David McCallum, NCIS Legend and Star of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Dies at 90 md20

Episode 5 opens with the usual sound of Harmon’s narration, but this time, the screen fades to his face as he makes his second appearance in the prequel. Harmon’s Gibbs is in his cozy cabin and talks to a dog about how, early in his career, he used to carry around a notebook with all the faces of victims, never letting himself walk away from a case. He also reminisces on Gary Callahan, a sweet nod to Franks’ (Kyle Schmid) dog. As the screen cuts to young Gibbs (Austin Stowell) carrying said notebook, fans of NCIS may recognize that we are about to see the origins of Rule #11: When the job is done, walk away.

‘NCIS: Origins’ Season 2, Episode 5 Takes Us to a Creepy Old Town

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In the NIS office, Vera (Diany Rodriguez) is on the phone trying to book a sky-diving lesson while chaos descends around her. Origins immediately sets up the comedic relief subplots in the episode: one involving a sneaky carbon monoxide alarm and another exploring a misunderstanding between Vera and Franks. The latter asks Vera if she is free on Friday night because his neighbors have a “thing” but before he can explain, they are interrupted by a case. Vera immediately believes Franks tried to ask her out, and throughout the episode, the rumors spread around the office like wildfire.

Meanwhile, the team is called out to an out-of-the-way town called Serenity, and the atmosphere is completely unlike its namesake. The town itself is rustic, isolated, and abrasive towards outsiders, while the case involves a car torn to shreds after being plowed through by a train. As Gibbs rummages through the debris, he also finds a dismembered arm, shocking him enough that he drops his notebook of victims, and the wind scatters some away. They soon identify the victim as Louis Burke, a retired Navy officer. Upon interviewing witnesses in the town, the team is close to ruling it a suicide, as everyone seems to agree that Burke drove onto the tracks himself. But, of course, something feels off about the case.

‘NCIS: Origins’ Gives Us A Town Full of Murder Suspects

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The mystery around Origins’ case deepens after Lala (Mariel Molino) sends Gibbs to the general store to investigate the cans of beer they found at the scene. The pregnant shop owner, Lainey (Gabrielle Haugh), tells Gibbs that Burke was unusually chatty that morning before they are interrupted by her husband. He walks into the shop with a picture in his hand, one that Gibbs recognizes as part of his notebook of victims that had been scattered in the wind. He asks the husband to show him where he found it, and there, he discovers another piece of the smashed car. Upon inspecting the piece, he theorizes that the car was pushed onto the tracks.

Origins slowly builds up to the slightly obvious revelation that the suicide was actually a murder, but the medical examiners and forensic team finally confirm it by finding a bullet lodged in the victim’s chest. The bullet came from a gun that was uncommonly used in the area, making it an easier red flag to look out for. But the forensic team still isn’t able to pull fingerprints from any of the debris, stalling their investigation. It doesn’t help when we find out that Burke was a town bully and had recently beaten an old man within an inch of his life, making everyone in town a potential murder suspect. They were all covering for the real murderer and were certainly not sorry to see Burke six feet under.

A False Confession Throws Off the Case in ‘NCIS: Origins’

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Every episode of Origins needs a Gibbs and Lala scene, and this one involves them having a heart-to-heart about Lala’s newfound love for church while walking around a crime scene. But it is rudely interrupted by three local troublemakers vandalizing an NIS vehicle. Lala and Gibbs manage to arrest the three young men, even as ranchers fire off warning shots to try and scare the team away from town. One of the arrested men starts taunting the town’s local sheriff, Mulligan (Shiloh Fernandez), about a “little birdie” who didn’t love him back.

But the smoking gun in the case arrives when another collection of car debris comes into forensics, and they find a partial print belonging to the potential murderer on the gear stick — you have to stick it in neutral to push a car onto an oncoming train. Franks, Gibbs, and Lala triumphantly round up townsfolk to get their fingerprints when Sheriff Mulligan walks into the church with the murder weapon in his hands and a confession on his lips. His fingerprints don’t match the partials, and he was out of town during the murder, so the team was adamant that he was innocent and protecting someone.

They spend hours trying to “un-break” him out of his false confession, but nothing works. When Gibbs discovers that the “little birdie” Mulligan was unrequitedly in love with was Lainey, the pregnant shop owner, he theorizes that Mulligan must be protecting her. The window to her shop was broken that day, and she had the same type of uncommon gun registered under her name. But with Lainey and her husband fleeing town, coupled with Mulligan’s steadfast confession, the latter is ultimately arrested. The episode leaves so many loose ends and unanswered questions around this case, leaving Gibbs haunted and making it ripe for NCIS to pick up.

‘Origins’ Season 2, Episode 5 Ends on a Haunting Note for ‘NCIS’

Before we jump into the eerie ending of Origins Season 2, Episode 5, let’s wrap up Vera’s comedic storyline with Franks. Throughout the episode, she spoke to various members of the team about Franks “asking her out” and eventually decides to write him a letter of rejection. At the end, Franks approaches her and explains that he wasn’t going to invite her on a date that Friday, but was actually suggesting motorcycle lessons. It may have been an ego-deflating moment for them both, but Franks’ little smirk is annoyingly adorable when he says she may prefer finding an adrenaline rush through bikes rather than jumping out of a plane.

At the end of the central case (at least, on Origins‘ side), Franks and Gibbs are deeply impacted by the outcome, frustrated that an innocent man is going to jail. Considering they quite literally covered up Gibbs’ murder of his late wife and child’s killer, it is strange that they are so viscerally pained about a man voluntarily going to jail, so a pregnant woman doesn’t have to after shooting someone who nearly killed an old man. But, as per usual, the gray area and the rules of justice are always different for the main characters. Furthermore, their deeply traumatized reactions set up the foundation for Gibbs’ Rule #11, one he borrowed from Franks, who quite literally told Gibbs to walk away.

It also paved the way to the episode’s provocative closing scenes. Franks himself was never able to walk away from this particular case. Every year until his death, Franks would visit Mulligan in prison and offer to reopen the case so he could recant his false confession. Every year, Mulligan refused. In the scene, we watch the three decades transform their respective faces in real-time, where Schmid’s features turn into the familiar and nostalgic face of Muse Watson, the Franks we knew from the flagship show. As Franks fades away, indicating his death, the camera settles on the eerie gaze of Mulligan, handing the case to NCIS thirty years into the future.