Mark Harmon is stepping back in front of the camera as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, and the new NCIS: Origins Season 3 trailer makes clear that his quiet retirement in Alaska is about to come crashing down.
After previously serving as the prequel’s narrator, Harmon will appear onscreen throughout the new season as the present-day Gibbs, with a storyline that connects directly to events unfolding more than three decades earlier.
“I came to Alaska to find peace,” Gibbs says in the trailer. “But ghosts from my past found me. I know now peace never lasts.”
Those ghosts appear to lead back to a case from 1992 — one Gibbs says would still be demanding a price 34 years later.
Meanwhile, the younger Gibbs has plenty happening of his own, including the immediate aftermath of his kiss with Lala, a kidnapped team member and the disturbing possibility that someone inside NCIS is working for Russia.
Gibbs’ retirement in Alaska is shattered
Season 3 will continue moving between two periods in Gibbs’ life.
In the present day, Harmon’s older Gibbs has attempted to build a peaceful existence in Alaska.
That peace does not survive.
The trailer shows him preparing to leave, packing his belongings and picking up his rifle before telling his dog, “Time to get to work.”
It signals a major shift for the series.
Rather than Harmon simply narrating the experiences of Austin Stowell’s younger Gibbs, the show can now explore how those events eventually catch up with the man he becomes.
“This was the case that started it all,” Harmon’s Gibbs explains. “Every case came at a price, and 34 years later, I’d be paying mine.”
The trailer even shows him leaving Alaska and returning to the bullpen at the D.C. office.
Something happened after Gibbs and Lala’s kiss
Back in 1992, the Season 2 finale’s long-awaited kiss between Gibbs and Cecilia “Lala” Dominguez is creating an entirely different problem.
Austin Stowell and Mariel Molino return as the younger versions of Gibbs and Lala, and the trailer wastes little time teasing what happened next.
At one point, Gibbs is missing buttons from his shirt.
“Why do you wear so many shirts?” Lala asks him.
The footage shows both the build-up and the intimate moment itself, while also offering something relatively unusual for the famously guarded character: Gibbs smiling.
But whatever develops between the pair will have to compete with a far more dangerous situation facing their team.
Randy returns from his kidnapping with a terrifying warning
Caleb Foote’s Randy is seen following his kidnapping, and he appears badly shaken by what he has endured.
More alarming is what he tells the others.
“Someone at NCIS is a Russian spy.”
That revelation potentially transforms the rescue mission into something much bigger.
If Randy is correct, the danger is not simply coming from outside the organization. Someone within NCIS itself may be compromised.
The Season 3 premiere will see the 1992 team racing to rescue Randy while Gibbs and Lala attempt to deal with what happened between them.
CBS has titled the episode “Don’t You Forget About Me.”
Lala’s story becomes Gibbs’ story
Lala has always occupied an unusual place in the prequel.
Viewers of the original NCIS know the people who eventually become central to Gibbs’ life, but Origins has been filling in parts of his past that were previously unknown.
The new trailer suggests Lala’s importance could reach considerably further than expected.
“I know now Lala’s story isn’t hers alone,” Harmon’s Gibbs says. “It’s ours.”
Then comes an even more intriguing statement.
“Turns out, the final chapter is still being written.”
Exactly how events involving Lala in 1992 connect to Gibbs in the present day remains one of Season 3’s biggest mysteries.
But bringing Harmon physically into the story gives the series a way to connect those timelines rather than having his older Gibbs merely describe what happened.
Another familiar face appears in the present
Harmon will not be alone in the contemporary timeline.
The trailer also reveals Bobby Moynihan returning under makeup as an older, present-day version of Woody.
That places another character from the prequel alongside Gibbs decades after the central 1992 storyline.
Combined with Gibbs’ return to the D.C. bullpen, the footage suggests the consequences of the old case will require him to revisit more than memories.
For longtime NCIS viewers, seeing Harmon physically back in Gibbs’ world is likely to be one of the season’s biggest draws.
One case connects Gibbs across 34 years
The official synopsis for the premiere makes the structure clear.
In the present day, figures from Gibbs’ past finally catch up with him and destroy the peaceful retirement he had established in Alaska.
Back in 1992, his younger self and the team are desperately trying to save Randy while Gibbs and Lala confront the consequences of their kiss.
The intriguing question is how those two stories eventually become one.
Harmon’s narration already provides the crucial clue: this was “the case that started it all.”
Thirty-four years later, Gibbs apparently still has unfinished business.
And this time, Mark Harmon will be onscreen to finish it.
NCIS: Origins Season 3 premieres Tuesday, October 6 on CBS.