Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS episode “Killer Instinct” are ahead!
NCIS has had several multi-episode storylines running during Season 22, one of them being the mystery surrounding Gabriel LaRoche, the agency’s new deputy director. We haven’t seen Seamus Dever’s suspicious character since last December, but he finally returned tonight on the 2025 TV schedule for “Killer Instinct,” and man, was it a doozy. The new NCIS episode delivered some major twists for its LaRoche storyline, and I was surprised to learn that one of them actually tied back to a storyline revolving around Gary Cole’s Alden Parker.
What We Learned About Gabriel LaRoche On NCIS
“Killer Instinct” started with the arrest of an assassin named Paul Morton, a.k.a. The Poet, who murdered Lieutenant Commander Ryan Willis and was next set to kill Chief Warrant Officer Ian Garza. Fortunately, NCIS was able to arrest Morton before that happened thanks to an anonymous tip, but he poisoned himself during interrogation before divulging any information about who hired him and any of his other targets. It turned out that Willis and Garza both worked security on a train called the Atlas, which transports tons of spent nuclear fuel for the Department of Energy.
The team was able to track down Gemma Wood, Morton’s broker, and Nick Torres posed as Morton in order to sneak into the office in the jewelry store Wood worked out of to download files off her computer. Meanwhile, McGee, who was still obsessed with uncovering the truth behind LaRoche, reluctantly went with his wife Delilah to the Deputy Director’s house for dinner with him and his wife. To say McGee was not having a good time would be an understatement, and it only got worse when he snooped in LaRoche’s office and found a file about him. It turns out LaRoche knew McGee had been looking into him and decided turnabout is fair play.
Evidence was soon discovered at Wood’s jewelry shop that LaRoche was another target. So despite his negative feelings towards LaRoche, McGee did his duty to protect his boss from the new assassin who was sent after him. In the midst of this, LaRoche admitted that McGee was originally supposed to get the Deputy Director position, but that changed once he sent a report criticizing NCIS for acting more like a family than an agency. But LaRoche now realized he was wrong about this, so that means he and McGee are on good terms with each other now, right?
Not quite. After NCIS’ main characters learned that it was the Nexus Cartel that wanted LaRoche dead, McGee also learned that the anonymous tip about Paul Morton was sent from a government server created by the DOD called Nocturne. Remembering that Gabriel LaRoche had a red notebook in his office that had “Nocturne” and a series of numbers and letters written on an attached sticky note, McGee realized that LaRoche sent in the tip. So now he’s more determined to expose the Deputy Director’s shadiness, and made the man aware of it right to his face.
How The LaRoche Storyline Ended Up Being Tied To The Kansas City Mob
You may recall that in NCIS Season 22’s fifth episode (which you can stream with a Paramount+ subscription if you need a full refresher), we learned that Alden Parker had spent years at the FBI trying to nab Carla Marino, the head of the Kanas City Mob. Showrunner Steven D. Binder assured me in December that there was a “flight plan” for Carla and the Kanas City Mob, and sure enough, they surprisingly factored into the events of “Killer Instinct.” Because as it turns out, Carla was also one of Gemma Wood’s clients.
While it originally seemed like Carla may have ordered the hits on Willis and Garza, and thus in turn could have been targeting LaRoche too, Wood assured Torres and Knight when she was being interrogated that this wasn’t the case. However, Wood refused to say anything else on the subject, as she’s terrified of Carla. So for now, it remains unclear if Carla and the Kansas City Mob are directly connected to the Nexus Cartel or if they just shared the same broker. And how does the Atlas train fit into all this?
Given that the NCIS Season 22 finale is titled “Nexus,” we may get answers to these questions in just a few weeks time. Otherwise, since NCIS has been renewed for Season 23, don’t be surprised if the full scope of these storylines don’t come into focus until the next TV season.
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