NCIS 21×01 “Algún Día” is about what you’ll do for the people you love, and it’s also about what you should trust the people who love you to do for you. In that respect, it’s a great lesson for everyone on the team, not just for Nick Torres – though there’s no denying he needs it more than everyone else. But the episode hits all the normal beats, with everyone sort of filling the roles they usually fill, and that fits them very well …but also doing more, being more.
In a way, that’s the thing NCIS does well. Sure, Torres is often hard-headed even when he doesn’t need to be, McGee is the “smart one,” Knight is more the “heart on the sleeve” kinda character, and Parker will be the one rallying the team around, while Kassie gets important info and Jimmy Palmer will inevitably figure something out that might end up cracking the case, but these things I mentioned are not all these characters are. It never has been.
That’s why, even when it seemed like Torres had done it, there was no way these characters were believing it, and there was no way we could, either. Even if perhaps, we could have forgiven him for it. Because that’s just not who Nick Torres is, deep down. That’s not what someday means for him.
So let us talk about that, about Torres, his sister, that elusive idea of justice, that “one day at a time from Parker,” and let us also go into that cute moment of role play from our favorite ship as we discuss NCIS 21×02 “Algún Día”:
ONE DAY AT A TIME
If NCIS 21×02 “Algún Día” does one thing well is to set up Nick Torres to move forward, even though we spent the entire episode stuck in the past in a way that almost makes it feel like he can’t, like he never will. And it is kinda frustrating to be here with Torres because the issue with him has been for a while he should know better, at least at this point. But when Parker tells him at the end of the episode to take it one day at a time, it finally feels like it has clicked. Perhaps Torres is ready to move forward and do just that.
This wound that he carried, that his sister carried, wasn’t something easy to heal. And it’s also not something that truly heals from one day to the next because the man that hurt you, that hut your family, is now gone. But the truth is that knowing he was out there, perhaps doing it to someone else, and that he never paid for all the pain he caused his family, was something that was weighing Torres down. Now he can let go of that and start to heal.
But healing is an active process, and he has to put the work in. And for that healing to be truly something that takes, he has to let the people who love him help. That includes his sister, the one he was willing to go to jail for, and his team. Being willing to take a bullet for someone, or take the fall for them when you think they’ve done something wrong is a big sign of love, yes, but being willing to let them see your pain, takes a different kind of strength. That’s where Torres struggles, and that’s what’s needed of him now.
OUR FIRST CRIME AS A COUPLE
Jessica and Jimmy still feel like relationship babies in so many ways, so it’s so cute to hear Jimmy joke about their “first crime as a couple,” especially because of their role-playing (again, the banter is on-point, can anyone blame the show for just going for it with this ship?) adventure actually led to the information that got Torres out of jail. But outside of the many firsts and seconds, we hope to see from these two in the new season – and may most of them not be illegal, please and thank you – there’s one thing that stands out: how easy it all is.
I don’t like comparing ships, at least not negatively. I have loved many ships, in this same show, in other NCIS shows, and in plenty of other procedurals. But there’s something special about this ship, something that makes it easy to invest in them. Even in an episode that’s not dedicated to them, a few moments of banter from the two of them in a couple of separate scenes is enough to make me go: I want more. I wish they had more moments together. And that’s never, ever a bad thing.
Things I think I think:
- NCIS: Cyber sounds like another spinoff.
- I love it when the team is like we’re just going to get to work and they like, coordinate with their eyes.
- “Process in any way that you see fit.”
- I live off the little bits of backstory on Nick that we get.
- Ah, if only someone could pronounce the words “algún día.”
- “We should roleplay more often.”
- IF YOU’D USED WORDS, NICK.
- The way Jimmy just figures it out is hilarious.
- “It requires you to trust the people in this building with your life.”
- And …that’s the Ducky news at the end, right?
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS 21×01 “Algún Día”? Share with us in the comments below!
Yes, that is definitely the Ducky news at the end. 💔