NCIS: Origins

.

I saw a tunnel.

I saw people passing through.

People from my life.

They said he was doing better.

His CAT scans show no cerebral damage.

But we're still doing studies on traumatic brain injuries,

and while he was...

They moved him across the damn ocean.

He had to be better to survive that.

Mr. Gibbs,

you run straight into enemy fire the way your son did,

there are going to be complication...

He did what?

I'm sorry, I-I thought you knew.

I'll get you the full report from Dr. Gelfand.

No, no, no, I'm not standing here

waiting for someone to type it up.

No, he ran onto the battlefield to...

to what...

help one of his men?

No.

He had just gotten the news about his wife and daughter.

He was distraught.

He was looking to get hit.

It's a miracle he survived.

We should focus on that.

Is he gonna wake up?

I don't know.

I saw my dad teaching me to fish.

Saw my mother holding me in the hospital

the day I was born.

Saw the faceless man that murdered my family.

They were in the tunnel.

But they were just passing through.

I was there to stay.

I was living in the in-between.

Reload.

I told you, Mike, we're all closed up.

Where's Smitty?

How many times I got to tell you?

- He's off tonight. - (DOOR OPENS)

I've got him.

You called her?

Damn traitor.

Okay. Let's go.

I'm sick of you anyway.

Time stands still

in the in-between.

Hey, Mike!

Mike.

When you're in that tunnel,

there is no sleep.

Albert Hope, PhD.

Former professor of theology.

He's been on death row for six-plus years.

Last night, he lost his final appeal.

He'll be executed in two days.

We thinking he's innocent?

No. Dude's guilty as hell.

He confessed to a double homicide.

He murdered his wife, Ana Larsen, and her lover.

Captain Jonathan Rice. They met at a bar.

Love at first sight and all that.

Professor Hope comes home from teaching a class on God,

he finds his wife in bed with the captain,

then he murders them both in a fit of rage

with the pen in his pocket.

After that, he dumped the bodies.

Log says there's one more box

I'm not seeing.

Some dimwit must have

put it in the wrong spot.

Hey. Grain of salt with these two.

They like to sound smart,

but this case was before their time.

Uh, doesn't matter.

Everyone knows about it.

It's in the zeitgeist.

Big word, big brain.

We get it.

Franks didn't come in this morning.

Okay. That's a thought.

Franks didn't come in this morning.

So you figure it might have something to do with all this?

Does it?

Yeah. It does.

Franks worked this case alone.

Six years ago,

I thought he was teamed up with Vera.

She begged off the partnership a week before.

This case came up.

We were shorthanded, so Franks worked it alone.

He located the body of the boyfriend out in the desert.

The wife's body was never found.

Franks took that burden on himself.

He wanted to bring closure to the family. He went to Hope

time and again. He tried every which way

to get him to give up the location of the body.

But the bastard refused to talk.

So, Franks lost his head.

He lost his way for a good stretch of time.

It was hell on him,

not being able to bring her body home.

- (DOOR CLOSES IN DISTANCE) - TISH (IN DISTANCE): Hey.

- Oh. (COUGHS) Oh, my freakin' God. - (GROANS)

Smells like whiskey feet in here.

The hell Tish let you in here for?

- Tish! - Hey. Come on.

You need to get your ass to the office.

Look, I don't know what you think you're doing, but...

Hope lost his appeal.

They're putting him down in two days.

Yeah, I'm aware.

Your victim's sister is on her way in, so...

Hey. Did you hear what I said?

Hey. Come on.

- (MOANS) - Seriously?

What do you want me to do?

I don't know, okay?

I don't even know why I bother to come by.

I got to go, though, 'cause I got some stuff to print out

for my thing, my-my presentation.

What do you want me to do... race into his cell

and beg him to tell me where the body is?

I tried that, Strickland. Six years.

Tried it all.

Guy's got a God complex.

I don't know how he gets in...

Gets in your head, poisons you.

Last time I went,

he had me damn near strangling him.

They had to haul me off like a lunatic.

He was just standing there.

This big ol' grin on his face.

This thing's a loss.

I was never gonna find that body.

Okay. Okay.

Hey, I get it.

No, you don't.

You weren't there.

Okay.

Well, here's what I do know.

Julie Larsen is on her way to the office right now.

She wants to find her sister and give

her a proper burial, and she's got

two days left to make that happen.

So if you think it's a loss,

then you need to put on some pants and tell her that.

Look out, friends, coming in hot.

Kowalski found that other case box he was looking for.

Had a bunch more photos

and the professor's book.

Look at that. He wrote it.

Searching for God: A Study in Comparative Religion.

I'm out.

But you love reading.

Plus, Franks made notes in it.

That alone is worth the price of admission.

Yeah, you have fun with that. Give me the pictures.

Printer's not working?

Try banging it.

Hey.

- Vera? - Yeah?

Thought you said Franks was on his way in.

Well, I'm hoping he jumped in the shower first.

- What about the victim's sister? - I... I set her up

with coffee. It's only been ten minutes.

Why don't we give it a couple minutes, Sparky?

Hm?

I'm telling you,

this printer is gonna drive me to drink.

All right, well, if Wheeler doesn't have a document,

- my whole presentation... - Presentation won't land.

I heard you the first ten times.

Well, then... Anza-Borrego Desert.

This is where Captain Rice's body was found.

Mike.

We're looking back over the files.

Seeing if there's anything worth a second look.

Where's she at?

The conference room.

I ever tell you where it came from?

Ana stole it from a gas station on our 16th birthday.

One for me, one for her.

Turned our necks green, but she didn't care.

"It's a twin thing."

That's what she'd tell people.

Eventually she got a nicer chain, but...

She never took hers off.

I know why you gave me yours.

Told you I'd bring Ana home

so you could lay her body to rest.

I made you a promise and I failed.

I'm sorry for that.

Mike, we have to figure out

where Hope's head is right now.

He knows he's gonna die.

That can change a person.

No, not him. He ain't a person.