Spoiler Alert for NCIS season 22, episode 7, “Hard Boiled”
Following a massive season so far, the Major Case Response Team (MCRT) solves a more straightforward case inNCISepisode 7 that highlights Wilmer Valderrama’s Nick Torres. Agent Torres has had an exciting season, with new personal developments enhancing his character. Nick reveals inNCISseason 22 that he’s finally open to love again after his will they/won’t they fling withEmily Wickersham’s Eleanor Bishop. The development makes Nick’s connection to their case in episode 7 all the more riveting, since the remainder of the MCRT finds him in a hotel room with their victim’s wife.
In “Hard Boiled,” the team investigates the death of the Head of Warfare and Weapons for the Office of Naval Research (ONR). While his death initially looks like a suicide, the team eventually learns that someone murdered Roger Carnahan. TheNCISseason 22 teamworks with Roger’s wife, Amber (Sara Paxton), who plays a mysterious role in the case surrounding his death. While Amber ultimately isn’t their prime suspect, she targets Nick. She manipulatesNCIS,adding depth and drama to Nick Torres’NCISseason 22 storyas the Special Agent seeks a more meaningful connection.
8The MCRT Is Investigating Roger Carnahan’s Death & His Wife Reveals His Secrets
MCRT Investigates The Death Of A Navy Researcher
After the team gets the call about Roger Carnahan’s death, they arrive at the park where he died to investigate. Dr. Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) initially believes that Roger’s death is a straightforward suicide, but his autopsy reveals that foul play was involved in the official’s death.The team has a connection to Roger’s wife, Amber, who reveals crucial information she believes explains her husband’s death.
Catch up onNCISon Paramount+.
Amber reveals that her husband was planning to steal plans for the Mad Falcon, a classified Navy project. The team finds a hard drive in the Carnahan family home to back up Amber’s claim that her husband was hiding something. However, the storage device proves to be a dud. The team continues working with Amber to find out who wanted to kill her husband, remaining suspicious of the official’s wife.
7Nick Torres' Odd Connection To MCRT’s Case Explained
Is Nick Having An Affair With Their Victim’s Wife?
One of the most remarkable parts ofNCISseason 22, episode 7, is Nick’s odd connection to the case. Nick is nowhere to be found when the team shows up to the bullpen the morning of their crime. When Parker (Gary Cole) follows up with his special agent,Nick reports that he’s feeling under the weather, and the rest of the agents agree it’s out of the ordinary for him to have a sick day.
NCIS Season 22 May Be Setting Up An Unexpected Office Romance For Parker’s MCRT
NCIS season 22 is missing an office romance but NCIS' latest reveal may be setting up an exciting new couple that is years in the making.
However,when MCRT arrives at the hotel where Amber Carnahan is staying, they find Nick Torres in her room with her. It’s unclear whether Nick and Amber are romantically involved. Nick claims that Amber isn’t a fling, but she’s his confidential informant. However, Amber has just gotten out of the shower, and it appears Nick may have stayed the night. Nick explains to Parker and the team that he met Amber at a SECNAV party, and she claims she has evidence that her husband was going to commit a crime.
6Palmer Has Recruited McGee To Referee For Their Kids’ Local Soccer League & It Doesn’t Go Well
The NCIS Veterans Make A Controversial Soccer League Call
In the “Hard Boiled” B-plot,NCISreveals thatPalmer has recruited Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) to referee for their kids' local soccer league, but there’s some tension. Tim informs the team about an unpopular call he and Jimmy made, which decided the league’s championship game and upset a handful of parents. Jimmy gets a call from an angry parent as he addresses the other team members in the bullpen, seemingly unbothered by the conflict.
Kasie’s VAR model proves thatNCISveterans Jimmy Palmer and Timothy McGee made a faulty call.
However, the faulty call weighs on McGee, who talks with his other team members about the potential blunder. When she catches wind of the scandal (which she calls"RefGate 2024"and"Scandal Ball"),Kasie (Diona Reasonover) makes a 3D simulation of the soccer gamefrom videos uploaded to social media so that she can recreate the game and use video assist referee (VAR) to solve the dispute. Kasie’s VAR model proves thatNCISveterans Jimmy Palmer and Timothy McGeemade a faulty call.
NCIS Season 22 Establishes Timothy McGee’s Best MCRT Replacement
While Alden Parker and the rest of the MCRT trying to stop World War III, NCIS season 22 also establishes the best replacement for Timothy McGee.
After Tim watches Kasie’s simulation, he confronts Palmer about their controversial call in the elevator. Palmer stops the elevator using an old Gibbs trick, remarking that it is the first time he has stopped it for a private conversation. Palmer admits he saw the video but convinces McGee they don’t need to reverse their call. Jimmy later reverses his decision, deciding to step down as Head Referee, at which point McGee encourages him to stick with it since it helps the doctor process his trauma.
Dr. Wendy Lythcott Briefs Parker And Vance
MCRT’s investigation leads Parker and Vance (Rocky Carroll) to Dr. Wendy Lythcott, who briefs the leaders on Project Mad Falcon, the project Roger Carnahan allegedly planned to steal.Dr. Lythcott informs Parker and Vance that Mad Falcon is a next-generation hypersonic missile, the first nuclear-capable missile in the military’s arsenal. Thus, Lythcott reveals that the highly classified plans could lead to a national security threat.
As is usual withNCIS,the development proves the case is more complicated than it initially appeared.
