NCIS: Origins: Young Ducky Makes A Splash At Pendleton — Plus, He Plays A Pivotal Role In Gibbs' Backstory

Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard is visiting Camp Pendleton on "NCIS: Origins," and turns out the lovable physician has deeply influenced one of Gibbs' greatest quirks — and vice versa!

Adam Campbell's "NCIS" character, who has appeared on the mothership in flashbacks as the young version of David McCallum's Ducky, is sent to work with our "Origins" team to see if they need an in-house medical examiner. But the crew at Pendleton is skeptical of his true motives. 

As we saw in a sneak peek earlier this week, Wheeler is consumed by anxiety that the visit actually has to do with a restructure. He doesn't believe there's any way they'd get their own examiner, and thinks this might all be a ruse to get intel on the goings-on at camp. 

"Rumor has it they're talking about changing the agency's name," Wheeler says. (Little does he know!)

Elsewhere, Franks is distracted by Ducky's little notebook while Gibbs is unwilling to reminisce with Ducky over their past; he doesn't seem to want his coworkers to know details about his personal life. Thanks to Ducky, however, they do now know one major detail about the probie: In some circles, he goes by "Jethro." 

But it doesn't take long for the team to warm up to the beloved medical examiner. When he isn't solving the latest case of the week, which involves thawing a woman who was found frozen in a walk-in freezer, Ducky gets busy counseling nearly every member of the NIS team. 

He helps Lala come to terms with her brain injury after she becomes upset that she no longer likes Kowalski's sourdough bread. 

"It's like, who am I? You know? What if this is just the beginning?" she says. Ducky encourages her that she is still the same person, and suggests simply asking Kowalski to try out some pumpernickel as she figures out a new normal.

Then, Franks gets into an altercation with a police officer over misplaced evidence, and suffers a head wound when he gets knocked to the ground. Ducky cleans up the gash, giving Franks the opportunity to confide in the doctor about the unit's sickly dog, Gary Callahan. Franks says that the animal has been diagnosed with depression, and Ducky says that dogs only mimic human emotions, wondering if it might be Franks who is depressed. The special agent admits he has a complicated relationship with his brother, and Ducky urges him to fix things in his own life in order to save the dog. 

Ducky's arrival also provides some major backstory about his and Gibbs' origin story. We learn it's Gibbs who was responsible for getting Ducky into this line of work after they met serendipitously 12 years ago while Gibbs was being detained in the back of a cop car. Apparently, the men then went out day-drinking in D.C., where they became distracted by a shop's window display featuring a little ship in a bottle. 

We also see how Ducky developed his quirk of speaking to his victims. In Tuesday's episode, he tries to examine the dead using his mentor's strategy: "Respect the working silence." But Ducky is used to treating living people, and he prefers communicating with his patients — even if they're deceased! Gibbs ultimately encourages his old pal to employ his own strategy, kicking off his long-standing habit of chatting in the morgue.

As Ducky prepares to leave Camp Pendleton, he gifts Gibbs a ship in a bottle, remembering their own aforementioned origins. Struck by the token of friendship, Gibbs heads home and stands over that pile of wood he's been harboring since last season. As he picks up a plank of mahogany, Mark Harmon narrates: "[Ducky] always had a way of knowing who I was meant to be." 

Though fans of the show know that Gibbs built his first boat as a child with his father, Gibbs prepares to revisit the hobby in adulthood thanks to Ducky's encouragement. 

The episode doesn't just provide long-awaited backstory for fans of the franchise, it also directly pays tribute to McCallum, who played Ducky on "NCIS" for more than two decades.

The episode is titled "The Edge," named after McCallum's 1966 release, and ends with an In Memoriam card that reads: "This episode is dedicated to, and features music performed by our friend, David McCallum. 1933-2023."

McCallum passed away at age 90 in September 2023, and last appeared, remotely, in the final two episodes of "NCIS" Season 20. The mothership series previously paid tribute to McCallum in February 2024, with an episode that saw the return of series vet Michael Weatherly as Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo.

"We wanted to do this episode to honor the memory of our dear friend David McCallum," "NCIS: Origins" co-showrunners Gina Lucita Monreal and David J. North said in a joint statement in August. "He was a beloved member of the 'NCIS' family for so many years and we're incredibly lucky to have the talented Adam Campbell back to bring the younger version of this iconic character to life once again. We even got to feature David's music in the episode."

What did you think of the special Ducky tribute in "NCIS: Origins"? And were you happy to see more of the Gibbs/Ducky backstory? Sound off in the comments!