The newest member of the NCIS family, NCIS: Sydney, premiered its first episode, "Gone Fission." The crime drama wasted no time diving right in with an investigation that combined efforts of US Naval Crime Investigative Service (NCIS) agents and the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
During a press conference at Fleet Base East, a protester revealed a giant sign that read, "Go home yank nukes." Moments later, US Navy Petty Officer Eric Flynn (Brayden Havard) began bleeding from his nose, blood dripping down his white uniform. He collapsed to his knees, fell in the water just below him and died.
How does the NCIS team solve this mystery? Read on to find out.
A date gone wrong
AFP's Sergeant Jim "JD" Dempsey (Todd Lasance), Liaison Officer Constable Evie Cooper (Tuuli Narkler) and Forensic Scientist Bluebird "Blue" Gleeson (Mavournee Hazel) meet with AFP Forensic Pathologist Dr. Roy Penrose (William McInnes) to go over the body. Dr. Penrose discovered the seaman's liver and kidneys were swollen and he had a broken rib or two. He also revealed the victim's knuckles were badly bruised.
As he was showing them the top of the victim's head, NCIS agents Michelle Mackey (Olivia Swann) and DeShawn Jackson (Sean Sagar) came in, wanting to take the body stateside. A power struggle ensued over who had rights to the body and investigation. Ultimately, they learn they're meant to work on the case together, with Mackey leading.
The NCIS and AFP teams dug into Flynn's life. He was single, on a dating app and had a date the previous evening with a 27-year-old woman named Xena. At Xena's (Kama Lord) apartment, Jackson and Cooper discovered she was a transgender woman who looked nothing like her photos. Someone hacked her profile, so the real Xena wasn't the one on the date with Flynn.
Meanwhile, Mackey and Dempsey were at the bar where Flynn and his date met. An employee remembered seeing Flynn with a blonde (Georgina Haig) "when the trouble happened." That trouble was a couple of guys messing with him when they found out he was American — hence the bruised knuckles and cracked ribs. Luckily, there was footage from the bar. Gleeson ran it through facial recognition and found a match with a man named Evan Gerber (Tom Dawson). When approached by Dempsey, Gerber ran, but was caught by Mackey.
Upon questioning, Gerber said he was an activist and proud he raised awareness of the nuclear subs in the harbor. However, he denied knowing anything about Flynn's death — he proved it by showing footage of him walking away from the fight. That footage proved to come in handy for another reason, because it showed the blonde woman seen in Xena's dating profile. Gerber confirmed she was hanging out with the Americans. Dr. Penrose came into the room and said that Gerber wasn't their guy. In fact, Flynn was as good as dead at that point already, because he was radioactive.
A nuclear cover-up
Mackey and Dempsey returned to the scene of the crime. It was all but confirmed that radioactive waste was being emptied into Sydney Harbour, but putting an end to it would be far from simple.
"Nuclear propulsion is the most closely guarded secret in the US Navy. Not everyone gets to pop the hood on one of those bad boys," Mackey said. "Yeah, well, I just hope there’s a hood to pop by the time they get here," Dempsey responded, referring to a specialist flying in from San Diego.
Back at the lab, Dr. Penrose explained Colonel Richard Rankin (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) came in during Flynn's autopsy and took the body. Dempsey believed Rankin was burying the evidence. As things started getting heated, Jackson and Cooper entered the room with news. Additional officers were being tested and coming back negative for radiation. Lieutenant O'Leary (Luke Lamond) left the base the same time as Flynn and never returned. If he is radioactive, too, he has 24 hours before it's too late. The team tried to pull his file, however, the system denied them access.
Jackson and Cooper headed to the bar where O'Leary's credit card was last used. An employee recognized his picture and said as soon as he entered the place, an attractive blonde woman made a beeline towards him.
Mackey and Dempsey met with US and Australian officials, who, in not so many words, made it clear they were trying to make the case go away and the agents were expected to play nice — or else. But would that stop them? Yeah, no.
Another sailor down
The team tracked down O'Leary at a motel, where he had checked in with a woman. As Mackey and Dempsey approached the door, they heard gunshots and ran to the room. They found O'Leary sitting on a bed with a gun in his hand and blood coming out of his mouth and splattered on the wall. Dr. Penrose confirmed O'Leary wasn't radioactive, but he couldn't say if it was a self-inflicted gunshot. There was also a farewell note next to him and the bathroom window was open with the screen pushed out.
Jackson and Cooper arrived on the scene and explained what they learned at the bar. Although it didn't have security cameras, it did have a photobooth that O'Leary and his mystery woman used, confirming she was the same blonde woman seen with Flynn. Instead of bringing O'Leary's body back, in fear Rankin would take possession of that body, too, they took him to an Australian Naval Storehouse.
Although O'Leary wasn't radioactive like Flynn, Gleeson found he had a spiked level of sodium penthothal. It would have had a euphoric effect impacting brain function and cause a loss of inhibition. Gleeson concluded before O'Leary shot himself in the head, he was likely injected with a truth serum.
Officials took O'Leary's body, not happy the agents concealed it. They said there was no more investigation, because they discovered the problem was elevated radiation levels in the cooling system on the boat and it leaked, which is what killed Flynn. O'Leary was so full of guilt he took his own life.
But the team wasn't done. Gleeson explained she was cleaning up after officials took Flynn's body and found clumps of his hair on the ground that fell out from the radiation exposure. Analyzing the hair follicles, she discovered Flynn didn't die from radium like you would expect from a leaky reactor — he died from exposure to polonium 210. This leads them to believe the Russians poisoned Flynn and then tortured O'Leary to get nuclear secrets.
An epic showdown
The team arrived at the boat in hazmat suits, finagling their way on board. As they went up the ramp, they met the specialist from San Diego, who said it wasn't safe to go aboard. However, Mackey's device didn't detect radiation and when the specialist slipped and called it a "ship" instead of a "boat," the team got suspicious. That's when the specialist's partner stepped out… none other than the blonde woman from the dating app. She whipped out a gun and began shooting at the agents.
In a maze of shipping containers, the bad guys got hold of Jackson with a gun to his head and the "specialist" demanded Mackey and Dempsey drop their weapons. Mackey stepped out with her hands in the air and swiftly put one behind her back to make it look like she was about to draw a weapon. That led to the "specialist" shooting her in the chest, meaning he took his gun off of Jackson and Dempsey got a clear shot to bring him down. Luckily, Mackey had on a bulletproof vest.
The excitement wasn't over just yet. Dempsey and Mackey hijacked a helicopter, chasing a fishing boat carrying the other bad guys through the harbor. Suddenly, it blew up, leaving a fiery mess in the water.
As far as the world was concerned, three fishermen passed away on that boat due to a freak accident. The truth is someone rigged the boat to explode so the people on it wouldn't have to face an interrogation room. Did the blonde woman meet her watery grave or was she not on the boat after all? We'll have to see.
New episodes of NCIS: Sydney air live on Tuesdays on CBS and stream on Paramount Plus. Get to know the NCIS: Sydney cast here.
