McGee Chases Shadows on NCIS Season 22 Episode 19: Is Laroche a Villain or a Pawn?

McGee is so deep into his investigation of Deputy Director Gabriel Laroche that he’s sleeping on the job.

And he needs no extra eyes on him as he drills into his superior’s history.

But is Laroche an evil shapeshifter who has infiltrated our government? On NCIS Season 22 Episode 19, McGee is doing his best to find out.

First, though, there are some honorable mentions that added flavor and a little mystery to “Irreconcilable Differences.”

The Undercover Wedding that (Nearly) United a Team

The first thing that came to my mind was whether you could even be married without a marriage certificate.

It turns out, no. Someone filed one on their behalf.

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Why in the hell would any company offer a 25% increase in pay for being married? What kind of holy unequal hell is that?

The HR rep didn’t even consider it problematic for two agents to work together so closely until they’d already spent a lot of time digging into the benefits. 

When so much intense stuff is going down, it was a silly distraction for the two seasoned agents.

Parker’s Lily Update

Finally! Under the cover of darkness in a stopped elevator, Parker reveals what he’s been thinking about since he discovered Lily is a real person.

Of course, Jess was on a psychoanalysis kick with McGee’s dream and then Parker’s thing with Lily, and she shoved what he said under the rug without a second thought.

Girl, it’s far more than that, so can we please investigate it in more detail? 

McGee Gets Benched

Parker benched McGee, and with good reason. His head was elsewhere, which wasn’t helpful for anyone.

He even slipped and called Parker Gibbs. He was about as far down the Laroche rabbit hole as he could get, even if I did appreciate the multiple Gibbs callouts.

He decided to use his time off to explore Laroche’s activities further, but man, if doing surveillance out in the open like that is how the NCIS operates, you have to wonder how they have survived so long.

But when McGee found Laroche in an abandoned power plant where he shot a man, I began to wonder if he was still dreaming. Laroche would be far more than a generic NCIS baddie if he weren’t.

Things didn’t unfold in McGee’s favor in the aftermath of the shooting. There wasn’t even a body. That’s some incredible cleanup in very short order. The whole scene was cleaned of everything, from bullets to drag marks.

Vance wasn’t going to let it continue, so he called the Secretary of Defense — no idea why or what it accomplished, but it happened.

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As for Laroche, the man is unflappable. He casually sauntered up to McGee and asked how he was doing after being mowed down in the street. 

Granted, Laroche didn’t do the mowing, but he knew damn well McGee had been right behind him, likely witnessing his display in the plant.

But he did pull the rug out from under McGee by filing a formal complaint of misconduct against him.

A Birthday Gone Bad

So that’s what a signal jammer looks like? You’d think it would be a lot smaller to escape detection. 

Instead, it looks like a Super Soaker disguised as a military weapon.

Arlis Pinkerton aka Crispin Shaker, Jr. If Laroche is a military level baddie, then Shaker is what we’re more used to in the NCISverse.

The real surprise was when the man Laroche shot was connected to the birthday truck robbery.

Laroche is the Lynchpin

The team theory is that Laroche is a mole for the Nexus Cartel, desperately in need of an escape plan.

It was so bad, apparently, that he was even hiring thieves to raise the much-needed cash needed to make it a reality.

By that point, everyone was on board with helping McGee. Laroche isn’t one of them, and he’s proven that he shouldn’t be given the benefit of the doubt.

But geez. How on earth would someone get so corrupt that they’re pulling off birthday truck heists right under the nose of NCIS?

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That doesn’t exactly instill confidence in the organization.

And if McGee was hoping to look hinged during his conversation with the independent investigator, he definitely came off as unhinged. 

Then they learned that Laroche was trading evidence for cash, which meant he was still out there, leaving new evidence behind. He didn’t know about Rule #45, and if he did, there’s no way one man could clean up so much.

If we’re to believe that this is how it’s playing out, then it’s a quick and scummy wrap-up to the Laroche situation. He somehow became no better than a birthday truck bandit. 

This guy once had a good record with the organization, enough that he (whether through merit or not) managed to get the deputy director position over McGee.

How did he pull the wool over so many eyes? Isn’t NCIS supposed to be better than that? Only McGee could see him for what he was?

At the very least, McGee proved his eyes are always open, making him very deserving of a leadership position. 

He’s also shown that he loves being scrappy, but I have to wonder if he might have the same hesitation Herrmann is going through on Chicago Fire when ditching the daily grind to don a suit.

But then that cliffhanger happened.

What do You Want to Bet Laroche is Working With Another Government Agency to Bring Down Nexus?

I’m not thrilled with that ending about Laroche suddenly wanting to reveal the truth.

It’s better for the show if Laroche isn’t a smarmy baddie who climbed the NCIS ladder for all the reasons I mentioned above.

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We can’t have the entire organization sullied by one guy’s power trip. But if he’s intentionally staging that show to bring down a cartel, it’s less murky.

It’s still silly, just like Nick’s undercover operation that nobody else was in on. They do that a little too often. Director Vance would need to know what his people were doing, even if it’s just a hint, to ensure agents like McGee don’t go rogue trying to take down people doing undercover work.

I have no idea what the NCIS Season 22 finale will bring, but I hope it’s not so convoluted and unrealistic that my eyes roll back.

However, with the rapid (and hidden) cleanup of Laroche’s mistakes and how he easily walked into the evidence bay to cart off an entire van’s worth of evidence, it’s looking more like he’s not a cartoon-level bad guy than McGee (and now the team) thinks.

Agree? Disagree? Have a theory?

Let us know in the comments, or share this article with someone who will want to argue about it with you. That’s what makes it fun.

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