This week's episode of NCIS titled "Sangre" really got close to home for poor "Torres"! Warning, spoilers ahead!
Season 18 Episode 12 "Sangre" Recap
The episode started by showing how "Torres" (Wilmer Valderrama) was first abandoned by his father as a small boy in Panama. His father "Miguel" lied to "Torres" and said he would be right back, instead, stealing all the money he and his mother had left and never returning. This explains why "Torres" has a difficult time letting people be close to him.
Now a federal agent he and his NCIS team were called to the murder scene of a Marine Staff Sergeant named "Richard Larson". He was found stabbed to death and a key found near his body. "Kaisey" found DNA on the key and realized it was a close match to "Torres" himself! According to her, it would be from a close male relative.
"Torres" assumed it must belong to one of his cousins because he believed his father had died years before. While investigating the team came across "Miguel" who immediately recognized adult "Torres" even though he hadn't seen him since his son was 5-years-old. "Miguel" got into a bit of a scuffle with "McGee" (Sean Murray) and ended up getting arrested and questioned.
"Miguel" had suspicious answers to their interrogation so they kept him in custody while they investigated him. Sneaky "Miguel" had checked into a hotel room using the maiden name of "Nick's" mom and learned a lot about "Miguel". It turns out, "Miguel" had been an operative for the CIA, working in South America and being very financially successful while poor young "Torres" and his mother starved before being rescued by their local church. He claimed he "got busy and lost touch" instead of answering honestly.
The NCIS team was forced to release "Miguel" because he had been working on a special CIA case, which infuriated "Torres" who wanted to arrest his father. "Vance" pulled "Torres" aside to get him to agree to put aside his disagreement with his father for the sake of the investigation because he would not lose another good agent (like he has "Gibbs").
Eventually "Torres" and his father spoke, "Miguel" explained to him that he had to leave because his work with the CIA jeopardized his family. The dictator of their country learned about "Miguel's" connections and would have killed him. When the dictator was overthrown it was too late, "Miguel" already had too many enemies in the area so he would donate funds to their local church to help take care of "Torres" and his mother.
"Miguel" had even been keeping an eye on them all these years, which explained how he recognized "Torres" as an adult. The pair ended up working together to solve the case which led to a scary shootout. "Miguel's" boss "Pamela Walsh" had stolen CIA funds and had planned to pin it on "Miguel" and his cohort "Baird" and then kill all the parties involved.
Speaking in Spanish "Torres" and his father came up with a great distraction plan and the duo was able to take down "Walsh". "Torres" even agreed to introduce his father to his granddaughter over dinner. "Miguel" happily agreed but did not show up so "Torres" instead had his family dinner with "Gibbs" (Mark Harmon) instead. Luckily, "Torres" has "Gibbs" as a far better father figure.
Adorably, "Torres" simply told "Gibbs," "I don't want to talk about it." To which "Gibbs" replied, "Then you've come to the right place." Hopefully, "Gibbs'" suspension will end soon and he will be able to get back to his team with the help of journalist "Marcie," played by his real-life wife Pam Dawber!
div id="eZObject_192338" title="'NCIS' Season 18: Is "Ziva" Making A Comeback?" alt="medium" view="embed" inline="false" class="ezoeItemNonEditable ezoeItemContentTypeObjects" customattributes="href|attribute_separationlink_class|attribute_separationlink_id|attribute_separationlink_title|attribute_separationlink_target|"> 'NCIS' Season 18: Is "Ziva" Making A Comeback?