of the bar.
Dwayne "King" Pride makes his debut on NCIS: Origins
So for years, Gibbs had held a grudge over this, and he came face to face with Pride when he was brought to NCIS to join on a case. The case involved the murder of Lieutenant Eric Reed, who died after being attacked and thrown overboard from the ship he was stationed on.
Pride and his boss, Dan McLane, were working on a weapons smuggling case and felt the death could be connected. While Franks began getting along swimmingly with McLane, Gibbs did not feel the same with Pride, who seemed not to recognize him despite being good with faces.
The episode also established how the men got to know each other, with Vera bringing different agencies together in a show of trying to build a rapport. She also brought in an auditor from Los Angeles named Felix Betts, who mostly focused on the numbers part of the case.
However, as funny as the episode was, it also caused Franks and Gibbs to backslide into less than stellar behavior. Franks allowed McLane to color his decision-making about what Lala would do on the case, something that he used to do before cooling down. Plus, he also stopped smoking because McLane said he had stopped smoking, which in all fairness was probably for the best.
Although, once Vera found out that due to the actions the guys took on the case, they were being called the Fed Five and the credit was being taken from her. Franks tried to smooth things over until McLane tried to order her around. Having a soft spot for Vera, even if he probably would deny it, Franks immediately reminded McLane it was not his place.
He realized that McLane had gotten into his head and even made amends with Lala. He also went back to smoking, which fans already know is definitely not going to help him in the future. But at least Franks is back to making his own decisions and not letting the testosterone around him get to his head.
As for Gibbs and Pride, working undercover on the weapons smuggling ring helped them. Their task was to pretend to be buyers so they could determine the seller. While Randy, McLane, and Franks had kept an eye on them, Lala and Vera discovered what had happened to the missing weapons from the ship. One of the crew had been scared silent by none other than Captain Ellis, who was running the entire operation.
Pride and Gibbs didn’t know until it was too late and exchanged in a battle for their lives. It ended all right, thankfully, and Pride even saved Gibbs’s life. They had a new appreciation for each other, especially when Pride told Gibbs he should let his wife, Diane, into his world at NIS.
This episode had a lot of humor in it, and it also gave us insight into not only how Pride and Gibbs formed their bond, but it also showed us the type of person Dan McLane was. Fans know that in the future, his decisions in his early years would later come back to haunt both of the future team leaders. McLane may have seemed like a fantastic guy, but he had an air about him that showed his decision-making wasn’t always the best.
Since the episode introduced the Fed Five, we’re looking forward to seeing if they eventually cover the Privileged Killer case. Until then, we’re excited to see how the threads of the characters all intertwining continue to be pulled together.
NCIS: Origins airs Tuesdays on CBS at 9/8c.