The Veterans Day NCIS & Origins crossover we've been waiting for is finally here. While NCIS: Origins season 2 episode 4 was emotional in its own right, showing us a hidden side of Mike Franks, episode 5 brings back a beloved character — older Gibbs — and sets the scene for a case that spans three decades.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from NCIS: Origins season 2 episode 5
This NCIS: Origins episode focuses solely on the case at hand, dialling down the personal drama of the team members. But that still lets us in on more details about Gibbs and Franks's character.
NCIS: Origins season 2 episode 5 follows the murder case of Louis Burke
The team is called in for what seems to be a car accident. The vehicle, registered to retired chief petty officer Louis Burke, was hit by a train in Serenity, California. At first, they find no body — not until Gibbs lifts a part of the torn-to-pieces car to find Burke's hand.
All they manage to learn from the townspeople, including Sheriff Mulligan, is that Burke was quiet, and he drove on the track on purpose, suggesting he committed suicide. That is, until Gibbs finds another car piece in the bushes, with bloody prints on it. They figure the prints were made by someone pushing the car. So, Burke was killed.
The whole town is hiding something. Randy goes back to the office to witness the autopsy, learning that Burke was actually shot dead. Later, Jimmy Wallace tells the team how Burke beat up his grandfather, Dominic, and how everyone wanted Burke, the town bully, gone. Just as they want NIS off their back.
Sheriff Mulligan claims he shot Burke and hands the murder weapon to Franks and the team. It's clear he's lying, protecting his people, but he's determined to stick to his story.
The case doesn't have the resolution Franks hoped for
Gibbs, who stays behind in Serenity, figures out who the sheriff is in love with — the woman he spoke to at the general store, Lainey Sim, a.k.a. Birdie. She had the most reason to get revenge, as Grandpa Dom took her in after her mother died. He was like a father to her. And she did, but the team can't prove it. All their evidence is circumstantial, and Mulligan is determined to protect her.
Franks is furious that he can’t convince the sheriff to tell the truth — and that Mulligan will serve time for a crime he didn’t commit. The case marked him for life. He went to visit Mulligan in prison year after year, in case the sheriff ever wanted the case reopened. He never did, but Franks kept showing up until the day he died.
Gibbs's Rule 11 origins story in NCIS: Origins season 2 episode 5
This episode brings back many memories for NCIS fans who've been here since the beginning. It opens with Gibbs in Alaska in the present day. And we finally learn what showrunners David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal meant when they said he's no longer alone. He shares his cabin with a rescue dog.
We see him drinking his bourbon from the nail jar like he always used to, and the show makes a perfect transition to Gibbs back in the '90s, doing the exact same thing while working on his first boat. He's also neatly cutting and gathering photos of all the victims of his cases to date in a notepad — photos he loses at the scene because of the wind. He wants to get them back and manages to get some, but Franks is pissed at this side quest.
It's not until later, in the interrogation room, after Sheriff Mulligan is taken away, that Franks tells Gibbs, "When the job is done, walk away." That becomes Gibbs's Rule 11, and he sticks to it. He throws his notepad together with the photos in the evidence box.
The Serenity investigation ties past and present, and the case isn't concluded for another 33 years. But this NCIS: Origins episode reminds us that truth rarely comes clean, and every solved mystery leaves another scar behind.
NCIS: Origins returns to its regular timeslot of 9/8c on Tuesday, Nov. 18 on CBS.
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