NCIS season 16 episode 21 review: What’s the secret bank account for?

This has been a wonderfully emotional season of NCIS where they have pivoted a bit from their procedural feel and given us deeper moments with the cast members. We’ve seen Sloane facing the hurt she feels with the decision she made to give up her daughter for adoption, Gibbs wrestling with multiple emotional arcs including finding out his ex-fiancee was murdered and tonight we are diving back into something that has been going on with McGee for a few episodes now.

It’s not cheap to live in DC and as much as McGee loves his job and being part of the team this new job offer is pretty lucrative and he’s been considering it. How much has he been thinking about it? Enough that tonight (the first of a two part episode arc) he is going to be heading to Silicon Valley to learn more about what this company has to offer him.

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Now we know that there have been a lot of people out there worried that Sean Murray is leaving the show and we get it. This show has been running for 16 seasons and when a show runs for that long there will be some cast turn over, but it hasn’t been that long since we’ve lost Pauley Perrette and losing Sean now seems like a bit much. So do we think he’s leaving? No we don’t, especially since the whole “other job offer” TV trope has been used countless times over the years on shows and rarely does anyone leave.

Where we do think this is going is that McGee is going to be offered more money and maybe a higher position at NCIS. He’s certainly earned it and in the last episode he’s proven that he can go toe to toe with Gibbs and even kicked him off the case involving his ex-fiancee and sent him home. NCIS can be a dark show since it’s subject matter is murder, so wouldn’t it be nice to round out the season with a celebration for McGee getting a promotion?

We’ll get back to the McGee storyline soon; for now, though, let’s focus on the main case. Kasie has been working for months in order to build a proper cold-case DNA database — information that will help to lock up someone responsible for poisoning ice cream bars from a good thirty years ago. That’s something that was teased at the start of the episode with the flashback into the late eighties.

For a good chunk of this episode (is at least the first third of it), we ended up seeing most of the NCIS team in court, working to prove that the DNA discovery that Kasie made was 100% legit. They were up against stern opposition, including an attorney who was ready to question them at just about every turn. They argued that the accused in Stuart was someone who didn’t have a bad record, and wasn’t some sort of serial killer.

What McGee is doing

Basically, his job officer in Silicon Valley was with a tech company who was very interested in some of his services. They already know his NCIS work and, strangely, he didn’t tell anyone about it beforehand.

Or … did he? As it turns out, McGee is actually there in a way that is connected to the mission. He is undercover, and he’s undercover in an incredibly shrewd way. As it turns out, he may have actually been a last hope for the team given that their DNA evidence found itself tossed from court. The idea of him prancing around this tech campus though was incredibly entertaining, though, especially “Marybeth,” which is basically this show’s version of Janet via The Good Place.

The universe has “balanced the scale”

That’s what Nick said after the NCIS team found Stuart’s body in a car. On the surface, it appeared as though it was an overdose … but there was some other evidence out there. Also, it looked as though the father of the boy who died could be a primary suspect.

Unfortunately, while all of this was going on, McGee ended up finding himself in handcuffs. He was apparently in California to do some digging into the secret government bank account and because of that, he learned that someone was aware they were hunting them down. Gibbs was able to fix things thanks to the judge, and with that McGee was free to go.

So how did all of this add up?

Gibbs was still looking for the killer as we approached the end of the episode, but as it turns out, it was Marybeth who was the key. He was a customer of the same tech company that McGee visited, and because of that, they were able to determine who was snooping around Stuart’s house. As it turns out, it was the bailiff in the case who turned up at his place.

As it turns out, the bailiff just so happened to be a vigilante of sorts, someone who was hired to take down Stuart … and the money came courtesy of the secret bank account. This is how everything is connected. Then, in the closing seconds Valerie was found standing over the CIA guy who was looking into Vance for most of the season.

CarterMatt Verdict

So apparently, at the core of this episode was a secret bank account that is being used to basically allow for vigilante justice to happen. Things are a little bit enigmatic still, though, so hopefully, we’re going to get some answers soon.

For some more news when it comes to the next new NCIS episode…

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What did you think of tonight’s big Gibbs episode and how to you think this season is going to end? Leave us your thoughts in the comment box below. (Photo: CBS)

This article was written by Jessica Carter and you can follow her on Twitter here.