NCIS winter premiere recap: Bishop and Torres go undercover

NCIS season 15 returned with its winter premiere and did it in style.

Ever wanted to see Ellie Bishop go undercover? That was exactly the premise of the night, when she and Torres pretended to be a couple in an attempt to bring down a drug ring. However, the initial plan didn’t quite go right and the two were forced deeper into their covers. How did the two make it out alive and who was the more convincing of the two?

An undercover mission turns deadly

NCIS opens with a guy called Turner on a boat. Bishop, undercover as an escort, is interrupted when Torres shows up. Torres is her angry boyfriend, allowing Torres and Turner to argue while Bishop quickly clones Turner’s phone. It turns out they know Turner isn’t the boss of the operations, but he would be able to lead him to that boss.

More from CBS

• Mamie’s plan is advanced on Thanksgiving (Young and the Restless Nov. 22 recap)
• The Young and the Restless recap (Nov. 21): J. Eddie Peck returns as Cole
• Blue Bloods is ending in Fall 2024 but not with a season 15 like we hoped
• FBI: Most Wanted season 5 release date, cast shake up, and everything to know before the premiere in 2024
• Kyle follows his family’s plan on Young and the Restless (Nov. 20 recap)

Unfortunately, they learn that someone is being sent to kill Turner. They don’t want a murder to happen, so they break cover to try to save him. Instead, they’re treated to the boat exploding.

Gibbs and McGee turn up, with no idea over whether their two agents are safe. They’ve both gone black on their burner phones. While at the marina, they meet the boat owner, Richard Lane, and find out that Turner was shot before blown up.

It doesn’t take too long for Bishop and Torres to get in touch. Torres didn’t want to get in touch with anyone in case there was someone after them. You know, rule 101 of the undercover handbook. Gibbs and Vance aren’t happy with Torres’ actions, so order the two of them to the hospital while taking their intel on the possible boss.

Torres gets deeper undercover

While Bishop goes to the hospital, Torres decides to use his intel instead. Gibbs and McGee watch as Torres walks into a scuba diving business, unhappy that he’s not followed a direct order. Vance isn’t happy later, but they all have to go along with it when Torres explains that he got him and Bishop in on the drug ring.

Watch your favorite shows on fuboTV: Watch over 67 live sports and entertainment channels with a 7-day FREE trial!

Bishop isn’t too impressed with being left at the hospital, ranting to Abby about it while firing off way more than enough bullets for Abby to get a match on the bullet used to kill Turner with the gun found at the scene. While the serial number was scratched off, Abby uses some special reverse science to find out that it belongs to 9^th grade science teacher, Denise. NCIS just won’t be the same without her technobabble.

Of course, Denise isn’t the one who pulled the trigger and her gun went missing a year ago. Her sister-in-law took it, which is why she didn’t report it.

Where’s the sister-in-law? Well, Bishop is about to find out. When Bishop and Torres turn up at the shop, Torres is put straight to work with manual labor. Bishop still needs to prove to Mitchell Young that she’s worthy. Her task is to kill Denise’s sister-in-law, Frankie, who was the one who killed Turner. Nobody is happy, since Frankie was a customer in a lot of debt and Turner was one of the best employees in the ring.

As it looks like Bishop is going to kill Frankie, Torres trips the fire alarm and then forces Bishop to shoot away from Frankie. Torres makes a point that they can’t have a body, so Bishop is sent to kill Frankie elsewhere and dump the body. Bishop gets Frankie to NCIS, so Abby can stage a murder and get into the drug ring.

The plot thickens

Back at the store, Torres learns from Donnie, the man he’s learning from, about how Donnie wanted to be anything but a drug dealer growing up. Circumstances led him to this. While they talk, Lane shows up, clearly unhappy about the loss of one of his boats.

Back at NCIS, Gibbs, McGee and Bishop learn that Lane may be the boss. They go back to the store, where there’s blood on the floor and Young cleaning it up. Bishop continues her cover to get Young to trust her and get all the information needed to figure out who the drug leader is. It wasn’t Young after all and it certainly isn’t Lane. However, Young will say no more, until Gibbs tries his special interrogation tricks on him.

It turns out to be an injured Donnie, who is currently being driven to the Baltimore safe house by Torres. Without realizing Donnie is the boss, Torres tells Donnie the truth about who he is. Donnie forces him to continue driving to the safe house, attempting to get all the information NCIS knows about him before killing him. When they get to the safe house, Torres slams the gas down and drives straight into a truck, throwing Donnie out of the windshield.

Gibbs, McGee and Bishop were already at the safe house. Everyone makes it out alive and it’s the end of the experienced and professional drug ring.

Next: NCIS fall finale recap: Jack faces demons of her past

Did you expect Donnie to be the leader? How much did you love undercover Bishop? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

NCIS continues on Tuesdays at 8/7c on CBS.