NCIS Season 22, Episode 17 ‘Killer Instinct’ is an episode about McGee and LaRoche, and though it doesn’t put an end to the storyline but escalates it, it’s a really good hour for both Sean Murray and Seamus Dever. Plus, it has the advantage of also being an episode that confirms what we always knew, not just about both, but about the Deputy Director storyline.
McGee should have really gotten the job. Not just because he would have been great at it, but because over two decades later, he’s earned it. The reasons he didn’t get it are not just political but also have a lot to do with people’s perceptions of what works and what doesn’t in a job they, sadly, never had to do.
But the hour works so much better than recent hours have because it’s not just a strictly procedural hour and because McGee is a character that’s tied so intrinsically into what makes NCIS work.
TIMOTHY MCGEE IS NCIS AT THIS POINT
NCIS has indeed handled turnover admirably, but NCIS Season 22, Episode 17 ‘Killer Instinct’ proves that perhaps one of the reasons the show has been able to has been the steady presence of Sean Murray’s Timothy McGee. As McGee is told by Deputy Director LaRoche that the reason he didn’t get the job is that he wrote a report for SecNav that questioned the way the team operates as a family, we can’t help but think back to how much we have enjoyed that throughout the years. How much it has meant, not just to McGee but to so many others.
And how much it won’t change now, no matter what LaRoche thinks he has achieved. Because for a moment there, it seemed like perhaps he wasn’t the bad guy in this. And yet, in the end, it turns out maybe he is. Delilah caught him. Or, she caught someone, and all signs are pointing to the one man who refuses to share information with the team. And forgive me if I’m not giving Deputy Director LaRoche the benefit of the doubt. I’m with McGee on this one. We’ll be paying attention.
WHAT ELSE IS THERE?
There are only three more episodes after this one, and a lot of dangling plot threads the show will probably not leave until left season. At this point, it’s hard to know if they’re actually going to leave the LaRoche one alone or if it’ll come back in some way in the finale, but it does seem like both Lily and Carla Merino of it all will play a part in the finale. So, there’s that.
This does seem to mean we won’t touch the Jessica and Jimmy of it all again in Season 22. Fun times! Or not. We really did not want their relationship to go back to a will they/won’t they. But even that would be an improvement over whatever it is we have now. What is it that we have now, again? Also, did Nick and Robin break up? We would love a confirmation there, please, and thank you. McGee cannot be the only one with a functional love life around here.
It just feels like, for a 20-episode season, we didn’t really get all that much character development. Sure, this team is established enough that the procedural episodes mostly work and can be entertaining anyway, but that’s not why we tune in twenty-two seasons in. We want these characters to still grow, we want to learn new things about them, and we especially want to see their relationships develop even further.
Things I think I think:
- So Delilah just… didn’t believe a word her husband said about LaRoche or?
- Gabe ugh
- He really did call what he does political tap dancing and compared it to actual tap dancing? I’m with McGee, I think I hate him.
- But hey, at least Delilah is helping!
- I mean, do we have to save LaRoche?
- Anyone surprised McGee was actually supposed to get the job?
- How can SecNav give the job to the man who turned in the report that made it so they didn’t give McGee the job?
- Oh, yay, cartel is back! Cartels are always the bad guys around here.
- Well, except LaRoche is still involved, because of course he is.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS Season 22, Episode 17 ‘Killer Instinct’? 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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