A Year of NCIS, Day 53: Honor Code (Episode 3.7)

Episode: 3.7, Honor Code

Air Date: November 1, 2005

The Victim: Lieutenant Commander Alex Tanner

Emotionally Traumatized, But Ultimately Irrelevant, Witness Who Finds the Body: This is a strong opening.  We’re at an amusement park, and a cute little boy heads toward a merry-go-round.  His father catches up with him and tells him not to wander off and to be careful of strangers.  Dad is holding cotton candy and a red helium balloon, and the boy confidently says that he is too old for balloons.  The dad teases him about being too old for the cotton candy, but the boy says cotton candy is fine and they can share it after his ride.  He leaves his dad with his bookbag and the balloon and the cotton candy.  The little boy boards the merry-go-round and we get camera shots that alternate between the boy riding and a rotating view from his perspective, as he rides around and around.  He sees his dad waiting for him.  He also sees one and then two sketchy men standing by.  One is bald and has an earpiece like secret service.  He sees the bald man talking to his dad on the next pass.  And then his father disappears.  When the ride ends, the boy scampers out of the exit yelling for his dad.  The opening closes on an aerial shot of the boy staring at his bookbag and the cotton candy lying on the pavement, while the red helium balloon floats up into the sky. 

Fade to black and white.

Plot Summary: McGee is back from lunch.  Ziva asked him to show her the best route from her home to work.  Tony is annoyed that she didn’t ask him but decides she must be threatened by him.  Which would have been a better thing to say when Ziva wasn’t standing right behind him.  She’s sneakier than Gibbs, that one.  Ziva apologizes for not asking Tony for help and thereby emasculating him.  Tony tells her it will take more than her sultry accent and ninja skills to emasculate him, but Ziva seems up for the challenge.  McGee laughs and Tony tells him not to take sides.

Honestly, this is already way better than the fights Tony and Kate used to get into.

Gibbs would like the team to gear up.  He tells them about the missing man, Lt. Cmdr. Alex Tanner, who disappeared an hour ago from an amusement park in Arlington, VA.  Ziva thinks it’s a little aggressive to respond so promptly to a missing person report and Gibbs informs her that Cmdr. Tanner’s little boy called NCIS and he’s in the amusement park alone.

Tony finds the little boy, Zack, on a bench.  But, as we learned in Terminal Leave, Episode 2.6, Tony sucks with kids.  Not in a bad way, necessarily, it’s just not his skill set.  While he gives the kid compliments about being smart and brave, he still mostly talks to Zack like he’s dealing with an adult.  Gibbs comes over, and, as established as early as Hung Out to Dry, Episode 1.2, Gibbs is good with kids.  Gibbs asks what they’ve got, and Tony thinks Zack is in shock.  Zack say he is not, but was waiting for Tony to ask him some questions, like what he saw, etc.  Gibbs chuckles and sits down next to Zack and continues the questioning.  Zack describes the men he thinks “kidnapped my dad,” although he mistakes the earpiece for an iPod.  Tony translates to Gibbs that an iPod is like a Walkman.  But then Zack gets it right by putting in one earbud, which makes Tony and Gibbs exchange looks and wonder who exactly they’re dealing with. 

They walk off to talk and both Gibbs and Tony think feds, but question whether the FBI would arrest a man and just leave his kid.  McGee talked to Cmdr. Tanner’s CO and the commander was working on a highly classified DOD project.  McGee couldn’t get the details over an unsecured line, but he’ll keep researching.  Ziva pulled the security tapes from the park.  Gibbs says to call the mom and she can pick Zack up at NCIS, but McGee says the mom died four years ago in a car crash and there is no next of kin.

The agents watch the video, but the abductors are pros and keep their faces away from the camera.  It’s a smooth abduction too as the commander walks way seemingly voluntarily, although while looking back anxiously at the merry-go-round.  Tony wonders if he left voluntarily, and Gibbs notes they could have threatened Zack. 

Cmdr. Tanner is brilliant.  He has some kind of theoretical physics background that excites McGee and bores Gibbs.  He has been working as a project liaison for a DOD contractor called Q&R Software, and as the project lead on something classified.  Gibbs sends Tony and McGee to talk to company reps in person.

Ziva hands over the sketches of the men Zack described.  She says he has a remarkable memory and also that social services is here to collect him.  Gibbs tells Ziva to put a BOLO on the sketches.  Gibbs tells Zack he did a goods job on the sketches.  Zack sees that social services is here but doesn’t care to go with them as “I can take care of myself.”  It’s not really up for debate, but Gibbs is very kind about it.  Zack asks what happens if Gibbs can’t find his father, and Gibbs says he’ll find him.  He gives Zack a business card and tells him to call if he needs anything.

