Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS episode “Irreconcilable Variations” are forward!
NCIS Season 22 ended its premiere again in October with the set-up for its first multi-episode storyline: the thriller of Gabriel LaRoche. Timothy McGee has been suspicious of the brand new NCIS Deputy Director, and the previous few weeks have seen him grow to be much more decided to reveal LaRoche as a traitor. However now the newest NCIS episode to hit the 2025 TV schedule has delivered its greatest shakeup to the LaRcohe storyline. As if that wasn’t a large enough deal by itself, these new revelations additionally got here with McGee experiencing some wild throwbacks to his former boss, Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
What We Realized About Gabriel LaRoche In This NCIS Episode
The occasions of “Killer Intuition” confirmed McGee’s suspicions that LaRoche was shady, and final week’s episode, “After the Storm,” ended with Director Leon Vance permitting McGee to look at an unpublished DOJ IG report back to see it contained any info that might strengthen his case. Sadly, that didn’t pan out, as McGee instructed Nick Torres and Jessica Knight early into “Irreconcilable Variations.”
With McGee having gone a number of days with out sleeping (extra on that later), Alden Parker determined to ship him dwelling. However earlier than McGee may seize lunch to convey again to his spouse and children, he seen LaRoche within the car parking zone driving off someplace with out his safety element. So McGee adopted him to numerous stops, and the journey ended at an deserted energy plant, the place he witnessed LaRoche shoot a person.
Nevertheless, when McGee tried to chase after LaRoche, he was hit by a automotive, and by the point everybody else had arrived, the physique of the person LaRoche shot was nowhere to be discovered and there was no hint of bodily proof. So now the concept had been planted that McGee imagined all this and even made it up, and issues solely obtained worse when Inspector Common Regina Ward arrived examine an official grievance filed towards our intrepid agent for “skilled misconduct, harassment and abuse of energy.” Three guesses who filed it, and the primary two don’t rely.
However ultimately, issues began to show up McGee. It turned out LaRoche was related to the heist of a celebration provides truck involving high-tech weapons belonging to the US Navy able to killing distant indicators. Hundreds of thousands of {dollars} had been stolen from the truck, which was truly transportation for the Nexus Cartel, and McGee inferred that LaRoche, whom he believes has ties to the cartel, wanted the cash to flee the nation. The physique of the person LaRoche shot was additionally finally discovered, and LaRoche was caught on digital camera loading proof from NCIS right into a van to take it to an unknown location.
Okay, there’s no query Gabriel LaRoche is a villain now, proper? Nicely… right here’s the factor, McGee skipped out on being interrogated extra by Regina Ward and adopted LaRoche to his meet with one of many different get together truck thieves. Initially McGee and LaRoche had their weapons pointed at one another, however when the opposite man pulled out his personal gun to kill McGee, LaRoche killed him as an alternative. McGee was shot within the shoulder throughout the commotion, and when the crew arrived to again him up and found an SD card on the just lately deceased, LaRoche shot down the accusation that this has all been about cash, including, “It’s time the reality.”
How Gibbs Impacted McGee In This NCIS Episode
Tabling the LaRocheness of all of it for only a second, I would like to speak about how Leroy Jethro Gibbs, who hasn’t been seen on NCIS since early Season 19, factored into this episode. At the beginning of “Irreconcilable Variations,” a determine was seen strolling down into a really acquainted basement sporting a USMC hoodie and ingesting some bourbon out of a jar that’d beforehand held steel screws. Hold on, did Mark Harmon lastly make his long-awaited return to NCIS?
I want, however no, the determine was Timothy McGee, who was hanging out in his boss’ outdated digs, which included a postcard from Alaska (the place Gibbs nonetheless is as of NCIS: Origins’ sequence premiere) and a fully-constructed boat with the identify Tim on it. Alas, as soon as Gabriel LaRoche entered the basement and shot McGee, we realized this was a dream Sean Murray’s character was having at his desk in his exhausted state. Afterward within the episode, McGee additionally imagined he was coming into Gibbs’ pickup truck moderately than his personal automotive.
So are these goals/hallucinations meant to tease that Mark Harmon will reprise Gibbs quickly? That may be a stretch, although it could be good if the Season 22 finale delved deeper into this topic past Knight’s novice psychoanalysis. Torres additionally talked about he’s had his personal Gibbs basement dream, which noticed Harmon’s character giving a virgin Piña Colada and instructed him to not slouch.
As for LaRoche, it seems to be just like the NCIS Season 22 finale will lastly give all of the solutions to the questions we’ve been asking about him. Or possibly this might be a kind of NCIS plotlines that stretches into the start of the subsequent season. Tune in subsequent week to search out out!