In 2014, NCIS: New Orleans was introduced as a backdoor pilot on the mothership with a two-part episode, entitled “Crescent City.” It not only introduced Dwayne Pride, and also the idea of the “Fed Five,” which was comprised of Special Agents Pride, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Mike Franks, Dan McLane and Felix Betts.
On this week’s episode of NCIS: Origins, we’re going back to the origins of the Fed Five, which will reveal that Pride’s early days as a probie were spent in the NIS Panama Office, why he and Gibbs (Austin Stowell) have a beef, and how they were forced to work together on an undercover case that tied together the Panama Office and the Camp Pendleton office.
The two men initially met 11 years previously under less than auspicious circumstances, and in this instance, it turns out that Gibbs is one to hold a grudge. Stowell told Parade he understands how that could happen without spoiling the event.
“So, I’m in the gym this morning, and there’s a guy. nd we were talking about our athletic careers, because we were both commenting on a basketball game. And this one kid, he misses a layup, and he goes, ‘Oh, he’s going to be thinking about that all day.’ And I said, ‘He’s going to be thinking about that for the rest of his life.’ And he goes, ‘Wow. Yeah, that seems like it came from a real place.’ And I said, ‘I played a lot of baseball, and there are still pitches that live in my brain that I wish I could have back.’”
The role of Pride on NOLA was originated by Scott Bakula, but the young version will be played by Shea Buckner. The one thing that Origins tries to do in casting is match the younger versions with the original players, so we asked Stowell what he thought. Turns out, he has never seen NOLA.
“[Shea] was certainly very charming on set,” Stowell said. “Everybody loved those boys [also referring to McClane, who is being played by Mark Deklin]. So, I think he nailed that. He’s such an antithesis of Gibbs. You have to pry words out of Leroy and Pride is more than willing to hear himself talk. I think he did a wonderful job.”
The fun in the episode is discovering how and why Gibbs and Pride originally met and why, when they cross paths again, it isn’t a happy situation. For them to work together, it would be a good thing if they could resolve that hostility, but Gibbs is a former Marine, so he’s used to following orders. And initially, he’d rather do that than resolve the issue between the two men.
“As a Marine, he probably didn’t get along with everybody, whether they were in his unit or in his squadron, so he’s learned to adapt to different situations,” Stowell said. “And this is an order at the end of the day; it’s coming down from the top. The alternative would be to what? Walk away? It’s just he has to do it.”
The other conflict in the “Feelin’ Alright?” episode is of Gibbs’ own making. Randy (Caleb Foote) has asked him to bring his new wife, Diane (Kathleen Kenny), to the comedy night standup he’s doing because he wants to get a “regular” woman’s opinion — meaning Randy doesn’t consider Lala (Mariel Molino) to be regular, but Gibbs is reluctant to do so.
“He’s like George Costanza,” Stowell explains. “There’s relationship George and there’s independent George, and those worlds are colliding. And it’s going to be the end of George altogether. It’s safer for him to keep the worlds apart. It’s just too hard. What am I saying? He doesn’t want to do it because he’s got two women that he’s in love with. That’s the real answer. I can skate around that all day, but at the end of the day, we all know that Gibbs has very, very strong feelings for Lala, and that doesn’t go away, even if he gets married. So, he probably thinks it might be a little disrespectful to Diane. He’s also sensitive to Lala.”