NCIS: Origins made fans wait six months to discover Lala’s fate — so did she survive or die in that car crash?
The Tuesday, October 14, season 2 premiere started with Gibbs (Austin Stowell) reflecting on the changes that were taking place at NCIS. Mark Harmon provided the voiceover as the older version of Gibbs set the scene, taking viewers back to the pool where Gibbs and Lala (Mariel Molino) nearly had their first kiss in the season 1 finale.
“The neighbors never knew about how Lala used to sneak into their pool to swim. The neighbors only knew that one day a few months back, a nice young woman asked permission to use it,” older Gibbs explained. “The muscle of her left thigh was crushed, [she had a] collapsed lung and traumatic brain injury.”
While the woman was not in view, her injuries were shown on screen — including large scars on her leg and neck.
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“That is what she was working to overcome. According to her, the rehab the hospital gave her wasn’t enough. So she started working on her own. A lot of long nights too,” Gibbs continued as Lala was finally shown. “She pushed herself to the limit, as long as she could take it. Because all she cared about was getting back to work so we wouldn’t have to be without her.”
The confirmation that Lala survived comes after the season 1 finale, which aired in April, showed her seemingly dead after a fatal car accident. In the episode, Lala was on her way to Gibbs’ house when she swerved to avoid hitting a girl in the street. Lala’s car flipped over multiple times, seemingly killing her on the spot.
The potential death didn’t come as a surprise to original NCIS fans who know Gibbs had a total of four wives: Shannon, Diane, Rebecca and Stephanie. But while the finale kept Lala’s fate just ambiguous enough, Molino, 32, seemed to confirm she wasn’t returning to the show in postmortem interviews.
“[I am going to miss] just our crew. Our crew and our cast, we get along so well. I miss seeing all the familiar faces every morning, joking around, doing this show that we love to do so much,” she told TVLine in April. “I feel really lucky. I really like these guys, I like my team, I really like my character. So, I do miss them, but it’s definitely nice to have a little break as well.”
Molino shared some of the other projects she has in the works after her apparent exit from NCIS: Origins, including Die Like a Man and Vgly. Creators Gina Lucita Monreal and David J. North — and Stowell — remained more tight-lipped about Lala’s fate.
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“We can’t promise that [Lala is alive], but we can promise that you’ll get an answer if you come back in season 2,” North exclusively told Us Weekly at the time. “Going into this, we wanted to take big swings. Mariel knew going into this that we were going to take big swings and she was on board for whatever was the best way to make the audience feel something in a truthful way. That’s what we’re doing.”
Monreal hinted that it was always the plan to end the season with Lala’s life in the balance.
“That was really our ultimate goal from the start was to make a show that the fans of the original show loved and felt satisfied by. But [it is] also [a show] that new viewers can come in from the beginning of NCIS: Origins,” Monreal explained. “Viewers can jump in and not be confused and really get on board with our characters and their stories. We’ve always approached it from that point of view. I feel like we’ve succeeded.”
She continued: “We’re really keen on sticking to canon [events]. We’re strict about that. We want to pay respect to the mothership. We both have written [for] the mothership and do love that show. But we also love branching out into our new characters and digging into their emotional lives.”
NCIS: Origins airs on CBS Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.