‘NCIS: Origins’ Season 3 Episode 2 Recap & Ending Explained: Woody’s Murder Case and Gibbs’ Search for His Shooter

This week’s installment of ‘NCIS: Origins’ split its time between a bowling alley murder in the early 1990s and a retired Gibbs leaving Alaska behind. The episode, titled “My Own Worst Enemy,” finds present day Gibbs returning to civilization to call in a favor from his old friend Woody, while the team in the past bands together to help Woody when he is accused of murdering a bowling rival. It aired on CBS on Tuesday night.

This ‘NCIS: Origins’ recap walks through how the case was cracked, what the ending reveals about the present day mystery, and where the story may head next. Laura Valdivia wrote the episode and Jessica Lowrey directed it. Spoilers follow for everything that happened.

Episode Recap and the Bowling Alley Mystery

The story in the past begins with Woody in trouble in Tijuana after a bar brawl that started when he stepped in to help a woman being bothered by a group of men. He had been drinking to celebrate a bowling championship and could not remember what happened, so Gibbs drove down to collect him after the federales let him go.

The trouble did not end at the border. Back at Woody’s house, Gibbs and Woody found a dead woman in the living room, and she turned out to be Sheila Hoffman, who bowled in the same league as Woody. Because Woody was a federal agent, NCIS could not investigate him, so the FBI took over the case.

Executive producer Sean Harmon guest stars as FBI agent Casey Bloom. Bloom pointed out that Woody’s fingerprints were on the victim’s necklace, yet he held off on charging him because he could not find a motive, and he barred the team from speaking with Woody in the meantime.

Woody Murder Case Suspects and Motives

Phil found a way around the restriction after flying back from an anime convention in San Francisco, and he was one of the few people allowed in to see Woody because the two work forensic files together. The scenes between them gave the episode its emotional footing. Woody’s father died when he was a child, and his mother gave him a notebook to write in whenever he needed to talk, which is how he still processes his feelings.

Woody’s confidence nearly sank him. He declined to ask for a lawyer because he was sure he could solve the case himself, and he agreed to speak with Bloom in exchange for a look at the forensic evidence. It was a mistake any seasoned investigator would recognize, and the team said as much.

The team then turned to Woody’s bowling league. One teammate, Graham Taylor, had been publicly embarrassed by Woody over a fingerprint transfer theory, and he later ran from police, although that turned out to be because he was cooking crack at home. Sheila, meanwhile, had pulled a practical joke that broke Woody’s wrist and ended his hopes of becoming a professional athlete, which handed investigators a motive against Woody himself.

Ending Explained and the Real Killer

The break came from Gibbs. He worked out how the killer got into Woody’s house, which was with a copied key that Woody kept in his locker at the bowling alley, and the only person with access to that locker was the man who owns the place.

The owner had his own reasons to resent Sheila. She had reported vermin in his kitchen simply because she liked to complain, and the claim was false, yet it cost him thirty percent of his income. He killed her and framed Woody so that nobody would look his way.

The resolution also carried the episode’s central idea. One reviewer noted that Woody resisted the idea that he belonged to the team, then let Gibbs in long enough for the people he doubted he could rely on to save him. The case was solved, but the real payoff was Woody accepting that he is part of the pack.

Gibbs and the Search for His Shooter

The present day thread explains why the episode matters beyond the bowling alley. Gibbs left Alaska and brought evidence of his shooting to Woody, hoping one of the best in the business could tell him who tried to kill him. Mark Harmon appears in every episode this season as part of a present day mystery tied to Gibbs’ time at Camp Pendleton in the 1990s.

The ending sends him toward a new door. Woody could not see the fingerprint file because it was hidden in the national database, and only someone with the clearance of the new Director of NCIS could open it, so Gibbs left his dog with Woody and headed to Washington to see Tony DiNozzo. A reviewer pointed out that DiNozzo is now the NCIS director, which makes him the obvious person to help put a name to the shooter.

Showrunner David J. North told TV Insider that Gibbs’ time with Woody leads directly into a reunion in the following episode, and that Harmon’s storyline is feeding each episode into the next in a linear way. The same reviewer theorizes that the person the shooter is really after could be Lala, though the show has not confirmed it. If Tony’s clearance is what finally unmasks Gibbs’ shooter, do you think the trail leads to Lala, or does the show have another member of the pack in mind?