NCIS Season 22, Episode 1 ‘Empty Nest’ is a pretty great Season 22 premiere that showcases what, twenty-two seasons in, still keeps NCIS one of the most relevant procedurals around. This is a team we care about. These are characters we love. And more importantly, these are characters we want to see interact on our screens every week.
So when the episode opens after a 6-month time jump with Jessica Knight far away from the NCIS Major Case Response Team, and with her departure having started a domino effect of everyone wanting to leave the team, it stings. We don’t want to see the members of this team go their own way. We like the way they work together. And when, at the end of the episode, everything is alright with the world and the promise of the team being back together again for good has been fully realized …well, we’ll just say that makes the little we had to suffer to get there worth the wait.
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THIS WASN’T FOR ME
The Jessica Knight in NCIS Season 22, Episode 1 ‘Empty Nest’ is a Jessica Knight who has spent six months doing good work, fulfilling work, but that hasn’t felt personally fulfilled. At the end of the episode, she’s a Jessica Knight who finally, finally understands that there are more important things than “the plan.” Being happy matters. Feeling like she’s making a difference matters. And, yes, being loved matters.
So, when she tells Parker she doesn’t want to stay at Camp Pendleton, it isn’t about the job. She can do the job. And it isn’t about being scared of the next rung on the ladder, or the next one. It’s about Nick and Parker, about McGee and Kasie, and yes …it’s about Jimmy. It’s about all of those things. It’s about the people she’s found at NCIS and what she feels when she is there.
But this wasn’t the kind of lesson she could learn without trying. She had to take that job to realize what really mattered to her in life wasn’t this job, or the next one. The job can’t be your family. It shouldn’t be. And Jessica Knight is finally at a place where she doesn’t want it to be, because she realized the job was only her family when …well when she was working with her family.
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176 DAYS AND COUNTING
Jessica and Jimmy are, in many ways, two sides of the same coin. The reason they broke up in the first place was bad communication, and the reason they’ve stayed broken up was once again, bad communication. But they’re both out there, counting the days they’ve been apart, even if Knight wants to put it all on Victoria. Because their relationship meant something to them, and if they could take back the breakup, they both would.
With Jessica back post NCIS Season 22, Episode 1 ‘Empty Nest’, of course, things change once again. The reasons they were broken up don’t exist anymore. And yet, they kinda do. The underlying stuff remains because it’s still stuff they haven’t discussed. They haven’t talked about Jimmy’s abandonment issues that made him break up with Jessica before she could break up with him. They haven’t talked about how Jessica never took the time to fully figure out what she wanted, because she was following someone else’s plan. And they haven’t yet figured out how to be each other’s partner in life, not when things get tough. They know how to save each other’s life. They know how to solve a case together. But that …well, that’s still a work in progress.
But the good news is that they now have time and space and that NCIS can show us that progression that their relationship sort of skipped before, mostly because of the way Jessica and Jimmy both avoid confrontation. If this relationship means anything to them, they have to find a way to talk about it. And we all know they were counting the days, so …
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TRUST ME
For Parker, for the team, it’s all about trust. The phrase was thrown around over and over again in the hour – and it’s all supposed to lead up not just to the surprise of what Knight is doing, and then what Torres is doing, but also to the reveal at the end that there is a mole, and that mole is now going to be their boss.
It’s a great storyline for the season because Laroche is honestly suspect since the first moment he appears on our screens, even if he supposedly has a good reason for what he’s saying. And it works in a way that sort of puts Vance on a different side from the team, which is something we haven’t really seen. If the kids can’t get their dad to save them or believe them outright, what will they do? We will find out.
Either way, NCIS Season 22, Episode 1 ‘Empty Nest’ pulled the team apart, then it brought them back together and proved that the second option, together …well, that’s how the team works. That’s what we want to see. That’s what works. And even though that’s meta-commentary on what the show is doing, I’m pretty sure Parker and the team realize that in character, too.
Things I think I think:
- The beginning is kinda sad, with Parker by himself with his pastry box. Remember when were like: there’s no way this man can replace Gibbs and then he didn’t replace him, he just …created another character we could invest in?
- “In a platonic way?”
- Look, counting the days you’ve been broken up is kinda …eh, not a great sign. Just saying.
- “The personal stuff is the most important part” – show motto right there.
- The fact that it’s Victoria counting the days makes it hurt even more, okay?
- “If I wanted to jump off a bridge, would you let me?” is such a mom thing to say, Kasie.
- WHAT DO YOU MEAN I TRIED THAT ONCE, JESSICA? WHAT DO YOU MEAN?
- Working through some issues alright.
- Count the times the words “Trust me” were uttered in this episode. And things still worked out!
- “Where have you been?”/”I leave you alone for two minutes.” SIBLINGS ENERGY.
- Jimmy, I love you, but why are you dusting her desk?
- Hey, a mole storyline with the mole right there being an issue? I kinda like that.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS Season 22, Episode 1 ‘Empty Nest’? Share with us in the comments below!
NCIS airs on CBS on Mondays at 9/8c.
