How long does it take for a probie to start blossoming into a truly special NIS agent?
That is the question I and probably other NCIS: Origins viewers have, heading into Season 2 of the prequel spinoff (now airing Tuesdays at 9, this fall!).
NCIS: Origins, starring Austin Stowell as Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, didn’t put up “huge” Nielsen numbers, but it was well-received for what it is — a wonderfully cast deep-dive into The Man Who Would One Day Become Boss’ first days at NIS’ Camp Pendleton office. (TVLine readers gave Season 1 an average grade of “A.”)
Working under Mike Franks (Kyle Schmid) and Lala Dominguez (Mariel Molino), alongside “Randy” Randolf (Caleb Foote) and Vera Strickland (Diany Rodriguez), and with support from “HSIC” Mary Jo Hayes (Tyla Abercrumbie), Gibbs kept a (very) low profile to start, and only recently started to more loudly voice his opinions.
In fact, it was what Gibbs was up to outside of the team’s Quonset hut that drew more attention, especially when his role in drug lord Pedro Hernandez’s murder was confirmed for Franks and others.
WHEN IS A PROBIE NO LONGER A PROBIE?
There’s no hard and fast rule for when a “probie” can shrug off that dismissive designation — it’s arguably around a year, Google tells me? — but while Gibbs is, yes, the “new guy” on the team, it only gets more and more disheartening to see him in so supportive a capacity, and never steering any investigations (outside of the whole Bugs/second sniper mystery that bookended Season 1).
Gibbs will one day run the D.C. office, very effectively and for a long while, so I hope to see sparks of that leadership potential “flicker” more and more occasionally in NCIS: Origins Season 2. That is why I asked co-showrunners David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal if Gibbs will in fact “be a bit more active, speak up more, and have a say in investigations” during the show’s sophomore run.
“We’re inching our way there, definitely, in a way that we think is honest for the character,” North told me.
“I mean, just take the fact that in Season 1, we know Gibbs’ gut was churning a little bit about Bugs and thinking, ‘Maybe there’s more to this story?’” North reminded. “But Gibbs didn’t go down that path, he didn’t gnaw at Franks and say, ‘Hey, my gut…’ — and he learned in the end he was right. Those are all stepping stones toward becoming the Gibbs that we met in 2003.”
