Tonight on CBS NCIS: airs with an all-new Tuesday, April 7, 2026, season 23 episode 15 called, “Knick-Knack” and we have your weekly NCIS recap below.
In tonight’s NCIS season 23 episode 15, “Knick-Knack” as per the CBS synopsis, “A murder aboard a museum ship becomes a cryptic treasure hunt when a dying Navy captain leaves a final clue; to solve it, the team must decode what was worth killing — and dying — for.”
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On tonight’s NCIS episode, an old WWII ship has been turned into a museum nearby. This young girl was touring with her father when she did what kids usually do. She touched something she shouldn’t have and almost got decapitated. Yes, it was wrong but she ended up finding a body that way.
The body was that of Retired Naval Captain Miles Griffin. It was odd that he was found wearing the Marine uniform. He was full on Navy. He was proud of its history. He was also the museum curator and it seemed he was attacked in his office/room onboard the ship before he tried to flee. And ultimately died from his wounds.
He went by the nickname Griff. Griff lived on the ship. He had a cot in his office where he slept. He was a bit old fashioned. He didn’t believe in the digital era. He didn’t have a cell phone nor a computer. He likes the physicality of books over a tablet. Griff’s room on the ship was so small that he didn’t leave much room for junk.
He had an item that was important to him for each year of his life and that was it. The items didn’t seem like they were worth much. His most valuable was a medal that he pinned on the Marine uniform and wrote in his own blood a single message.
The message said “keep it safe”. Keep what safe? Knight didn’t know and interested her. She thought this was DaVinci code at first. Then she came to believe it was Indiana Jones and that there could be treasure. Parker spoke with Griff’s last living relative, his grandson Kevin. Kevin said there wasn’t going to be a treasure.
His grandfather loved collecting junk for each year. He once convinced Kevin when he was eight that there was a secret gift for Christmas and it ended up being a message about valuing family. Kevin hated it.
Kevin didn’t think his grandfather hid anything worth finding. Special Agent Knight disagreed. The medal that Griff put on right before he died was created in 1946. It was the clue to deciphering his coded diary. His diary also mentioned something about befriending Marine Major James Kirby.
Kirby was on the books as receiving six hundred dollars every month from the museum. Which in itself is odd because he’s been dead for nearly fifty years. Griff was using money from the museum to pay for a room at this shoddy place.
Griff never visited. There were cobwebs everywhere. Knight felt sure that the treasure was hidden there and she proved to be right when she found a dinosaur bone.
The bone was in pristine condition. It was from a rare dinosaur so it was easily valued at millions. Griff’s assistant at the museum gave them the information.
It therefore made sense why Griff was selling. Griff has contacts in the art world. He was seeing Bethany Lipton. Their letters were all about fighting because the arguments supposedly made things hotter for them.
Bethany was brought in for questioning. She said there was a buyer for the bone. His name is Fabian Druker. He was Austrian. The family were huge supports of the Nazis back in the day and they’ve since done their best to distance themselves from it. They were huge collectors.
They gave away millions if not billions in endowments. They threw together art galas. The latest descendant was at a gala on the night Griff died. He was there and so was Bethany. The two also had a thing. They didn’t kill Griff.
At least not personally. Druker said that the deal never went through for the bone. Griff refused to show it to him and Druker doesn’t buy what he can’t authenticate. Druker failed to mention that he was broke. He had the title as well as some old castles. The debts were bigger than whatever was left in the bank.
He needed that bone. It would’ve returned him to a lifestyle he’s grown accustomed to. There was just one issue with the bone they had their hands on. It was fake. Kasie was out of town so Curtis took over. Curtis tested the bone. It was a plaster of the original.
Something an assistant museum curator should’ve realized. Nora lied when she authenticated the bone. NCIS believed that she lied for someone. They thought it was Druker.
Druker never intended to buy the bone nor was Griff selling it. Griff was given the bone by Marine Major Kirby. Kirby acted as a mentor for him. Kirby found the bone in Germany during WWII. He gave it to Griff and Griff has been trying to find its proper owners ever since. Until he could find them, he had it hidden on the museum ship the whole time.
Griff believed it was a part of history of the war. He put it where it would be appreciated even as he researched its history trying to find its real owners. Druker abducted Nora.
Nora wanted to finish Griff’s final mission. She wanted to return the bone to its rightful owner. Druker wanted it for himself. He nearly killed Knight when he shot her in the arm. Knight’s team saved her and they told Nora that the bone will now go to Griff’s grandson, Kevin. And she was so upset because she said Kevin wasn’t worthy.
Kevin didn’t believe in the journey. He was selfish and spoiled and it wasn’t just about Christmas when he was eight. He killed his grandfather for that bone. Griff found out that Drukers stole the bone from a Jewish family from before the war with the help of the Nazis. Druker didn’t want that getting out.
He paid Kevin to convince his grandfather to sell the bone. It didn’t work. It even led to Griff’s murder because Kevin never understood the value in things. And Nora did so she was released and given the bone’s origin.
Nora will return the bone to the family it was stolen from.
And Knight came to appreciate her own family’s history when she found her great-grandfather’s old glasses. She turned them into sunglasses and now wears them with pride.
THE END!
