NCIS: Origins season 2 episode 2 focused a lot on the relationship between Gibbs and Lala and the changes in both of them after Lala's horrid car crash at the end of season 1. And it left us wondering if there might still be hope for them to become a couple.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from the NCIS: Origins season 2 episode 3
The new episode of NCIS: Origins takes a break from that storyline to pay a touching tribute to David McCallum and the NCIS legacy character that meant so much to the show, the crew and all of us fans: Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard.
NCIS: Origins season 2 episode 3 marks the reunion between Gibbs and Ducky
Gibbs and Ducky go way back. It’s been 12 years since Gibbs and Ducky last crossed paths. Ducky remembers how Gibbs is the reason he's part of NIS: Gibbs told him that he'd make a good medical examiner.
Gibbs doesn't seem to remember that, but Ducky isn't one to back down easily, and we see that he's the only one who can make Gibbs laugh. And open up, as he has all these years they've been friends. Ducky is both like a ray of sunshine and an endless pool of wisdom.
Dr. Mallard knows Gibbs better than he knows himself. He always has. During their talk in the improvised '"morgue," Ducky remembers how Jethro (as he calls Gibbs) was standing by this shop window looking at a ship in a bottle.
By the end of the episode, we learn what Ducky had in that package for Gibbs. You guessed it: a ship in a bottle. This is the whole reason Gibbs started building boats. If the episode wasn't emotional enough up to that point, the ending surely ripped a few tears from us all.
NCIS: Origins lets us in on how Ducky became who he was in later years
This episode is mostly lighthearted and fun. And it's all thanks to Ducky, whom we see as an assistant to Dr. Magnum at the NIS headquarters, a chatty lad. It reminded me a little of the dynamics between the older Dr. Mallard and Dr. Jimmy Palmer back in the day, when Jimmy was just starting as Ducky's assistant.
He serves as the in-house M.E. at NIS Camp Pendleton on this case, one that only he can tackle. The victim, Mimi Lam, a Navy wife, was found frozen solid in her and her husband's restaurant. He has to defrost her to find the cause of death, and goes from possible strangulation to poisoning to something mysterious really fast.
But Dr. Mallard becomes the Ducky we came to know and love in NCIS during this tribute episode. After kicking himself for destroying the murder weapon — the nerve agent in Mimi's system that was only stable when frozen — he listens to her and finds a way to get a trace of the bio weapon, helping the team make their arrest.
This is how Ducky started talking to the bodies as if they were live patients he could have conversations with, who could tell him what's wrong. It's the origin story of what makes Dr. Mallard his quirky, beloved self.
Ducky is the friend and unpaid therapist of everyone in NCIS: Origins season 2 episode 3
Dr. Mallard's unexpected "visit" has gotten Wheeler and Franks a bit — okay, a lot — paranoid. Wheeler is convinced Admiral Cane sent Ducky to spy on them and report back to HQ with names for transfers or firings. Franks escalates this, thinking Ducky's notebook is full of reasons for shutting the office down completely.
But Ducky, being his warm and kind self, slowly wins everybody over. Franks alternates between sending Gibbs and Lala to spy on Ducky, then goes to do the job himself. But Dr. Mallard cares for each of them, and they open up to him like an old friend — even the reluctant Agent Franks.
When they learn he used to be a medical doctor, everyone relies on him. He cures Mary Jo's headaches. He reassures Lala, after taking a look at her medical records, that her traumatic brain injury doesn't mean she's not herself anymore, only that she might like different things. And he eases Franks' worries about Gary, whose depression is really just a reflection of Franks' troubled state of mind.
He's not a spy, he's not a menace to the office, he's just a genuine, caring person who wins everyone over. The nostalgia mixed with fun this episode gave us makes us want to see more of Dr Mallard in NCIS: Origins.
And with the promise of two more young versions of NCIS legacy characters coming, there's a lot to look forward to.
NCIS: Origins airs on Tuesdays at 9/8c on CBS.
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