The NCIS: Origins Season 1 finale ended with Mariel Molino’s Cecilia “Lala” Dominguez getting caught in a car crash? Did she live or did she die? That was the questions fans were asking all summer, and it was only when Origins Season 2 premiered last week on the 2025 TV schedule that they learned Lala was still breathing. Molino, however, knew long beforehand that her character would survive, and she opened up to CinemaBlend about what it was like keeping that secret.
In this age where spoilers are harder than ever to keep under wraps, I had to ask Molino how she handled having to keep this important NCIS: Origins plot detail to herself. Here’s what the actress had to say about it during our conversation, which also included her sharing what’s next for Gibbs and Lala, as well as how she missed out on Tom Cruise visiting the Origins set:
The worst. I hate it. I hate keeping secrets [laughs]. And it's also funny because I still live in this idea that no one is really kind of paying attention to what I'm doing or keeping tabs on me. And so I uploaded a picture of my dog at the lot. But it wasn't like we were on set. There was nothing NCIS-related, but just the fact that [I] was at the Paramount lot. Which by the way, I could be filming something else. And boy oh boy, so many articles saying that, was I alive? Does that mean I'm there? So I hate keeping secrets.
Molino is referring to her Instagram Story from late July, though as she noted, there was nothing in that picture technically confirming she was on that lot to work on NCIS: Origins. Nevertheless, that opened the door to more speculation about Lala’s fate, and not even just that she could still be alive. I wondered if Molino might have been brought back for just the Season 2 premiere for flashbacks or appear as a “ghost” like so often happens on the main NCIS, and that we wouldn’t see her again.
But no, Lala is alive, so now Mariel Molino can breathe a little easier now that she doesn’t have to keep this secret. While the responsibility of keeping quiet on spoilers will never go away for her as long as she’s on NCIS: Origins, I imagine there will be very few instances her remaining tight-lipped will be as important as it was this past summer. Still, stopping bad guys for NIS is a dangerous job, and since Lala is never seen in the original NCIS, we can’t rule out the possibility that she could still die in the prequel.
For now though, Lala is back with Gibbs, Franks and Randy, and I think I can speak for most, if not all NCIS: Origins fans that we wouldn’t have it any other way. New episodes of the CBS series air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET, and they can be streamed the next day with a Paramount+ subscription.
