NCIS: Origins has finally answered its biggest question — and predictably, the answer hurts. Season 1, Episode 17, "Darlin', Don't Refrain" gives the team the identity of the sniper known as Sandman, who turns out to be a character that fans of the NCIS prequel met earlier in the season. At the same time, there's a pseudo-power struggle in the halls as the NIS group are forced to team up with the FBI, which genre fans know isn't going to turn out well.
"Darlin', Don't Refrain" gives some insight into the world of Cliff Wheeler, as the team's supervisor is at risk of losing his job given the events of the season. But before that even happens, things with Wheeler's troubled son Jason reach a breaking point. Between that and Gibbs being the one to uncover Sandman's true identity, this is an episode that is an emotional disaster.
NCIS: Origins Season 1, Episode 17 Plays With Some Genre Tropes
The Tension Between the FBI and NIS Is Standard Procedure
At its heart, NCIS: Origins Season 1, Episode 17 has a pretty basic story. An outside agency is brought in to help the heroes close a high-profile case, leading to the butting of heads between the two groups, who ultimately learn to work together. It's par for the course among TV crime dramas that whenever the FBI comes in — unless the show is FBI — things don't go well. Thus "Darlin', Don't Refrain" doesn't get as much mileage as it wants out of the personality conflict between Mike Franks and FBI agent Noah Oakley, and the grousing of the NIS team over how the FBI is running the investigation.
But what the episode does have working in its favor is that Oakley is an established character, whom audiences have met before and who has worked with the team before. The viewers are inclined to give him a little bit of trust, and Oakley himself isn't written as the stereotypical "G-man" pulling rank and treating the team like his underlings, even if he does actually have the authority to do so. That creates a little bit of a different spin on the typical plot. Plus, it makes sense to bring an outside team in at this point in the story, given what's been happening across the season; this doesn't feel like something forced in for drama's sake.
And even if the FBI agents are present, most of them fade into the background as NCIS: Origins keeps its focus on the main characters. In fact, if there's one criticism of Episode 17, it's that even some of the significant characters don't have much to do. Mary Jo Hayes, for example, is mentioned but never seen — while some viewers may get frustrated that most of young Leroy Jethro Gibbs' screen time involves him sitting in a basement. Others may quickly catch on that there's a reason for that, as the identity of Sandman is specifically tied to Gibbs. The whole episode is just building to that point.
NCIS: Origins Finally Reveals Sandman Is Someone Close to Gibbs
How Will the Finale Deal With This Information?
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The final pieces of the Sandman mystery fall into place rather quickly so that NCIS: Origins can get to its big emotional moment. Operation Sundown is revealed to have been a CIA assignment where four snipers from Flintport Security were assigned to protect a CIA asset and his family. However, as the Iraq War ended, the CEO of the company pulled them off that detail for a higher-paying job — which resulted in the deaths of the whole family. The "mission" that Bugs referred to before his death was that they were seeking revenge on the rest of the Flintport team for those murders. After all the build-up, it might feel underwhelming that Sundown isn't something bigger, but the impact of this story comes not from the what but the who. Sandman is revealed to be Luke Fletcher, the man who's been leading Gibbs' veteran support group.
There are serious pros and cons to this storyline. From a dramatic standpoint, savvy viewers probably guessed that Sandman was someone they had already met, and there's no denying how much this impacts Gibbs on a personal level. Actor Austin Stowell once again does great work in the scene when Luke holds Gibbs at gunpoint (even considering the false jeopardy therein, since fans knew Gibbs can't die since NCIS: Origins is a prequel). And the fact that the show chooses to resolve this storyline now, instead of in its season finale, suggests that there will be some further emotional exploration for Gibbs in Episode 18.
At the same time, it's been really lovely to see a veteran support group depicted on the show, because such groups and the challenges that veterans face are not commonly seen on TV. If anything, the support group didn't get enough screen time, since it only popped up in a few scenes since its introduction midway through the season. Making Luke the bad guy undercuts that aspect of the story, because it makes everything he's done seem like a falsehood. He tells Gibbs that it isn't and that he cares about everyone in his group, but does the audience at home believe him? His credibility is zero, so at the very least, there's doubt thrown onto something that was a very good and unique part of the NCIS: Origins world.
NCIS: Origins Further Explores Cliff Wheeler's Personal Life
Season 1, Episode 17 Is Both Tragic and Hopeful for Wheeler
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Another ongoing element of NCIS: Origins is that every episode has given at least a sliver of a certain character's personal life. In just one example, Season 1, Episode 14, "To Have and to Hold" revealed Mary Jo Hayes' broken marriage and her family tragedies. "Darlin', Don't Refrain" takes its title from a Guns 'n' Roses lyric, as Jason Wheeler becomes upset that his father won't take him to a GNR concert. Jason not only stabs his father with a fireplace poker when using it to destroy their TV, but gets detained by police for trying to steal tickets to the concert from a store at the mall. What could be another troubled teen story develops into something with more weight.
All of this circles back to Wheeler's ability to be present for his family, and his previous infidelity. His relationship to Oakley is spotlighted in the episode, as Oakley makes a point of checking in on Wheeler on multiple occasions. Viewers get a clearer portrait of a guy who isn't just the annoyed boss sitting behind a desk, but someone who is truly stretched too thin, and doesn't seem to know what he wants because everyone else needs something from him. Wheeler nearly gets fired in this episode, so actor Patrick Fischler's place on the show is still uncertain. But NCIS: Origins picks the right time to spotlight his character — both as an explanation for why the FBI has to be there in the first place, and to give this episode something memorable beyond the manhunt story. NCIS: Origins Season 1, Episode 17 might not be shocking or groundbreaking, yet it definitely hits home.
NCIS: Origins airs Mondays at 10:00 p.m. on CBS.
