NCIS season 23, episode 16, focused on the case of Navy Lieutenant Rebecca Lee, whose plane had gone missing six months prior. When she finally got through to someone and radioed for help, the team needed to determine what had happened to her and how the plane had crashed.
The flight Rebecca was on was previously on a humanitarian aid mission to Haiti to deliver vaccines. They were on their way back home when the plane disappeared from radar. Rebecca had been the lone survivor and appeared shaken upon her return. At first, they believed only five people had died, but then they found a foot belonging to another person.
Rebecca was deeply traumatized, telling the team what happened alongside her field producer, Michael Bell. He had taken footage of the plane before the accident, so they needed to find Rebecca’s camera to figure out what happened. She had left her camera in her hideout in the Appalachian mountains.
Agents Nick Torres and Jessica Knight were tasked with finding her hideout and the camera. While they were doing this, Agent Tim McGee tried to relate to Rebecca. He told her about how he had been captured and held captive for two months. He only got through it by reminding himself of Delilah and their unborn twins.
Kasie found evidence that someone had messed with the settings on the plane, causing the system to think it was flying at a lower altitude than it actually was. It was using too much fuel, and this caused the explosion to occur that brought it down.
The owners of the plane turned out to be the CIA, and they were hiding the fact that an arms dealer named Cyrus Fox used the plane for travel. Once Torres and Knight found his body, they took him back to Jimmy, who determined that he had died of a gunshot wound. The missing foot had been due to the crash, and his wound was cauterized to keep him alive.
At first, it was believed Rebecca killed him. However, as it turned out, Rebecca and Cyrus both survived and fell in love during their time together. Cyrus fell ill, and he didn’t want to hold Rebecca back from finding rescue. The only proof they had was a camera recording that was hidden safely on an SD card in Rebecca’s watch.
There was video proof that Cyrus said a final goodbye to Rebecca before killing himself. He also talked about their family, making the team realize Rebecca was pregnant. Even though he had recorded over earlier footage, Kasie was able to find it.
They figured out that Rebecca’s producer, Michael, had captured footage of Cyrus getting on the flight. He had apparently told Cyrus’s enemies, who sabotaged the plane.
This episode may have yet had another instance of the killer being under our noses, but it still provided us with some light-hearted moments, such as Torres and Knight trying to keep each other warm during the elements in the mountains to McGee bonding with Rebecca. McGee had experience with being held captive against his will, and it was a nice callback to see how he had gotten through that experience.
This episode was also directed by Rocky Carroll, which only makes us miss him more, but as always, he does a great job with the episodes he helps direct.
NCIS airs Tuesdays on CBS at 8/7c. You can watch previous episodes on Paramount+.
Add us as a preferred source on Google