Tonight on CBS NCIS returns with an all-new Monday, April 28, 2025, season 22 episode 20 called, “Nexus,” and we have your weekly NCIS recap below.
In tonight’s NCIS season 22 episode 20 called “Nexus,” as per the CBS synopsis, “As NCIS investigates a dangerous connection between the Nexus cartel and Parker’s longtime nemesis, mob boss Carla Marino, the team uncovers a high-stakes plot involving stolen nuclear material.
With time running out, Parker is forced into an uneasy alliance that could determine the fate of the operation – and his own future, on the 22nd season finale”
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In tonight’s NCIS episode, Deputy Director LaRoche has been keeping a secret. McGee and later his entire department came to believe that LaRoche was a traitor. He allegedly stole from them just to sell it to others, but that wasn’t what happened. LaRoche finally explained everything tonight.
This all started eight months ago. The Department of Defense reached out to LaRoche for a private meeting. They informed him about a mole in their department. The man himself was never questioned because he was killed before that could happen. His body was found in the Potomac.
The Department of Defense was investigating Nexus. It was top secret. They were looking to bring down the cartel once and for all. The Secretary of Defense personally recruited LaRoche for this mission. His job was to act as a double agent. SecDef Mathison had LaRoche placed at NCIS.
LaRoche was supposed to be everything that McGee wanted him to be. He intentionally sold out Torres as a means of building trust with the cartel. He wasn’t doing this for money. It was never about money or clout. His job was so secret that only one person knew his real mission.
LaRoche did everything to serve his country.
Unfortunately, NCIS didn’t like being used. They had two men almost die on them because of this top secret mission. They kicked off an investigation into LaRoche.
They publicly burned him and he almost cost McGee his career as well as his life. LaRoche apologized for that at least. He said he tried to warn McGee off. He wasn’t wrong because he did try. He tried telling McGee to back off. He filed a harassment claim. He did everything to keep McGee away and nothing worked because the man himself had been trained by Gibbs.
LaRoche can no longer continue the investigation himself. He had been burned. His contact into the cartel had been killed and so it was only now that SecDef was willing to use NCIS. It happened after he got into a fight with Director Vance.
The whole not informing them about placing a mole in their office was going to be an issue. It was about respect and Vance didn’t feel like his position was respected. It was one thing not to inform him. It was quite another to not tell his Vance’s own boss. Vance was willing to put that aside because of the threat of Nexus.
Vance was willing to put his own emotions aside. Special Agent Parker didn’t feel the same. Parker was told by the SecDef that they had intel on Nexus. The cartel was seeking nuclear material and they found out thanks to their source.
Their source was Carla Marino. She was a mob boss that dominated the Midwest. Parker tried to take her down for years back when he was working at the FBI. He tried again after he joined NCIS and nothing stuck. She was his white whale. Parker hated her so much that people at the office put money on them either killing each other or sleeping together.
Parker refused to work with Carla. He said she couldn’t be trusted. He refused to use her name. He stormed off. He went back to NCIS and he told everyone else that they couldn’t use her name either. She was literally going by She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named because no one wanted to offend Parker. Parker said they were investigators.
They would bring down the cartel another way. They had LaRoche’s case files after all. Only they did need Carla’s help. Carla wasn’t wrong about Nexus wanting nuclear material.
The agents tracked down something who stole the stuff for the cartel. He was rewarded with them using the uranium to kill him. Carla had been right. She also knew something they didn’t.
She knew the Butcher had the uranium. The cartel found another way to steal the stuff when the Atlas train got diverted. Carla knew all about it and she told NCIS that she thought that was a step too far. She turned against the cartel, but now the Butcher was calling her about selling the stuff to her. Carla showed genuine fear. She was so so convincing.
Carla pretended like she was worried that the Butcher was going to kill her. She said Nexus must have found out what she was doing and so Parker tried to put her at ease. He told her that she should set the meeting in Kansas City. Her home turf. She was like a god there. Parker was also willing to go with her.
He said the NCIS local office in Kansas City could provide backup and that they could arrest the Butcher this way. It was a lie from both sides. Parker did travel with Carla with two other agents not from his team and one of them was working for Carla.
Parker was then driven to a location where Jason died. Jason was Carla’s only child. Carla found out that Parker was the one that told Jason she was a criminal and that Jason ran away to escape her because of it. He soon died in a motorcycle accident after running away. Carla blamed Parker for her son’s death.
She had the chance to kill him and she didn’t take it. She instead left him knocked out on the side of the road. Which was fine because Parker never trusted her to begin with. He cloned her phone from the start and he gave it to Kasie.
Kasie just hadnt cracked it in time to stop his abduction. Once Parker was found safe, Kasie did get information from the phone. She found out that Carla was the head of Nexus. There was no Butcher.
The entire cartel wasn’t even being run by anyone Spanish. It was all white people involved. They merely bought into the stereotype to become a dominant force and were even selling weapons to the white power movement. Knowing that helped. NCIS eventually found the bomb. They disarmed it because Parker knew the code to do so. It was the numbers that spelled out “Jason”.
The bombing was averted. The media credited former Deputy Director LaRoche for foiling a domestic terrorism event and, while that annoyed some, McGee was fine with him getting the credit.
He was doing the work before they got involved. The two also buried the hatchet. It helps that LaRoche was no longer his boss or lying to him anymore. They thought it was all over. Parker returned home. He knew his elderly father was in town. He returned home to his dad to find him murdered. Carla killed him. She made sure that Parker knew she had killed his father.
And Jimmy found something odd. Parker asked for his help in finding his mother’s grave. Jimmy was doing so when he found the woman’s death certificate. Something about it wasn’t adding up and it wasn’t just the fact that her body couldn’t be found.
THE END!