💔 “THEY CAME SO CLOSE… AND THAT’S EXACTLY WHY NCIS FANS CAN’T STOP TALKING ABOUT THE FINALE.” One almost-kiss. A handful of unanswered questions. And now, the creators of NCIS: Origins are finally explaining what really happened behind the scenes. 👀 But the biggest revelation isn’t whether that moment was intentional… It’s what the finale was secretly setting up—and why fans may have completely misunderstood one of its most emotional scenes. 👇 READ THE FULL BREAKDOWN LINKED IN THE COMMENTS.

Will they? Won’t they? Almost.

The season 1 finale of NCIS: Origins made some major progress in the romantic situation between Gibbs (Austin Stowell) and Lala (Mariel Molino), including a steamy near-kiss in a swimming pool (one derailed by Gibbs’ confession about giving Lara Macy (Claire Berger) his rifle).

By episode’s end, it’s not even clear whether Lala is still alive. So why couldn’t creators David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal do us a solid and let them have that one intimate moment?

“We did have funny conversations about that kiss,” says Monreal. “We only filmed it that way. That’s the way it was written. And that’s the decision that we made.”

“We felt it was the right decision for the characters,” she continues. “They both really wanted to [kiss] in this moment, but it wouldn’t have been right for Gibbs to let that happen because he had this immense news to tell her. It just wouldn’t have been truthful in that moment. So he pulls away and tells her the truth.”

The kiss wasn’t the only big moment of the finale. In addition to all of Gibbs’ drama with Lara Macy, the episode saw Mike Franks (Kyle Schmid) finally discover that all of the mysterious phone calls he was getting were from his brother, Bernard “Randy” Randolf (Caleb Foote) asking for a desk job, Mary Jo (Tyla Abercrumbie) laying down some hard truths, and Gibbs crossing paths with Diane (Kathleen Kenny), who will become his second wife, for the first time.

We called up Monreal and North to ask them about all of the finale’s major reveals — and what they might mean for season 2.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: On the Franks side of things, is Tish gone for good?

DAVID J. NORTH: The difficult thing with Franks and Tish is that he really is the love of her life. But unfortunately, life is difficult and the way things were going and the decisions Franks felt he had to make with her attacker, put them in a place where they couldn’t go back, at least for the time being. But in the future, only time will tell.

Lala is confronted with the misogyny and the racism that she has to put up with at every turn. Whether that’s Macy’s reminder about how much they protect the people they work with to Barrett’s (Toby Huss) gross implications about why they hired her. How much do those reminders weigh on all of these decisions she makes? 

GINA LUCITA MONREAL: It’s a huge part of who she is, but at the end of the day, she doesn’t let that define who she is. That all goes into that confrontation and conversation that she has with Franks. She’s saying all of these things — I’ve shown up every day, and still, you doubt me — but she never lets that change the person that she wants to be. She just pushes ahead, and she does what she thinks is right and doesn’t let that other stuff define who she is. And she does that until the end of this episode.

Does any part of Franks actually believe Lala has it in her to betray them?

MONREAL: Franks thinks exactly what he said. He thinks that maybe she didn’t mean to, and this was her friend, and she maybe had a couple glasses of wine. They trade information, and she may have mentioned something in passing that got Laura Macy curious. But no, I don’t think that he thinks she ever maliciously would turn Gibbs over and put him in danger.

NORTH: I’ve always felt like even the part of him that thinks, “Well, she probably would never be that careless,” that’s overwhelmed in this moment by the frustration of what’s happening and the powerlessness he’s feeling. He’s looking to take out his frustration somewhere. And unfortunately, that place is often Lala.

Both Franks and Lala really stressed to Gibbs that confessing doesn’t just implicate him, it involves them too. So why do you think he goes ahead and gives Lara the rifle?

