NCIS: Origins Gets Gibbs Back In The Game In Season 3 — Grade The Premiere!

Gibbs has been fondly looking back on his early days as the narrator of "NCIS: Origins" — but this season, he's getting off the bench and back into the action.

Tuesday's Season 3 premiere opens in present day, with Gibbs chilling at his Alaska cabin with his dog. But he hears something while walking outside — and suddenly, a bullet whizzes in and hits him in the chest. He collapses to the ground, and a pair of gunmen approach, with one taking Gibbs' pulse. "One down, one to go," the gunman declares. Say it ain't so, Jethro! Gibbs narrates that "the ghosts from my past found me... and it all started back then."

We flash back to 1992, where Gibbs and Lala are furiously making out after she decided not to leave in the finale. They get called in to work, though, when a dead Marine is found in a public bathroom. Randy doesn't join them, but they figure he's just passed out after the party. But in reality, he's getting pummeled by a gang of mystery kidnappers. When they discover he's missing, Gibbs and Lala speed off to a gas station where the kidnappers may have stopped, while the dead Marine investigation leads back to that creep director Barrett, who got fired for being a creep. The dead Marine used to be his driver, but Barrett claims they didn't keep in touch — and he's bragging about his lucrative new job opportunity. (Yep, he's still a jerk.)  

Gibbs and the team watch the surveillance tape from the gas station, and they notice the kidnappers' car taillights are blinking. It's Morse code from Randy, Gibbs realizes, spelling out "U-S-S-R." That means the kidnappers are Russian, and they track down a movie-loving Russian informant named Vlad they set up with his own Blockbuster Video to manage. (Sweet gig!) Vlad recognizes the Russian's limp in the video and point them to Maxim, who is trying to set fire to a trailer when Gibbs and company show up. They rescue a beaten-up Randy from the trailer before it explodes in flames, and Randy tells them he used a Marine breathing technique he picked up from Gibbs to lower his pulse and make the Russians think he was dead. (Hmmm.)

The Russians wanted the password to Randy's computer to steal military secrets, but he didn't cave, and Randy volunteers to interrogate Maxim himself. He's doing pretty well, actually — until Maxim tells him he found Randy's password written on a note in his wallet. (Rookie move, bro.) Randy rushes to change his computer password, but he realizes someone already stole his whole computer — along with all the secrets on it. But who had access? They connect his case to the dead Marine, who was one of the guards on duty when Randy's computer was stolen. They find ashes at the crime scene... and realize it was the cigar-smoking Barrett who offered to betray the U.S. and sell secrets to the Russians for a big payday. They lead Barrett away in handcuffs — which is pretty satisfying, we have to say.

Gibbs is feeling good... until he reads the letter Lala wrote to him when she was going to leave, telling him how much she hurt him. He confronts her, and she stands by it: "I was here the whole time, Gibbs... You broke my heart." (In her defense, he did marry someone else.) He promises her he's all in now, though: "You're not the next one. You're the one." She makes him pinky-swear that their romance won't affect the team, and then Gibbs shows off that party trick where he slows his breathing and lowers his pulse. Yeah, about that...

Present-day Gibbs narrates that "saving Randy came at a price," and "34 years later, I'd be paying mine." He springs back to life after taking that bullet — the party trick paid off! — and loads up his sniper rifle: "Time to get to work." He heads out on his boat, telling us that Lala's story "isn't hers alone. It's ours. And the final chapter is still being written." (Aren't you glad we're going to be seeing Mark Harmon in every episode this season?)

How'd you like the "NCIS: Origins" premiere, now with extra Gibbs? And who's the other "one" the gunmen are trying to take out? Give the premiere a grade in our poll, and then drop your theories in the comments!