Since first premiering in 2003, the military cop drama “NCIS” has aired for a total of over 400 episodes across 18 seasons and counting (via IMDB). Naturally, within that span of time, the series has included its fair share of moments that have disappointed and wowed fans alike. Season 14, for example, was considered by a certain contingent of the “NCIS” fanbase to be a low point for the series largely due to the departure of a fan-favorite character, and resultant complications from his replacements. By contrast, fans have regarded the Season 9 finale as a series high point, largely due to its cliffhanger ending. Accordingly, many fans’ expectations were high going into Season 10, following Season 9’s suspenseful final moments.
In fact, Season 10 did ultimately shake up some established series norms over the course of its 24 episode run. For example, the eleventh episode of the season marks the death of Jackie Vance (Paula Newsome), the wife of then-longtime NCIS director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll)
While the death of Vance’s wife is perhaps one of the dramatic peaks of Season 10, though, one moment from the season premiere still has some “NCIS” fans confused to this day.
Questionable police work
In a post titled “[SPOILERS] Season 10 Ep 1” shared to the “NCIS” subreddit in July of 2021, user snushawk asked, “when Dearing was approached by the undercover agent and she took him to the motel room or whatever, why didn’t they just bust him in the street since they knew his location and he’s so dangerous?”
In the “NCIS” Season 10 premiere, titled “Extreme Prejudice,” the Naval Criminal Investigative Service team is attempting to track down and apprehend Harper Dearing (Richard Schiff), who was behind a major bombing attack in the Season 9 finale. At one point an undercover FBI agent lures Dearing into a hotel room, but Dearing has rigged the room with explosives in advance, which he then triggers, killing four FBI agents. Reddit user snushawk, then, is wondering why the FBI didn’t simply apprehend Dearing upon their meeting, rather than leading him into a hotel room first.
As it turns out, the members of the “NCIS” subreddit are just as unsure. As user Nathans_Bikeapedia wrote, “Tbh, I have no explanation what so ever.”
User kiwi_g_g suggested that the FBI could have been attempting to limit danger to civilians, presuming Dearing might have been dangerous were he to learn he was under arrest in public. The other two replies offer no explanation, sharing the original post’s confusion. The simplest answer, of course, is that the FBI falling for Dearing’s trap ups the dramatic stakes of the episode moving forward, but since this line of reasoning doesn’t account for the characters’ in-universe decisions, the FBI’s irrational behavior in “Extreme Prejudice” remains an “NCIS” mystery.
