Contains spoilers for “NCIS: Origins” Season 1, Episode 4 — “All’s Not Lost”

An incredibly important building block to the psyche of Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Austin Stowell) is shown to viewers in “All’s Not Lost.” Gibbs is serving in Iraq as part of the Desert Storm operation when he’s told his wife Shannon (Darby Stanchfield) and daughter Kelly (Mary Mouser) have been killed. The visceral aftermath is on full display. But sharp-minded viewers will remember that “NCIS” gave us a peek at this moment already. During “Hiatus, Part 1,” Gibbs is also seen learning the same news, and there are a large number of differences between what happens in “NCIS” and “All’s Not Lost.”

During “All’s Not Lost,” Gibbs is simply handed a piece of paper and told “I’m sorry, Gibbs.” On “NCIS,” he’s told, “Gunny, they’re both dead. I’m terribly sorry, Jethro.” His reaction is much more muted on “Origins”; on “NCIS,” he screams, “No.” His exit is much more frantic in “NCIS” — while the news is delivered to him on both shows during a bombardment, on “NCIS,” he runs into the fray with a helmet on and gun at the ready. On “Origins,” he simply walks away, not reacting at all to the mortar rounds falling nearby. These are all small details, of course, but they make enough of a difference to be highly noticeable. And it isn’t the first time “Origins” has broken with the order of events established on “NCIS.” 

“NCIS: Origins” has already deviated from the events of “NCIS” in several ways. First of all, the haircut Austin Stowell wears as Gibbs is somewhat of a deviation from the way Mark Harmon wears it as Gibbs; it’s longer on top than the jarhead cut Gibbs gives himself in “Hiatus Part II” when he loses his memory and thinks he’s back at Camp Pendleton. 

An even bigger continuity mistake occurs in “Bend, Don’t Break,” when Gibbs’ father Jackson (Robert Taylor) visits Mike Franks (Kyle Schmid). Both men behave as if they’ve known each other for quite some time, but this very scene breaks the canon established by “NCIS,” which shows Gibbs (Mark Harmon) introducing the two men during Season 8 and it’s strongly intimated they don’t know one another. 

To be fair to the writers of “Origins,” “NCIS” has been running for decades, so it’s hard to keep track of every bit of lore established for Gibbs’ backstory. But important events like Shannon and Kelly’s deaths ought to be old hat for them. Time will tell if these little mistakes lead to a big problem.