NCIS: Origins Season 2 Episode 6 - Release date news, streaming details and more

NCIS: Origins Season 2, Episode 6 drops Tuesday, November 18, 2025, at 9 PM (Eastern/Pacific) on CBS. The episode is titled Happy Birthday, which is probably way more ominous than it sounds.

If you are a Paramount+ Premium subscriber, you can dive in right away. For those outside the U.S., you will catch it streaming on Paramount+ too, starting Wednesday, November 19, local time.

NCIS: Origins Season 2 is still digging into young Gibbs at Camp Pendleton in the early ‘90s. The man is practically a walking trauma magnet at this point: he dodged arrest last season, watched Lala get seriously hurt, and now he has to pick up the pieces.

This season is all about what makes Gibbs tick: watching him get that trademark edge, plus his whole squad figuring out their groove under Mike Franks. Lala’s recovery isn’t just brushed aside; it’s front and center, along with the usual cases.

You will see how all those tight-knit relationships and core NCIS values got their start. Plus, Mark Harmon still hasa gravelly narration tying it all together.

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NCIS: Origins Season 2: Episode 6 release date, streaming, cast, and more

NCIS: Origins Season 2, Episode 6, Happy Birthday, drops November 18, 2025, right at 9 PM on CBS. If you are a Paramount+ subscriber with an Essential plan, you will have to wait till the next day. But if you are a Premium user, you can stream it right away.

If you reside outside the U.S., such as in Canada, the UK, or Australia, you are covered on Paramount+ too, usually the day after the States (though, depending on where you watch, it might vary a bit).

For those who ditched cable ages ago, you have got options galore: Sling TV, FuboTV, Hulu + Live TV, and YouTube TV. You can even just buy the episode if you want, through Amazon Video, Apple TV, or wherever you usually grab your digital stuff.

Some viewers can catch NCIS: Origins Season 2, Episode 6, for free on Spectrum On Demand, but that is not available everywhere. In case you are traveling, you can just watch it via VPN.

The cast for this season includes Austin Stowell as young Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Mark Harmon narrating as the OG Gibbs, and Kyle Schmid is back as Mike Franks. There is Mariel Molino as Lala Dominguez, Tyla Abercrumbie as Mary Jo Hayes, Diany Rodriguez as Vera Strickland, Caleb Foote as Bernard “Randy” Randolf, and Adam Campbell is popping up as Dr. "Ducky" Mallard in a handful of episodes. Philip Winchester plays Mason Franks, Mike’s brother. And watch out for Lori Petty, Adam Huber, Robert Taylor, Patrick Fischler, and a bunch more in recurring roles.

Behind the scenes, it is a Harmon family affair, with Mark and Sean Harmon executive producing, joined by Gina Lucita Monreal, David J. North, and Niels Arden Oplev. The episode is written by Monreal, Ryan Lee, and Rafael Samano, and Lionel Coleman is in the director’s chair this time around.

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What has happened so far in NCIS: Origins Season 2?

NCIS: Origins Season 2 Episode 1, The Funky Bunch, drops us right back into the mess after Lala’s brutal car crash. Gibbs is barely holding it together, trying to steer the crew while Lala is out. First case: a 19-year-old Marine, Thomas Meyers, vanishes. Gibbs is invested, and the hunt leads them to this absolute nightmare place called The Range, where people hunt other people.

Turns out Meyers got caught in a snare, poisoned with mercury from these expensive motion-sensor sneakers. The killer was Lee Fabian, who just wanted those flashy shoes. Meanwhile, Lala is fighting to get back on her feet, literally and figuratively, but Gibbs keeps hovering, and she is not having it. By the end, she is back in action, but you can feel the team vibe shifting, maybe in a good way, maybe not.

In NCIS: Origins Episode 2, Who By Fire, Gibbs is in full obsessive maniac mode, trying to level up his interrogation skills, which is kind of ruining things with his mentor, Mike Franks. The team is on a new case: a college swimmer, Miguel Castillo, ends up dead, and the swim team is mixed up in a drug ring, with assistant coach Owen pulling the strings.

It is classic NCIS: murder, drugs, and secrets, but this one is more about the characters. Gibbs is actually vulnerable for once, and you see how much Frank’s tough love is shaping him into the legend we know. Meanwhile, Lala is facing her own moral mess: help a criminal’s family or do what is right? Gibbs’ influence pretty much decides it for her.

NCIS: Origins Episode 3, The Edge, is for the die-hard fans. Ducky is back! Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard returns to Camp Pendleton to perform an autopsy on a Navy lieutenant commander's wife who turned up frozen in a walk-in freezer. The nostalgia is thick. You get to see young Ducky and Gibbs’ bromance in action, as Ducky basically helped mold Gibbs into the guy he becomes.

The team is a bit freaked out by Ducky’s presence, especially Wheeler, who thinks his days are numbered. But Ducky does what he does best: solves the autopsy and helps everyone get their heads on straight. The victim, Mimi Lam, is found clutching a note, and it looks like a murder at first, but it is actually a password for files about a nerve agent she had discovered. Ducky’s attention to detail and Randy’s hacking reveal that she was killed because she stumbled onto something seriously deadly.

NCIS: Origins Episode 4, No Man Left Behind, shows Frank’s skeletons come stomping out of the closet when his estranged brother Mason shows up, neck-deep in debt and trouble. The team gets dragged into a Navy bank robbery that quickly turns personal. Franks has to face his family drama, Lala is still dealing with her own nightmares, and the robber zeroes in on Franks himself. Flashbacks to Vietnam and their rocky childhood spill out, showing how all those old wounds still bleed. By the end, Franks and Mason start patching things up, but it is a slow road.

NCIS: Origins Episode 5, Funny How Time Slips Away, features a crossover. The OG NCIS crew steps in as Gibbs and his squad tackle a murder back in the ‘90s in Serenity, California. The dead guy, Louis Burke, was pretty much the town’s worst nightmare, a bully who finally got what was coming to him. The sheriff tries to take the fall, but he is just covering for the woman he loves, who killed Louis to protect her unborn child. The whole town is tangled up in secrets and lies, and nobody wants to tell the truth. The episode has lots of old-school justice, some wild character moments, and older Gibbs narrating the chaos.

Next up, NCIS: Origins Episode 6, Happy Birthday, pulls us back to the core crew. An anonymous tip leads Gibbs, Franks, and Randy to a seriously grisly crime scene: a young marine dead, maybe tied to an earlier case involving some rare coin. Frank’s brother, Mason (Philip Winchester), sticks around, and the episode digs even deeper into family, loyalty, and how far you will go for justice. We can expect more heartbreak, more secrets, and another killer mystery that will keep you guessing.