Welcome back to NCIS! After a short-and-(bitter)sweet 21st season, the team’s back in action for a full run of episodes.
Note: I said the team’s back, not that they’re back together. Because Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) has spent the past six months leading REACT trainings in California, Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) has been deep undercover with a local fentanyl dealer, and Tim McGee (Sean Murray) has been busy jumping through hoops in his quest to land the NCIS deputy director job.
This leaves Alden Parker (Gary Cole) with the empty nest that gives the 22nd season premiere its title, with Kasie Hines (Diona Reasonover) and Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) hovering around the empty bullpen in the big orange room, keenly feeling these absences.
Palmer, despite knowing that he and Jess have been broken up for exactly 176 days, insists he only misses her platonically and the real sad sack is his daughter Victoria. Then again, he and Kasie cook up a plan to get the team back together involving favors and a little light treason. A perfectly reasonable reaction to missing your buddy!
But that’s not where we start! Nope, we open with Parker leading pro bono family law attorney Celia Ross (Jackie Tohn) toward a hostage situation, where the person likely to be charged with obstruction of justice, unlawful restraint, and false imprisonment has asked for Ross by name.
The hostage taker turns out to be Knight, who politely offers Ross tea, bourbon, and snacks. (Hey, she’s used to defusing hostage situations, not causing them.)
Knight swears she has a good reason for tying up and gagging a scared-looking priest in a clerical collar (Gabriel Burrafato). Ross, who’s sporting a broken arm and a scrape on her forehead, tells Knight to spill the story — but the minute Knight’s not honest with her, Ross is out.
We now jump back in time to Parker getting a coded SOS call from Torres on the “hello” line set up to let him check while he’s undercover. This sends Parker and McGee to the nearest cell phone tower, where they find a body with a bullet in the back of his head and a note in Torres’ handwriting with a symbol for the Nexus cartel.
The cartel, which is run by a kingpin called El Padre, operates near the California/Mexico border, so between that and the private aircraft tracks in the field nearby, the working theory is that Torres is on his way to the West Coast. Plus, the dead man’s a cartel enforcer named Hector Molina, the ex-husband of Jodie Moreno (Elizabeth Frances), one of Knight’s REACT trainees at Camp Pendleton.
In the present, Ross picks up on what Knight’s not saying as she tells her story: Knight’s conflicted about her breakup with her team (and with Jimmy!), but our gloriously tressed agent insists that’s not the issue. She does, however, flex her hostage-taker muscles by making sure Parker handles her demand for pizza from her favorite restaurant.
Our past storylines start to cross when we learn that Ross is Moreno’s attorney, and she’s sporting her injuries after getting knocked over by one of Knight’s blindfolded REACT trainees when she showed up to talk custody issues with her client.
A lawyer who makes house — er, work — calls? That’s amazingly good service! And it’s why Knight requested Ross specifically: Moreno trusts her. Also, if you hadn’t put it together yet, Knight believes her priest hostage is cartel boss El Padre.
Ross brings up small details like “needing evidence” and “holding a suspect without cause” and suggests Knight skip the personal stuff to get to the important part of the story. But Knight sums up the entire NCIS ethos when she says, “The personal stuff is the important part.” Indeed, that’s why we tune in week after week!
To help find Torres, McGee hops onto a call with DOJ Inspector General Gabriel LaRoche (Seamus Dever), who’s aggressively unhelpful and refers to NCIS as a “lesser agency.” Daaaang, Gabe.
McGee tells Kasie that if the rigamarole of applying for the deputy director job hasn’t gotten him to lose his cool yet, IG LaRoche certainly isn’t going to shake him. And even though he’s up against a candidate who’s been personally recommended by the secretary of defense, McGee wants that promotion (and Delilah wants him to have the more normal hours that come with it).
In California, Parker and Knight stake the possible locations of the cartel hideout where Torres might be held. They’ve noticed that the cartel likes to set up in empty warehouses near freeways and within a block or two of local food pantries.
Sure enough, they spot a tied-up Torres being herded from a likely warehouse into a windowless van. To rescue him without starting an all-out gunfight, Knight sacrifices her sweet new C alifornia ride, plowing it into the van. While she busts out her best flustered “let me grab my insurance info” charm, Parker sneaks around back to free Torres.
