NCIS Season 22, Episode 2 Review: More Romantic Drama Than Crime Drama

NCIS Season 22, Episode 2, "Foreign Bodies," feels like an episode designed to move a character forward, rather than to stand on its own. In this case, the character is NCIS Director Leon Vance, played by Rocky Carroll. Though Carroll turns in yet another reliable performance in the Vance-heavy hour, he can't stop it from feeling clumsy, especially once the Director's personal life becomes the focus of the story.

"Foreign Bodies" centers around important diplomatic talks between the United States Navy and the Venezuelan Navy. Those talks are put in jeopardy when someone from the Venezuelan side ends up dead — in Vance's office. What unfolds starts out as a high-stakes thriller, but then gradually becomes more and more about the relationship between Vance and his "casual girlfriend" Lena Paulsen. Vance and Lena get some development, but not much else does.

NCIS Season 22, Episode 2 Plays With Diplomatic Stakes

The Episode Gets Its Humor From the Big Stage

After 21 seasons of NCIS and counting, "Foreign Bodies" isn't the first episode to have the team involved in some sort of diplomatic situation or problem. They've run afoul of all kinds of people they shouldn't have. What helps to make this episode distinct is that it plays that problem a bit more for humor than drama. An early scene involves Alden Parker criticizing Nick Torres' wardrobe for the event. But even better is Gary Cole going full ham as Parker has to stall for time in front of reporters on not one, but two separate occasions. Cole is delightfully awkward while Parker rambles in no apparent direction — at one point even bringing up Detroit Tigers legend Miguel Cabrera.

This is a nice counterpoint to the usual dialogue about how no one wants to cause an international incident, how everyone's careers will be ruined, et cetera. There's plenty of that in Episode 2 as well, but it's not all doom and gloom. Sometimes NCIS is not as funny as it thinks that it is, yet this is one of the episodes where most of the humor lands. Cole doesn't get as much credit as he should for his comedic ability (he also voices Sergeant Bosco on Bob's Burgers) and so it's wonderful to see him break it out here. And because of how awkward Parker is, it never undercuts the dramatic stakes established by the plot.

The only significant issue with the premise is that the script never fleshes out most of the Venezuelan characters. Audiences learn a lot about the group's main aide, Fernando Vega, but only because he's revealed to be an undercover agent working for German intelligence. Everyone else is unremarkable… including Vega's boss Admiral Mendoza, who turns out to be the mastermind of the hour. When Vance whips out traffic cam photos of the victim with Mendoza's wife, it feels like NCIS trying to quickly throw in a last-second plot twist. And that's what doesn't work about the episode as a whole: it doesn't know exactly what it wants to be.

NCIS Is Taken Over by Vance and Lena's Love Life

Episode 2 Brings Lena Back Into the Fold

Leon Vance wears a suit and looks at Agents Parker and Torres, who are back to camera, in NCIS

The original premise of "Foreign Bodies" is interesting: who killed the undercover NCIS agent, and then who murdered the killer? But to try and spice things up even further, the show brings back Lena Paulsen (played by Marem Hassler), referred to by the team as Leon Vance's "casual girlfriend" and introduced during Season 20. This is a double-edged sword; anything that gives Rocky Carroll more screen time, and screen time not behind a desk, is welcome. But once Lena gets involved, the episode descends into what she's doing, what she's hiding and what it all means for Vance and Lena's unofficial romantic relationship. In fact, their back and forth gets so repetitive that one almost wishes they'd break up.

It's not that NCIS doesn't know how to integrate personal and professional storylines; the show has pulled that off for years, most recently with Jessica Knight and Jimmy Palmer — who are still broken up as of this episode. It's the way this episode fumbles the execution. The storyline is all about secrets Vance and Lena (mostly her) are hiding from each other, then their getting angry at each other for hiding said secrets, and then learning how to work together. It's basically on the job couples' therapy. When Vance and Lena commit to each other at the end, it's not the big, joyous moment it should be. Fans are left asking themselves whether or not this relationship is actually going to work.

Part of that may have to do with the fact that Carroll and Hassler still have to develop their characters' chemistry; it pales in comparison to what Carroll had with CSI: Vegas star Paula Newsome, but they also had a lot more episodes together. The characters of Vance and Lena just don't feel like they're ever on the same page, and the episode winds up caring more about their resolution than what's supposed to be a massive step forward for international relations. Exploring Vance's personal life is a good idea, but this particular storyline needs some work, both on its own and to fit better into the show as a whole.

Season 22, Episode 2 Throws in Too Many Wrenches

Twists and Turns Convolute the Episode

Parker and Torres wear suits and ties standing in front of a big door as Torres is on phone in NCIS

In adding Lena and her undercover agent to the story, NCIS also makes Season 22, Episode 2 harder to follow. It's not one of the easier episodes to keep up with in the first place, though, with the whole idea of the victim also being undercover and then the mysterious second body. But it does take some pause to remember who's who, how many countries are involved, and who the real bad guys are. The original reference to the United States and Venezuela fighting piracy in the Caribbean mercifully avoids a joke about the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, at least. Yet this episode would have benefited from slimming down its narrative and using some screen time to develop the guest characters further.

The biggest on-screen plot twist is the identity of the second assassin, who winds up taking Lena hostage in another example of how procedurals use life-and-death situations to motivate characters' romantic lives. Savvy viewers will be able to pick out D.C. Chronicle reporter Robyn Kael as the killer right away because of how over the top her introduction scene is. There is zero sublety in the character aggressively questioning Parker about the crime scene; it feels immediately performative. And as is pointed out, it's very convenient how quickly she gets there. Of course NCIS wants to surprise viewers in the fourth act, but in this case, the episode would have been stronger with a more straight-forward plot that allowed the characters and actors additional room to work. Plot twists aren't always necessary for good stories. NCIS Season 22, Episode 2 does give Vance and Lena some important personal development, but beyond that, it doesn't have much to offer.

NCIS airs Mondays at 9:00 p.m. on CBS.

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