Welcome back to NCIS! The crew is back in action for a full run of episodes after a 21st season that was both brief and tragically short. The first episode of Season 22 is called “Empty Nest,” and it shows how the team has to deal with personal problems and ongoing probes. Some of the most important parts of the episode are how Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) gets back to normal life after running REACT trainings in California, Nick Torres’ (Wilmer Valderrama) undercover mission with a local fentanyl dealer and Tim McGee’s (Sean Murray) bid for the NCIS deputy director job. Alden Parker (Gary Cole), Kasie Hines (Diona Reasonover) and Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen), on the other hand, have to deal with an empty bench while the rest of the team is away.
NCIS Season 22 Episode 1 Recap:
In the beginning of the show, Parker is seen leading Celia Ross (Jackie Tohn), a volunteer family law attorney, toward a prisoner situation. It turns out that Jessica Knight is the one who took the priest Rev. Edward Pike (Gabriel Burrafato) hostage. Even though Knight is using an unusual approach, she is only trying to calm things down by providing snacks and drinks while Ross, who is hurt, tries to figure out what is going on.
At the same time, the story goes back to when Parker gets an SOS call from Torres. A body with a bullet hole in the head and a note from Torres are found after the call. The note suggests that Torres was connected with the Nexus cartel, which is run by kingpin El Padre. They find out that the dead man, Hector Molina, has something to do with one of Knight’s trainees, Jodie Moreno (Elizabeth Frances).
Now that we are in the present, Ross begins to put Knight’s story together. Knight talks about how hard it is for her that the team broke up, especially with Jimmy Palmer, who says he only misses her in a friendly way. Knight is adamant that her personal feelings have nothing to do with the hostage situation. But as part of her plan to negotiate, she still gets a pizza brought.
McGee is having trouble with his application for the job of deputy director so he contacts DOJ Inspector General Gabriel LaRoche (Seamus Dever), but LaRoche is not willing to help. Even though McGee is determined, LaRoche makes it seem like NCIS is being investigated, which makes people wonder how they work.
Parker and Knight are looking into possible places where Torres could be, and they find a building where he could be kept. Knight does something very brave when she crashes her car into a van carrying Torres in an attempt to save him. But Torres says he is really working as a spy and that he has to stay with the gang to avoid a hit that he was told to do.
Knight and Parker keep looking for leads even though things are getting worse. They learn that a hair band found in the REACT training room has something to do with Nexus’s schemes to hide money. Knight is more and more sure that the priest is El Padre but Parker doesn’t want to arrest him because there isn’t enough proof.
As Knight and Parker question Pike, he drops the bright hair band, which proves Knight’s suspicions. Knight takes charge by locking the doors and saying that she is having trouble with how her team works together. At the same time, Ross, who accidentally quit the band, ends up playing a big part in the story.
Ross turns on the gang and tells them where Torres is, letting them know that Moreno is their target. This is the episode’s climax. In a dangerous situation, Torres shoots the warehouse’s power box, turning it off just as NCIS arrives to save him.
Knight is given the chance to move up to the Office of Strategic Support after the mission is over, but she chooses to stay with her team in D.C. As he cleans Knight’s desk back at headquarters, Palmer tries to stay positive, but it’s clear that he misses her.
In the shocking ending of the show, Ross denies doing anything wrong and says she didn’t blow Torres’ cover. She also hints that only LaRoche knew about his undercover mission. In the last twist, Vance tells McGee that LaRoche has been hired as assistant director, and LaRoche walks into the room and offers McGee a mint.
People are still confused about who is faithful, how undercover operations work, and what will happen to the NCIS team in Season 22.
