NCIS had some holiday cheer for their midseason finale and we also saw the return of Deputy Director Gabriel Laroche. If you’ll recall, McGee felt suspicious about him, especially in the wake of Nick’s cover being blown during a case. How was he involved in the case for the Christmas episode?
While dealing with a lack of heat during the cold weather season, the team learned that a tell-all book was being released. Inside the book, it was making potentially damaging claims about a decorated former lieutenant, Merritt Hastings. The book puts the blame on him for an ambush that led to the deaths of three Marines.
Hastings is the face of a prominent Veteran’s Bill and it’s possible someone is trying to discredit him to cause the bill to fall apart. Kasie was able to determine who a possible suspect was thanks for requests to the Freedom of Information Act for the reports about the ambush in question. They find out the IP address of at least one individual belonged to Samuel Cross, who used to be in the military and who lost his brother, Evan, in the ambush.
He blames Hastings for his brother’s death and is ready for his book to reveal the truth about Hastings. The best way the team could figure out what he has on Hastings, they need to get the full copy of his book.
How did NCIS celebrated Christmas in season 22?
McGee suggests they use his author cover, Thom E. Gemcity, in order to convince Sam’s literary agent to allow them to see the book in question. Once they get a copy of the manuscript, they learn of a radio transmission that sent a warning about the ambush before the attack took place.
The only reason Sam got ahold of it was because a Special Ops mission that was declassified confirmed that particular team received the radio transmission. Since the radio operator died in the ambush, only Hastings could confirm if he received the message.
Despite one of his employees and former squad team member, Zanella, trying to stop him, Hastings confirms he did receive the transmission. The team tries to find out what really happened and who Hastings is trying to protect.
They learn Evan Cross had been the radio operator, but a talk with his widow confirms he was comfortable and confident at his job. However, there did appear to be delays when it came to radio transmission. But before they could look further into it, they discovered a disturbance at Sam’s apartment due to Zanella himself attempting to confront him.
This lands the team in hot water, as the Department of Defense decides to hand the case over to JAG, thus preventing NCIS from finishing the investigation. However, this doesn't stop the team from finding out that due to radio interference, the radio transmission was prevented from reaching its correct frequency.
Nick went through Sam’s file and discovered the knee injury that Sam had during the ambush was an existing injury. Sam blamed himself for causing Evan to take his place.
Sam retracted the book and made his amends with everyone, including Hastings. It was a touching end to the episode that also saw a surprising development for someone else.
It turns out Nick has secretly been dating someone without telling the team. Who is Nick seeing? While we didn’t get any clues about the identity of his special someone, he did look happy at the end. We’re just happy he will not be alone on Christmas.
NCIS will return with new episodes on CBS on Monday, Jan. 27 at 9/8c.