NCIS: Origins season 2, episode 4 was a powerful episode that not only provided a look into Mike Franks’s past, but also showed how the agents dealt with the stressors of the job. What happened when Franks’s brother came to town during a robbery case?
During the investigation into a bank robbery, things got out of hand fast, beginning with a car chase gone wrong. After getting information on the kind of van the robbers left in, Franks took part in a car chase while Lala was in the car. Lala ended up having an episode, being thrown back into what happened when she was in an accident.
Because he stopped, the suspects got away, and the FBI also came in to help the team. Unfortunately, things only looked worse for NIS when somehow, the bank robber got in touch with Franks at his home after getting his home number from one of the receptionists.
NCIS: Origins season 2, episode 4 showed the team involved with a robbery case
At the same time the investigation was going on, Franks got a visit from his brother, Mason. He was losing the farm and owed money to people, from whom he had gotten loans. The episode also revealed Franks had gotten addicted to drugs in his youth during Vietnam, and his continued drug use led Mason to kick him out.
This meant Franks was unable to see his mom again or say goodbye upon her death. Despite everything going on between the two men, Mason got to see Franks as he worked to gain the trust of the robber who called him. Unfortunately, due to the new tracking technology messing up, the robber figured out he was being traced and hung up.
As Vera transcribed the call, she realized the robber seemed to believe Franks knew who he was. He listened to the call again, eventually recognizing the voice. It belonged to Corporal Joel Wade, who had been in a previous episode when the team investigated the case of a young marine named Meyers. He had been left behind to find a tack during a training Wade made him do, but was killed without Wade knowing what happened.
Wade had been spiraling since Meyers’s murder, and he and a friend had planned to rob a bank so Wade could give money to Meyers’s mother. Things got out of hand when Wade’s friend, Curt, attacked one of the tellers and eventually died after being grazed by a bullet from a petty officer in the bank. Wade saw Franks as he was escaping and took it as a sign of how bad things had gotten. The robbery was his attempt at penance, even though he wasn’t the one who killed Meyers.
Despite not being able to help his brother like Franks wanted, he was able to help set Mason up with a home with the compound that provided housing and work for people in need. It not only gave Mason a place to stay, but also paved a path for the brothers to work through their relationship. This episode connected back to the previous case in a way that worked and was close enough to the events for the audience to remember.
Franks went back to the farm where he once lived to help pack it away. He was relaxing on the porch when a ladybug landed on his foot. This made him think of his mom, who had always had a saying about ladybugs being a sign of someone who loved you being near.
There was a lot that happened in this episode, even though it focused on Franks. We saw Gibbs’s girlfriend Diane involved in attempting to help with Mason, and Mary Jo dealt with a secretary from the FBI bad-mouthing NIS for mistakes that were made. Plus, in an effort to make her feel better, Wheeler told her a story about a bad first date, which was revealed to have been with FBI Agent Oakley.
Mary Jo discovered this information after she got the Elton John song “Daniel” stuck in her head. Wheeler had mentioned it during his bad first date tale, and then Oakley heard it and brought up the same story. Now, whether she reveals to Wheeler that she knows is something we’ll have to wait and see.
On the Nov. 11, 2025 episode of NCIS: Origins, we will see the crossover episode that brings a case from the past to the current NCIS team. For the first time, NCIS: Origins will air an hour ahead on the 8/7c timeslot since the case begins in the ‘90s, before the team on NCIS looks into it again during the 9/8c hour.
NCIS: Origins airs Tuesdays on CBS at 9/8c during its normal run. You can catch up on previous episodes on Paramount+.