‘NCIS: Origins’: Austin Stowell Talks Gibbs’ ‘Failure’ With Lala, Key Flashbacks, and ‘Release’ in Christmas Episode

In this NCIS prequel’s emotional midseason finale (new episodes return January 27) the heartbroken rookie NIS agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Austin Stowell) faces the first Christmas without his wife and daughter, who were murdered by cartel leader Pedro Hernandez. In the previous NCIS: Origins episode, Gibbs’ colleague Lala Dominguez (Mariel Molino) discovered that Hernandez was dead and assumed correctly that Gibbs was the sniper who’d killed him.

For a preview of what comes next on the December 16 installment, we caught up with Stowell the day after he hosted the Marine Corps’ 249th birthday bash on the U.S.S. Intrepid, which the actor calls, “one of the most profound nights of my life.”

Before we get into this episode, why was the night so profound for you?

Austin Stowell: If I wasn’t already so proud [to be an American and represent the Marine Corps], I sure as hell am now. There is such a collective feeling of triumph and valor, knowing you’ll be in tough situations and overcome them together. We heard awe-inspiring stories about our Marines in Fallujah. Many of their friends and brothers have given their lives for us to have the freedoms that we do here in the United States.

What have you learned about those who serve that you’ve incorporated into Gibbs?

At the end of the day, I’m playing a character. I’m not a Marine. I’m an actor. I understand the responsibility that I have. I don’t take that lightly. I have several friends in the military, a few of which are Marines. The last thing I want is for them to look at this character and say, “You didn’t quite get it right.” I’ve been arm-in-arm with these guys and lost someone who was a brother to me. Despite their tremendous bravery and hardened shields, they are human beings. [That’s how] I’ve tried to portray Gibbs.

Sonja Flemming / CBS

Where do we find Gibbs emotionally as the holidays approach?

Having had your wife and daughter murdered just months prior is extremely difficult. And now he is dealing with having a coworker [Lala], somebody he admires and trusts, that he’s let down again. This is another failure for him. He’s being frozen out, so to speak, by someone that he cares about greatly. It hurts. It’s a compounded pain of his family being gone, work, his failure with his relationship with Lala. In his ongoing struggle to feel okay, it seems the harder he tries, the worse it gets.

Is there someone who reaches out and helps him?

In a flashback, you’re going to see he develops a friendship from the most unlikely of places. This person reminds him about what he’s capable of, who he truly is. This episode mirrors my own life in so many ways. It’s amazing how the smallest of actions from relative strangers can have the largest impact on your life. He needs to hear that he’s a good person, that he observes things that other people don’t, tries when other people wouldn’t, is willing to put others in front of himself.

It sounds like we might see some joy and happiness for Gibbs.

We certainly get to see some release. I’m not sure we call it joy and happiness. It’s not going to be the rosy, jingle bell episode that maybe people are hoping for. This might be the most introspective and character-driven episode we’ve ever seen. Gibbs is learning that if he harps on negativity and failures, he will never be anything other than a shell of a man. He’s learning he can lean on this team, that he has this new family who cares about him despite his mistakes.

How bad does it get before it gets better?

We’re going to see Gibbs living out of his car. He becomes homeless, and it starts to rain. It was the coldest night of the year so far. You can’t fake what being wet and shivering does to your psyche.

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CBS told us there’s a lot of narration by Mark Harmon in this episode. How do you coordinate Mark’s narration with your performance?

When we do the table read, Mark is there, but I read the [narration] lines because it helps me inform Gibbs’ younger self. In Episode 6, when Gibbs is talking about, “I never looked at her [Lala] as being inside a box,” right there, that tells me how I should be looking at Lala. The narration tells me mostly everything I need to know. While we’re filming, I’ll have someone read the narration while we’re doing the scene because it helps timing.

Will fans get answers to any big questions in this Christmas episode?

You’re going to see why he was fighting in the bar the night before he started at NIS. What hair trigger sends him into fight or flight? We see a pattern: It’s the women in his life who he is trying to protect. They keep disappearing on him. We were doing fight scenes that were pushing me to my limits. I’m looking down at what is probably a broken hand right now. So if that doesn’t tell you what might be coming in this episode…

Whoa. Before you go to the doctor, anything else you want to spill?

This episode is about how secrets eat at you. I think that’s why the older Gibbs in Alaska might be writing in his journal now. It helps to get things off your chest. The big questions of this whole series are, “What is the story of ‘her’?” and “Why is he finally telling it after all these years?” She’s never been mentioned, the name “Lala.” So what happened and why is he confronting it now? We’re going to find that at this point in his life, Gibbs has a big, big secret. He’s going to share it with someone who you wouldn’t think he would. And he has a reaction to sharing that secret that is maybe the most real we’ve ever seen Gibbs.

NCIS: Origins, Mondays, 10/9c, CBS