Tonight on CBS NCIS: airs with an all-new Tuesday, December 1, 2025, season 23 episode 7 called, “God Only Knows” and we have your weekly NCIS recap below.
In tonight’s NCIS season 23 episode 7, “God Only Knows” as per the CBS synopsis, “A kidnapped teen leads the team to a Navy SEAL who survived captivity by the Taliban but may have committed murder after returning home.
Also, Jimmy finally shares his findings about the mysterious death of Parker’s mother with his boss.”
So make sure to bookmark this spot and come back between 8:00 PM – 9:00 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, straight out of a film was what happened. This guy sky dives right into a residential neighborhood. He steals a car and the teenager driving it. He committed kidnapping. It was even considered armed kidnapping because of the gun. Yes, he has a gun too. He was a paratrooper.
He left behind his helmet and his parachute that said Navy on it. NCIS got called in to deal with the matter. They checked the helmet. His call sign was “kingfisher”. He was one of the leap frogs. They do aerial shows stateside to promote the Navy.
Why would one of them kidnap a teenager. The teenager’s name is Jake. His father was giving him driving lessons when the guy fell from the sky and the father got out of the car to check on him.
Then the man pulled the gun. That’s when things took a very different turn. NCIS was looking for Lieutenant Max Winger. Winger was captured by the Taliban during the American withdrawal. He was a prisoner for two years and he was rescued finally last December. He was back home only he wasn’t fully healed.
Max struggled with his return home. He had moved out of his house with his family. He was going to therapy with his wife. He also killed someone. Max kidnapped Jake to get a ride back to his house. He let Jake go after he got the ride and Jake drove the car back home. He left before the shots rang out.
It’s why he didn’t know about it until after the fact. Max has killed someone at his house. He killed a fellow naval officer, Captain David Cruz. Cruz was found in the master bedroom. The sheets were disheveled. NCIS came to believe that Cruz must be having an affair with Max’s wife.
It would justify why Max disappeared on his team midair. He disappeared on a jump. He rushes home and kills someone in his bedroom. NCIS had no other choice than to believe Max found out about the affair. Only they spoke with Max’s wife. Mrs. Winger swears she never cheated on her husband.
She said that marriage counseling was working. Max was becoming affectionate again. They both deeply religious and they would never break their vows. She’s never seen Cruz. She doesn’t know what he was doing at her house. She just wanted to know where her husband was.
Max wasn’t a killer. His wife knew he wouldn’t kill someone randomly. Orders were one thing. Murder was another. With the family being so religious, NCIS found out that the family often attended mass at the local Chapel on base. They went there and they had just missed Max. Max made a confession to the chaplain. Parker asked the chaplain about it only it was no good. Max spoke under the seal of confession. The chaplain couldn’t say even if he wanted to. And he didn’t want to.
Parker still arrested the man. He was questioning him. Trying to break him when Director Vance put a stop to it. Vance knew they couldn’t break naval protocol just because Parker was in a bad mood.
He’s been in a bad mood since his father was killed. He was just extra pushy now because Jimmy finally told him about his mom. Jimmy believes Parker’s mother might not have died in a car accident at all. She might have been murdered. Parker couldn’t take that news right now because he never asked Jimmy to look into his mother’s death.
Parker merely wanted to know where his mother was buried. He wanted to visit her grave. He was looking for closure and all Jimmy did by digging and digging into the matter was reopen an old wound. Parker couldn’t deal with that right now. He bit off Jimmy’s head. He barked at anyone who wouldn’t help. This included the chaplain as well as his own boss. Parker has had a rough year. It wasn’t looking up because they found a hidden compartment at Max’s apartment. It had the Quran and a prayer rug.
The chaplain was also stolen by Max during the confession. Max used it to access the Navy’s munitions depot. He stole something. NCIS was worried it was a bomb and that Max was a terrorist.
But they were wrong. Max went back to the chaplain. He asked him for a means of turning himself. He didn’t want to harm anyone and the chaplain knew Parker’s family. He helped arrange Parker’s dad’s funeral at sea. He also helped Parker’s sister through her loss. He wanted to help Parker as well.
There was a connection between Max and Cruz. There was also a third man that recently died. His name was Liam O’Brian. He served with the other two at a top secret airbase in Afghanistan nicknamed the O.K. Corral.
They pulled off missions taking out high profile Taliban leaders. When Parker found out about the secret airbase, he thought maybe Max had been converted during his capture but he was wrong because the original theory was wrong. They finally learned why Max rushed home.
Max received a call that his wife and son had been taken hostage. It was AI generated. Parker found out everything once he talked to Max. They served at the OK Corral. They all got sick there.
They inherited the place from the Russians during the Cold War. Max stole the soil from that place. It was deeply contaminated. It was going to kill over a thousand people that served there. Max said Liam killed himself rather than die slowly. Max needed to clear his name because he was also sick. He wanted his family to have his benefits after he was gone.
Max thought Cruz was killed to cover up what happened. It wasn’t. Someone used what happened at the secret base to cover up a blackmail. Cruz was being blackmailed and he was killed when he refused to pay.
It turns out the chaplain works with a younger man named Seaman Morris. Morris stood bugged the chapel and he would listen in on people giving confession to blackmail them. Morris was later arrested. He tried to take the chaplain hostage only the guy watches Tarantino films. He picked up how to defend himself.
The real killer was put away. Max was free to return to his family and die a painful death, but the Pentagon was taking his concerns seriously. People were going to get tested now. They were going to receive early treatment thanks to him.
And Max showed Parker that it was better to know the truth so he asked Jimmy to find it with his mom.
THE END!
