“We’re excited to see everybody and are available again and discover out the destiny of Lala,” NCIS: Origins government producer David J. North advised TV Insider after the stunning Season 1 finale that ended with Mariel Molino‘s character in a horrific automobile crash.
Within the Season 1 finale, Lala’s buddy Macy (Claire Berger) started digging into the demise of the person who killed Gibbs’ (Austin Stowell) spouse and daughter, Pedro Hernandez. To guard Gibbs, Lala used their friendship to persuade her to drop the case by claiming she had recognized greater than she had. Lala was on the best way to inform Gibbs he was within the clear when that crash occurred, along with her automobile flipping over. She “was coming to inform me she had saved me. I’d solely discover out later what she did for me. However that’s not what made me love her. I beloved her all alongside. I nonetheless do,” Mark Harmon‘s Gibbs mentioned in voiceover.
The primary season of the NCIS prequel was about “the story of her,” Lala, and it actually does look like this might be it for the character. In spite of everything, between that voiceover and a dialog that Gibbs has with Nate (Peter Cambor) within the “Legends” backdoor pilot on NCIS for the spinoff NCIS: Los Angeles, it looks as if Gibbs doesn’t discover out what Lala did for him from her. Austin Stowell and government producers David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal had been very imprecise when TV Insider spoke with them about that Season 1 finale cliffhanger in April.
“Reality be advised, I don’t know. We’re all being saved in the dead of night,” Stowell mentioned. “I didn’t even know till the desk learn that that’s what would occur. All of us had been saved in the dead of night about that scene. After we initially bought these scripts type of as a two-part 17 and 18, the final scene was omitted. So all I knew was that she went to my house, that she began to write down down the be aware after which heard the voicemail.”
In response to North, “Going into this undertaking, Gina and I knew we wished to take large swings. Amy Reisenbach on the community has simply been so supportive, everybody on the community and David Stapf on the studio. Mariel, the entire forged knew what we had been doing, that we had been going to take large swings and so they simply present up day by day and are keen to do the work at an distinctive degree. And all that mentioned, tune into Season 2 to see Lala’s destiny.”
In terms of how Gibbs will react ought to Lala die, Stowell joked, “He would clearly deal with it with measure and with grace as he does most something. He wouldn’t have a knee-jerk response in any respect.” Then he bought severe: “This could be, what he would think about, one other feminine loss at his doing, and this could solely additional insulate him. It might make him draw extra inside himself. And it could be what really occurs as a result of the man that we all know that Mark performed for years and years is an extremely remoted human being and trusts nobody however himself. And so it will fall in line ought to that be the case.”
He added that he hopes Molino returns as a result of he loves working along with her and contended, “It might additionally make sense for Gibbs to lose any individual that he’s gotten near, though I don’t assume they’ve gotten shut sufficient but to lose her, in my private opinion.”
There’s all the time the chance that Lala survives the crash however should go away (or decides to depart) NIS for some motive, that means we may see Mariel Molino in Season 2 briefly and maybe once more sooner or later.
However what do you assume? Do you assume Lala will survive or die after that automobile crash? Tell us within the ballot under, then head to the feedback part to share your ideas.
NCIS: Origins, Season 2, Fall 2025, Tuesdays, 9/8c, CBS