Michael Aaron "Mike" Franks was a former NIS/NCIS Supervisory Special Agent who was the leader of Camp Pendleton Field Office and member of Fed Five. He was also directly responsible for helping Leroy Jethro Gibbs become an NIS/NCIS Special Agent. In addition, he was also the father of deceased Marine Liam O'Neill, father-in-law of Leyla Shakarji, and the grandfather of Amira Shakarji.1
Biography
Pre-Series
Born on November 22, 1948 to an unnamed father and mother Helen in Texas. He raised on his family's farm.
When Franks was drafted into the army, he and his older brother, Mason, ran away and subsequently enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, fighting in the Vietnam War.
After he was presumably honorably discharged from Marine Corps, according to Mike, he and his brother Mason once married same woman twice, who was “a hell of a woman”.
In 1982 he was in a relationship with Mary O'Neill for only six months. The two separated after his decision to move to San Diego. Unknown to Franks, she would give birth to a son she named Liam Michael O'Neill.
That same year, after his motorcycle was stolen on his way to deliver a "package" to California and his VA was rejected, he came across a woman named Tish when he noticed she had a flat tire. After some talk and helping her, they eventually start a relationship, which soon led to them moving in together.
After 1982 Franks joined NIS and he rose through the ranks of the agency, eventually becoming an NIS Supervisory Special Agent on Camp Pendleton FO. Later, he became partners with NIS agent Vera Strickland. Franks and Vera were instrumental in capturing General Noriega in Panama, and it was Vera’s idea to blast Noriega out of his compound with Van Halen music. They later split up, because she felt that Mike didn't see her and he didn't respect her.
By 1989, Cecilia “Lala” Dominguez and Bernard “Randy” Randolph became members of his team at NIS.
In 1991 Franks worked on Operation Sunburst, it was an undercover sting for five weeks, because Arkady Kobach and Nikolai Puchenko were looking to sell U.S. stinger missiles to Chechen terrorists and they tried to bribe CPO Jack Vale and NIS sent him undercover to a meet, but someone tipped the Russians and they skedaddled. Then CIA got involved and the file “conveniently” went missing.
In February of 1991, he was lead agent on the murder of a Marine Sergeant Tunner at a gas station in Oceanside. Shannon Gibbs witnessed the shooting of the Marine and identified the killer as Pedro Hernandez, a Mexican drug dealer working around Camp Pendleton. She agreed to testify against him. Because of this, she was targeted by the Reynosa Cartel, so NIS put her and her daughter Kelly in protective custody. NIS Special Agent Randolph was originally the agent in charge of protecting Shannon and Kelly. He was so tired from his newborn son having colic that he requested to be unassigned from protection detail, and so NIS Agent Kurt Mitchell was assigned to protect Shannon and Kelly instead. While on the way to a safe house, Hernandez shot Kurt in the head while he was driving Shannon's van. He died instantly and Shannon and Kelly were killed in the crash. After that Hernandez fled to Mexico. NIS tried to extradite him, but the Mexican authorities always claimed they couldn't find him.
In June of 1991, in NIS Camp Pendleton FO Franks met injured Marine Gunnery Sergeant Leroy Jethro Gibbs, a husband of Shannon and father of Kelly, as a result of Franks's on-going investigation into the murder of Shannon and Kelly alongside with agent Mitchell. Franks showed Gibbs the van and tells him about Hernandez case.
After that, he got frustrated that Hernandez gotten away to Mexico, grieving drunken Gibbs starts continuously calling and badgering NIS Camp Pendleton Office stuff (including Mary Jo Hayes), later Franks confronted him in his apartment, then Gibbs accused Franks that he too scared to lose his job or getting hit by the Reynosa Cartel and after they started fighting. After that Gibbs collapsed to Franks' arms and started confessing that he can't live anymore if Hernandez still is out there and gets away with murdering his family. Later after that confession, when Gibbs visits Franks in the Pendleton Office, Mike decided he'd leave a file with information about Hernandez (after him saying that he was going to take a leak). Later when Gibbs started investigating, he finds Pedro's location due to a photo in the newspaper that revealed Pedro's partial license plates in the photo, he travels to Mexico and kills Hernandez.
After that, Gibbs was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps, he tried call him and tell about killing Pedro but Mike avoids him. One day at a grocery store, Mike and Tish meet Gibbs (who began working there), who tries to talk about Mexico, but Mike tried to avoid conversation, while Tish tried to convince him to talk with Gibbs. After he tried to walk away from Gibbs, Mike told him that Gibbs is not his problem, because he knows either Gibbs was looking for intel that he ain't got or he wanted to confess about killing Hernandez. He also advices Gibbs to find a new purpose, ‘cause he was too bright to be bagging groceries.
