Network TV dramas love suspense. These shows are designed to leave questions unanswered for as long as possible, bringing viewers back time after time with teases and cliffhangers before finally explaining themselves with a flashback episode or big reveal. It’s a tried and true formula; the mystery is sweet, but the emotional payoff (and the “I told you so” that comes with a correct guess) is sweeter.

Unless that show is “NCIS,” a series that has been on seemingly since the dawn of time but didn’t actually answer vital questions about the death of its protagonist’s first wife until 2024. The CBS drama about a naval crimes investigative unit wasn’t actually the show that broke the news, either: Mark Harmon left “NCIS” in 2021, but his character, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, lives on in the form of Austin Stowell, who now plays a younger, greener version of the agent on the prequel series “NCIS: Origins.” It’s that show, which explores Gibbs’ earliest days as an NIS agent, that has shed some light on a long-dormant storyline involving Gibbs’ dead wife and daughter in a complete shocker of a twist.