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Origins bosses talk Gibbs' Elevator Stop, Jackson & Franks and more


Origins bosses talk Gibbs' Elevator Stop, Jackson & Franks and more

(Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for NCIS: Origins Season 1, Episode 3 “Bend, Don't Break.”)

One of the most iconic aspects of Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) from the original NCIS Did he stop the elevator? It won't be long until the prequel comes out, NCIS: Originshaving the younger version of Austin Stowell do that for the first time.

The moment comes when Gibbs is questioning a suspect in a case – in the same episode where Franks (Kyle Schmid) assigns him to desk duty after a conversation with his father Jackson (Robert Taylor). At the end of the episode, Gibbs fights back because the job is all he has left.

Below, showrunners David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal talk about Jackson and Franks meeting, the elevator stop, and more.

They tell this fascinating chapter of the relationship between Gibbs and his father – we know what we heard in the original series, but we see a different side of it. And then in this episode we did the Jackson stuff and Franks stuff and Jackson arguing that his son isn't taking the NIS job. What fascinates you about building these levels of this relationship?

David J. North: I think like you said with Gibbs and Jackson, we know how complicated that relationship is, but if we look at it in a different time, where Gibbs just got out of the Marines, just joined NIS, and just his family has lost. In a way, Gibbs has two very, very different father figures. One from Franks teaching him and one from Jackson, and in Episode 3 we had a lot of fun seeing these Gibbs and my two dads go head to head at Franks' dinner table.

Austin Stowell as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Kyle Schmid as Mike Franks, Mariel Molino as Cecilia

Erik Voake/CBS

Jackson leaves at the end of this episode, but how much will we see of him this season and how much is Pedro Hernandez on their minds given how much they've talked about him so far?

Gina Lucita Monreal: We'll see Jackson again, probably in unexpected ways, and Pedro too. Of course we have to talk to Pedro. We tell Gibbs' origin story in these flashbacks, so the audience can expect us to stick to the rules that our canon has set for us, but we've also filled in the points we already know with lots of details Surprises along the way.

That dream sequence with Gibbs and Shannon in the car was heartbreaking. What do you want to do when we see Shannon and Kelly and get those impressions, especially at this point in the season when these losses are so fresh for Gibbs?

North: For us, it's really about highlighting that loss and the emotion surrounding it and seeing how fresh it is for Gibbs. And I think, especially in that scene in the car, you can see all over Austin's face how much he's grieving in that moment.

Montreal: And I think early on in developing the series it was really important for David and I to feel like we could get into the heads of our characters. That was something we talked about a lot in the early stages and something we continue to talk about because for us, being able to truly understand what they're feeling to their core is the way our audience will relate to these people . And when we show those flashes of Shannon in the car, we feel like that hopefully allows our audience to have a more intimate and deeper relationship with Gibbs.

Gibb stopping elevators was so iconic in the original series, so you're talking about introducing that early in the season.

Montreal: We love little moments like this. Because David and I wrote the original series for so many years, and wrote a lot of Elevator Stops along the way, it's really gratifying for us to bring that into the making of this man. So we tend to do every little thing that we hold onto because we just have so much fun as writers showing how these things started.

And then there's the lighthearted moment where Randy (Caleb Foote) holds up the signs, which I really liked.

Montreal: Yes, I said that I really love episode three because it shows that we can take a lighter tone and do that, and so we plan to really expand the tone of the show to where it can go in either direction, Both the dark and the light continue in the series.

And I feel like you can do that with characters like Randy and then Woody (Bobby Moynihan) because it's so interesting to think about the forensics of things and how long things took back then.

Montreal: Yes, yes, exactly. And we like to use that to our advantage because it's fun to overcome hurdles like that when it comes to storytelling. We're not used to having to write like that. We'll just drag it to the screen and we can't do that here, which makes it all more about the character.

Gibbs urges Franks to take him off desk duty at the end of this episode, saying that he only has the jobs he has left and he won't let anyone take them away from him. And Franks agrees, but on the one hand we could imagine Gibbs following orders now so he doesn't lose the job. But then again, it doesn't feel like he does either. What's coming up?

North: It's a funny thing with Franks. Was he angry that Gibbs did that? Absolutely. And I mean, I think Franks said everything he wanted to say, but there's a part of Franks that respects that. I think he respects Lala (Mariel Molino) when she fights back. Will it get them in trouble? Absolutely. But Franks himself isn't the type to follow the rules. I think he has that in Randy, but I think there's something he respects in Lala and Gibbs for pushing their limits sometimes.

NCIS: OriginsMondays, 10/9c, CBS

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