NCIS: Origins Season 1 concluded on the finish of April, leaving viewers to mull over issues like that tragic twist for Lala Dominguez, Leroy Jethro Gibbs assembly his future second spouse, and Mike Franks’ brother coming again into his life. One character who was absent from the finale, nonetheless, was Patrick Fischler’s Cliff Wheeler, who had been the Particular Agent in Cost of the NIS Pendleton workplace till the occasions of the episode “Darlin’, Don’t Chorus.” We nonetheless have a number of months to go till Origins Season 2 premieres on the 2025 TV schedule, however to not fear, because the showrunners advised me they’ve “massive plans” for Wheeler arising.
Due to the circumstances that led to Wheeler’s indefinite suspension in NCIS: Origins Season 1’s penultimate episode, throughout my final dialog with showunners David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal, I requested the duo about if we’ll see him resuming his duties in Season 2 or if there was a substitute on the best way. North answered:
We can’t get into whether or not or not we’ll be seeing Wheeler resume his duties, however we actually haven’t seen the final of Wheeler. He’ll proceed to be a presence and Patrick Fischler, who performs Wheeler, is simply phenomenal. So now we have not seen the final of Wheeler.
Cliff Wheeler’s suspension got here within the midst of discovering the id of the true Sandman killer. Initially of the “Darlin’, Don’t Chorus,” Wheeler was catching warmth for fumbling the Sandman case after Bugs Floyd, who initially confessed to being the killer, was gunned down whereas he was in jail. Luke Fletcher, the person who ran Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ veterans assist group, ended up being the true offender, and Gibbs was pressured to kill him after they fought. Afterwards, Wheeler confessed to his superior that he was the one who shredded the doc mentioning Bugs’ parter and Operation Sunset, feeling on the time that it was greatest to maintain the case closed.
As if all that, plus his son performing out at dwelling, wasn’t sufficient for Cliff Wheeler to take care of, “Darlin’, Don’t Chorus” additionally not directly revealed that he had greater than only a skilled relationship with FBI detective Noah Oakley. The 2 of them have a romantic previous collectively, and Gina Lucita Monreal advised me that this facet of the character had been deliberate since “near the start.” Moreover, if followers moist again and rewatched NCIS: Origins (which is simple to do with a Paramount+ subscription), they’d see “tidbits of their relationship” that they won’t have seen the primary time round. She continued:
The primary time we meet Oakley, they’ve a reference to one thing that occurred years earlier than. After which when Franks goes behind Wheeler’s again and contacts Oakley, Wheeler has a really massive response to this. ‘He is my man,’ he says. So you will see little situations the place we did the place we had been planting the seeds of what was actually occurring between them. So it was one thing that we had been planning and revealing all alongside, and that we’re excited to delve additional into subsequent season.
With NCIS: Origins happening within the early Nineteen Nineties, it’s undoubtedly a way more troublesome time for somebody like Cliff Wheeler to be open together with his queerness, to not point out how his household components in. However as David J. North and Lucita Monreal assured me, we’ll be following up with Wheeler in Origins Season 2, so I’m curious to see how this facet of the character shall be additional explored. This leads me to assume that he’ll resume working the Camp Pendleton workplace, in any other case it turns into tougher for him to be concerned within the lives of Gibbs, Franks and the remainder.
NCIS: Origins is shifting to Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET for CBS 2025-2026 fall TV lineup, sandwiched between NCIS Season 23 and NCIS: Sydney Season 3. Gina Lucia Monreal has additionally indicated that the prequel will finally tie into NCIS: New Orleans by displaying the formation of the Fed 5.