Bend, Don't Break (episode)

Bend, Don't Break is the 3rd episode of NCIS: Origins.
==Synopsis==
A murder near Camp Pendleton leads Gibbs and the team to a suburban mall in San Diego where Gibbs takes matters into his own hands while Jackson Gibbs pays Franks an unexpected visit.
==Plot==
Leroy Jethro Gibbs didn’t always have it together. He once failed his psyche eval. He had just lost his wife and daughter. He wasn’t in a good place mentally. He was struggling with everyday life and so he was lucky that Franks took him on. Franks saw something in him. He saw his potential. He also knew that the job was all Gibbs had. He knew that the young Marine was never going to go back to civilian life after everything he suffered. He gave him a purpose and it helped Gibbs heal.
Franks could be a great boss at times. He was even willing to apologize to Lala for his earlier comments. He should never have suggested she sleep with Gibbs to get over her issues with him. It was out of line. Franks came to see that with the help of a good woman and he apologized to Lala tonight.
It wasn’t a great apology, but she still accepted it. They had bigger things to worry about. The body of Emmett Sawyer was found on base. It looked like he was dumped there after he was murdered.
Emmett was a civilian. He was dragged then dumped. There were traces of drugs found near the body. NCIS took on the case because there was a chance that a serviceman or woman killed him.
Yet, Dr. Tango took forever to get to the scene. He went out surfing earlier that day. This was before cell phones and so Tango will get to them when he gets to them. Franks in the meantime had to deal with Gibb’s dad. Jackson was back in town. He was worried about his son. He didn’t think Gibbs should be NCIS.
Jackson was also still upset that Franks let his granddaughter’s killer get away. The guy escaped to Mexico. They couldn’t get him back or take him to trial for the murders. Jackson blamed Franks for that.
He warned Franks that giving Gibbs a job doesn’t change what happened. Nor does it fix his son. His son has a death wish. Him working in NCIS was just going to give him more opportunities to hurt himself. Jackson begged Franks to fire Gibbs. He begged him. He said his son needed to heal and Franks took time to think about that.
Franks didn’t fire Gibbs. He instead had him and the rest of the unit look into drugs on the base. Several Petty Officers were arrested the other day because they were caught with drugs. They would buy up the empty toy eggshells. They would fill them with drugs and sell them on base.
They did it at the local mall. NCIS found a drug dealer getting his cash and he chased him before arresting him. His name was Dougie. Dougie worked with Emmett. They sold to military personnel. Dougie was also the last person to officially have seen Emmett alive.
Dougie said that he saw Emmett’s killer. He said it was the mothman. The mothman was allegedly an omen for evil. Whenever you see it, people in your life will start dying.
Dougie claimed he was so afraid of his mythical creature that he ran off leaving Emmett alone to face it. The creature had wings. It had red eyes. It was a huge shadow figure. Dougie wasn’t making much sense. Franks actually laughed at the description of the mothman. He came to believe that Dougie was covering up for his boss. He thought the boss operated within the mall.
Their assumptions weren’t that far off because several stores in the mall got robbed. The chief suspect was head of security. NCIS didn’t have enough evidence to arrest the guy. They were told to let him walk when Gibbs disobeyed the order. Franks talked to Gibbs. He told him he had him in the field too soon.
He was going to bench Gibbs. Gibbs didn’t like that. He lashed out at his father. He also trapped himself in the elevator with the head of mall security. The guy’s name was Prado. Gibbs had nothing to lose at that point and so he threatened to keep imprisoning Pardo until he confessed.
It somewhat worked. Prado had nothing to do with Emmett’s death. He was nowhere near the area. Gibbs was trying to figure out who was involved when Franks shows up at the mall.
The others tried to buy him time. They sent Franks on a wild goose chase. The guy realized what they were doing and went to the mall. He then threw a rock at the elevator. Forcing Gibbs to get it working again. Prado could have walked and he didn’t because the rest of NIS connected him to a gun smuggling ring while he was in the elevator.
Prado and his friends were hiding real guns inside of toy guys. Its why they kept stealing from the toy store in the mall. Only Gibbs felt for sure that Prado wasn’t involved in Emmett’s death.
He got a good read of him in the elevator. Gibbs was still in trouble, but he did convince Franks that Emmett’s killer was still out there. Prado wasn’t even that bad of a guy. He was smuggling guns into third world countries that were going through a civil war. He knew that the American government would be focusing on giving a dictator power. And no one thought about the dissidents.
Emmett was killed by accident. One of the guys doing good accidentally hit him with the car. They then tried to cover it up and so Gibbs’s instincts were right. It also showed Franks that Gibbs was needed out in the field.
Gibbs told his father to go home and Jackson left after working out the insurance policy for his son.
==Trivia==
*During the episode, two new Gibbs's Rules were shown for the first ever time, namely Rule #21 and Rule #29.
*Young Gibbs stops an elevator for the first time. Stopping an elevator will be a signature move of Gibbs while working at NCIS.
*In “NCIS”, Mike Franks did not know Jackson Gibbs, when L.J. Gibbs was a probie agent and Mike and Jackson first met in “Spider & Fly”. However, in this episode has revealed that they knew each other all along since Shannon and Kelly's investigation.
==Cast==
===Series Regulars===
Name 	Portrayed by 	Role
Young Leroy Jethro Gibbs	Austin Stowell 	Special Agent.
Mike Franks 	Kyle Schmid 	
Lala Dominguez 	Mariel Molino 	Special Agent.
Vera Strickland 	Diany Rodriguez 	Special Agent.
Mary Jo Sullivan 	Tyla Abercrumbie	Field Operation Support Officer.
===Recurring Cast===
Name 	Portrayed by 	Role
Bernard Randolf 	Caleb Foote 	Special Agent.
Woodrow Browne 	Bobby Moynihan 	
Kowalski 	Michael Harney 	
Granville Dawson	Daniel Bellomy 	Special Agent.
Tishmal Kwá'la 	Tonantzin Carmelo	
Jackson Gibbs 	Robert Taylor 	
Shannon Gibbs 	Dani J. Scott 	
===Guest Cast===
Name 	Portrayed by 	Role
Danny Prado 	Richard Blackmon 	
Philip Elertson	Ely Henry 	NIS Junior Chemist.
Emmett Sawyer 	Richie Merritt 	
Juan 	Lincoln A. Castellanos	
Friend 	Teddy Day 	
Carlsbad Cop 	Joe Alvarez 	
Marine 	Reid Skyler 	Uncredited role.
Category:NCIS: Origins Episodes
Category:NCIS: Origins Season 1 Episodes
Category:NCIS: Origins Episodes written by Jon Worley
Category:NCIS: Origins Episodes directed by John Terlesky