Adam Campbell is back as young Ducky.
In PEOPLE’s exclusive clip from the Oct. 28 episode of NCIS: Origins, Campbell, 45, returns as the beloved medical examiner, and it’s not a reunion that Gibbs (Austin Stowell) saw coming.
In the middle of a crime scene, Ducky walks in and begins sharing his thoughts with a shocked Gibbs and an angry Mike Franks (Kyle Schmid).
“Who the hell are you?” Mike asks, but Gibbs recognizes him. “Dr. Mallard?”
“Hello, Jethro,” he says, going in for a hug with Gibbs, who offers a handshake instead. “You haven’t changed one bit.”
Ducky then explains that he’s the “liaison” sent to help, and reveals his and Gibbs’ backstory.
“Jethro is the reason I came to work for NIS. He once told me I’d make a good medical examiner. Do you remember?” he asks, but Gibbs says that “12 years is a long time.”
“Our time together was undeniably cut short, but you must remember that!” Ducky says.
Then he explains that he met Gibbs “after I was driving on the wrong side of the road, and smashed into a car in which Jethro here was being detained. Inside the boot of all places!”
Mike is not fazed by Ducky’s trip down memory lane, though, and reminds him they’re in “a damn crime scene.”
Bernard Randolf (Caleb Foote) jumps in to clear things up. “Boss, Dr. Mallard is the assistant ME in D.C.,” he tells Mike. “He is here to figure out if our office needs an in-house ME.”
“Yeah, Wheeler reminded us to be good hosts?” Lala (Mariel Molino) says.
In addition to Campbell’s return as a young Ducky — the younger version of the character David McCallum played on NCIS for two decades until his death in 2023 — the episode is also a tribute to McCallum.
This episode marks the fifth time Campbell has played a younger version of the medical examiner. He first made an appearance in a 2014 episode of NCIS and returned in seasons 13, 14 and 18.
This is his first time appearing in the prequel series, which sees Stowell, 40, play the younger version of Mark Harmon’s character.
NCIS: Origins airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.
