What happened to Lala on NCIS: Origins? Three seasons in, she and Gibbs finally stopped pretending

The CBS prequel is set in 1991 at the Camp Pendleton office, where a young Leroy Jethro Gibbs, played by Austin Stowell, is learning the job. Mariel Molino plays Special Agent Cecilia "Lala" Dominguez. Mark Harmon, who played Gibbs for 19 seasons on NCIS, narrates and now appears on screen as the present-day Gibbs. Season 3 premiered on October 6, and new episodes air Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on CBS.

How they got here

For two seasons, the show kept finding reasons to keep them apart. In season 1, the sparks between them came from friction: Lala doubted Gibbs was ready for the job. In season 2, Gibbs married Diane.

The season 2 finale nearly ended it. The Camp Pendleton office was being shut down, and Lala was thinking about moving to the small town where Manny, a man from her past, was living in witness protection, and becoming its sheriff. Gibbs ran to her apartment as "I Will Always Love You" played. She told him she had wanted him to ask her to stay. He asked, and they kissed.

They knew "from the beginning of this season that we were building to that kiss," co-showrunner Gina Lucita Monreal told TV Insider.

Gibbs and Diane's divorce papers were still unsigned at the time, which meant that, by Monreal's account, the two of them were technically still married.

What happened to Lala in the premiere

The same finale ended with the team's photographer, Randy, being kidnapped. The premiere, "Don't You Forget About Me," picks up with Gibbs and Lala together until a call pulls them to a crime scene, and Randy never shows up to photograph it.

Lala blames herself and fears the people who took him were after her. They weren't: the Russians wanted Randy for the classified Navy files he had been digitizing. The team gets him back, and former Director Barrett, who had been passing secrets to the Russians through Randy's work, is arrested.

Lala, meanwhile, comes close to leaving again. She admits she felt free until she realized she wasn't running toward Manny but away from Gibbs. Then she writes Gibbs a letter.

"I trust you with my life, but not my heart," Lala writes.

She asks him to wait for her to catch up. He promises he will, and that he won't remarry in the meantime. She stays.

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Where they stand now

The next two episodes don't bring them back together, but they stop hiding what happened:

• "My Own Worst Enemy," episode 2 — on a case, Lala challenges Gibbs for acting without thinking ahead, and they finally talk about their history: his marriage to Diane, her near departure with Manny. It ends in understanding, not in a relationship.
• "Return of the Mack," episode 3 — Randy finds out they kissed. Gibbs admits it. Lala takes it in stride, but she's irritated that Gibbs tried to shield her. When he goes undercover as an escort, her jaw drops at how well he flirts. Afterward they nearly kiss, and Gibbs walks away, because she asked for time.

Lala has feelings for him and wants him to prove he means it, after Diane. Showrunner David J. North told Parade that fans rooting for the couple should "stay tuned this season, you will enjoy what you're seeing."

The present day

The premiere also opened a second mystery. In the present, Harmon's Gibbs is shot in the chest at his cabin in Alaska. The shooters check his pulse and leave, and one of them says: "One down, one to go." Gibbs survives with a breathing technique he learned in the Marines.

Some viewers suspect the second target is connected to Lala. The show hasn't said who it is.

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