But Torres doesn’t want to be rescued. He’s been made, but he’s convinced them that he’s dirty, so they’re going to make him perform a hit to prove his loyalty. He insists on staying undercover to try to prevent the hit and nab El Padre.
Speaking of, a concerned-looking priest at the food bank — the same priest she has tied to a chair in the present — checks in with her to see if everything’s okay.
In truth, it could be better! Parker reluctantly agrees to let Torres stay undercover, which incenses Kasie when she hears about it. But NCIS raids of Nexus hideouts have found nothing but empty buildings, which indicates a leak of some sort, so they need to get to the bottom of it.
LaRoche confirms that NCIS has been under investigation, and in fact, DOJ tracked a large deposit from an offshore bank to an account that made them suspicious. I… guess that explains his reluctance to help McGee earlier. It does not explain why he’s been popping mints into his maw every time we’ve seen him.
In the present, LaRoche is with Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) when he calls Knight and tells her she has 10 minutes to surrender or REACT will bust in and make an arrest. Knight assures Ross that this is just part of the negotiator’s playbook.
Jumping back in time, Knight and Parker are staking out the warehouse for any movement, and Parker mentions that a hair band that Moreno left behind in the REACT training room is the same colorful rainbow kind that Nexus uses to sort their dirty cash. And he calls Knight out for being fully aware of that.
Knight admits that she recognized the band, but neither of them knows who actually dropped it. However, it’s Moreno’s account that received the $150,000 LaRoche mentioned, so it doesn’t look good for her.
We’re derailed from this track when the priest slides into the cartel warehouse. Parker jokes that it’d be funny if el padre was literally El Padre, and the next thing you know, el padre’s being interrogated.
Rev. Edward Pike, owner and CEO of Sunbelt Food Bank, is calm and kindly as he speaks about being called to feed the hungry. Then again, the food bank’s 23 Southwest branches are all near cartel hideouts, and they deal in cash and regularly ship across state lines.
In a private conference, Parker tells Knight that they need to cut Pike loose for lack of evidence, but Knight’s sure he’s El Padre, just like she’s sure that if they let him go, they’ll never see him or Torres again. But Parker doesn’t trust her gut and lets Pike go.
On his way out the door, though, Pike fumbles in his pocket and drops a colorful band onto the floor. Knight spots it, pulls her gun, and locks them in. And with that, Ross and the audience are caught up. The attorney taps out a quick text (sus, but maybe she’s late for court) and asks what happens next.
What happens next is a pounding on the door that tells Knight her hostage negotiator calculus was off. Knight admits that she is still working through her break-up issues with her team, then unlocks the door for Parker.
Ah, but the person the REACT team swarms is Ross. She dropped the incriminating band when she got knocked over, and Knight was taking two hostages when she requested Ross be sent in, giving Parker time to get access to Ross’ phone and bank records. They indicate that she’s guilty as heck of tipping off the cartel about the REACT raids thanks to her access to Moreno via her pro bono work.
This gets Ross to flip and give them Torres’ location just in time. His hit target was Moreno, whose ex stole cartel money to pay child support. He dramatically fires his single bullet into the electric box, plunging the warehouse into darkness, just as NCIS storms in to the rescue.
Once the situation’s wrapped up, Knight’s offered a promotion to the Office of Strategic Support, which is what she has always wanted.
But Knight tells Parker that she knows her place and her team are in D.C.
Cut to Palmer happily dusting Knight’s desk. This sweet man! Although he claims that they haven’t discussed resuming their romantic relationship, he’s clearly bummed when it’s only Torres and Parker who stroll into the big orange room. (Knight’s got a bit more to wrap up in California.) Palmer tries to pass it off as disappointment for Victoria, but come on, my guy, you loooove herrrrrr.
Finally, the premiere’s final minutes drop some major bombs. (Not literally. That needs to be clarified when it comes to NCIS.)
First, Ross insists she didn’t blow Torres’ cover, and the only other person who knew what he was up to is LaRoche. So there’s a flashing “suspicious!” sign.
Second, Vance calls McGee to his office to inform him that the deputy director job went to someone outside the agency. McGee’s professional about the disappointment, and he remains professional when Vance introduces the person who did get the job: good ol’ Gabe LaRoche, who strolls in and offers McGee a mint.