‘NCIS’: McGee Uses Season 15 Prisoner Experience With Gibbs to Help Survivor

For the second episode in a row, NCIS includes a mention of something from McGee’s (Sean Murray) past. After bringing up his sister (Troian Bellisario), who appeared in Season 4, last week, now, in the Tuesday, April 14, episode, he brings up a harrowing experience he and Gibbs (Mark Harmon) went through to kick off Season 15. (It also means his twins are eight years old!) Warning: Spoilers for NCIS Season 23 Episode 16 ahead!

The episode, directed by series star Rocky Carroll, who remains in the opening credits after his character, Leon Vance, was killed off in the 500th episode, begins with a Navy lieutenant, Rebecca (Yael Grobglas), being found six months after her humanitarian aid flight went missing; she’s the only survivor. Knight (Katrina Law) and Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) hike to find the cave in which Rebecca had holed up, where they stay, keeping each other warm, overnight — but it does actually feel platonic and not a cliché despite hints at the potential of something romantic between them. Meanwhile, McGee is the one to talk to her the most back in her hotel room as she adjusts to being back.

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When he finds her sitting on the floor against the nightstand, he immediately can tell she can’t sleep in a bed yet. He promises her she’ll get used to it — and food — again. He opens up about his own experience being held prisoner on a boat once for two months and thinking he’d never make it out of there. Reentry was complicated, he admits, and when she asks how he made it, he shares that no matter how dark it got or how scared he was, he knew he had to get home to be a father to his children, with his wife pregnant at the time. He’s referring to the Season 14 finale (“Rendezvous”) cliffhanger carrying over into the Season 15 premiere (“House Divided”), with Delilah giving birth eight episodes later in “Ready or Not.”

As the investigation uncovers, there was a sixth person on the plane, international arms dealer Cyrus Fox, who has been on previous flights as well. Cyrus was cutting a deal with the CIA — the lawyer who introduced himself as working for the plane’s company is actually from the agency — and about to hand them his entire buyers’ list. Someone found out, and the plane was hacked to take them off course and give a false altitude reading that led to a build-up of extra fuel in the engine system, causing it to overheat and the explosion that brought it down. Rebecca saved his life after he lost his foot in the initial crash, then they survived together — and fell in love. But when it came to use the radio she fixed, he knew he wouldn’t be able to make the climb with her and she didn’t want to leave him behind. She left to get water, and when she came back, he was dead.

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But before, Cyrus recorded a message for her on the camera — and listed out all his buyers. It was her field producer who tipped off Cyrus’ rival after catching him on B-roll he shot at the airport before the flights (he took a different one).

Now Rebecca is left to figure out if she can raise her and Cyrus’ baby — yes, she’s pregnant — alone and if she’s ready to be a mom. McGee points out that everything she did in the woods to keep herself and her baby safe is parenting, so she’s already doing an incredible job. Their scenes together, in general, in this episode are standouts.

What did you think of the latest episode and that callback to Season 15? Let us know in the comments section below.

NCIS, Tuesdays, 8/7c, CBS