NCIS: Origins Season 3 premiere: Old Gibbs gets shot as Randy’s kidnapping takes a shocking turn- recap ahead

CBS's police procedural NCIS: Origins Season 3 premiered on October 6 at 10 PM ET. This episode will also be available to stream on Paramount+. Created by Gina Lucita Monreal and David J. North, this prequel series follows the life of a young Leroy Jethro Gibbs who joined as a special agent at the NIS Camp Pendleton office.

NCIS: Origins Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger after Randy Randolph was abducted by unknown perpetrators.

NCIS: Origins Season 3 Episode 1 is titled Don't You Forget About Me and will explore two timelines. In the present timeline, ghosts from Gibbs's past will disrupt his retirement life in Alaska. Meanwhile, the 1992 storyline will see the team race to rescue Randy. Elsewhere, Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Lala Dominguez will have to navigate their complicated relationship after their kiss in the Season 2 finale.

Here's more about it.

NCIS: Origins Season 3 Episode 1 recap- Old Gibbs gets shot

A snippet from NCIS: Origins Season 3 trailer (Image Via YouTube/@CBS)

According to ScreenRant, NCIS: Origins Season 3 opens with Mark Harmon's Old Gibbs chilling with his dog at his Alaska cabin. However, he hears something and walks outside. According to TVLine, he gets hit by a bullet in his chest. He eventually collapses to the ground. Two hitmen approach him and check his pulse as one of them says,

"One down, one more to go."

Meanwhile, old Gibbs narrates,

"The ghosts from my past found me... and it all started back then.

The camera rolls back to the 1992 timeline. Gibbs and Lala are making out when they get interrupted by a phone call about an emergency case. A dead Marine was found in a public washroom.

NCIS: Origins Season 3 premiere recap: Gibbs and Lala race to find Randy

A snippet from NCIS: Season 3 trailer (Image Via YouTube/@CBS)

Previously, in NCIS: Origins Season 2, we saw how Randy was kidnapped by unknown perpetrators, and it had something to do with the classified things he was digitizing. When Gibbs and Lala discover Randy is missing, they rush to the gas station where the abductors might have stopped. The dead Mariner investigation leads the team to director Barrett, who was fired from his job for being a creep. It turns out that the dead Mariner used to be Barrett's driver. When asked about the dead Mariner, Barrett claimed he did not keep in touch.

NCIS: Origins Season 3 recap: Who kidnapped Randy?

Lala in NCIS: Origins Season 3 (Image Via YouTube/@CBS)

After the team reaches the gas station, they watch the CCTV footage to locate the kidnappers' car. They notice that the kidnappers' car's tailgates were mysteriously blinking. It turns out to be Morse Code from Randy. Gibbs finds out that it spells USSR. This means the abductors are related to Russia.

The team tracks down a Russian informant called Vlad. Vlad identifies the limp in the footage as Maxim. When the team shows up to catch Maxim, they find him trying to set a trail on fire. They eventually rescue Randy moments before the trailer bursts into flames. Randy tells the team he used a marine breathing technique to fool the Russians into thinking that he was dead. He learned the technique to lower his pulse from Gibbs.

It turns out the Russians wanted access to Randy's computer to steal the military access. Randy wanted to interrogate Maxim himself. However, he finds out that Maxim had already stolen the password from a note in his wallet. Randy rushes to change the computer's password, where he finds that someone has stolen the entire system. So who has access to the highly protected zone?

The team eventually finds out that this is related to the dead Mariner case, who was apparently on duty when Randy's computer was stolen. At the crime scene, they found some ashes and realised that it could be Barrett. Is Barrett a mole? Is Barrett working for the Russians? They find out that Barrett indeed offered to betray the US and sell classified information to Russia. The team then arrests Barrett.

NCIS: Origins Season 3 Episode 1 ending explained: Is Old Gibbs alive?

Gibbs receives a letter from Lala, which says she was going to leave him. When Gibbs confronts her, Lala tells him that he broke her heart. However, Gibbs assures he is in love with her, and Lala makes him pinky swear that their relationship will not affect the team. Gibbs then shows her the party trick to lower his pulse.

Old Gibbs narrates that saving Randy came with a price that has haunted him to the present day. It turns out he used the same party trick to lower his pulse and fool the hitmen. He gets up, loads his sniper rifle, and heads out on his boat.

New episodes of NCIS: Origins Season 3 will drop every Tuesday at 10 PM ET on CBS and will be available to stream on Paramount+.