Critic’s Rating: 4 / 5.0
4
When you open an episode of NCIS with Vance locked in his office, covered in blood, and a dead body on his floor, you know things are about to get wild.
NCIS Season 22 Episode 2 throws us straight into a diplomatic meeting with Venezuela that quickly spirals into chaos.
Vance’s covert operation with Diego Rojas, a Venezuelan agent playing both sides, takes a disastrous turn when Rojas collapses and dies in his office.
From that moment on, it’s a mad scramble to cover up the body and solve the mystery before the entire situation blows up in their faces.
Naturally, Torres, McGee, Jess, and even Jimmy — who seems to have joined in just to avoid being the odd man out — get swept into Vance’s off-the-books operation.
Watching them frantically try to handle a dead body without drawing any attention is exactly the kind of chaos we love about this team (and it was funny as hell).
And then there’s Torres, who, in the middle of all the madness, is still searching for a tie, injecting just the right amount of comedic relief into the tension.
You can always count on him to bring a laugh, especially with Parker’s laid-back influence on the team’s dynamics.
Speaking of Parker, his quick-witted charm is in full force as he brushes off the reporters with his usual humor. Classic Parker, effortlessly keeping the press distracted while the team sneaks around.
At one point, he even deadpans, “Discretion is my middle name,” and you can’t help but laugh, knowing full well that nothing happening behind the scenes is even remotely discreet.
A Twisted Merry-Go-Round
But let’s not forget the real elephant in the room: Jimmy and Jess.
After all the buildup on NCIS Season 22 Episode 1 — Jimmy nervously cleaning her desk and eagerly anticipating her return — you’d think we’d finally get that happy reunion.
Instead, we’re left hanging, with barely a moment between them and no details from Jess. It’s not like Torres and McGee weren’t curious about what was going down between those two, either.
But I guess we’re all going to have to wait. It’s like the writers are dangling this relationship in front of us, only to keep us in suspense just a little longer.
Still, it’s maddening to not have at least an inkling as to what went down on Jess’s first day back in the office.
But instead of a reunion between Jimmy and Jess, we got a surprise one between Vance and Lena.
Vance’s long-distance girlfriend from Berlin showed up as a NATO representative, much to his surprise — and everyone else’s.
Of course, she had her own agenda.
Not only was she there to take things to the next level with Vance, but she was also deep in an undercover operation investigating a Hezbollah-linked diamond smuggling ring.
As if the team wasn’t already juggling enough, they suddenly found themselves with two bodies to deal with.
After all the effort they put into discreetly handling Rojas’s body to avoid an international disaster — and a gaggle of reporters — a second corpse magically appeared in his hotel room.
This time, it was courtesy of Lena and her undercover agent, Vega. And the victim? A hitman, who was apparently sent to kill Rojas, though I’m not quite clear on that because wasn’t Rojas poisoned?
Either way, the whole thing was a mess.
Things got even worse when a nosy reporter showed up — who, surprise, surprise, wasn’t a reporter at all but a Hezbollah terrorist trying to sabotage the talks between Venezuela and the U.S by kidnapping Lena.
It was a tense moment, but, once again, in true Parker fashion, he distracted the press — this time with a history lesson on U.S.-Venezuelan relations — so McGee and Jess could save Lena and everybody could live happily ever after.
And around we went, like some twisted merry-go-round.
Wasn’t that the name of an old syndicated political column that ran way back in the 50s and 60s?
I bet Drew Pearson would’ve had a field day with all the political intrigue and cover-ups in this episode.
“Foreign bodies” indeed — especially when it turns out Rojas was murdered by the Venezuelan Admiral because he was sleeping with the Admiral’s wife.
In A Gadda Da Vida
Now, about that conversation between Vance and Parker.
Anyone stepping into Parker’s cozy greenhouse lounge would feel right at home. It’s as welcoming as Parker himself which is probably why Vance felt comfortable enough to want to compare notes about their near-death experiences.
Parker didn’t really give too much detail about his Lily visions from NCIS Season 21 Episode 10, and I suspect that he’s not going to opening up about any of that anytime soon.
Vance however did open up and said that time has become the most important thing in his life — as in time to live a meaningful life.
He was, of course, talking about Lena.
And despite all the drama, he decided to move things up a notch with her, something she already had in mind before she even got to D.C.
They both want the same thing and with her moving to New York, it won’t be all work and no play for Director Vance any longer.
It makes me wonder if Vance is on his way out, which would give McGee another opportunity to move up?
It’s not out of the question. Those near-death experiences change you, and Vance knows that there’s more to life than just NCIS.
And speaking of unresolved things — Jess and Jimmy?
Either make them happen or move on because this long, drawn-out will-they-won’t-they-after-they-broke-up storyline is getting old fast, even if it’s only been one episode back.
Yes, I’ll admit, I have no patience.
Honestly, maybe the real romance should be between Parker and Jess — they’ve got better chemistry anyway (and Jess never would’ve questioned protocol like Jimmy did). Yeah, I said it. Shoot me.
So, what did you think about this twisted merry-go-round episode of NCIS? Hit the comments and share your thoughts.
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