This week on CBS‘ NCIS, Parker, Torres, McGee and Kasie teamed up to prevent a literal World War III, while Jessica and Jimmy dealt with equally weighty matters — the status of their relationship.

To quickly summarize the A-story of “Sticks & Stones,” which was quite… atypical… for NCIS, with its allusion to real-world military conflicts: It fell on Parker’s team to decode the location of three mobile missile launchers that Belarus has aimed at unknown European targets. Once identified, the U.S. might go so far as to fire precise nukes at the three locations. Along the way, Kasie received a second coded transmission, and as much as Parker implored a General Brancati and FBI Deputy Director Sweeney to slow their roll until that message could be decrypted — after all, maybe Belarus chose to stand down? — his words fell on deaf ears.

On top of it all, POTUS and the Speaker of the House were both unreachable due to technical issues aboard Air Force One, and the veep had been rushed into an emergency colonoscopy, leaving some mouthy, pro-nukes senator calling the shots.

NCIS did its best to protract the process themselves — interrupting the MTAC signal, and accidentally cutting power to the whole building (by way of sledgehammers muffled by blaring Quiet Riot) — only to wind up in handcuffs after the FBI stormed their building. In the end, Sweeney came to his senses enough to afford Kasie another three minutes. And just as the deadline neared, she rushed in, waving the decrypted message: Ukraine special forces had taken out the missile launchers themselves. And though Parker and Sweeney had broken a rule (or 10) of protocol, Vance shared at episode’s end that they’d both been recommended for special medals.

What about Jessica and Jimmy this whole time, you ask?…

Jessica had taken some time off, driving her RV to Shenandoah National Park. Jimmy took the “Man Van” to track her down, once talk of a possible World War III began swirling. On their drive back to D.C. in the middle of the night, Jess realized that Jimmy was on a dating app, MateQuest — though not just to meet women, but to be contacted in case of emergency by “wingman” Torres or Kasie.

When Torres warned the two not to come anywhere near the office, lest they get rounded up by the FBI as well, Jess and Jimmy parked the RV and broke the awkward silence that lingered between them thus far.

The weighty topic: Has anything changed between the exes, now that Jessica is back in D.C.?

“Well, has anything changed?” asked Jimmy.

“Do you want anything to change?” countered Jess.

“What hasn’t changed,” Jimmy started, “is—”

“Because I love you,” Jess interrupted.

“I was going to say, we both have things to work out…,” Jimmy continued. “But yeah, that hasn’t changed either. I still love you, too.”

Jess’ next words hit hard. And she was not happy to utter them.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if that were enough…. But you’re right. We both have things that we need to work out.”

Alluding to that which broke them up in the first place, Jimmy told Jess, “You deserve someone who will chase down future job opportunities around the world with you, like Indiana Jones. But that’s not me. At least not right now.”

Jess in turn told Jimmy, “And you deserve that stability that you so badly need, that I want you to have and that I wish I could give to you.”

They then joked about Jess taking over as Jimmy’s MateQuest “wingman,” because after all, she could say nice things about him “all day long.”

What did you think of this week’s NCIS? Grade it below!

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