Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS: Origins episode “Who By Fire” are ahead!
Two episodes into NCIS: Origins Season 2’s run on the 2025 TV schedule, and things are already heating up for Mariel Molino’s Lala Dominguez. Flaco Navarro, the head of the 63rd Street Chicales, returned and tried to get her to put away the rival gang leader who killed his cousin away by any means necessary as repayment for not killing Randy last season. However, Lala ultimately passed on the hefty request because she didn’t want to cross the line that would be necessary to fulfill this request, and it was clear by the end of “Who By Fire” that things aren’t over between her and Flaco.
On top of that, plenty of NCIS: Origins fans are still invested in what’s happening between Lala and Austin Stowell’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Well, I interviewed with Mariel Molino ahead of “Who By Fire” airing, and she opened up to me about where things go with these characters in Season 2 despite the fact that it seems like romance for them has been taken off the table for good.
Does Lala Actually Still Have Feelings For Gibbs?
Lala’s car crash in the NCIS: Origins Season 1 finale changed everything. While she was recovering, Gibbs began dating Diane Sterling, who will be his future second wife. In the Season 2 premiere, Mary Jo said that Gibbs was only dating Diane because he couldn’t take the thought of losing Lala, but Lala just said that he was “too complicated” for her anyway. But does she actually feel this way? Here’s what Mariel Molino told me when I asked about this:
No, she’s just saying that, and she’s too proud, and the fact is she loved him. That’s not to say that what she’s saying isn’t true. I think there’s a lot of truth in that he is too complicated for her and being with him would be too complicated. They work together and they have to share a space together and look at each other every day. And I think that’s very complicated, murky waters. So that’s not to say that what she’s saying isn’t true, but I don’t think that’s the reason that you wouldn’t wanna be with him.
Lala and Gibbs definitely didn’t get off to the best start when she resumed her NIS duties in the Season 2 premiere. Gibbs felt Lala wasn’t being careful enough out in the field because he was concerned about her physical condition, and Lala thought he was being too overprotective and preventing her from doing her job properly. Fortunately, things were relatively back to normal with them in “Who By Fire,” the awkwardness of Gibbs admitting that Lala unconsciously influenced his desire to do his first interrogation aside (spoiler alert, it didn’t go well).
That being said, there are still some bumps in the metaphorical road ahead for Gibbs and Lala. When I inquired with Mariel Molino about what we can expect from their dynamic going forward in NCIS: Origins Season 2, she answered:
I mean, it is still the ‘will they, won’t they.’ I think you’re gonna see the tension play out throughout. I think there’s a lot of things that are coming up that test the relationship not only professionally, but personally. And I think more than anything, they end up influencing each other’s decisions a lot. Because I think they both have so much respect for each other that they can’t help but be like a driving force in their own minds. And it just continues to be tense and awkward and weird, but you are gonna see it addressed.
It’s hard to say when that tension will ramp up, but it certainly has me wondering what the future holds in store for these characters. Remember, Mark Harmon’s elder Gibbs, who narrates Origins, has said that he’s telling the story of “her,” a.k.a. Lala, in this series, and it’s a story he’s never told before. Lala didn’t die in that car crash, so what happened that made her such a sore subject with Gibbs? We continue to wait for the answer.
Why Didn’t Lala Tell Gibbs About What Happened With Lara Macy?
Winding the clock back to the NCIS: Origins Season 1 finale, Lala was on her way to tell Gibbs about how she’d convinced Lara Macy to drop her investigation into Gibbs murdering Pedro Hernandez, the man who killed his wife and child. But then the car crash happened, and we know from the original NCIS that nearly 20 years will pass until Gibbs learns what Macy did. So why is Lala now keeping quiet about how she helped keep Gibbs from going to prison? Mariel Molino told me:
I think in part, it’s because I think Gibbs abides by such a real sense of justice and what is right. I think his moral compass is so strong that maybe perhaps there is a fear that if he knew the truth, he would know how much Lala is implicating herself in a crime that she didn’t commit. And I think that wouldn’t sit right with him, knowing that she basically was willing to take the fall for him. And so I think she knows that and doesn’t wanna reveal that to him. And I think what’s done is done, and I think it’s better to let things lie, you know?
With things already being complicated enough between her and Gibbs, Molino believes that it’s too much at this point for Lala to loop him in on what happened with Macy. Gibbs was informed about Macy discreetly covering for him in the NCIS Season 6 two-parter “Legend,” which served as NCIS: Los Angeles’ backdoor pilot. Obviously Lala wasn’t mentioned at the time since she, you know, didn’t exist yet. In-universe, though, it makes you wonder if Gibbs eventually learned about Lala’s involvement as well.
We’ll see how Gibbs and Lala’s dynamic continues to evolve as NCIS: Origins releases new episodes Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. If you can’t watch them live, use your Paramount+ subscription to stream them afterwards.