NCIS: Origins Season 1 Episode 5 Spoilers: Mike Franks Is About To Show Everyone Why You Don’t Poke The Bear

Spoilers

There will be no chilling out or calming down on NCIS: Origins Season 1 Episode 5. Someone has made the dire mistake of getting Mike Franks worked up in a bad way.

Long-time fans of the franchise are likely well aware of Mike’s gun-happy status, or “gun-ho” as it’s sometimes referred to. Get ready for a barrel-full.

Since the start of NCIS: Origins, the main focus has been on Gibbs and his struggle with losing his family. We’ve seen how the weight has taken its toll and broken his soul.

(Sonja Flemming/CBS)

However, Gibbs isn’t the only NCIS character who gets a younger, shinier version of themselves. Then again, not every viewer has been so on board with the Gibbs casting.

Austin Stowell Is A Talented Actor, But Is He The Right Man For The Job?

Many of you have been vocal about not feeling Austin Stowell is a good choice to portray a younger Mark Harmon. That’s a tough one for me to pick a side on.

Sure, it’s nice when a younger version looks like the other actor, but that doesn’t matter nearly as much as other factors when creating quality stories.

At the end of the day, it’s all about which actor can do the character justice. Either way, Austin Stowell is doing a phenomenal job acting his butt off.

He displays so many emotions with just the right amount of subtlety for a character like Gibbs. However, anyone who watched the previous episode got a deeper look into the character.

Austin Stowell as Leroy Jethro Gibbs
(Sonja Flemming/CBS)

We were shown the moment he received the news about his family being murdered and how he came close to ending it all.

The scene’s impact showcased the moment Gibbs broke and how he’d been living in that dark place for so long. But we finally saw Gibbs step towards the light when he accepted Franks’s dinner invitation.

It was a small gesture that will profoundly affect Gibbs going forward because we know he marries three more times, with a fourth almost happening.

I guess Mike’s fire and passion manage to rub off on Gibbs. Then again, Franks might benefit from occasionally taking a page from Gibbs’s book.

Mike Franks Is The Most Relatable And Realistic Character On NCIS: Origins

Viewers love Mike Franks because he is unapologetically himself. We love a character who tells it like it is and has a mustache. Tom Selleck, anyone?

Kyle Schmid as Mike Franks
(Greg Gayne/CBS)

One truly defining character trait of Franks is his passion and intensity for the job and for life in general.

From the way he almost beats up a man in a telephone booth in the NCIS: Origins Premiere to how affectionate he is with his wife during intimate scenes, Franks is a man who is in touch with his emotions, whether he wants to be or not.

In the promo for NCIS: Origins Season 1 Episode 5, at one point, Franks has to be held back as he yells and screams at an inmate. It’s definitely dramatic, but does it speak to a more significant issue?

Franks is a great character known for his loyalty and mentorship. However, at what point do we stop making excuses for outbursts and extreme reactions?

With a job in the NIS, there will always be intense cases that can bring a lot of emotion to the surface. But part of the job is knowing how to handle those feelings to get the work done.

There is no black and white in the world, so does that make it okay for Franks to fly off the handle as long as the case is solved in the end? That makes Mike the most relatable and realistic character in the series.

NCIS: Origins Season 1 Episode 5
(CBS/Screenshot)

There’s More Than Meets The Eye Under Mike’s Grizzled Exterior

The official synopses for NCIS: Origins Season 1 Episode 5 reads: “With the countdown on to an execution, Franks races to extricate the location of a missing body from a death row inmate and honor a promise he made to the victim’s sister before time runs out.”

NCIS: Origins is working hard to increase the stakes for each episode. I thought the pressure was already on in NCIS: Origins Season 1 Episode 3 when Gibbs trapped Prado in the elevator with him.

What we can glean from the description of the next episode is that Franks made a promise to the victim’s sister to bring the body back. That is just like Franks. There’s a big softy under that grizzled exterior.

However, this touches on what I mentioned above. Franks goes over the edge in the promo, trying to find a body before the inmate is executed. It could be me, but Franks’s reaction seems slightly extreme.

I could understand if the NIS was trying to locate a living person, but a missing body is a little different. Now, if it were a manner of the victim’s family reacting that way, it would not only be understandable but also expected.

NCIS: Origins Season 1 Episode 5
(CBS/Screenshot)

The promo reveals, as if the show wasn’t making it obvious, that Mike (Kyle Schmid) gets emotionally involved with his cases much more than the average person.

So, while his reaction is a little over the top, it perfectly mirrors what the victim’s family is likely feeling.

In the end, what this says about Mike Franks is that he is the heart of NCIS: Origins. And you already know he will get the information out of the inmate. A man like Franks stops at nothing to help the helpless.

Gosh, I wonder where we’ve seen traits and qualities like that in another character?

NCIS: Origins Has An Amazing Cast Of Characters That The Series Has Yet To Fully Utilize

Gibbs is definitely on the path to becoming Franks 2.0, but that’s great because Mike is where Leroy gets some of his best personality traits.

Caleb Foote as Bernard “Randy” Randolf, and Austin Stowell as Leroy Jethro Gibbs
(Sonja Flemming/CBS)

The most exciting thing about the promo is that no one seems to be worrying about Gibbs. I won’t lie; taking a break from his tragedy would be nice.

Sure, Gibbs’s trauma is the backbone of the series, but it would be refreshing to explore other series characters further.

In NCIS: Origins Season 1 Episode 4, audiences were treated to a heavy dose of Mary Jo and her insanely high heels. We watched her flex her big heart all over a teary-eyed Gibbs.

We’ve even watched enough scenes of Randy to get a good idea of the character’s personality and moral standing.

Watching him go back and forth trying to decide whether to either help or report Gibbs when he trapped Prado in the elevator showed that he is more interested in justice than following protocol.

Do you know who we really don’t know anything about? Agent Lala Dominguez. Although the character has been upfront and present in every episode, we know next to nothing about her.

Mariel Molino as Cecilia “Lala” Dominguez
(Sonja Flemming/CBS)

Sure, she’s intelligent, talented, and doesn’t take anyone’s crap, but what’s her story? How did she end up with the NIS? How does she factor into Gibbs’s future?

We’re a couple of episodes from the halfway point of NCIS: Origins Season 1, and we still don’t know how this is “the story of her.”

Hopefully, the series will start connecting the dots soon. For now, check out the promo for CBS’s NCIS: Origins Season 1 Episode 5 below!

Do you think Franks can be a little hot-headed sometimes?

How do you think Lala relates to Gibbs’s future?

Please drop a comment below to let me know, and join me again when I bring you more spoilers for NCIS: Origins!

Watch NCIS: Origins Online


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