Tonight on CBS NCIS returns with an all-new Monday, February 26, 2024, season 21 episode 3 called, “Lifeline,” and we have your weekly NCIS recap below.
In tonight’s NCIS season 21 episode 3, “Lifeline” as per the CBS synopsis, “When the NCIS team engages in Walk-A-Mile Day to gain a new perspectives on different departments, things take a turn when Kasie receives a distress call from a mysterious man.”
So make sure to bookmark this spot and come back between 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM ET for our NCIS recap. While you wait for the recap make sure to check out all our NCIS recaps, spoilers, news & more, right here!
Tonight’s NCIS Recap begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!
NCIS did something different on tonight’s episode. Each team member of NCIS was split up to work different jobs. This included Kasie. They usually investigate crimes involving servicemen or women and tonight they were doing the other jobs that for the most part goes unrecognized. McGee was in the garage with the mechanics servicing all NCIS vehicles. Torres was with the accounting team helping to itemize who ordered what office supplies. Knight was with maintenance. She was the only one that was learning so much and she now knows a lot of tricks to keep old buildings running. She was also free to text Kasie all the new gossip she learned thanks to the new job.
Kasie was with dispatch office. She was taking calls. Most of it was telling people to call the police. Kasie was doing fine with that and so her supervisor left her alone to grab a coffee. In those few minutes she was alone, someone called in saying they believe they were being followed. They also went quiet and Kasie heard gunshots before the call went dead. Kasie had no idea what to do. She also couldn’t figure out why he kept saying a code. She had to ask her supervisor about that code because she had never heard it before.
Only her supervisor didn’t know what it meant either. Kasie brought what she heard to McGee. He knew that the numbers that her potential victim was spouting off was in fact an old way that NCIS Agents used to identify themselves. They changed that system about ten years ago. Whoever called in hadn’t known that. This meant they were former NCIS Agents. McGee ran the code. It came back as belonging to Eric Webb. He was former NCIS like they suspected. He did a lot of undercover work and that’s why the rest of his file was listed as confidential.
They needed Director Vance to grant them access to the file. Once they were in, they learned that Eric left NCIS years ago and joined a small insurance company. The insurance company only exists on paper. Its mailing address was also a PO Box. It was clear that it was front for something else. NCIS couldn’t trace the call. They were able to trace Eric’s car that he had been using. They followed it to a CIA safehouse and it was full of dead bodies. One of the bodies had a wallet identifying them as Eric Webb.
Which apparently was a misdirection. Eric planted his wallet on one of the gunmen he killed because someone sold him out and he thought that person must be the CIA. He was in a CIA safehouse when it got hit. No one else should know about that house. Eric called back dispatch to talk to Kasie. He trusts Kasie. She was the only one he was willing to talk to. He contacted NCIS because he was worried about a leak in the CIA. He was former NCIS. He still trusts NCIS. It also was true that the CIA couldn’t investigate on the domestic front. They operate overseas.
CIA showed up at the safehouse. They ran everyone’s fingerprints. They knew Eric wasn’t dead. They asked NCIS if he contacted them again and Parker lied to their faces. He pretended like Eric never made contact again after the first time. CIA allowed NCIS to take lead on the case. They told them that they deal with their internal matters themselves and Parker didn’t necessarily trust that. He thought the leak came from within their department. He didn’t think it came from their French allies. And so he questioned them about what was going on that safehouse before the blood bath.
The CIA had collected a black hat hacker by the name of Alexander Renard. They arrested him in France where he was living and he claimed something when he got arrested. He claimed that he knew of an imminent terrorist attack on the United States. He said he learned about it on the dark web. He was only agreeing to tell the Americans about it if his charges disappeared. He was now dead along with several CIA Officers. Eric was the only one that survived. Eric later called Kasie again and he told her that Renard said something to him before he was killed.
It was directions to a locker at a DC train station. Eric checked the locker. He found an old time radio and it played just one song. He had no idea what it meant. He played it for Kasie when he called. She worked out what it meant. She knew that there was an old time radio store in DC. The radio was the message. NCIS Agents went to the radio store. They found the owner dead. He had been shot. They also found the components of a bomb and not the bomb itself. The radio shop owner was a bomb builder. And that bomb was now in the Washington DC area.
NCIS were doing their best to track it down. When Kasie next talked to Eric, she asked him why he hasn’t come in. They know there’s a bomb at play. They know that the bomb maker was killed. They even knew there was a leak within the CIA. Eric could come in and be safe at NCIS. So, why didn’t he? Eric told Kasie that he wouldn’t rest until the bomb was off the street. Kasie believed him because they had developed a bond. The same bond was tested when McGee found something. He found out that the offshore account that paid for the bomb belonged to Eric.
NCIS became afraid that Eric wasn’t trying to stop the bomb. He was the one that was going to set it off. It would explain why he wouldn’t come in. It also explained who leaked the CIA safehouse. NCIS looked further into Eric. They learned that he never left NCIS voluntarily. He was pushed out. He got upset after a bomb went off in Spain and he became hostile to everyone he worked with. He especially was angry with his own agency. He was pushed out after becoming aggressive. He next joined the CIA. He had access to their files. He knew when they had grabbed Renard.
Eric could have easily have staged the ambush himself. He knew Renard knew too much. The only thing that couldn’t be explained was his attachment to Kasie and then Kasie went missing. Eric grabbed her. They were able to track down the pair. There they learned that Eric was being framed. He was being framed by someone named Harlan. Harlan lost a loved one in the Spanish bombing. He was recently diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. He was dying and he wanted to take the CIA down with him.
He blamed everything on Eric because Eric was an easy target. He was single. He had no kids. He was known for his temper after the bomb in Spain and he could be blamed for everything. Eric was telling Kasie the truth the whole time. He grabbed her because he needed a scientist’s help proving that Harlan was responsible for everything. And they did that together.
NCIS arrested Harlan. The bomb was found before it went off. Eric’s name was cleared and he was free to ask out Kasie for lunch. It turns out their bond was real.
THE END