Look, Torres wouldn’t do that, okay? Most of this week’s episode was a frustrating step back for everyone’s favorite cocky agent, even if it did end on a stronger note.
But let’s start with the death of one of the Navy’s rising stars, who ends up overboard during the shellback ceremony, a 400-year-old Navy tradition that occurs when the ship crosses the equator. It prompts a helicopter drop-in from Gibbs, McGee, and Bishop, where they learn that Petty Officer Kendrick Allston was a cryptologic tech with no enemies, according to his bunkmate Eric Brown.
Palmer discovers a head wound that looks like the result of a medieval flail, making me wonder what activities Shellback ceremonies traditionally include. But the autopsy reveals that Allston died of a sudden heart attack brought on by what Kasie declares was an overdose of hallucinogens and stimulants. The head wound likely happened when Allston struck bulkhead piping during his fall from the ship.
Meanwhile, Torres, as the sole agent left in the Navy Yard, struggles with an assignment from Vance to mentor the winners of NCIS’s high school essay outreach contest. And boy howdy, he is lousy it. He makes the kids fetch his coffee, do his taxes, and organize his quarterly expense reports (it’s a lesson on doing unwanted jobs that are assigned to you!), then pushes them into Kasie’s lab to play loud video games (it’s a lesson on team building, strategy, and military tactics!).
Eager beavers Haley and Blake soak it up like sponges, but Max scowls and rolls his eyes and doesn’t follow directions. (He also busts Torres’ chops for wearing a “women’s small” T-shirt.)
Torres openly gripes about babysitting annoying, wannabe teenage agents and moans that “it takes less energy to infiltrate a drug cartel.” Honestly, he is the worst this week, and he deserved it when Max swiped his wallet to buy snacks. But hey, the eager beavers prove their worth by identifying the drug cocktail Kasie discovered as Tri-Shots and dropping some sweet, sweet K-pop recommendations.
While Torres is being ridiculous, Max takes a walkabout to Sloane’s office, asks if she’s new, and announces that her Rorschach painting doesn’t fit. When she offers him a lollipop, he chooses the black licorice flavor, which is the first truly unlikable thing he does in this episode, TBH. Sloane being Sloane puts it together that Max isn’t just some high schooler and gets Vance to confirm that her office once belonged to Agent Girard. Let’s put a pin in that for the moment.
Back on the case, Allston’s sister Kendra says there’s no way he overdosed when all he wanted was to escape the opioid epidemic that decimated their West Virginia town. She points them toward someone with whom he had beef. But Andrew Townsley, who was discharged after a positive drug test, turns out to be a smug red herring.
Thankfully, Bishop’s still on the ship when Allston’s bunkmate Brown falls unconscious from what looks like a similar overdose. They trace the source of the drugs to bottles of energy drink laced with Tri-Shots in Brown’s footlocker. As he presumably wouldn’t overdose intentionally, NCIS suspects both he and Allston were accidental recipients.
However, it points to a bigger issue: Dealers hide contraband in little energy drink bottles, which are prevalent aboard Navy ships, and the Tri-Shot operation seem to be homegrown, rather than an international drug ring.
It’s a short hop from there to Kendra Allston, who admits that she accidentally sent her brother the dosed bottles that were meant for her dealer. (Surprisingly easily solved) case closed.
(Next page: Torres the teacher)
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