NCIS: Origins EP Breaks Down Pedro Hernandez Twist, [Spoiler]’s Sense of ‘Betrayal’ as Season Enters Back Half

The following contains spoilers from the Dec. 9 episode of CBS‘ NCIS: Origins.

CBS’ NCIS: Origins this Monday night pulled the rug out from under some of its viewers, while for others — meaning, those well acquainted with NCIS lore — the episode took an interesting route to deliver known information.

Setting things in motion was the dropping off of a drunk seaman at NIS, by a Shore Patrol officer who was in a rush to a hot date and didn’t have time for a proper handoff to the MPs. It was gleaned that the sailor had been across the border with one young woman, who was now missing, and a second woman who NIS would learn was a scout for a Mexican cartel’s human trafficking ring.

With Franks busy with a household issue and Randy minding the sailor, Lala went with Gibbs to Mexico, where their policía liaison noted that the Reynosa cartel — run by the Pedro Hernandez and a Saul Ortega — was behind the human trafficking. Gibbs quietly clocked the Hernandez mention as Lala turned to look at him, fully expecting a reaction.

Once updated on the situation, Franks himself made tracks for Mexico, where he, Lala, Gibbs and the policía staked out an abandoned filling station that served as a holding pen for trafficked girls. Franks and the cop sneaked around to the back, waiting for Lala to create a distraction — by pulling up to the busted pumps, looking for gas — while Gibbs laid in wait from a sniper position. When the armed men stationed at the pumps grabbed Lala and tried to add her to the captives inside, Franks and the cop busted in from the back, taking down a few bad guys and saving dozens of abducted women inside (including the one who’d been with the sailor).

Hernandez himself, however, was not on the premises. That’s because, Lala would later report after grilling one of the gunmen, Hernandez was killed six months ago — by a sniper — and the cartel had kept it on the QT.

And from the way Lala eyeballed Gibbs while relaying the intel, she knows full well who that sniper was.

Gibbs in turn quietly flashed back to six months ago, when he spotted Hernandez’s license plate in a newspaper article that suggested the current location of his wife and daughter’s killer. Gibbs hastily sawed off his leg cast, and was seen some time later taking the long-range shot that painted Pedro’s truck window with brain matter.

TVLine spoke with David J. North, who co-showruns Origins with Gina Lucita Monreal, about pacing out the inevitable Pedro Hernandez reveal, how Lala will react, and how next week will kick off the back half of Season 1.

TVLINE | I imagine that going into this series, the biggest nut to crack was when and how to address Pedro Hernandez. How did you arrive at the decision you ultimately made?
Early on, before we started the writers room back in April, this was one of the first things we discussed. We wanted to stay true to canon while answering a bunch of questions that Gina and I, as longtime fans and writers of [NCIS], had ourselves, that hadn’t been answered. It was one of the first tentpoles that we put up as far as we wanted to reveal it, and it evolved throughout the season as the characters evolved. We are happy with how it turned out.

TVLINE | Was anyone ever of the mind, “Let’s hold this for the Season 1 finale”?
It’s funny, I do remember at one point that being brought up, but Gina and I felt like this is something that the audience knows is coming. The hardcore fans know he [killed Hernandez] before he joined NIS, but there will be a lot of people tonight who are shocked that it already happened. It depends on how familiar you are with the material. But hopefully the way that we revealed his obsessive hunt, and certainly how Lala fits into it all, will be revealing to everybody.

TVLINE | Will we ever see Gibbs actually plan the shooting? The lead-up, getting down to Mexico…
We could end up going further back — we’re constantly retracing — but for now, that’s where we want to leave it. In NCIS canon, he saw a file and then went to Mexico. That doesn’t really make any sense to us, it never did, because Franks didn’t know exactly where [Hernandez] was at, or they would have gone and got him. We wanted to plant that once Franks showed him that file, we saw a period of time there where Gibbs was holed up in his apartment obsessing over Hernandez: “I’m going to get this f–king guy.”

TVLINE | Thank goodness the local 1991 newspaper was running photos hi-res enough he could make out a license plate!
[Laughs] Right? That worked out perfectly!

TVLINE | How would you differentiate Lala’s reaction to this news versus Franks’?
Lala is dealing with something that’s there that Franks clearly isn’t, which is betrayal, feeling betrayed. Lala is interesting in that, technically, Gibbs committed murder — he murdered the man who murdered his family — but I don’t think Lala judges him for that. But to be on the scene with these dudes, the one thing she needs is trust, and she really put her guard down in that hotel room when she said to Gibbs, in her first emotional moment, “I’m going to get this guy for you.” Gibbs didn’t tell her, “Well, I already got him,” so there is a breach of trust there that has to be reckoned with.

TVLINE | What do you want to say about next week’s Christmas episode, which is a companion of sorts to this one and also kicks off the back half of Season 1?
I would say that Gibbs’ journey to NIS wasn’t as simple as killing Pedro Hernandez. He needed a nudge, from a very unexpected visitor.

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