NCIS Season 22 Episode 15 Recap: Parker’s Past and a Murder Investigation Collide in “Moonlit”

NCIS Season 22, Episode 15, “Moonlit,” brings a harrowing mix of investigative drama and individual revelations.

When a Navy Lieutenant’s demise leads the team into a mesh of deceptiveness and homicide, Special Agent Parker finds himself tackling a deeply repressed mystery from his past.

As Torres and Knight unknot a case linking an underground party, an unsafe family, and a surprising suspect, Parker faces alarming facts about his mother’s death and the mysterious young girl he keeps seeing.

Let’s look at finding out more about the new NCIS episode “Moonlit”.

Note: This article contains spoilers.

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A case of privilege, crime, and an alligator bite

The NCIS team is pulled into an abnormal case when Lieutenant Robert Mosley is found dead in an alleyway. At first, his murder looks as if it is a robbery, but the forensic report brings to light a more ominous reality —his body displays bite marks from an alligator, a piece of evidence that raises more queries than answers.

As Torres and Knight look into the case further and further, they come to the conclusion that Mosley had, as of late, become undependable at work and had c*caine in his system. The case takes an intense turn when they find a QR code on his wrist, a ticket to a limited and private underground party.

Camera footage from the private party offers a scandalous shock: Mosley was not alone that night—he was in company with an NCIS Special Agent Sawyer.

This link forces the team to cross-question Sawyer, who unwillingly confesses that he was operating an illicit side job as a security element for Shayna Reynolds, a well-to-do young woman with a hunger for environmental activism.

Her family’s choice to sell wetlands/swamps for development had put her in a quarrel with them, but when Mosley was found dead, it became clear that there was more on the line than just a regular and ordinary real estate deal.

A family secret unravels the truth in NCIS season 22, episode 15

As NCIS inspects more, they find a troubling path that leads back to Shayna’s family. Shayna claimed that she had nothing to do with Mosley’s dying, but her activities the night of the underground party— freeing an alligator in protest of unlawful wildlife imprisonment — set hurdles for the case ahead.

She also discloses that Mosley was to be helping her in leaking her family’s devious land deal, which endangered and terrorised species. His death now gave the impression of it being far from accidental.

The investigation eventually leads the team to Peter Braden, the Reynolds family's head of security. As they put together the evidence, they understood that Braden had been attempting to conceal an even advanced crime—the murder of his wife.

Her body, buried in the swamps, was found due to the footage Shayna had accidentally recorded. Once Mosley found out about the crime, he turned out to be a target.

In a tense argument, Braden tries to silence Shayna and the NCIS crew, but in an unexpected twist, Sawyer comes forward and stops him, verifying that he’s more than just Torres’ long-time adversary.

With the killer caught, Shayna and her family must face the aftermath of their actions, and the swamps she fought so much to safeguard remain safe.

Parker’s past comes crashing back

While the murder investigation progresses, Parker is dealing with his personal haunting. For weeks, he has been seeing visions of a little girl, a face from his past he can’t fully recall. Set to reveal the truth, he counts on Jimmy for help to sketch out the girl’s face, describing her as hopeful and intelligent.

His hunt leads him back to an aching chapter of his life—his mother’s death. When Parker confronts his father, Roman, about the past, he learns the upsetting truth. His mother, whom he had been told had passed away due to a stroke, had actually died in a car accident after a heated fight with Roman.

The accident had one survivor—a little girl named Lily, the same girl Parker had been seeing all along in his visions.

As Parker handles this newly found information, he gazes at an old news article verifying the particulars of the car crash, with a picture of Lily standing at the scene.

In the final scene of the episode, Parker turns to see Lily standing next to him once more, a quiet reminder of the past he is only now beginning to understand.

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“Moonlit” combines a convincing murder case with an intensely emotional character arc for Parker. The investigation into Mosley’s death keeps viewers glued to their screens with unexpected twists continuously thrown at them.

On the other hand, Parker’s personal journey adds a layer of emotional depth to the character. Sawyer’s unanticipated hero moment, the upsetting family disputes of the Reynolds case, and Parker’s tragic understanding about his mother all make for a memorable yet haunting NCIS episode.

NCIS airs Mondays at 9:00 PM ET on CBS.