Tonight on CBS NCIS returns with an all-new Monday, April 22, 2024, season 21 episode 8 called, “Heartless,” and we have your weekly NCIS recap below.
In tonight’s NCIS season 21 episode 8, “The NCIS team looks for a motive behind the kidnapping and death of a famous heart surgeon.”
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In tonight’s NCIS episode, NCIS Special Agent Aldean Parker was injured. He plays basketball with Torres at the gym. They were in the lead for the upcoming championship and suddenly he came to work with a sniff neck. He could barely move. He couldn’t bend down. It made things hard for him when he attended the next case.
They were brought in when the body of Navy Commander Erik Harper was found. He was a world renown heart surgeon. He belonged to the Navy Medical Core. He was working at a hospital when he got grabbed during a food run. He was taken and he was forced to do surgery on someone. This someone being an unknown. And afterwards Erik was killed.
NCIS didn’t know about the surgery at first. They simply thought it odd that his kidnappers would kill him after transporting him over two hundred miles. Jimmy also noticed the blood on Erik didn’t belong to him. Erik was shot in the head.
There was no exit wound and so the blood on his scrubs must have belonged to someone else, but Kasie was the one that found an anesthetic commonly used in surgery in the blood found on Erik. She confirmed that Erik performed surgery on someone. The blood wasn’t a match for anyone in the database and so the criminal was off the grid.
Erik specialized in removing tumors around the heart. He was known for never losing a patient. NCIS spoke to his partner and fellow servicemen.
Dr. Claire Logan was used to working by Erik’s side. She said he was one of the most gifted surgeons she ever met. Erik once successfully performed surgery in a tent. Anything after that was considered an upgrade. Erik also helped in his own murder investigation. He walked around with a mini recorder. It was the only thing of value found in the getaway van used to transport him.
The van was a burnt out husk. The kidnappers had even plenty several items to lead investigators down the wrong road. The one thing they didn’t count on was the mini recorder or that Erik recorded them. He got some of their conversation. It was South American Spanish. Torres translated it.
He and Parker also heard “El Viento”. The nickname was a known alias for Carlos Savina. He was the head of the Cali Cartel. Many agencies have tried to get him. He’s always disappeared. Its why he was known as “the wind”.
If Savina was in town, he has to give himself at least three days to recover. He ruthlessly killed the man that saved his life and he couldn’t afford to take any more risks. Or he might undo Erik’s hard work. The team went digging through Erik’s life to see if he was followed. Knight learned that Eric had stopped performing surgeries. He was teaching residents. He just wasn’t doing surgery and its odd he would step away when he’s famous for saving lives. It was because he developed a tremor in his hands.
Erik was seeking treatment for it. He wouldn’t have risked a patient and so there’s a chance that he stopped surgery in the middle. Heart surgery was a delicate thing.
Erik could have left Savina open on the table if his tremors got out of hand. It would explain why he had been murdered and dumped like that. It would also mean that Savina still needs a surgeon.
Parker was talking to Logan again when Savina’s men broke into her office. They kidnapped Logan. Parker pretended to be a doctor because he was outgunned. He let the bad guys think he was the only one that could help Logan perform surgery.
Savina’s men kidnapped both. They took both Logan and Parker. Parker was counting on his team finding them before he actually had to help perform surgery and so Logan played the pessimist to his blind faith. She reminded Parker that she’s never performed a surgery so tough without Erik. She saw Savina’s scans.
They showed her how large the tumor was. It’s the largest she’s ever seen. She didn’t think she could handle it on her own much less at gunpoint. She was going to give Parker some advice only the bad guys opened the doors before she could finish the sentence.
Parker just knew he had to act like a surgeon. He couldn’t exactly learn heart surgery on the fly. He had to be arrogant and condescending. Like the surgeons on his favorite show, Grey’s Anatomy.
Savina’s people brought them to a warehouse. There was a state of the art operating room created in that warehouse. Savina was already on the table when they arrived. He basically questioned Parker because Parker claimed to be Dr. Trowbridge. He’s never of that man. It was actually a name he got from a spy movie and Logan was the only one to realize it.
Logan recognized many of his backstory being from movies. They were sharing a moment about it when his team finally showed up. NCIS took out of most of the bad guys.
Parker took out the last gunman. Savina was transferred to a nearby hospital. They saved his life and he was now under arrest. Director Vance was happy with the news. Savina killed a couple of NCIS Agents in one of the many raids he faced and Vance was happy to give the families’ closure.
And Torres solved Parker’s neck problem by giving him a hug so tight it straightened the spine.
THE END!