‘NCIS’ Delivers Twist in McGee’s Investigation of Laroche Ahead of Season 22 Finale

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for NCIS Season 22 Episode 19 “Irreconcilable Differences.”]

McGee (Sean Murray) is determined to take down Laroche (Seamus Dever) no matter what on NCIS, and in the penultimate episode, his former boss who knew a thing or two about personal pursuits, Gibbs (Mark Harmon exited in Season 19), is brought up quite a bit.

The episode begins with McGee, dressed like Gibbs and even pouring himself a drink like the man, in his basement, noticing an Alaska postcard. Then the TV in the room shows a feed of himself there … walking around the back of a boat, so McGee follows suit. It says Tim. When he hears someone upstairs, his immediate reaction is “Boss?” but it’s Laroche. “Don’t look so surprised, you knew this was coming,” he says before shooting him, and McGee wakes at his desk to everything he has on the man on his computer screen.

Basement dreams can mess with your head, Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) remarks to Knight (Katrina Law); in his, Gibbs gave him a virgin pina colada and told him to stop slouching. Knight interprets McGee’s as a classic fear of failure. He was dressed as Gibbs because he holds himself to impossible standards and wants to live up to Gibbs. Then, when Parker (Gary Cole) tries to send McGee home after three all-nighters in a row, the agent snaps, “I can do my job, Gibbs!” It’s a clear sign he does need to go home.

But he only gets as far as his car when he sees Laroche get into his, without the security detail he’s had lately after the hit put out on him, and so he follows him. Laroche switches cars before ending up at an abandoned power plant. There, he sees Laroche shoot someone, then the deputy director runs when McGee makes a noise and calls out for him to stop. While chasing him, McGee is sideswiped by a truck and Laroche escapes. The driver only saw McGee, not Laroche, and furthermore, there’s no sign of a body or the scene being cleaned up. McGee insists he saw what he did, and Parker and Torres believe him, but will anyone else? Vance (Rocky Carroll) needs proof, especially since it looks like this could be about McGee losing the deputy director job to Laroche.

Michael Yarish / CBS

Meanwhile, the team has been working a robbery case; someone used a military-grade signal jammer to rob a truck with forged registration. The team focuses on that one after they’ve been ordered to drop the one against Laroche (who comes to check on McGee and suggests he take it easy for a few days), and the log of the signals that the jammer blocked leads them to Arliss Pinkerton, the alias for Crispin Shaker Jr.; one of his known associates is the guy Laroche supposedly killed, McGee confirms after briefly seeing Gibbs’ truck parked in his spot. It looks like the connection to the heist was Laroche needing cash and hiring thieves to do the dirty work of getting the money from a Nexus truck that, as the mole for the cartel, Laroche had the scoop on.

But then Inspector General Ward reveals that an official complaint has been filed against McGee for professional misconduct, harassment, and an abuse of power, and everyone knows it was Laroche. (As McGee sits in an interrogation room, again, his wife Delilah texts about him ignoring her and asks, “What’s next — a boat in the basement?” Ouch.) Ward insists this is an independent investigation, not a favor, but McGee thinks Laroche is using her as his pawn. Ward, instead, turns it around on him, arguing that his actions — pulling Laroche’s personnel records, setting up alerts for when he uses his keycard, and entering his home office without permission — speak for themselves. To her, it looks like jealousy, and when McGee says he’s willing to testify Laroche is a killer, she decides to recommend indefinite (instead of temporary) suspension, pending formal charges for defamation. When he tells her his phone has alerted him to Laroche being in the evidence garage, where he’s not supposed to be, she takes his phone. That’s when he asks for a lawyer, and she walks out.

The team then finds the first real proof they have: The dead thief’s phone turns on, and on the body (the guy whom McGee saw Laroche kill) is a mint just like the deputy director loves to snack on.

When Ward returns to the interrogation room, however, McGee is gone and left behind a simple note: Rule #45. He’s cleaning up his mess. Parker likes that rule, but as Vance points out, “Gibbs’ rules always come at a cost.” A partial print on the body matches Laroche’s, and the team presents that as well as everything else they’ve uncovered to Ward, who gives them the okay to go after Laroche, who’s driving off with evidence in the back of a van — and McGee’s hiding in there!

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Laroche meets with Shaker, wanting what he’s owed, and McGee bursts in, with his gun out, using the same words that the deputy director in his dream did. Laroche remarks on his steady hands and assured stance, noting, “Gibbs would be proud. I read the files,” but “Gibbs pulled the trigger when he had to. You don’t have to.” Shaker then turns his gun on McGee, and Laroche shoots Shaker. Shaker fires when he goes down and it looks like McGee is possibly hit in the arm or shoulder. Laroche tells McGee that he saved his life, and McGee tells him to drop his gun; when the rest of the team comes in, Laroche surrenders. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, he says, and points to Shaker’s pocket, in which is a computer chip. It’s not about money, Laroche insists, and it never was. “It’s time you know the truth,” he says. But what is the truth?!

What’s your theory about Laroche and his “truth”? Let us know in the comments section below.

NCIS, Season 22 Finale, Monday, May 5, 9/8c, CBS