The stakes are rising for Nick Torres on NCIS Season 24. After a tense start to the season that saw Michael Weatherly's Tony DiNozzo take over as director, the team is diving back into high-risk cases. Now, Torres is heading undercover again, and this time he's crossing paths with a familiar face from HBO's True Blood.
According to the official synopsis for the November 17 episode, titled "Ride or Die," Torres finds himself in a precarious situation: he's behind the wheel of a getaway car during a kidnapping. To protect the victim, he goes undercover, but one wrong move could get everyone in the car killed. Enter James Frain, who guest stars as the enigmatic John Smith, a character whose arrival throws Torres' mission into chaos.
Frain is no stranger to genre TV. He played the charmingly unhinged vampire Franklin Mott in True Blood's third season, and his résumé also includes memorable roles in Orphan Black, Gotham, The Tudors, and Star Trek: Discovery. His knack for playing morally ambiguous characters makes him a perfect fit for the murky world of undercover work.
This isn't just another case for Torres. As Wilmer Valderrama has hinted, the character is using these dangerous assignments to figure out who he is now, especially after his previous deep-cover stint left him psychologically scarred. "He can't just psychologically make a decision," Valderrama said. "He's just going to throw himself in the deep end and swim it out and figure out [if he] can survive it?"
Torres has always been the agent willing to go further than most, and these off-the-books CIA jobs—set up by his former handler Keller (Mike O'Malley)—are exactly what he's been craving. The question is whether he'll find more satisfaction in the field, making split-second decisions, or in playing by the rules back at headquarters.
The episode promises to be a tense ride, with Frain's John Smith adding an unpredictable layer to an already volatile situation. Will Torres be able to keep his cover intact, or will Smith's arrival blow everything apart? Fans will have to tune in to find out.
For more on the world of NCIS and other TV favorites, check out our look at Tom Selleck's possible return or see how other franchises are scaring up success.
Don't miss "Ride or Die" next Tuesday at 8/7c on CBS.
