NCIS: Origins Season 2 Solved A Longstanding NCIS Timeline Mystery

Contains spoilers for "NCIS: Origins" Season 2, Episode 18 — "Hollywood Ending"

The Camp Pendleton office is nearly shuttered in the Season 2 finale of "NCIS: Origins" – a fate the team manages to avoid thanks to Vera (Diany Rodriguez), who consults with her colleagues to make the office seem viable. Before the end of the episode, the NIS has been renamed to the NCIS thanks to their pitch — and an unseen and newly appointed director named Tom Morrow believes that the team is ready, willing and able to stomp out crime. Camp Pendelton's NCIS office will remain open, with Morrow presumably set to show up in the already-greenlit third season of the drama.

Morrow's apointment actually solves a long-term mystery that's lingered over "NCIS" history. Before this episode, it had never been clarified how long he'd served as director of the division before fans meet him during Season 1, or even if he was the first person to head the team. "Hollywood Ending" confirms he's the inaugural person in charge of Gibbs' (Austin Stowell) team, putting his first day in 1992 and firmly establishing a timeline.

We know he'll leave in 2005, when Jenny Shepard (Lauren Holly) will take over. After Jenny dies three years later, Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) becomes the longest-serving director in "NCIS" history. He'll stay in the position for nearly two decades — from 2008 until his 2026 murder.

Any "NCIS" fan worth their salt knows that it's possible to earn Gibbs' (Mark Harmon in "NCIS") admiration, but it takes a while and a lot of effort. He's got his own code of conduct — as enumerated by his list of rules for life on the job and outside of it. Loyal viewers know that Tom Morrow (Alan Dale in "NCIS") will be no exception to that; one day, he'll earn Gibbs' friendship, they'll have a warm friendship, and Gibbs will even call Morrow "sir," a show of respect that points up how much he values Morrow's opinions.

After Morrow takes a job with the Department of Homeland Security during Season 3 of "NCIS," he only makes a handful of guest appearences until his untimely death in Season 13's "Return to Sender." In that outing, he's sniped by CIA agent-gone-bad Trent Kort (David Dayan Fisher). The eerie thing about Morrow's death is that his two successors are also killed off the show due to gun violence.

Jenny Shepard, whose death hides an interesting Easter egg, shuffles off this mortal coil in a gun battle during Season 5's "Judgment Day (Part 1)," while Leon Vance is shot to death in the NCIS evidence locker during "All Good Things" in Season 23. The position of acting NCIS director is open as of this writing. Good luck to whoever inherits the mantle, and may they own a bulletproof bodysuit.