Tonight on CBS NCIS: airs with an all-new Tuesday, November 11, 2025, season 23 episode 5 called, “Now and Then” and we have your weekly NCIS recap below.
In tonight’s NCIS season 23 episode 5, “Now and Then” as per the CBS synopsis, “A prison break by an inmate who had just three weeks left on a sentence compels the team to reopen the case of a naval officer’s death that was originally investigated by Gibbs and Franks in the ‘90s, and enlist the help of retired special agent Vera Strickland.
Also, the team has different views on what to include in a special Navy time capsule, on the thrilling conclusion to the decades-spanning crossover”
So make sure to bookmark this spot and come back between 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM ET for our NCIS recap. While you wait for the recap make sure to check out all our NCIS recaps, spoilers, news & more, right here!
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In tonight’s NCIS episode, NCIS arrested Sheriff Thomas Mulligan over thirty years ago. They put him away for murder. He didn’t do it. He confessed to take the fall for the woman he loved and she was the true murderer. She got away with her crimes. She started a family with her husband.
She never visited Mulligan in all those years. Nor did Mulligan ever waver in his confession. It therefore doesn’t make any sense why Mulligan would break out of prison now. The chance to do so would’ve been years ago. He also could have waited the additional three weeks. He had a recent parole hearing and he was about to get released for being a model prisoner.
There was no reason why he escaped. Much less why he brought Luther Stokes with him. Luther wasn’t like Mulligan. He didn’t go to jail for being a good man. He went to jail for being a hitman for the mob. He got into tons of fights. He easily made enemies and he didn’t even run in the same circles as Mulligan.
Mulligan was a loner. He’s been a loner for thirty years. This became NCIS’s case because Mulligan was originally NIS’s case. They started looking for both men that escaped and they soon found Stokes. He was murdered less than ten miles from the prison.
Everyone thought it was Mulligan that killed Stokes. They figured Stokes was holding him back. They also found one of the prison guards was missing a cell phone and so they tracked down that cell phone.
It showed Mulligan was heading towards Vera Strickland. She worked the case back in the day with Franks and Gibbs. Back then, she thought Franks had asked her out. He actually asked her if she wanted to join a motorcycle group that his neighbors were running. Vera joined that club. She also kept the Harley. The same Harley that Mulligan would go on to “borrow”.
Mulligan didn’t hurt Vera. They sat down for tea. He asked for money and clothes. Mulligan asked her for a five minute head start on top of everything else.
NCIS showed up before he could leave so he cut their tires. Parker was tempted to arrest Vera for aiding and abetting. Only she was bored. She found retirement to be boring. She said she couldn’t wait to return to work and she could help them work this case. She knew all the players. She even knew that Jimmy Wallace from Mulligan’s hometown grew up to be a congressman.
The meth head that destroyed an NIS vehicle also happened to be the new Sheriff of Serenity. The players back then were still important now. Wallace had stayed in contact with Mulligan.
He said Mulligan had recently gotten aggressive. He said what Mulligan did was what got him interested in politics. Wallace claimed he always believed in the rule of law and that Louis Burke was killed for attacking his grandfather. The funny thing is that the town no longer believes that Burke attacked Grandpa Dom.
As for Lainey Sims nicknamed “Birdie”, she was no longer in the picture. She died three years ago. Mulligan still thinks about her and he even still draws pictures of the last time he saw her. It was Lainey who killed Louis Burke. Mulligan took the fall for her because she was pregnant at the time.
He was also hopelessly in love with her. Lainey admitted to her then husband that she killed Louis in revenge for Grandpa Dom. Franks trying to break Mulligan’s false confession had even looked into that murder case.
Grandpa Dom was assaulted. He eventually died at the hospital. His case was ruled murder. It was believed that Louis Burke ultimately killed him because he was assaulted by a bat and that was Burke’s favorite weapon. Burke was the town bully. He put the fear into everyone with that bat of his.
What the town didn’t know was that he had injured his shoulder months before the assault. There’s no way he could have done it and the forensics team from back then had held onto the bat. It wasn’t a match for Burke. He never killed Grandpa Dom. He was killed for something he didn’t do.
The town went downhill after Mulligan’s arrest. It was like someone put a curse on the town. They used to be a thriving farming community until a supposed drought ruined their water supply. Now, it was a ghost town. Lainey’s ex-husband stayed on there. His name is Mac.
Mac confessed it was Lainey and he also mentioned that they found out that they were wrong about Burke attacking Grandpa Dom. Then he killed himself. His final words was to tell his son that he loves him and the man never knew their son Jason wasn’t his.
Jason Cross was actually Mulligan’s son. Mulligan and Lainey had been having an affair for four years. Her husband never knew about it. Mulligan broke out of prison because his son was in danger. Jason has been investigating Grandpa Dom’s murder and he believes he knows who really killed the man. Not only that.
He wanted revenge for what happened to his family. He thinks the original sin was what tore his family apart. He knew Mulligan was his father. He knew Mulligan went to prison so that he could still have his mom.
Jason privately investigated. He knew that the man that actually killed Grandpa Dom was his own grandson, Congressman Wallace. Jason intended to kill him and Mulligan wanted to stop him. Mulligan turned himself in when NCIS came. He just wanted their help. Together they stopped Jason before he did something stupid.
They also tested the congressman’s DNA against the one on the bat. Thet proved he was the one that killed his grandfather. He did it to inherit the property. His grandfather was sitting on a water supply that could have helped out the town during the drought.
Mulligan will also be released for time served because he served thirty-three years for a crime he didn’t do. He even killed Stokes in self-defense. He was reunited with his son and the two can finally start to heal.
And Jimmy Palmer realized what would be best served in the Navy’s time capsule – the book about their case files along with photos of the many NCIS teams that served the nation.
THE END!