NORTH: It’s who he is, ultimately. Gibbs is someone that wants to try to stand up and do the right thing. I don’t think that means he always does do the right thing. He felt he was doing what was honorable. And I love the way coming out of the pool that Lala puts him in his place, that spin from such an intimate moment to “Screw you, dude. There’s other people involved, and this wasn’t your call to make.”

MONREAL: And when he does turn over that the rifle and he says, “Leave my team out of it,” he is believing that Macy will remain true to her word and just go after him. He knows that he is the main target here, and if she takes him down, she’ll get what she wants. She doesn’t really want to take down the rest of the team. And when Lala does say that in the pool, that, “What you do affects other people,” to me, she’s saying it on an emotional level that “if you do this to yourself, it’s affecting me,” because she is in love with him.

Mary Jo is the one to identify that Lala is struggling with her feelings for Gibbs. Is it fair to say that that conversation is what provokes Lala to confront Macy? Or is it something else? 

MONREAL: Yes, it’s that conversation with Mary Jo and her coming to terms with her feelings. But also in that moment realizing that she might have another card to play with Barrett because she knows that she can use that relationship and the way he’s talked to her to her advantage. So, she goes armed with that idea to Macy. As far as the character of Lala in that moment, Mary Jo is helping her come to terms the fact that she really does love this man. In that moment, she’s realizing what she’s willing to do for him. So it is a pivotal turning moment for the Lala character.

Lala makes a decision as impulsively as Gibbs. Is there any sense that she would eat her words or any realization on her part that she’s doing something that affects other people too? 

NORTH: Well, what’s so great is they really have so much in common, these two characters. It’s one of those things where it creates so much electricity between them, but at the same time, they both do have some impulsive qualities. In this situation, Lala really saw what she was doing as entirely selfless. Seeing that she had no other option, this was the only way to save Gibbs — to say that she was there with him, to put her friend, Lara Macy, in a situation where she had no other recourse other than to essentially take Lala’s freedom from her.

MONREAL: She really does think she’s saving him in that moment. But it’s funny that you bring that up because it is the push and pull between Gibbs and Lala. And when she says, “Well, we can’t tell Randy.” And Gibbs says, “Well, to be fair, this is what made you so angry at me.” It’s true that they do both do the same thing, but they see it in different ways.

Lara Macy has a long journey ahead of her before we meet her in the mothership. Might we see her on the show again? 

MONREAL: We never say never. She’s in our world now, so could be.

Franks’ brother calls him up to talk about Vietnam. Does that mean we’re going to see him in season 2? Can you tell us about what that might open up? 

MONREAL: The plan is to fill out that story with Franks’ brother Mason in season 2. We had always planned on going deeper into that story, but didn’t have the real estate in season 1. So we’re excited to play that out in season 2. There’s one line of dialogue in the mothership where Frank talks about having a brother, and that’s really one of the only mentions of it. So, it really is a wide open area for us to explore.

Randy wants a desk job. Where is that ask going to lead him in season 2?

NORTH: Randy’s had so many different close calls and he’s thinking about Randy Junior and his family. But I don’t know that Randy, once he’s stuck to a desk, would find that as appealing as he thinks. So we’ll see where it takes us.

Gibbs, as he says, collides with his future a bit in these final moments. His real estate agent is Diane, who viewerrs know is Gibbs’ eventual second wife. Will we see more of her in season 2? 

MONREAL: We definitely will stick to canon. We’re very aware of Gibbs’ relationships that have been established on the show and are excited to figure how to portray them in Origins. It’s an interesting challenge, and one we’re definitely up for.

We get to see the moment that Lala realizes her feelings for Gibbs, but then in voiceover he says, “I loved her all along and still do so.” That’s older Gibbs reflecting. How long did it take him to realize? Was there any part of him that would’ve tried to tell her prior to this point? 

NORTH: Gibbs has been knowing and fighting these feelings. It’s such a difficult time in their lives, with him having just lost Shannon and Lala coming out of a relationship. But the electricity has been palpable between them, and I’m sure he’s had moments where he’s thought about it. But that moment in the pool was where everything came to a head.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.