Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS episode “Algún Día” are ahead!
The NCIS Season 20 finale ended on a dark cliffhanger for Nick Torres. In case you missed the episode when it originally aired, or need a refresher and don’t care to rewatch “Black Sky” with your Paramount+ subscription, While in prison as part of an undercover operation, Nick recognized one of his fellow inmates’ stepfather as someone from his own past. Upon being freed from incarceration, Wilmer Valderrama’s character confronted this man at his home, pointed a gun at his head and threatened to kill him.
It certainly ranked as one of the tenser ways NCIS has wrapped up a season, and because of last year’s writers and actors strikes, we’ve had to wait longer than usual to see what’s next. But now NCIS Season 21 is finally here, and the premiere, titled “Algún Día,” didn’t waste any time wrapping up Nick Torres’ latest personal arc. However, there was a moment in this episode that has me worried about Nick’s well being for the rest of the season: when he broke his sobriety.
How The NCIS Season 21 Premiere Wrapped Up This Nick Torres Arc
It was revealed in “Algún Día” that this mystery man was Maurice Riva, who took in Nick, his mother Aida and sister Lucia when they moved Miami, Florida after they were forced to flee Columbia because Aida witnessed a crime. Maurice promised to help Aida find a job and get a green card, and the two eventually developed a romantic relationship. Sadly, not only did Maurice start abusing Aida and the kids, he also stole her identity and used it to commit fraud. One day, he just disappeared, and in the present day, he was now dating the mother of Reymundo de Leon, the aforementioned inmate who was behind bars for, you guessed it, fraud. In other words, this time, Maurice was framing someone who trusted him.
To make a long story short, Nick is arrested for a few days after his confrontation with Maurice Riva for killing him, as there was a lot of circumstances pointing to him as the murderer, which included him shooting a confession video prior to facing Maurice. This proved not to be the case, as we saw by the end of the episode that on the night Nick confronted Maurice, while he did physically assault the man, he couldn’t bring himself to kill him. Instead, the reason he was taken away by the authorities for Maurice’s death was because he was taking the blame on behalf of his sister, as he believed she killed him sometime after he left Maurice’s home.
But that’s not what happened either. The true culprit ended up being Marta de Leon, Reymundo’s mother, who detailed in a confession letter that she found Maurice Riva after his confrontation with Nick. Enraged by what had happened, Maurice confessed to Marta that he was only using her and her son. Then he attacked her and she killed him in self-defense using his own gun, then lied about what happened because she didn’t think her word would carry any merit with the FBI.
Nick Drinking Again Has Me Worried
Although Marta has disappeared to parts unknown, Nick Torres has now been cleared of murder, and while he initially offered to resign from NCIS because of the questionable actions he did take, Alden Parker convinced him to stay and start trusting his teammates more. Unfortunately, this experience led to Nick breaking his sobriety. At the beginning of the Season 21 premiere, shortly after he and Maurice Riva fought, Nick went to a bar and ordered a double whiskey shot and a “bottle to go.” The next we saw of him, he was asleep at Alden’s desk on Monday morning, implying he went on a bender over the weekend.
Nick has officially fallen off the wagon, and I’m worried about what this means for his well being. I understand that there was too much going on in “Algún Día” for this to be readdressed in the episode, but with all the time NCIS has followed along with Nick getting sober, which has included him seeing Dr. Grace Confalone, I find it hard to believe the show’s not going to follow up on this. This is serious, and Nick needs to start taking steps to ensure he doesn’t continue drinking, or he may end up in an even worse mental head space than he’s been before.
Granted, because NCIS Season 21 will only consist of 10 episodes, this may not be explored as much as I hope it will. Still, some acknowledgment about this setback for Nick would be welcome, and then if NCIS is renewed for Season 22, then we can get more in-depth with delving into the aftermath of his relapse. To simply gloss over this portion of “Algún Día” would be a disservice to the character.
New episodes of NCIS drop Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS, and next week’s episode will pay tribute the late David McCallum’s Ducky. For all your other small screen-related inquiries, head to our 2024 TV schedule.