The effort to turn Sebastian into a three-dimensional character from a weird geek continues apace.

Sebastian struggled to impose order on chaos on NCIS: New Orleans Season 5 Episode 22.

Let's give credit to the powers that be for bringing a former supporting character more often to the forefront.

Hell, Sebastian has been front and center even more than LaSalle this season, which means that LaSalle has been underused.

Ah, well, when a new character (Hannah) is introduced, another loses screen time. Basic math, I'm afraid.

I guess it has been just Christopher's turn. Hopefully he'll come back strong in NCIS: New Orleans Season 6.

Come to think about it, Loretta has been getting short shrift as well. She got a new beau back on NCIS: New Orleans Season 5 Episode 13 then we haven't heard from Nero since.

It's a tricky balancing act, isn't it, trying to give everyone in a well-tuned cast their moments?

Anyway, Sebastian is getting more time this season, in part because of the oddball pairing with his "big sister" Gregorio.

That relationship was present throughout this episode, as she tried to help him make sense of the chaos, then attempted to keep him from further hurting himself.

Then there was the sweet ending scene in which Tammy tries to make a grilled-cheese sandwich and tomato soup for the persnickety Sebastian, who is procedurals' answer to Sheldon Cooper.

But then, Gregorio is a real piece of work and an acquired taste, so the two do fit well together.

Sebastian is a creature of order, and the case of the week truly tested him for it seemed so arbitrary, and so random.

In short order, he made the case his bitch, finding the DNA necessary to arrest the initial bombing suspect, Alan Van Scyoc.

Since that happened about a third of the way through the episode, you just knew the other shoe was going to drop.

Which it did, when a bomb blew up destroying the evidence implicating Van Scyoc and killing an evidence clerk, Sebastian's friend Lana, who was sweet on him.

That redoubled the efforts by Sebastian, who was concussed and shouldn't have been out of the hospital, let alone working the case.

He came up with the clever idea of re-creating the bombing scene virtually, even hacking to get the necessary data.

It was largely inadmissible, but it did help the team to identify the bombing mastermind, a disgraced ballistics expert.

It was possible to somewhat sympathetic toward Van Scyoc, who got in over his head trying to help out his brother, murderous scum that he was.

The two actually behind the bombings, Van Scyoc's brother Carl and Colton Wolf, had no such good intentions, Carl trying to beat the rap and Wolf paying back the woman who had helped to end his law-enforcement career.

Tired of listening to his teammates talk around how legally untenable Sebastian's virtual investigation was, he went off on his own again, making one last appeal to Neela, the injured seaman, who had a crucial piece of evidence lodged way too close to her spine.

Earlier, he had railed at Neela for being unwilling to undergo dangerous surgery so that he could get a potentially valuable piece of evidence.

But he returned a changed man who could relate to what Neela had gone through.

Like her, Sebastian had lost someone about whom he had cared. As a result, he was able to appeal to her to do everything she could to help find their friends' killers.

CBS Announces Fate of NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans

Then he collapsed, leading Pride and Gregorio to threaten him to keep him in bed to deal with his wounds from the blast.

That left Pride and LaSalle, the action guys, to flip Van Scyoc and chase down Wolf over the rooftops of New Orleans until his inevitable death in a hail of bullets.

Kind of a ho-hum ending with the obligatory flurry of action.

But that wasn't what this episode was about.

It was meant to show the continuing maturation of Sebastian, how, unlike say Eric on NCIS: Los Angeles, he has made the transition to being the team mascot to being taken seriously as a field agent.

Yes, it was a little heavyhanded to listen to Pride and Hannah essentially saying, "Look how he's grown," at a couple of points during the case.

Remember, show, don't tell.

That being said, for someone who wasn't even in the original backdoor pilot for the series, Sebastian has made his presence felt.

Granted, at first, he was comic relief, with all his geeky hobbies that an Alabama block of wood such as LaSalle couldn't understand.

He's become, arguably, the most versatile member of the team. Patton's out? Put Sebastian on computers. Loretta's busy? Sebastian handles the forensics.

He still goes off on his stream-of-consciousness monologues that few can follow, but that's part of his charm.

He's lacking in the hand-to-hand combat department, but he's enthusastic in an awkward kind of way.

I think Sebastian would benefit from more time partnered with LaSalle in the field, much as Christopher has learned from Pride through the years.

Pride and Gregorio cut him too much slack, and Hannah isn't sure quite what to make of him yet.

SPOILER: For the rest of the season, it's back to the Apollyon storyline, with a cliffhanger likely. Pride is still recovering, so it's someone else's turn for a little peril.