Tonight on CBS NCIS: airs with an all-new Tuesday, March 17, 2026, season 23 episode 12 called, “In Too Deep” and we have your weekly NCIS recap below.
In tonight’s NCIS season 23 episode 12, “In Too Deep” as per the CBS synopsis, “A murdered drone pilot leads the team to a missing woman from McGee’s past and a relationship he thought was long behind him.”
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On tonight’s NCIS episode, Director Vance was still at odds with Special Agent Parker. The two have butt heads quite a lot lately. If it wasn’t one case, it was the fact that Knight almost lost her job.
They now couldn’t share the workout room without making it awkward. They were both glad when Parker got called out to a scene. He was called to the scene of a murder.
The victim was identified as Navy Chief Warrant Officer Martin Hodges. He had been in the park and was seemingly enjoying flying around a drone when he was attacked.
He was stabbed several times in spite having his gun strapped to his side. The killer must’ve surprised him. The gun was now missing as well.
Plus, there was no one around to explain a certain photo. Martin had a photo of Dr. Olivia Garcia on him. McGee identified her because he recognized her. He used to date her before Delilah.
They haven’t seen each other in years and he had no clue why Martin had a photo of her. They were theorizing maybe he was a new boyfriend or husband, but Torres found what Martin had in his car.
It was duct tape and zip ties. No good will come from that combination. It made them question what Martin was really doing at the park. And why he felt the need to bring a gun to do it.
Martin was a drone pilot for the Navy. He was thirty-eight. He was single. His boss said he’s been tired a lot on the job recently and he thought he might be moonlighting.
Was he moonlighting as a kidnapper? Or something worse? They tried looking for Olivia. Her neighbors thought she was traveling. She has a teenage son in Europe and could’ve gone to visit him.
Then they found the missing persons report. Olivia was reported missing six weeks ago. The neighbors didn’t know because the detective on the case was dealing with a backlog and hadn’t put her case into the system. Much less question anyone who might’ve seen her.
Parker’s already low opinion of DC Police just got lower. He would’ve had more to say on the matter if he didn’t get forced into weapons recertification at FLETC.
He’s been pushing it off as long as he could and now they were threatening to instantly fail him if he didn’t show up. So, he went. He ran into Director Vance who also needed to get recertified.
He tried to stay in touch with the team and he couldn’t do that around the trainers because they were very serious about their jobs. They demanded all eyes on them. Or they fail the class.
Parker’s team tried to keep him filled in on the big things. Like the missing persons report. There was also the fact that they found a heart in a jar hidden in Olivia’s office at TURF Labs. It wasn’t human. It was a primate’s. Jimmy thought Olivia could’ve been doing some off the books animal testing.
It had to be off the books because her job was looking into new means of creating biofuel. Fuel that was easy to make and better on the environment. It had nothing to do with animal testing. Not unless Olivia found something on her own that needed investigation.
Olivia reached out to McGee two months ago. Before that he hadnt heard from her in years. He never got the chance to respond to her and now she’s missing. He was worried she was in trouble.
She reached out for help. He was told not to go there because it would send him down a rabbit hole. Now, he’s spiraling again because he found out the intern at TURF Labs lied about his identity because he was Mateo Garcia. He was Olivia’s son. He was eighteen. He never knew his dad and his mom was missing.
Mateo lied his way into getting an internship at his mom’s job because he wanted to find her. He even hired Martin to find her. Martin wasn’t a kidnapper. He was looking for a missing woman and he probably got too close because he was killed for it. Only that wasn’t the reason McGee was spiraling. He was doing so because he dated Olivia eighteen years ago.
He could be Mateo’s father. He needed to do a DNA test and Mateo figured out why they asked him for a sample. He hacked his mother’s Facebook page. He saw that she dated McGee right around the time he was conceived.
Mateo didn’t care either way if McGee was his dad. He’s gone his whole life without one. He just wanted his mom back. McGee promised they’d do everything to return his mom to him. They brought in Olivia’s boss for questioning. He apparently had three other labs and none of them knew about each other.
Kasie was worried he might be creating a bioweapon. Leo Trask admitted they were creating a smart drug to help soldiers. The government knew about it and wanted to buy it. Olivia stopped him from pushing onto the market before they were ready.
Olivia has been down this road before when she worked for big Pharma. She didn’t want to release something that might harm people. She stopped Trask from going to market because she found a safer enzyme to use and it was cheaper.
She saved Trask millions. He actually wanted to promote her. In the meantime, Parker and Vance patched things up. Parker didn’t know it only the rumors about CID getting folded into NCIS were true. There were going to be cuts. Vance has been trying to save everyone’s job. And that’s why he didn’t have the energy to do daily fights with Parker.
He also didn’t think Parker wanted to hear from him after his dad died. They made up. They were also filled in on the case. The job that Olivia had before had led to deaths. The husband of one of the victims was a cook on staff at TURF Labs. He abducted Olivia. He wanted to hurt her like she supposedly hurt him.
He was going to kill Mateo once he realized who he was but McGee stopped him. McGee was Mateo’s father after all. DNA confirmed it. They looked alike. Mato has McGee’s tech savvy. He also ran into danger much like his father.
Leo Finch was arrested. Olivia was found and taken to the hospital. She was reunited with her son. And she later talked to McGee about everything – including becoming a part of Mateo’s life. But NCIS learned that they were getting shut down. Not CID.
THE END!