Is NCIS: Origins’ Lala Dead? What Cast Said About Season 2 Return

The first season of NCIS: Origins left viewers with a lot of answers — except about whether Lala is actually dead.

During the finale, which aired on Monday, April 28, Lala (Mariel Molino) was on her way to Gibbs’ (Austin Stowell) house when she swerved to avoid hitting a girl in the street. Lala’s car flipped over multiple times, and she seemingly died on the spot.

Despite the shocking twist, creators Gina Lucita Monreal and David J. North — and Molino’s costar Stowell — haven’t officially confirmed Lala’s death.

“We can’t promise that [Lala is alive], but we can promise that you’ll get an answer if you come back in season 2,” North exclusively told Us Weekly. “Going into this, we wanted to take big swings. Mariel knew going into this that we were going to take big swings and she was on board for whatever was the best way to make the audience feel something in a truthful way. That’s what we’re doing.”

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North guaranteed that season 2 would give an “answer” about Lala’s fate. Monreal, meanwhile, hinted that it was always the plan to end the season with Lala’s life in the balance.

“That was really our ultimate goal from the start was to make a show that the fans of the original show loved and felt satisfied by. But [it is] also [a show] that new viewers can come in from the beginning of NCIS: Origins,” Monreal explained. “Viewers can jump in and not be confused and really get on board with our characters and their stories. We’ve always approached it from that point of view. I feel like we’ve succeeded.”

She continued: “We’re really keen on sticking to canon [events]. We’re strict about that. We want to pay respect to the mothership. We both have written [for] the mothership and do love that show. But we also love branching out into our new characters and digging into their emotional lives.”

While Monreal and North were more dodgy about Lala’s future, Molino was much more direct about her takeaway from filming the finale. Keep scrolling for everything the NCIS: Origins cast and crew said about whether there’s any hope for Lala’s survival:

Unclear Status

While speaking to Us, North noted it was important that Gibbs and Lala’s romance was at the center of season 1, adding, “We wanted to tell a sort of against all odds love story element to this series. We always broke the season as if we were getting a full season for [the] glass-half-full type of people.”

NCIS: Origins picked up less than a year after Gibbs’ first wife and daughter were killed. By the end of the season, Gibbs met his second wife — at the exact same time that Lala was getting into that possibly fatal car accident.

“I love the fact that we’re not used to seeing Gibbs in this kind of situation and the audience to be rooting for a love story. It feels so real to me how he’s lost his family and Lala had a boyfriend — but you can’t control the electricity,” North continued. “We can’t pick who we have feelings for. From the moment they met, we can just see he was smitten.”

He added: “Seeing Gibbs like that at this point in his life has been a lot of fun for me to write. I know Mark Harmon has really enjoyed it and he’s told Gina and I repeatedly how much he loves this element of the show. So it’s been a lot of fun.”

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Sticking to Canon

Based on the OG seasons of NCIS, viewers know that Gibbs had a total of four wives: Shannon, Diane, Rebecca and Stephanie.

“We don’t know Lala’s fate yet, but in canon — according to where we are in time — this is when Diane would come into the picture,” Monreal teased. “We always approach these things — as they seem like huge challenges — how we’re going to write that into the tapestry of our story. But it always ends up being a plus, somehow, in the end, figuring out how to weave these stories together. So we’re really excited to delve into this one as well. And we’ll see what happens with the fate of Lala.”

A Story of a Second Chance at Love

During Us‘ interview with the creators, a theory was brought up about present day Gibbs telling the story of “her” — a.k.a Lala — ahead of an onscreen reunion with her later in life.

“We never say never. We’re open to all story lines. So we do like to push the boundaries of the canon that we’re writing within,” Monreal noted. “But like David said, we are really strict about sticking to what’s there, but we never say never with story line possibilities like that.”

North told Us that the idea is “not too far out there,” adding, “We discussed it going into how we are ending this season and how potentially making a big move would affect that in the future. So we have a lot of balls in the air and we’re just trying to keep juggling here.”

Moving On

While everyone else was speaking in hypotheticals, Molino was more direct about saying goodbye to the show.

“[I am going to miss] just our crew. Our crew and our cast, we get along so well. I miss seeing all the familiar faces every morning, joking around, doing this show that we love to do so much,” she told TVLine. “I feel really lucky. I really like these guys, I like my team, I really like my character. So, I do miss them, but it’s definitely nice to have a little break as well.”

Molino went on to share some of the other projects she has in the works after her apparent exit from NCIS: Origins, including Die Like a Man and Vgly.

Kept in the Dark

Molino’s insight about what comes next after playing Lala was very different from Stowell’s responses.

“Truth be told, I don’t know [if Lala is dead]. We are all being kept in the dark. I didn’t even know until the table read that that’s what would happen,” he explained to TV Insider. “All of us were kept in the dark about that scene.”

Stowell continued: “When we originally got those scripts kind of as a two-part 17 and 18, the last scene was omitted. So all I knew was that she went to my apartment, that she started to write down the note and then heard the voicemail.”

Not Officially Confirming

In an interview with TV Insider, North thanked CBS for allowing them to take “big swings” with the show — including when it came to Lala’s story. Similar quotes were given to Entertainment Weekly, who Monreal told, “We will neither confirm nor deny.”