NCIS Season 24 Episode 2 Recap and Review: “Clean Slate” Teases McGee’s Future

NCIS Season 24 Episode 2, “Clean Slate,” gives Director Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) a problem that cannot be solved by taking a seat behind his new desk. He keeps getting involved in the team’s investigation, leaving Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) to ask what that involvement means. Alden Parker (Gary Cole), Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) and Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) also have to adjust as a dinner-party mystery takes increasingly strange turns. Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) offers Tony a different kind of support away from the office.

The two stories give the title different meanings. The investigation involves people trying to conceal their histories, while Tony is deciding how much of his old working life belongs in his new position. By the end, the apparent marriage has been exposed as a cover, and Tony has chosen surveillance over an immediate arrest. His conversation with McGee then reveals another plan: the Secretary of the Navy wants McGee to succeed her when she retires.

Director DiNozzo Has His Own Approach

Tony’s introduction to the job includes a false biohazard alarm and an impromptu opportunity to address the staff. His message is straightforward: the agents should solve cases, and his responsibility is to support them. It is a reasonable starting point, even if the rest of the hour shows how often he chooses to step into the investigative process.

He wants updates. He wants to participate in questioning. The instincts that made him an agent have survived the promotion, and his presence creates a question the team cannot simply ignore: is the new director helping, or making their work harder by stepping into it?

That uncertainty gives Tony’s return something useful to explore beyond familiar jokes and relationships. His authority has changed, but everyone’s expectations have not changed with it. The team turns to McGee to speak with Tony, relying on a relationship that predates the new chain of command. McGee knows the colleague beneath the title, making him the right person to challenge Tony without treating the conversation as a confrontation with a stranger.

Ziva Remains Part of Tony’s Life

Tony’s return also keeps acknowledging Ziva, even while she is away. Her contact with Knight over Tony’s diet gives their relationship a practical presence in the episode: his move back into the NCIS workplace has not erased the life he built beyond it.

Those references help connect the returning character to his recent history, although they have limits. A season spent mentioning Ziva without exploring the couple’s life together could leave an important part of Tony’s story at a distance. For now, the check-ins provide continuity; they do not confirm that Ziva or Tali will appear later.

Jimmy supplies another connection to Tony’s past. A conversation in the lab reveals that Tony is sleeping on Jimmy’s couch and keeping the thermostat colder than the household would like. The arrangement is a small domestic detail, but it makes his return feel less self-contained. His old friendships are helping him settle into his new circumstances.

The Dinner Party Ends With Everyone Unconscious

The case begins at Linda and Greg’s home. She steps away to get more wine and returns to find her husband and their guests unconscious. Armed intruders enter the house, and she hides in the pantry until they leave. Their arrival looks organized, yet the aftermath offers no obvious answer about what they came to take.

A guest, Naval Intelligence Officer Mallory, provides the Navy connection to the investigation. The apparent lack of theft is the opening’s strongest hook: the intrusion looks organized, but missing valuables cannot explain its purpose. The Navy changes Mallory’s access codes as a precaution while the team looks for answers.

Three dinner guests subsequently burn evidence in their backyards, adding another problem. Their behavior suggests there is more to this gathering than a group of innocent neighbors caught in the wrong place. Each concealed fact makes it harder to decide whether the intrusion, the guests’ actions and the eventual death all belong to the same scheme.

The Storage Locker Changes the Investigation

Linda reports Greg missing, and footage shows someone following him before his disappearance. The team then learns that his car has been found with his body inside. Linda initially believes a heart attack caused the accident. Poison discovered during the examination establishes that his death was a murder.

A small brass key Linda recalls seeing leads to the episode’s most alarming discovery: a storage unit filled with eyes. They are pig eyes, rather than human remains. Kasie connects them to extracting an enzyme for a drug, and the investigation eventually identifies a hair-growth formula as the relevant research.

The man seen following Greg is Carl, whose drug-arrest history makes him look like a likely suspect. Under questioning by Knight and Tony, he explains that he now works as a fixer. He was hired to recover a formula after stolen research led Greg and his neighbors to work on a hair-growth drug worth $30 billion.

Carl’s account supplies a motive for following Greg, but it does not finish the investigation. The drug research and the espionage plot overlap without being interchangeable explanations. That distinction gives the episode its best procedural idea: a person can be hiding something consequential without that secret accounting for every crime around them.

Smart-Home Footage Exposes Linda

A conversation with Tony prompts Kasie to reconsider the evidence from the house. Examining the vacuum’s motherboard exposes a fail-safe and leads the team to a hacker hired to access camera-equipped smart devices within a two-mile radius.

The recovered footage brings Parker to CIA agent Russell Cross. The agency had been investigating a deep-cover operation with an unknown objective. A lead had narrowed the search to a ZIP code, and Greg’s pursuit of his own interests had compromised the operatives’ ability to remain unnoticed.

Cross confirms that the CIA gassed the dinner-party guests, explaining the intrusion without making the agency responsible for Greg’s death. Footage from a dog feeder supplies the murder evidence: Linda killed him. Their marriage was itself a cover, and she acted to protect the operation.

