Who Killed the Man Who Put Torres in the Hospital on ‘NCIS’?
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 17, Episode 14 of NCIS, “On Fire.”]
Did one of the team go too far after one of their own was put in the hospital in Tuesday’s episode of NCIS? Maybe.
In “On Fire,” Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) and Bishop (Emily Wickersham) were victims of what seemed to be a random hit-and-run while out for a jog. The team was able to identify the driver, Xavier, only to learn there was nothing they could do about it: he had sovereign immunity, due to “some old-school [Russian] royal blood.”
The team then tried to find a way to at least keep him in the country while they continued their investigation, with Bishop leading the charge and even insinuating that Vance (Rocky Carroll) wasn’t looking out for his people. (But he even offered to resign due to the constraints put on his agency with regards to this investigation.)
The team arrested his wife for having a pet tiger, but he didn’t care. After Bishop heard that and that Torres still wasn’t out of the woods, she refused to let Xavier get away with what he did. “I don’t plan on arresting him,” she told McGee (Sean Murray). “I’m going to kill him.” It seemed like he was able to talk her down; she said she was going to the office to find something to stall Xavier’s flight.
Jack (Maria Bello) determined that Xavier needed someone to admire him, and since that wasn’t his wife, he had to have a girlfriend. Fortunately, thanks to a biker’s helmet-cam, they were able to identify her, in the car with Xavier before the hit-and-run: Colleen. Gibbs (Mark Harmon) came straight from visiting Torres at the hospital to join McGee and Bishop at her apartment. But there, they found Xavier dead, in her bathtub.
He’d been killed in the past five hours, by someone with weapons experience who knew what they were doing — and took the bullet with them.
So, who killed Xavier? We examine the three possibilities.
Colleen
Her blonde hair was found with his body, but as Bishop pointed out, it was her apartment.
However, she did seem to have motive — because the hit-and-run wasn’t an accident. Torres had been targeted. She’d killed her sister so she wouldn’t have to split their inheritance with her, but there wasn’t any proof. Torres went undercover, and now the case was being reopened, with him as the star witness.
Colleen could have killed Xavier to take care of any loose ends. However, after they arrested her, she denied killing him.
(Eddy Chen/CBS)
Bishop
All signs seem to point to Bishop, and not just because she said she was going to. She didn’t return to the office the night before they found Xavier’s body like she said she would, and furthermore, she was late to work that day.
But perhaps most concerning is the conversation she had with Gibbs before they discovered their suspect was dead. She claimed she was just venting when she said she’d kill Xavier and brought up Gibbs’ own past. “This is the kind of thing you never recover from,” he warned her (and he’d know). “You do the kind of things I’ve done, you get the kind of things I’ve got. Bourbon and a boat in the basement. You don’t want to become me.”
And then came the two words that imply she did it: “too late.”
However, she, too, denied it when accused by both Gibbs and McGee. She’d planned the murder, she admitted, but she knew everyone knew she had motive.
Gibbs
The end of the episode strongly suggested that Gibbs was the one to take out Xavier, and there was certainly some moments of foreshadowing.
“These are the only kids I have left,” Gibbs told Vance about his team.
“What always gets you through the day is that someone always pays,” Jack noted about Gibbs. “But now the bad guy’s gonna get away, and that must be unbearable for you.”
(Eddy Chen/CBS)
And Gibbs said he knew that Bishop didn’t do it. Was that because he did?
After Bishop insisted once again to McGee that she didn’t kill Xavier, he wondered who did then. They both looked to Gibbs as he left.
However, it’s never said definitively who did it, and as you can see, a case can be made for all three suspects. Was Colleen lying because she didn’t want to be charged with the murder? Where was Bishop that night and the following morning? Did Gibbs take matters into his own hands (again)? We may never know for sure.
NCIS, Tuesdays, 8/7c, CBS
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O
Leon had it done, he knows people in high places.
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R
Odette did it.
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C
this is exactly what I thought.
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P
Same thing I think. Bishop reached out to Odette and Odette found out about the girlfriend and murdered him at the girlfriends house. None of the team knew about the girlfriend till after he was dead.
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G
I have a fourth suspect, Vance. He slyly said, "I'll take care of it, (the Russian thug leaving America without facing justice). I have friends in high places too." Hmmmmm, something to think about, a Vance directed hit.
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G
You're forgetting Vance. He said he needed a little time, but that he also has friends who can help. As Gibbs said, he's got bourbon & a boat, I don't see him killing for revenge again
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B
The Russians ordered the hit because they were tired of all the trouble Xavier was causing.
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O
But he was found in Colleen’s bathtub and the NCIS didn’t know what she was his girlfriend at the time. So it don’t think it was Bishop or Gibbs. Colleen would kinda be to obvious. Maybe it was one of his bodyguards.
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P
They knew Colleen was his girlfriend when they found him in her bathtub
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P
How about the least obvious, Tim Mcgee. I could see him doing it to save Bishop
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T
Hmmm. puzziling to say the least. Don't want to think it's Gibbs, but I also don't think it was Ellie.
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B
it was Gibbs. The one thing we know about him is that you don't mess with his kids and live to see the dawn. Did Vance give him the go? Wink wink... that's likely. He told Bishop that he wasn't protecting Xavier, that he was protecting her.
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R
She saw her the 1st time they served the arrest warrant she told her to get back inside.
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O
I vote for Vance. Never ever would McGee do that
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B
I simply cannot get there...I think it would be a big mistake to allow either Gibbs or Bishop to sink to that level.
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C
What I'd like to know is why nobody is saying who played Xavier :). I know he looks familiar but I can't figure out who it was.
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C
I’ve been trying to find out who played him also. He looks so familiar.
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P
Bishop could have known the girlfriend was in the car before the team had the helmet cam footage. Bishop had a nearly photographic memory of the hit-and-run and saw the girlfriend in the hall.
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P
I am getting tired of Bishop...First of all Emily can't act...Second this episode pointed out her flaws...If I spoke to my bosses the way she did-twice-I would be given a box by security with 5 minutes to pack...What I didn't like as well is that Bishop was too quick to turn the tables on individuals she didn't agree with..Who thinks that fast...Who would want a friend like that...Who is writing this stuff...Why not disagree BUT solve things like adults...Yes, you can have passion...But handle it maturely...And can we get rid of Jack S. When she is on screen all the action comes to a halt...Trust me, if I had her at my place of work we would have had words already....
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G
Not everyone gets treated that way. I worked at the State of Indiana and spoke to the Director the same way I spoke to customers. They are just people like you and I. However, I do agree her character is... meh at best
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