NCIS’ New Gibbs Update Officially Rewrites the Franchise’s Prequel Era

A new update about Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ (Austin Stowell) team in NCIS: Origins Season 2 dawns a new era for the NCIS prequel, expanding its possibilities for NCIS: Origins Season 3 while underscoring its prestige as one of the Navy franchise’s best shows. The Gibbs-focused prequel launched in 2024 and has quickly become an outstanding NCIS spinoff.

NCIS: Origins has earned an 88% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, outpacing the franchise’s other offerings. The series is more serialized and introspective than NCIS’s other shows, delving into the backstories of Gibbs and his NCIS teammates and co-workers in the early 1990s. Now, a new addition in Season 2 will further improve the series.

NCIS: Origins Has Added A New Addition To Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ NIS Team

The procedural finally puts Agent Herman “Herm” Daniels back out in the field with Mike Franks’ (Kyle Schmid) team in NCIS: Origins Season 2. Audiences get a glimpse of Herm’s return in NCIS: Origins Season 2, Episode 8, “End of the Road,” the prequel’s midseason finale, which caps Season 2’s first half of episodes with several major developments.

Herm returns to the field after fellow NIS Special Agent Bernard “Randy” Randolf (Caleb Foote) circulates a petition through the Camp Pendleton NIS office to get Daniels back in action. Herman has been out of commission since NCIS: Origins Season 1, helping Richard Kowalski (Michael Harney), the NIS Evidence Custodian, while managing the agency’s K-9 unit.

Herm hadn’t been in the field since NCIS: Origins Season 2, Episode 8, due to an incident he had while on duty, wherein he froze up and wasn’t able to do his job. While Herm is hesitant to get back into action in the midseason finale, he plays a critical role as the team raids Twitchy Tony’s (Travis Hammer) warehouse.

With Herm displaying peak performance for an NIS agent in the midseason finale, fans can safely assume that Daniels is officially back in action in NCIS: Origins Season 2. That means Gibbs’ team will have a new member when the series returns, another agent to tag along with Mike, Randy, Gibbs, and Lala Dominguez (Mariel Molino).

What Herm Daniels’ NCIS: Origins Story Means For The Procedural Series

Image via CBS

NCIS: Origins adding another agent to its four leading characters signals that the series is evolving, continuing to implement some of the franchise’s most innovative storytelling. Showing Herm’s setback as an assistant to the evidence custodian before elevating him to a fully-fledged agent demonstrates creative ingenuity and the spinoff’s willingness to take risks to be truly open with its storytelling.

Herm’s story exposes the more vulnerable parts of serving for veterans and others in the line of duty. It could be that the plan has always been to evolve Herm back into a field agent, with his setback story shaping Season 1. Regardless, the prequel show has taken a non-traditional approach in introducing a new agent in Season 2.

Herm’s integration into Mike Franks’ team will change the dynamic for the team and the series with an already established and well-loved player, and that will be worth paying attention to. Herm will add fresh stakes to the procedural when it returns, as the prequel takes another creative risk that expands beyond the franchise’s cut-and-paste storytelling.

Agent Daniels’ emergence in the team’s established dynamic has already shaken things up for the NCIS: Origins cast, with Randy and Herm working together during the team’s stakeout, forcing Gibbs to team up with Lala, which leads the agents to confront uncomfortable moments about their relationship. Therefore, Herm is reshaping team dynamics as NCIS: Origins Season 3 approaches.