If that is the case, the producers and writers of NCIS would want to give Torres an appropriate exit just as they did with Special Agents Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Harmon) and Eleanor Bishop (Wickersham), and tonight’s episode may very well be the beginning of the end of his storyline. As the “Fight or Flight” episode begins, Torres shows up to work late and is tired. He had blown off drinks with Knight (Katrina Law) the previous evening, so she was curious as to what he was up to. “We spend all day together at work. Do we have to spend every second of our lives together, too?” he asked, obviously not wanting to discuss it further, trying to push her away. Then he demonstrated a bad attitude toward NCIS Special Agent Dale Sawyer (Zane Holtz), who he sees as a potential replacement for him and who none of the other agents really like because he is a brown-nose. “Parker has our performance evals from last week, maybe he is thinking of replacing one of us,” Torres told Knight. He later gives her a hint of what is bothering him while they are on a stakeout when he said, “This isn’t Gibbs’ team anymore.” When the case requires one of the agents to get into an underground cage fighting operation, Torres volunteered to fight, sure that he could beat his opponent. When Parker (Gary Cole) asked him who he can hurt, Torres said not McGee, but volunteered Sawyer, who he would love to take on. But when they got to the cage fight for the audition, it turned out to be a big, hulk of a guy, not Sawyer, who Torres would audition with, and Torres was willing to put his life on the line. McGee tried to stop the fight when it got ugly, saying, “It looks like you’re trying to get yourself killed. Torres said, “Yeah, so? Who’s left to care, man?" McGee said, “Me.” And Torres responded, “Yeah, until you don’t.” McGee said, “Where am I going? I’m not going anywhere.” Torres said, “I don’t know man, but you already have a family. You don’t need me.” Finally, at the end of the episode, Jimmy (Brian Dietzen) got a sense of what was going on with Torres and said, “You feel abandoned. You feel left behind. I get that.” When Torres doubted him, Jimmy explained that he gets angry at his late wife for dying and leaving him, even though she died of COVID and fought as hard as she could to stay with him and their daughter. Jimmy went on to say that he talks to the shrink about it, but he has come to the conclusion that sometimes people leave. “Even fathers. And it has nothing to do with you. Nick, you have to open yourself up to getting hurt again if you ever want to heal.” Torres was feeling abandoned—and not without reason. First Bishop, who he had romantic feelings for, left to take an undercover assignment, and then Gibbs retired to fish in Alaska. Being abandoned is a trigger for Torres, whose father Miguel (Steven Bauer) walked out on their family when Torres was 5 years old. “I think that he learned to not trust,” Valderrama told Parade.com for the “Sangre” episode of NCIS, which explored Torres’ issues with his father. “I think that losing trust made him go after the bad guys. If you’re going to abandon my mother and me, I think that was a major beacon for Torres to go after tyranny and to go after justice. This whole time, Torres has learned to be this guy based on what he plainly saw as abandonment.” In that episode, it seemed as if Torres and his father were finally going to have a reconciliation, but then Miguel deserted him once again, leaving him with even worse abandonment issues. So, when Gibbs, who became a father figure substitute for Torres, left without looking back, it set Torres on this downward spiral. NCIS airs Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Next,NCIS Loses Another Cast Member With the Departure of Emily Wickersham—Find Out Why!
