“In from the Cold” tonight’s exciting NCIS episode, starts out as a normal hostage situation but quickly turns into a web of international spying—long-buried secrets and lies that have been told for decades. The stakes go through the roof when an unexpected turn reveals the presence of a former Soviet spy. The team is trying to find out the truth about a retired Navy captain with a shady past. As NCIS and the CIA work together to stop a national security crisis — secrets — betrayals and personal details come to light.
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The episode opens with a surprising turn of events when NCIS Special Agent Nick Torres often known for his gruff demeanor finds himself navigating the complex world of online dating. Since Torres has had a rough past, what began as a simple favor for his coworker Jimmy Palmer ( Brian Dietzen) has turned into a serious project for him.As Torres asks McGee (Sean Murray) for advice—the two are suddenly cut off from their conversation when the team is called to look into a hostage situation.
Captain Thomas Butler—a retired Navy officer whose memory is getting worse, is at the center of the crisis. During a normal mental test—Butler starts talking in Finnish and remembering strange numbers that make him angry. When the doctor tries to calm him down, Butler seizes the chance to hold her hostage, which makes him even more unstable. The nurses are able to calm things down, but Butler’s actions make more questions than they answer. His son Danny doesn’t understand why his dad is acting so — strangely — and suddenly.
As the team looks into it. they find out disturbing things about Butler’s past. Even though Butler served in the military for a long time, he was never officially stationed in Finland. This made people wonder where his strange memories came from. When NCIS starts looking for answers, they accidentally turn off the power to a lot of people. The team’s forensic expert, Kasie Hines (Diona Reasonover)—finds a secret message in the numbers Butler gave them. This code is a covert spy message that leads them to a shocking discovery; Butler was not only a Navy captain but also a Soviet spy. The CIA, which had been keeping an eye on him, steps in right away and send Officer Conrad to tell Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) what’s going on.
Everyone is shocked by what Conrad says. It was many years ago that the Soviet Union hired Butler. Even though he was being watched after he retired, the CIA let the Soviets think they had a useful spy working for them. When the Soviet Union broke up, Butler was left without a country to belong to. He lived a quiet life as a civilian while keeping dangerous secrets.
Butler’s dementia makes him weak and unpredictable, and his crazy behavior leads to a violent incident at the hospital where he kills a nurse. A nationwide search begins when he gets away, but since he can’t remember important details about his past, neither the CIA nor NCIS know what he will do next. The team finds out while going through —Butler’s files that he used to have high-level clearance at The Pentagon. This is a scary realization because it means Butler could accidentally leak important—state secrets.
As NCIS starts to put together a bigger plot, the tension grows even more. Butler has been able to avoid being caught for years thanks to his memory problems. But now that the spy code has been made public, the CIA can finally say that Butler is the long-sought mole. In an effort to limit the damage, the CIA turns its attention to getting back sensitive files that Butler stole from the Navy archives in a last-ditch effort to return to his old life as a spy. Butler, on the other hand, is hard to catch and keeps getting away.
The team makes progress when they find Butler at a payphone, which is one of the few that is still working in the area. This is where they find out that Butler has a personal link to his son Danny. Danny has a very sad moment when he thinks about his father not being around when he was a child, but also the little things he did to show love, like promising ice cream to make up for missed baseball games. This information helps the team figure out where Butler is, and they find him at an ice cream shop in the end.
While Butler is being questioned, he is arrested and his delusions stay the same. A mysterious figure from his past named “Sparrow” who, unbeknownst to him, died decades ago is the only person he trusts. He thinks it’s still 1979 and that his son Danny is still a kid.
The NCIS team shows Butler pictures of Danny as an adult to help him believe that time has passed. Butler is able to accept the truth of his situation after this revelation. He starts to understand how bad his confusion is and how much of the life he used to have he has lost.
At a key point, Butler admits that he did not kill the orderly. It was more likely a Russian spy who had been following him. Now that they know the truth, NCIS uses Butler as part of a plan to catch Conrad—who has been lying to them the whole time. As it turns out, Conrad is the real Russian agent and Butler was just a double agent who fed the Soviets false information. The truth finally comes out— Butler was never — a “Traitor”. He was always a patriot who looked out for national security.
At the emotional high point of the episode, Butler is reunited with his son Danny and the two of them finally connect after a long time apart. As planned, they go get ice cream while Torres deletes his online dating profile. He has been dealing with his own emotional journey. He comes to the realization that the shallow parts of dating aren’t what he really wants, so he chooses a more traditional way to find love.
As the episode comes to a close, the team thinks back on the amazing journey they’ve been on. Sometimes the most dangerous secrets are buried in the past, and it takes a team willing to dig deep to find the truth. “In from the Cold” shows this through the tension of international espionage and the deeply personal moments between a father and son.
Network: CBS
Available on: Prime Video | Paramount Plus | Netflix
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