NCIS Season 22, Episode 15 ‘Moonlit’ gives us some pretty good Nick Torres development courtesy of the return of Dale Sawyer, Torres’ frenemy and it also resolves the Lily mystery in a way that might feel a tad anticlimactic, but that actually makes a lot of sense in the grand scheme of things. It’s a good, if unremarkable, hour of the show and a particularly strong one for Parker and Torres that allows both Gary Cole and Wilmer Valderrama to flex their acting chops.
There’s nothing particularly big about what they get to do this hour. No one’s in danger of death, there are no big whoa moments. But they both those those tiny emotional moments that, as an actor, are sometimes so hard to nail and do so perfectly. Actors on procedurals don’t often get enough credit for the character-building they do, and Cole and Valderrama have made Parker and Torres into men we root for day in and day out, and that’s no small feat.
LILY
I feel a little conflicted about the Lily answer in NCIS Season 22, Episode 15 ‘Moonlit’, because in some ways, it feels absolutely perfect, and in other ways, it feels truly like the show built it up to be nothing. But perhaps the most important thing about Lily isn’t Lily, it’s making Parker face his grief about his mother’s death. It’s making him face the grief that he had never touched. Sometimes, when we don’t have all the answers, it’s easier to avoid our feelings about one thing. And now, perhaps, Parker can sit with what he feels for his mother. Perhaps, now, Parker can feel his sadness, and yes, his anger.
Grief is a very complicated emotion. There’s no right way to feel it, but it is important to let yourself feel it to begin with. And this episode isn’t and cannot be the end to this journey for Parker. He’s barely scratched the surface. Answers don’t mean he’s processed it. Answers don’t mean he’s dealt with it. He barely even knows anything about Lily other than that she was there. We’ve got an incomplete answer, even if it feels like we now know where this was going. So yes, this is the beginning. This is a story about Parker’s mother and Parker’s grief. Let us hope we keep on this path now that we’ve started it.
NO HIGHER CALLING
There’s a conversation between Torres and Sawyer near the end of NCIS Season 22, Episode 15 ‘Moonlit’ where it feels like the two really and truly see eye to eye, where Torres tells Sawyer that there’s no higher calling than what they do. We know Torres enough at this point to know that he truly believes that, and it feels like Sawyer does, too. We believed the last time these two characters crossed paths that the next time we’d see them, things would be different, but the beginning of this episode took them back to the frenemies dynamics of before. This hour ends, once again, on that promise of a beautiful friendship.
And, honestly, that’s probably something Nick Torres needs. It feels like something Dale Sawyer needs, as well. It’s hard to have a character like Sawyer, who only comes in once every season, and use him as Nick’s friend effectively, but after four appearances, I think the show has established him in a way that they can do that. No need to play the same frenemy-to-friends game once more. Instead, let us actually develop the friendship next time. Because there will be a next time. There has to be.
Things I think I think
- Jimmy the Sketch Artist is such a fun thing to me.
- Truly so close.
- Perfect nemesis, indeed.
- I thought you and Sawyer were friends after last time, Torres. Truly.
- Keeping an alligator is something I could never understand.
- Late reaction to that joke, Jimmy.
- Is it fake, though? IS IT.
- Vance was maaaad.
- The answer to the Parker question just made me sad.
- Okay, but Torres was kinda right, Sawyer.
- He even said good job too.
- Four against one, bad guys are not smart I swear.
- Oh, Lily.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS Season 22, Episode 15 ‘Moonlit’? Please share with us in the comments below! And if you have any thoughts about the show, leave a review/rating of your own in our NCIS hub!
NCIS airs Mondays at 9/8c on CBS.
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