NCIS gets backstory in the story of the man that killed Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs wife and child in the prequel spinoff series, NCIS: Origins
NCIS: Origins gave insight into the man who killed Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ wife and child.
In episode nine of season one (Vivo o Muerto) of the CBS police procedural spinoff, fans finally learned how and when Gibbs killed Pedro Hernandez, a Mexican drug lord. The prequel follows the early years of a young Gibbs as a Probationary NIS Agent, starting in 1991. OG NCIS fans will remember that in the original series, the information about Hernandez killing his wife Shannon and eight year-old daughter Kelly as well as enacting his revenge on in a two-part episode in season three called Hiatus. It turns out Gibbs actually killed Hernandez before joining the NIS.
The episode begins with Gibbs (Austin Stowell), Lala Dominguez (Mariel Molino) and Mike Franks (Kyle Schmid) heading to Mexico to investigate about an abduction. While investigating, they discover that the Reynosa cartel is involved and are trafficking woman. The cartel is led by Hernandez and Saul Ortega.
When the team goes and finds the trafficked and kidnapped women, Hernandez was not at the scene. Lala finds out later than he has been dead for six months due to being killed by a sniper and the cartel covered it up.
In the episode, it comes out that the sniper was Gibbs and he has taken his revenge months ago. It seemed that he might take his revenge in the current episode with this case as Franks and Lala were worried about him encountering Hernandez. Gibbs appeared way more emotionally adjusted for a man about to confront his family’s killer as his main focus was on the case and Lala not getting hurt.
The fact that Hernandez died six months prior suggests that Gibbs killed the man. He had also requested the file from Frank, who was assigned the case of the murder of Gibbs’ wife and daughter, which had information to locate Hernandez. Gibbs’ wife and daughter were killed in transit to their safe house with NIS agent Kurt Mitchell.
Kurt was assigned to drive them to a safe house because Shannon was in danger after witnessing Hernandez killing a Marine and was set to testify against him. Bernard “Randy” Randolph (Caleb Foote) was originally the agent that was supposed to be their protection but switched with Kurt because of the birth of his child.
By the end of the episode, it seemed like while no one begrudged Gibbs’ decision, they were digesting the information for the first time. Lala seemed upset that Gibbs did not trust her to tell her the truth. Frank, although he provided Gibbs the information, seemed to be taking it all in but not necessarily surprised.