As the alleged security threat becomes clear,NCIS attempts to find out who green-lit Roger Carnahan to work at ONRsince they believe he should not have been cleared to work with such sensitive documents. The team begins to hone in on a white van that Nick reports seeing in the parking lot outside the hotel, and their search leads them to someone who has multiple connections to their case. As is usual withNCIS,the development proves the case is more complicated than it initially appeared.
4Kasie’s Research Leads The Team To Retired Navy SEAL And PI Harold Lamb (But He’s Not Their Suspect)
MCRT Interviews A Private Investigator
When she tries to locate who was driving a white van the night Roger Carnahan died,Kasie traces Harold Lamb, a retired Navy SEAL and private investigator (PI), to the case. Kasie notices smoke in pictures they find on Roger’s phone, which allegedly prove his wife was having an affair. When the team brings Harold in for questioning, he tells them that Carnahan hired him 10 days earlier to investigate whether his wife was having an affair.
Parker’s Kansas City Mob Connection May Be The NCIS Season 22 Arc He Needs
Not much is known about Alden Parker’s history before joining MCRT, but NCIS season 22 just excitedly revealed his connection to a major mob.
However, Harold has a deeper connection to their case. During Harold’s interview, Parker reveals that NCIS discoveredLamb was the one who performed Carnahan’s background check, allowing him to get the job at ONR. Lamb tells the team that the work is classified, which is why he didn’t reveal the details, and he provides an alternative theory when Parker suggests he murdered Roger Carnahan. Lamb supposes the whole thing could be a setup, with Amber and Nick at its center.
3Kasie Finds Files In Amber’s Cloud That Prove She Was Setting Up Nick Torres And NCIS
Amber Is Lying To Nick And MCRT
Kasie proves that Amber is setting up Nick when she finds documents on her phone proving Roger’s wife knew more than she let on.Kasie finds the guest list for the SECNAV party and Nick Torres' classified NCIS personnel fileon Amber’s cloud. The development proves that Amber is involved in the crime, but it doesn’t answer why she was setting up Nick. Torres claims that Amber is too simple to orchestrate the setup, noting her background in TV sales.
Ultimately, Amber lies to Nick but does not lie about trying to escape her husband, whom she alleges is awful.
The team initially believes that Amber has connections to China, explaining her motivation for targeting Nick. However, Amber provides another explanation when they finally track her down. Ultimately, Amber lies to Nick but does not lie about trying to escape her husband, whom she alleges is awful. The development is sad for Torres, who has tried to open up only to find that Amber has lied to him while assisting her.
2NCIS Recruits Harold Lamb To Help Them Find Amber Carnahan
Harold Is A Vietnam War Veteran
After they learn they can trust him,the team recruits Harold Lamb to help them find Amber. The team had Amber in custody and was trying to get the complete picture of her story when she was abducted from the diner where she was with Knight (Katrina Law) and Torres. NCIS receives a warrant for Harold’s surveillance of Amber, which doesn’t help the team very much since he only has a few pictures of her on his camera.
NCIS Begins Solving Its Oldest Plot Hole By Secretly Introducing A Fan-Favorite Character In Origins
NCIS: Origins tackles Leroy Jethro Gibbs' early years in the agency, but it also has a chance to fix some plot holes, including its oldest one.
Still, Harold provides the information that helps them track down Amber. After Nick pushes Harold about what happened to him, noting he used to be a hero, Harry goes to leave the NCIS garage but then returns a moment later after overhearing Agent Knight giving Nick a pep talk. Harold reveals that he put a GPS tracker on Amber’s car, allowing the team to find her precise location, which he has initially held back since it’s illegal. Still,Harry sees an opportunity to help and rises to Nick’s challenge to make a heroic move.
Things Aren’t What They Appear
When the team finds Amber, she is tied up in the back of a white van.Nick confronts Amber, asking her to drop the actand saying he knows she targeted him. Amber claims she doesn’t understand what MCRT is talking about, but Knight moves the case forward when she uncovers that Amber is 3D printing parts of the Mad Falcon’s design. However, the team finds that Amber is printing a part of a vacuum cleaner, obscuring everything they thought they knew about the case.
Still, Amber planned to use NCIS to frame her husband for stealing the Mad Falcon, allowing her and Wendy to escape.
After finding Amber and putting the pieces together,MCRT discovers that Amber is working with Dr. Lythcott to distribute the Mad Falcon vacuum cleaner. After Lythcott opened up to Amber one night, the business partners devised the scheme, revealing how the Mad Falcon missile was a dud. Amber recognized from her days as a pitchwoman on TV that the missile had all the proper design elements to create a next-gen vacuum, and Lythcott and Amber devised a plan to get the vacuum to market.
NCISseason 22 airs on CBS on Monday nights, followed byNCIS: Origins.
Amber tells the team that the vacuum was a way to escape her husband, suggesting that the story she told Nick about needing to escape from him wasn’t a lie. Still,Amber planned to use NCIS to frame her husband for stealing the Mad Falcon, allowing her and Wendy to escape. Still,NCISreveals Amber never intended to murder her husband, and the team discovers with Harold’s help that his intern, Daniel Simmons, was the one who killed Roger after learning about Amber’s plan and devising to steal the Mad Falcon himself, not realizing it was a vacuum.
NCIS
Cast
NCIS is a television series that follows a team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Premiering in 2003, the show explores various cases involving Navy and Marine Corps personnel, ranging from murder and espionage to terrorism and stolen submarines.
