NCIS season 20 episode 17 recap: Are there sparks between Torres and Veeda? 

NCIS season 20 episode 17 aired on CBS on March 20, 2023, and was titled Stranger in a Strange Land. The episode saw Torres sharing a sweet moment with Veeda as viewers witnessed sparks flying between the duo. A love angle between them could add a heartwarming angle to the show.

The latest episode of NCIS introduced Veeda, an Afghan refugee who was not allowed to practice surgery in the USA. It also saw the team take on a complicated case of the murder of a very respected man from the community and Palmer having trouble with his daughter.

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NCIS season 20 episode 17 recap: Who is Veeda and how did she meet Torres?

Palmer began having trouble with his daughter when she wanted to go on her first group date. However, Palmer was not very happy about this since his daughter was taking way too much interest in a boy named Austen. Knight suggested Palmer think about it carefully before making any decisions.

The team was then summoned to a murder scene. The victim's name was William Huxley. He was a Marine Pvt. who was stabbed to death with a paring knife in his garage. Huxley stayed back in Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrew from the country. He pledged to save the U.S.-allied Afghans who missed the airlift. Parker swore to avenge Huxley's murder in the latest episode of NCIS.

Doorcam footage introduced the team to a woman who had threatened Huxley for disrupting her neighborhood catering business. She didn't commit the crime, but she pointed them toward the Afghan community center where Huxley volunteered. A kind volunteer in the community center explained to them how the place worked and how Huxley would cook and look after them.

Torres, the son of an immigrant, was touched by what he saw. The volunteer asked if he ever had a community like this and all signs pointed to the fact that he did not. Eddie, the center's pastor, got a little too interested in the agents' work, making viewers wonder if he was guilty. The center's paring knife was nowhere to be found, and Pastor Eddie told the agents that Mateen had recently argued with Huxley.

Mateen's parents were murdered by the Taliban in 2021 after Huxley arrived too late to escort them to the airport. The team reached the grocery store where Mateen worked, but since he was on a break, Torres had a word with Veeda, a refugee worker in the store. Veeda revealed that most of the workers were refugees since Pastor Eddie knew the store's owner.

Torres and Veeda continued talking, but Mateen spotted the agents and ran for his life. Torres tripped and knocked himself out, and Veeda helped him. Veeda was a surgeon who was not allowed to practice in the USA.

Back at NCIS HQ, Palmer was checking out Austen's social media posts and was alarmed by the early serial killer tendencies he saw in his foodie photos of rare steaks. Palmer wondered if he should invite Austen and his family for a tour of NCIS and Knight and Kasie suggested that he was going overboard. Palmer told both of them that they wouldn't understand how it was being a father.

Kasie later reported that the stains on Mateen's jacket from his work locker were from motor oil and explosives. Veeda mentioned to Torres that Mateen was doing vehicle repairs under the table. His call logs pointed Knight and Torres to an auto shop. But right when they got there, they saw a van full of masked men with big guns grabbing the bomb.

Mateen insisted that he did not know who he was building the bomb for. He only took on the job to get his fiancée out of the Turkish refugee camp where she's been stuck for months. He believed Huxley's murder was his fault, and now has to rescue his fiancée before the bad guys realize he gave them a proxy bomb that does not work. The team discovers that Pastor Eddie's office delayed the final approval of Mateen's fiancée's permanent refugee status, but by the time they got to him, he was shot to death.

Fans are now excited to see how the events will unfold in NCIS season 20 episode 18, which is set to air on Monday, March 27, 2023, at 9.00 pm Eastern Time (ET) on the CBS TV Network.