Original Airdate: March 7, 2022
Director Vance’s daughter Kayla joins the team’s investigation of a doctor during surgery, a case that takes an unintended turn.
Episode Recap
An otherwise uneventful surgery goes wrong when one of them, Dr. Tom Masuda, collapses.
At NCIS, Torres meets with Director Vance, who assigns him to watch his daughter Kayla as she returns from FLETC. Vance is also assigning the team to investigate the doctor’s collapse, hoping to offer them a simple case as her first investigation. At the scene, Kayla confronts Torres, aware that her father made the assignment; Torres reaffirms that he intends to keep her safe. After Kayla makes a series of observations about the scene and the body, Palmer determines that Masuda was poisoned. Going through his history, the team determines Dr. Masuda had an exemplary history, although Knight finds a threatening recording from Smitty “The Barracuda” Hastings.
Knight and Torres leave with Kayla to question Hastings at his bar; although they attempt to leave Kayla in their car for her safety, she accompanies them to the bar. Based on Kayla’s prodding, Hastings admits Masuda had lent him money for a gambling addiction, and that Masuda had an aggressive ex-girlfriend interested in extreme sports. Afterward, Vance assigns Kayla to Forensics for disobeying Torres’ instructions. Although Kayla admits understanding his concerns and how hard she worked to prove herself, Vance maintains his stance.
In Autopsy, reminiscing about first cases, Palmer shows Parker his Dictaphone (accidentally Rickrolling him in the process). Palmer’s tox screen indicates Masuda was poisoned with batrachotoxin. When he is unsure of how Masuda was imbued with enough to be poisoned, Kasie and Kayla reveal Masuda had a DMSO patch, leading Parker to determine the killer was one of the doctors present when Masuda died.
The team determines Dr. Sierra Kruger as a suspect due to her penchant for extreme sports. Knight privately shares her own experiences with her father’s disapproval of her career choice to Kayla and tries to encourage her that Vance will come to accept her choice. Meanwhile, Kruger admits she and Masuda had an affair and remains in denial of the breakup. Kruger also reveals Masuda pressed the patient under surgery, Ethan Geller, and that Dr. Masuda became irate after she requested a psychological evaluation and overruled her before going into surgery. Torres confronts Vance for pulling Kayla, convincing him their work is fraught with danger regardless and to allow her the chance to confront it.
Meeting with Knight and Kayla, Torres reveals Geller had $100,000 deposited into his bank account after the surgery, further leading them to suspect Geller planted the patch onto Masuda. Torres and Knight leave to question Geller, allowing Kayla to come with them. At the hospital, the team arrive just as Geller goes into cardiac arrest. In the commotion, Torres notices a suspicious staff member, Frank Céspedes, and chases him from the hospital with Kayla and Knight. Outside, Céspedes overpowers and threatens Kayla before abducting her with the aid of a partner in a black van.
At NCIS, with Geller dead, the team focuses its efforts on identifying Céspedes and locating Kayla. Although Torres feels guilty, Vance declines to press the issue. Meanwhile Céspedes – his real name Pedro – and his partner Isaac have Kayla restrained. Although Pedro wants to kill her, Isaac convinces him to spare her for the time being. NCIS determines that Céspedes is Pedro Rodriguez, wanted by INTERPOL for associating with gangs and training child soldiers in South America, using the same method involving poisoned patches. The team concludes that Masuda was being sought as a second opinion for Rodriguez’s currently jailed associate, El Santo. The team confronts Dr. Roth, who was first consulted but refuses due to doctor/patient confidentiality. Vance presses Roth to admit that Rodriguez blackmailed him into forcing a surgery that Masuda would likely have called off, leading the team to realize Rodriguez planned to break out El Santo.
Kayla tries to reach out to Isaac when Rodriguez, fuming over El Santo’s called off surgery, reveals Kayla’s identity. Rodriguez reaches out to NCIS and demands Vance personally release El Santo within three hours. Although Parker offers to use his connections to have El Santo release, Vance, suspicious, declines to follow through. Kasie manages to determine that Rodriguez is hiding at a recycling center. With the security precautions, the team prepares a strategy to break in. Before rolling out, Vance announces his intent to participate.
Parker manages to allow the team to infiltrate the plant. In a standoff, Vance, Torres and Knight kill Rodriguez. Isaac proceeds to threaten Kayla, though she manages to talk him into releasing her.
At NCIS, the team congratulates Kayla for escaping. Torres announces he will be Kayla’s training agent. Vance meets with Kayla privately, revealing he has assigned Kayla to a different field office with the hope of allowing her to mature as an agent on her own merits.
Cut To The Chase
TBA
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