Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS: Origins episode “Touchstones” are forward!
Within the NCIS: Origins episode the place we discovered what Leroy Jethro Gibbs did after studying his spouse and daughter had been killed, the principle story revolved round Gibbs and his NIS group in search of a lacking little woman named Mildred and making an attempt to determine why somebody was making an attempt to kill her. (If none of that is ringing a bell, I recommend you stream “All’s Not Misplaced” along with your Paramount+ subscription.) Whereas most of that episode’s unfastened ends have been tied up, there was an unresolved plot thread that’s been left hanging… till tonight.
The newest Origins episode to air on the 2025 TV schedule, titled “Touchstones,” lastly answered this lingering thriller as a byproduct of this week’s case, which additionally offered the chance to delve into the tragic backstory of Dick Kowalski, NIS’s Proof Custodian. As if that wasn’t sufficient, by the point “Touchstones” was over, issues additionally took an sudden flip (at the least in my view) with Gibbs and Lala Dominguez’s dynamic.
An NIS Traitor Was Found As We Realized About Kowalski’s Previous
Tonight’s NCIS: Origins episode targeted on the NIS proof room being damaged into, one thing that hit Kowalski onerous. The one factor that was stolen was $41,000 seized from a cocaine sting operation, however with the room and its contents left in shambles, that was sufficient for Kowalski to write down a letter of resignation. This left his assistant, Herm Daniels, in control of taking care of proof, although Mary Jo Hayes was skeptical that he’d be capable to deal with the job.
It seems that Kowalski’s response was rooted in trauma stretching again many years, as he’d been taken prisoner in the course of the Korean Conflict. He entered the battle as a chaplain, however he misplaced his religion in the course of the two years he spent in a POW camp, and the one factor that gave him any semblance of hope throughout that point was a stone one of many guards inadvertently kicked over to him. It was the one factor he may name his personal, and he nonetheless had it in 1991. When the proof room was damaged into, Kowalski was so perturbed by this as a result of that had been his major focus in life for many years, and dropping all that introduced again these horrible recollections.
Fortuitously, Kowalski didn’t keep gone from NIS for lengthy, because the offender behind the proof room was revealed to be NIS agent Roger Murphy. He stole the cash (though he bought chilly toes and ended up solely hiding it elsewhere within the workplace) as a result of he had a playing downside and was being threatened if he didn’t pay his money owed. However that wasn’t his greatest offense, as he additionally revealed he’d tipped off Mildred’s location to Jesse Hatcher, the hitman from “All’s Not Misplaced,” in change for $25,000.
Gibbs And Lala’s Relationship Hit A Setback
Throughout Lala and Gibbs’ investigation into the proof room break-in, Lala bumped into that man she made out with exterior that membership a couple of episodes again, which occurred whereas she was nonetheless together with her then-boyfriend Eddie. Lala instructed Gibbs about her having cheated on her boyfriend when he mistook the man for Eddie, whom she described as “wonderful.” In flip, Lala discovered that the explanation Gibbs had been within the workplace so early the morning Kowalski found that room torn up was as a result of he’d been hoping to run into her as she did paperwork.
However in a stroke of dangerous luck for Gibbs, between her unresolved points with Eddie and nonetheless coming to phrases with studying that Gibbs killed Pedro Hernandez, Lala instructed him that it’d be higher if she and him didn’t are available early on the identical days. She additionally referred to as Eddie, indicating that she’s both desirous to get again with him or simply give some correct closure to that relationship. Contemplating the NCIS: Origins showrunners lately instructed me that Lala is excited by Gibbs on two fronts, I’ll admit that I used to be stunned by this improvement.
Nonetheless, with six episodes left to go in NCIS: Origins Season 1, there’s nonetheless time for this to show round and for these two to turn into nearer. She might not turn into one in every of Gibbs’ ex-wives, however we all know that Lala will turn into somebody vital in his life contemplating that the older Gibbs mentioned that the story he’s chronicling in Origins is about her.