In August of 1991, Gibbs wanted joined the NIS, presumably having been impressed and inspired by Franks. Later Gibbs graduated from FLETC with being top of his class. In October of 1991, after interview with psychologist, he fails his psych eval 'cause his friend's illness, he got to Daly's Tavern and ended up in a brawl with some Marines. After their arrest, Franks get a call from Smitty about said brawl and he went to Provost Marshal's Office to bail Gibbs out, only to learn the latter's friend and landlady, Ruth Orozco, was there and confronted him about how he abandoned Gibbs while he thinks Franks' is great, 'cause he's the whole reason Gibbs picked NIS before she and Gibbs leave. After that, Franks decided to hire Gibbs with approval from SAC Cliff Wheeler and he informed his team about that before confronting Gibbs at Daly's when he got in a fight with a bouncer and stopped him from getting arrested again, tells Gibbs he passed, and hands him temporary credentials.
NCIS: Origins
NCIS: Origins Season 1
In "Enter Sandman (episode)," Franks approaches Gibbs and Randy to tell them about a burnt up body.
In "Flight of Icarus (episode)," Franks ends up ruining his boots and wears gardening shoes to work before swiping Randy's boat shoes while meeting with the father of the victim, who seemingly committed suicide, which was confirmed. When he got home, Tish hands him some new boots.
In "Monsoon (episode)," he was in a laundromat, studying Tish's case when he came across a former Marine trying to report a murder to an officer before he intervened and overtime, befriended him. Eventually, Tish learnt about Franks' continuous obsession about her case and eventually broke up with him.
Interim Years
In 1996, following disagreements arising from the Khobar Towers bombing, Franks, no longer able to deal with the political fallout that was making his job difficult, he retired from NCIS for good. He warned the brass that Osama bin Laden was behind the attack, but no one listened to him, so he retired. Before he left, he gave his badge to Gibbs who after Mike left became the new leader of the team. He left saying "Semper Fi".
Following his departure, Franks headed to Mexico and built a small house where he would spend his days smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and fishing, essentially cutting himself off altogether from the modern world.
NCIS Season 3
Hiatus Part 2 (episode)
Franks gets a call from NCIS Director Jennifer Shepard, whom informs Franks about Gibbs being caught in an explosion and suffering from memory loss, hoping for the former to help. After the case ended in disaster, Gibbs retired from NCIS to live with Franks in Mexico.
NCIS Season 4
Iceman (episode)
Franks surprises Gibbs when the hospital called about the former visiting Liam, who is currently on a ventilator, revealing he is Franks' son. He had Gibbs present when Liam had to be removed from the ventilator and pass on, during which Franks gave him his dog tags and his mother's necklace. During the time they spent together, Franks discovered Liam had a girlfriend and a daughter before helping smuggle them in since her family disowned her. He would later bring his daughter-in-law and granddaughter to Mexico to live with him.
NCIS Season 5
NCIS Season 6
NCIS Season 7
NCIS Season 8
NCIS Season 11
Anonymous was a Woman (episode)
Sometime prior to his death, Franks was involved in smuggling Afghani girls, using fake IDs from deceased Navy, Army or Marine reservists, making it known to Gibbs by having him watch over one while he arranged for her accomodation. He then approached Gibbs to have some women to be legally brought into the States, but Gibbs destroyed the form, resulting in the shelter the girls were staying in destroyed, killing all the girls, except for the shelter's proprietor, which Franks confronted Gibbs about.
Personality
Mike is shown to be incredibly loyal and strategic in his manner of operations. Although a bit "gun-ho", Mike was able to pick up on things that many others were not and seemed to understand certain suspect behavior traits better than others. He often voiced how he enjoyed his seclusion in Mexico and how he later greatly enjoyed having his daughter-in-law and granddaughter with him after keeping them safe from his daughter-in-law's family. To the NCIS team, he often lent his help during particular cases and acted as a mentor figure to several of the agents.
Physical Appearance
Mike is an older man who has gray hair and moustache. Between Patriot Down (episode) and Rule Fifty-One (episode), Franks had his right index finger shot off.
Trivia
- Mike's death was mimicked in the episode Check in an attempt to frighten Leroy Gibbs by Sergei Mishnev.
Appearances
For a more detailed list, see Michael Franks/List of Appearances.