Tonight on CBS NCIS: ORIGINS returns with an all-new Tuesday, March 31, 2026, season 2 episode 13 called, “Homeward Bound,” and we have your weekly NCIS: ORIGINS recap below.
In tonight’s NCIS: ORIGINS season 2 episode 13 called “Homeward Bound,” as per the CBS synopsis, “When Dr. Tango is arrested for stealing human remains from a national park, Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard returns to assist the team in proving his innocence.”
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In tonight’s NCIS: ORIGINS, Ducky made friends while he was in town. He befriended Tango. The two called each other every Wednesday night to discuss everything. From their cases to their private lives. This has been going on for months and so Ducky was rightfully worried when Tango didn’t answer his phone.
Tango later called him from the police station. He used one phone call to ask Ducky for his help. Ducky being Ducky he didn’t say no. He hopped on the next flight to San Diego. He took control of Tango’s vehicle as well as what he was hiding inside of it.
Tango was arrested for illegally transporting a body. Franks though it was a lie when he heard it. He spoke to the Park Ranger that arrested Tango. The guy seemed racist. He purposely mispronounced Tango’s real name. He said Franks couldn’t be Tango’s family because one was a cowboy and the other an Indian.
Gibbs being there was probably the only thing that stopped Franks from attacking the guy. Franks was still arguing to see Tango when he overheard someone with a warrant arrived to reclaim the body.
It ended up being Ducky. Ducky confirmed that Tango did take the remains. He recognized them and he acted on impulse. Its why he didn’t wait for the official transport vehicle.
Well, he got arrested. Franks was going to do the best he could to get Tango out of jail. He wanted to convince the ranger who arrested Tango to drop the charges. Ducky and the rest of NIS were going to be investigating the remains. The reason Tango rushed to transport them because he recognized the necklace the victim was wearing as belonging to his tribe.
It was an important tradition to bury their dead or their souls will be lost. The remains were old. Tango was hoping to prove it was so old that he deserved to be relocated to a proper burial.
One honored by his ancestors. Tango rushed into doing this because he didn’t want to put his faith in the Native Americans Grave and Repatriation Act. The remains could end up in the museum or sold to the highest bidder if ruled that the remains were a part of cultural knowledge rather than heritage. It’s why Tango was rushing the remains to his reservation.
Franks meanwhile was pushing Tango to explain himself to the ranger that arrested him. Tango tried. He explained his father died trying to get fourteen bodies found under a highway home. It didn’t work because they were sold to the highest bidder. The Ranger heard some of it.
He agreed not to press charges as he continued to investigate whether or not Tango needed to be charged with something more. NIS didn’t just find the Native American burial site. They followed a blood trail from site to a fresh victim. Who might’ve dug up the remains and had been killed for it.
The ranger was holding onto Tango until NIS can prove that Tango didn’t kill the man for the remains. He didn’t, but they still investigated. The fresh victim was identified as Dennis Moor. He was a marine veteran. Thereby making this an NIS case anyways.
He was killed with the weapon he dug up with the remains. The lab techs said the remains were approximately a hundred and fifty years old. It would’ve happened around the war at the time. Ducky carried out the examination on Moor. He determined that he was killed by an obsidian blade.
It would be the same age as the remains. Ducky knew a guy in Native American artifacts. His name was Professor Edwin Wylde. Ducky couldn’t stand the guy and he still recommended him for information on the weapon. NIS told Wylde that they dug remains.
They also found a fresh body. They borrowed one of his books and Ducky later looked through it to find one that matches the murder weapon. Later, someone tried to steal the Native American remains. His name was Eugene Cooper.
Phil stopped him. He beat the crap out of him with his ninja training. Luckily, Cooper wasn’t the brightest. He admitted to trying to steal the remains. He lied about how he found out about it. It was Tango’s mom who helped them. Mama Tengalkat said that the professor had sold their artifacts to the highest bidder for years.
He also worked with his partner, Eugene Cooper. If trying to steal remains wasn’t enough, he disrespected Native American culture so Ducky punched him after he confronted him. It got him thrown into the same detention center as Tango.
NIS finished their case. They determined that Moor was killed by his partner who they met. She had a metal detector that she used to help create crafts and that’s how they found the remains. The victim had been killed by a musket to the head. They found their suspect.
They arrested her. Mary Jo also got both Ducky and Tango released. They got off with a warning. They also got to keep their jobs. Ducky just got promoted to Chief Examiner.
And Gibbs told Ducky about building a boat in a shed. He didn’t know why he was doing so Ducky told Lala about it and she got to see it. She said it’s good to have something that will always be there.
That’s when Gibbs realized why he was building it. He missed another call from Diane because of that ship. Lala was also late to a dinner date with Manny.
THE END!