NCIS: Origins Revealed The True Identity Of The Sandman (And It's Absolutely Tragic)

Contains spoilers for "NCIS: Origins" Season 1, Episode 17 — "Darlin' Don't Refrain"

In "Darlin' Don't Refrain," after learning that the man the team thought was infamous serial sniper The Sandman was definitely not the hapless and gone-too-soon Jamison "Bugs" Boyd (Jared Bankens), Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Austin Stowell) manages to unmask the real culprit. In a devastating revelation, the sniper is Luke Fletcher (Adam Huber), who runs the support group for soldiers that Gibbs attends every week. It's a huge betrayal of Gibbs' trust, but a clear sign that his investigative skills are on point. In the end, he and Fletcher get into a fistfight that ends with Fletcher bleeding to death on the floor of Gibbs' home.

It turns out Fletcher was once an elite sniper and part of Operation Sundown, which existed to protect Ahmad Safar, an important Gulf War informant. The CIA contracted out Safar's protection to Flintpoint Security, which failed to protect Safar and his family when they were attacked by insurgents. Instead, the head of Flintpoint told the team to abandon the family and take up more lucrative work protecting oil fields from insurgent violence. But the guilt crushed Fletcher, who has been killing everyone involved in the decision that led to the family's deaths. When Gibbs learns that Fletcher used the VA to get info on his targets, he's understandably upset.

Considering how important Luke Fletcher has been to Gibbs' ability to deal with his war-based trauma and everything that happened to his wife and daughter, is it any wonder that he won't trust easily in the future? There's a reason why Gibbs only relies on a handful of people before he gathers his team in "NCIS," and it's because of betrayals like the one levied on him by Luke. 

Of course, he's also protecting a dark secret of his own — the fact that he's the one who shot Pedro Hernandez (George Paez), the drug dealer who killed his wife and daughter. So he naturally behaves like a loner until he's older, when the "NCIS" team eventually finds its way into his heart. 

That's going to take a while, of course. Until then, Gibbs is going to be spending his time dodging questions — just like the ones that will be posed to him during the Season 1 finale, when he first makes the acquaintance of future "NCIS: Los Angeles" character Lara Macy (Claire Berger). He may be relieved that he's solved the Sandman case — even though it takes a toll on him — but he'll soon be wading into a whole heap of new problems.