NCIS Season 21 Premiere Solves That Torres Cliffhanger But It 'Breaks' Him

Contains spoilers for "NCIS" Season 21, Episode 1 – "Algún Día"

"NCIS" is back with Season 21, and it's starting off on quite an emotional note for one particular character. The "NCIS" finale for Season 20 proved to be a dark turn for Wilmer Valderrama's Nick Torres, as the episode saw the NCIS agent go undercover to enact revenge against his mother's abusive ex-boyfriend, Maurice Riva (Al Sapienza). It all results in a massive cliffhanger, with Nick locating the criminal before pointing his gun at him. Now, the Season 21 premiere is finally providing a resolution to the conflict, and the effects on Nick as a character are pretty devastating.

The new episode, titled "Algún Día," picks up with the revelation that Maurice has been murdered. All signs point to Nick being the one who did the man in, and the rest of the NCIS team's efforts to clear his name aren't helped when he pleads guilty to the charges and gets thrown in jail. Of course, the group's insistence that Nick wouldn't kill someone in cold blood turns out to be accurate, as it's revealed that he only beat his former abuser and confessed to his murder to protect his sister, whom he believed to be the true killer. Thankfully, a bit of sleuthing reveals that another one of Maurice's victims is responsible for his death, and the case is closed.

Unfortunately, while the episode sees Nick's name cleared, he doesn't emerge unscathed from the ordeal, physically or mentally. "This season premiere definitely broke something in him, and he's going to have to rebuild himself in the first couple of episodes," Valderrama told The Wrap.

With the "NCIS" Season 21 premiere seeing Nick Torres hit rock bottom, the character has quite the journey ahead of him as he navigates his trauma. Fortunately, Wilmer Valderrama has indicated that the agent will find growth through his friendships over the course of the season. "The beauty of it is that he's going to understand that it's OK to lean on the people around [him] and ask for help," the actor told The Wrap.

It seems Nick isn't the only character who will be getting some deeper focus beyond the usual procedural action beats either. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Valderrama noted that the "NCIS" creative team is taking a character-focused approach to the upcoming stories. "Moving forward, we're going to lean a little bit heavier on the souls and the hearts of our lead characters," he said. "I feel like our audiences have been so giving and so beautiful to just tune in and watch us and watch these characters. For the actors, it's very refreshing to exercise all of our muscles to really, really go there and to really find the root of your pain, your trauma, or your patterns."

Notably, "NCIS" Season 21 is making one huge change, as it features an abbreviated set of 10 episodes. According to Valderrama, the team is leaning into this shift by experimenting more than ever with characters and storytelling. "We're going to swing in directions that are a lot more personal and a lot more high-concept," he said. "It's still very much grounded in the mothership. We're not doing unnatural stuff for our characters, but we are really exploring storylines that I think could really help the following seasons."