NCIS's Shocking Gibbs Reveal Addressed By Returning Star

A returning NCIS star has thoughts about what Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs just shockingly revealed on NCIS: Origins.

In the prequel’s latest episode, titled “Shimmy Shimmy Ya,” Gibbs reunited with Emily Wickersham’s Ellie Bishop for the first time since the NCIS season 18 finale. After Bishop dug the bullet out of his shoulder from when he was shot in the Origins season 3 premiere, she inquired about a picture of Gibbs and Lala Dominguez together. Gibbs informed her that Lala died “a long time ago” in a plane crash, but all isn’t necessarily what it seems with this revelation.

In an interview with TV Fanatic, Wickersham was asked whether Bishop believes that Lala is truly dead. The actor started off by saying that she thinks “the whole thing is very confusing” to Bishop at that moment. After clarifying that the interviewer didn’t believe Gibbs’ claim at all, Wickersham continued:

I feel like Bishop actually never knew much about Lala, because he’s so tight-lipped, and I think Bishop can also just tell immediately that there’s, and always has been able to tell, that there’s so much more there between the two of them.

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I feel like Bishop actually never knew much about Lala, because he’s so tight-lipped, and I think Bishop can also just tell immediately that there’s, and always has been able to tell, that there’s so much more there between the two of them.

Like most of the characters introduced in NCIS: Origins, Lala’s status in the present day hadn’t been addressed up until this point, and she was never mentioned during Gibbs’ time on the original NCIS. The mystery of what happened to her has been seeded into Origins ever since the CBS series premiered in October 2024. What’s unclear now is if Gibbs is keeping Lala’s true fate a secret for an unknown reason, or if he truly believes she died in a plane crash, but Origins will reveal that something else happened to her.

Wickersham added during the interview that “part of Bishop’s job is to read people,” and that it’s “it’s a massive part of what she does in her everyday life.” Combine that with the rapport Bishop and Gibbs have built up ever since the former debuted back in NCIS season 11, and “she’s able to know immediately that there’s a mountain of stuff about Lala that she doesn’t know about.” Wickersham’s NCIS: Origins appearance follows her reprising Bishop earlier this year in the NCIS season 23 episode “Her.”

Bishop is the second NCIS character to reunite with Gibbs in NCIS: Origins season 3, as Gibbs also sought help from Michael Weatherly’s Tony DiNozzo, who’s now the title law enforcement agency’s director, in last week’s episode. Tony, in turn, contacted Bishop for assistance, and she popped in on Gibbs while he was in the basement of his old home. While Weatherly’s Origins appearance was a one-and-done affair, Wickersham will appear in multiple season 3 episodes.

After digging out the bullet from Gibbs’ shoulder, Bishop used her resources to learn that Roan Briggs, the tracker who led the person who shot Gibbs to his cabin in Alaska, is now “holed up” at a hotel in Baltimore. The two of them are now on their way to apprehend the man, learn why Gibbs was targeted, and the identity of the second target. Origins season 3 hits its halfway point next week, as season 3 comprises 10 episodes rather than 18 like the previous two seasons.

NCIS: Origins airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS’s fall 2026 TV schedule.

NCIS: Origins