SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for NCIS Season 23, Episode 15.

Every season there’s at least one NCIS episode that takes a light-hearted approach to crime-solving. With hundreds of stories told, the CBS show has to mix things up every now and then. Season 23, Episode 15, “Knick-Knack” is one of those episodes. It’s essentially watching the characters play a puzzle game for 42 minutes.

The downside of that is that the audience never feels like they’re playing along. The best puzzle stories, or “treasure hunt” stories in this case, are the ones where fans feel like they’re part of the adventure. “Knick-Knack” has all kinds of clues—and fake clues—but the scenes are still pretty procedural in nature. It’s more about will the characters figure them out, including some almost obligatory Indiana Jones jokes, than engaging the fans to make their own guesses.

It doesn’t help that the guest characters are more broadly drawn than usual. The fact that they’re a little exaggerated makes it easier for viewers to guess who the real bad guys are, and harder to get invested in the plot of the week. There is one really interesting plot thread that comes out when Nick Torres mentions his family’s history fleeing from Colombia, and is able to relate that to the to the case. That small element could’ve been a great underpinning for an episode on its own, but here it provides an emotional hook that the rest of “Knick-Knack” doesn’t have.

The real meat of the episode is in the fourth act, when Jessica Knight and Timothy McGee are taken hostage by the villain Fabian Druker. Druker shooting Knight to get McGee to do his bidding is a good jump scare for NCIS fans. Plus, McGee wandering around in the engine room of a ship is a visually fun set piece that unfortunately doesn’t last long enough, since the episode doesn’t have much time left. But it generates good suspense—as well as a movie-quality hero shot of Alden Parker subduing Fluker to save the day.

A subplot involving Knight’s collectible dolls from her childhood isn’t as funny as other NCIS comedic asides, and Diona Reasonover is definitely missed, with Kasie Hines being replaced in the episode by Curtis. “Knick-Knack” gets to the end of its case, and it’s clear what the episode was going for. But it’s hard not to think there could’ve been a different episode in here that went full-on Indiana Jones.

NCIS airs Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Photo Credit: Courtesy of CBS.

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