[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the NCIS: Origins series premiere “Enter Sandman.”]
Going into NCIS: Origins, we knew that we’d be hearing Mark Harmon‘s voice as he narrated the prequel story of his character, now played by Austin Stowell. But a nice surprise was Harmon appearing onscreen in the series premiere.
Harmon sitting by a campfire bookends the episode, as he explains, “My dad used to say, wherever you go, there you are. I guess he was right. No matter how hard you try, or in my case, how far you go, you can’t ever leave it all behind. There is no such thing as a clean slate. They’re always here. They’re always with you. The stories you’ve told. Hell, even worse, the ones you never could. This is a story I don’t tell.”
“What you saw is exactly what we wanted to do,” co-showrunner David J. North tells TV Insider. “It wasn’t always the intention going into this to find Gibbs in Alaska, but it’s just conversations between [co-showrunner] Gina [Lucita Monreal] and I, and then finally we went to Mark and said, we just think it’s important. What a treat for the viewers and also for us, for Gina and I ourselves, and going out there that day and shooting it was a lot of fun.”
North and Monreal both recall seeing Harmon dressed as Gibbs again.
“He stepped out [of his trailer], and I see Mark every day, but he was in the Gibbs wardrobe with the Alaska Gibbs hat and everything else, and I was kind of like, whoa. It had been years and years and funny, just the subtleties of that really took me back,” shares North. (Gibbs was last seen on NCIS retiring to Alaska.)
Monreal agrees, “That was really special, that moment, especially when he put on his boots. I think when he put on his Gibbs boots, David and I looked at each other and it was just an unexpected surge of emotion for us both.”
After, the three sat in Harmon’s trailer talking, and North noted he looked down and saw the star, executive producer, and narrator wearing Gibbs’ ID bracelet. “He already had it on, and I just thought, wow, it’s amazing the transformation,” he says.
Harmon will be heard every episode as he tells Gibbs’ story, but could we see him again? “Gina and I have a lot of private discussions, and obviously Mark is first and foremost with all of that. We’re leaving any possibilities open,” says North.
What did you think of Harmon’s onscreen appearance in the Origins premiere? Do you want to see him again? Let us know in the comments section below.
NCIS: Origins, Mondays, 9/8c, CBS