NCIS Sleeping Dogs puts Nick Torres back inside Dante Navarro’s old cover, and the episode uses that retired identity to drive a string of murders. Wilmer Valderrama’s character has spent the series asking for more tactical work, but this case forces him to face the part of his past he has tried to leave behind.
Wilmer Valderrama and Dante Navarro
Nick Torres says he can hold his breath for four minutes, a detail that fits the same kind of fieldwork that made Dante Navarro useful in the first place. In the episode, Torres tells Alden Parker, “I did some horrible things in my past,” then adds, “Which I justified by saying it was in the line of duty but there was always something that bothered me afterwards. How much I enjoyed it.”
That confession gives the episode its real stake. The case is not just about a reactivated alias; it is about the cost of turning a person into a tool, then asking him to live with what that tool was used to do. Torres has wanted more tactical work than just investigating and solving crimes, and the story shows why that request is not simple ambition.
Walt Keller and NCIS
The episode reunites Torres with his former handler Walt Keller, who is retired. Keller cuts straight through any idea that Dante is only a disguise, telling Torres, “You still don't get it, do you?” and then, “Nick Torres is the cover. Dante's who you really are.”
That line turns the murder plot into a dispute over identity, not just procedure. If Keller is right, Torres is chasing a version of himself that can be pulled back on whenever a case needs it; if Torres is right, the darker past is something he has to keep at arm's length to do the job without disappearing into it.
CBS and Paramount+
NCIS airs Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and streams the next day on Paramount+. The setup makes this one of those episodes that can land twice: first for viewers watching the investigation unfold, then again for anyone catching up after the broadcast and seeing how hard the show leans on Torres's history.
The open question is who reactivated Dante Navarro to commit the murders. Until that is answered, the episode is not just revisiting an old alias; it is using that alias as the weapon in a case built around Torres's past, and that is where the pressure sits.