The camera evidence changes Linda’s position from apparent survivor to identified killer. It also separates two events that initially looked connected. The CIA carried out the raid; Linda committed the murder for reasons tied to the covert operation.

Why Tony Stops Linda’s Arrest

McGee prepares to arrest Linda, but Tony stops him. NCIS will allow her to remain free and monitor her movements instead. He indicates that something larger is coming, making her potential next steps valuable to the investigation.

This is the episode’s crucial unresolved point. The team knows who killed Greg, but knowing the killer does not close the intelligence case. Linda’s freedom is a deliberate investigative decision, rather than evidence that NCIS missed her involvement or lacked a lead.

It also gives Tony a consequential director’s choice amid his enjoyment of casework. He decides to defer the immediate arrest in pursuit of a broader objective. That approach creates a continuing story with a specific question: what will keeping Linda under observation reveal?

Why Tony Keeps Joining the Team’s Cases

McGee’s conversation with Tony gives the director story its explanation. Tony is aware of the burden the office carries. Having seen what the role can do to the people who occupy it, he wants to preserve a connection to the work that made him want to be there.

Tony also enjoys catching criminals. His involvement is deliberate: he knows which job he holds, but wants to keep doing a part of the work he finds satisfying. That makes the issue one of boundaries and priorities rather than a failure to understand the promotion. He cannot participate this closely in every investigation while also running the agency.

The conversation works because the friendship can accommodate disagreement. The earlier exchange about a probie lets McGee turn Tony’s old habit back on him: this time, Tony is the newcomer to a role McGee has experience filling in. Their familiarity survives, but the joke recognizes that both men have changed. McGee can be protective of Tony while still asking him to give the team space.

Is McGee Being Considered for SecNav?

The conversation then looks beyond Tony’s appointment. Knight has already suggested that Director McGee would sound right, reflecting a possibility that has hung over the change in leadership. Tony offers a different explanation for McGee being passed over: the Secretary of the Navy has a larger future in mind for him.

According to Tony, SecNav is looking to retire and wants McGee to succeed her. His absence from the director’s chair is part of a different plan for his future. That reframes the missed promotion as preparation for a role beyond the agency itself.

Her intention is more specific than a general compliment about McGee’s potential, but it remains a future plan. McGee has not become Secretary of the Navy in “Clean Slate,” and the episode does not establish when a transition would happen or whether he would accept it.

Placing that possibility after Tony explains his own reservations gives the ending more substance. A bigger title can recognize someone’s ability while also changing their relationship to the work. The episode lets Tony acknowledge that cost just before suggesting McGee could face a version of the same choice.

Final Verdict

“Clean Slate” combines a busy mystery with a useful examination of Tony’s new position. The storage-locker discovery supplies an unsettling detour, and the smart-home footage establishes Linda’s guilt while exposing the couple’s false marriage. The investigation asks viewers to follow several changes in direction, which makes some clues feel more substantial than others.

The stronger lasting development is Tony and McGee’s conversation. It gives Tony a reason to remain involved without pretending the director’s duties will be effortless, then opens a potential future for McGee that deserves exploration. Their exchange is the episode’s most satisfying payoff: familiarity makes the conversation possible, while their changed positions give it something new to explore. Tony’s decision to leave Linda free also moves the spy story forward. The murder has an answer, while the operation’s larger purpose remains a question worth following.

NCIS Season 24 Episode 2 Ending Explained

Who Killed Greg?

Linda killed Greg to protect their covert operation. A dog feeder’s camera recorded the killing. The couple were not actually married; their relationship was part of their cover. CIA agent Russell Cross supplies the footage that establishes her involvement.

Why Isn’t Linda Arrested?

Tony stops McGee from arresting her so the team can monitor her movements. Her role in Greg’s death is established, but the larger operation’s objective remains unknown. Keeping her under surveillance is intended to help expose what comes next.

Who Carried Out the Dinner-Party Raid?

The CIA gassed the guests while investigating the deep-cover operation. Cross distinguishes that action from Greg’s murder, which Linda committed.

Were the Eyes in the Storage Locker Human?

No. They were pig eyes, linked to obtaining a chemical used in a hair-loss drug. The discovery redirects the investigation rather than proving the victim was a serial killer.

Why Does Tony Keep Getting Involved in Cases?

Tony understands his role but enjoys catching criminals and wants investigative work to remain part of it. McGee speaks with him after the team becomes uncomfortable with his involvement. Tony still needs to balance that enjoyment with running the agency and supporting its agents.

Does McGee Become Secretary of the Navy?

No. Tony says the current SecNav plans to retire and wants McGee to take her place. That is an intended succession, not an appointment completed in this episode. No timetable or decision from McGee is established.

When Does NCIS Return?

NCIS Season 24 Episode 3, “Sleeping Dogs,” airs Tuesday, October 20, 2026, from 8:00–9:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Torres must confront his past when someone uses his retired undercover identity to commit murders. Guest star Mike O’Malley plays his former handler, Walt Keller. Read CBS’s official next-episode preview for more.

Catch up through CBS’s official NCIS page and Paramount+. Premium subscribers can stream live and on demand; Essential subscribers can watch new episodes on demand the day after broadcast. “Clean Slate” becomes available to Essential subscribers Wednesday, October 14.