Warning! Spoilers ahead for Season 3, Episode 4 of NCIS: Origins, “Shimmy Shimmy Ya,” streaming now with a Paramount+ subscription.
Season 3 of NCIS: Origins has been airing on the 2026 TV schedule, and it has been giving fans a treat: Mark Harmon. The actor is appearing in all 10 episodes, and he’s already reunited with two of his former agents. After Michael Weatherly guest-starred in last week’s episode, Emily Wickersham reunited with Harmon in this week’s episode. However, the reunion came with a devastating reveal, and the cast and I have similar feelings about it.
In Season 3, Episode 4, “Shimmy Shimmy Ya,” Bishop meets with Gibbs in his basement after getting a call from Tony. While tracking the guy who shot Gibbs in Alaska, Bishop looks at a picture of a young Gibbs and Lala, wondering who the girl is. Gibbs tells her and admits she “died a long time ago” in a plane crash. Since the beginning of Origins, fans have been wondering what happened to Lala and why Gibbs hasn’t mentioned her until now. Well, now we know...
The truth of her whereabouts was a surprise, even though viewers have theorized that Lala was dead. That being said, it was still shocking to hear, and the cast feels the same way. Mariel Molino, who plays Lala, told TV Insider what it was like to hear her character’s doomed fate, and it’s going to stick with her for a long time:
For the table read for 304, when we heard Mark Harmon in his voice say she died in a plane crash, it was like the air got sucked out of the room and I just remember people staring at him and people staring at me and it was one of those moments that I will not forget. It was very powerful and terrifyingly sad.
Of course, there was no way of knowing what Lala’s fate was going to be or when and how they were going to reveal it. So I can only imagine how intense this table read was, as such a vital piece of tragic information was revealed.
Molino wasn’t the only one who was surprised. Despite knowing beforehand from conversations with showrunner David J. North that Lala “had to go away at some point because she’s never talked about in the future,” Austin Stowell, who plays young Gibbs, shared that the script still caught him off guard:
Reading that she is killed in a plane crash, and of course we don’t know the details of that crash, but it doesn’t really matter in the moment. It makes it all the more real and this one, this one hurt.
Since none of the team has been talked about by Gibbs until now, it’s hard to tell what happened to everyone. Now, even though we finally know what happened to Lala, some people aren’t really buying it. For instance, Franks actor Kyle Schmid called “bulls---” on the scenario. And honestly, I really hope he’s right:
You can jump out of a plane. You can survive a plane crash. I don’t think she’s dead.
Considering all that Lala’s been through and probably will go through, it’s definitely hard to believe that a plane crash would ultimately take her out. And Schmid makes some good points. Since Gibbs didn’t go into detail about what happened, it’s quite possible that Lala faked her death or Gibbs is hiding something. Or at least, that’s what I’m hoping is actually true.
Now, hopefully we’re getting closer to finding out what happened with Lala, even if the plane crash turns out to be real. Ultimately, NCIS: Origins is the story of her, as Gibbs revealed in the series premiere, so who knows what could come out of this. Fans will just have to keep watching on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS to see what comes next.