At Q&R, McGee and Tony speak with Ms. Osgood, assistant to the company’s head of security, Frank Connell.  Ms. Osgood says the company has been having some issues and the lights flicker out.  They come back on and Tony narrowly saves Ms. Osgood from being mowed down by a security guard on a Segway.  She’s young, blonde, and attractive, so you can see Tony mentally checking boxes.  Mr. Connell arrives and compliments the agents on arriving so quickly since Q&R only found out about the hack an hour ago.  Tony and McGee are confused.  So, Connell explains that the company’s systems were hacked and it’s clear the hackers were after something called “Honor.” Fortunately, Honor it’s protected by an algorithmic key which exists outside the system and is committed to memory.

Connell tells the agents that NCIS doesn’t have anything to worry about.  Tony thinks that’s great, but they’re not hear about the hack.  They ask who has the key committed to memory, and yup, it’s Cmdr. Tanner. 

Gibbs is speeding in his car, trying to make an iPod (presumably Zack’s) work.  It’s like watching a bear curiously paw at a bee hive, and when the iPod plays loud music right in his ear, Gibbs jumps just like a bear being stung.  He gets the update from Tony that Honor has probably been stolen, Cmdr. Tanner is the only person who can work it, and Honor’s purpose is to be able to decrypt any code presently in use today.  Gibbs agrees that’s a problem and says he’ll meet up once he takes Zack’s device back to him.

Zack calls Gibbs from a pay phone.  He saw the bald man who took his dad in the Child Protective Services office and ran outside.  We see the man walk out of the building and look around while Zack is talking to Gibbs and trying to stay hidden by the phone booth.  The man walks by and Zack doesn’t want him to get away, so he leaves the phone hanging and starts following, leaving his bag behind. 

Gibbs guns the engine and we shift back to Zack who whirls around on the sidewalk looking for the man.  Then a hand claps over his mouth and he tries to scream.

Gibbs squeals to a halt and is about to enter the building when he sees Zack’s bookbag by the unhooked pay phone.  He looks down the street and an SUV pulls up.  The bald man begins leading Zack to the SUV.  Gibbs draws his gun and announces himself and tells the bald guy to let Zack go.  The bald guy fires first and misses but loses hold of Zack who punches him in the nuts and runs.  He calls Zack a “little bastard” and Gibbs lets him know that’s not acceptable by putting a slug in his right shoulder.  Gibbs fires at them four more times, and they get away.  But Gibbs has Zack.

Gibbs is playing with Zack at his desk.  Director Shepard tells Ziva to send Gibbs upstairs.  She does so.  Gibbs gives Tony an impossible task of checking for a black SUV without plates.  He tells Zack to supervise.  Zack walks over to Tony’s desk and sits down next to him.  Tony politely tells him to buzz off, but Zack knows the plate numbers.  Which will make Tony’s impossible task infinitely more possible.  

Gibbs visits with Shepard who admires his way with children and asks if he ever thought of having any of his own.  Give this man, who we recently learned buried a child, credit for one hell of a poker face when he asks if Shepard is making him an offer.  And then laughs at his own joke.  Gibbs says he gets along with kids so well because when they lie they don’t have the guile to get away with it.  Then to business.  Shepard says she has the Directors of all the agencies chomping at the bit for jurisdiction on this one because Honor is that important.  Shepard is holding them off but wants answers fast.

In Abby’s lab, she has been going through Q&R’s security protocols and nobody should be able to break in to their system.  The system could be disabled by someone with high enough clearance, though, so an inside job is likely.  At 3AM, someone planted a virus which took down the security and let the hacker in to steal Honor and cover his tracks with more viruses that wiped out various files.  Gibbs wants to know who and Abby’s new assistant, Chip, says the virus originated from Cmdr. Tanner’s terminal.  When Gibbs says someone else could have used it.  Chip says that’s not possible, but then starts babbling something.  McGee doesn’t seem impressed, but simply says that the security system was designed by employees who are all ex-military and ex-law enforcement and all vetted at the highest level.  Tony is reviewing witness statements and McGee is reviewing terminals, but he thinks it doesn’t look good for the commander.       

Gibbs leaves, but not before telling Chip to “wipe that dirt off your lip.”  Meaning “shave your hideous mustache.”

Tony has been interviewing Ms. Osgood and sees her to the elevator.  And of course he gives her his card.  With his home phone number on the back.  Ziva is lurking nearby again and makes fun of Tony.  They discuss Zack and, to show Ziva how great he is with kids, Tony calls Zack over. Tony condescends to Zack (in a well-meaning, but still patronizing manner), and gives him an NCIS deputy certificate of some kind that he printed out.  Zack bleakly accepts it and immediately says he has to go to the head, which makes Ziva laugh so hard she snorts.

Ziva hands Gibbs a file on one of the suspects, Vincent Pazzo.  Pazzo’s photo matches the composite sketch of the bald guy, and Ziva got his ID from people who owe her a favor.  Gibbs thinks they went after Zack to make Cmdr. Tanner cooperate.  Ziva thinks Cmdr. Tanner set it up to look like a kidnapping and that Cmdr. Tanner is a traitor.  She and Gibbs have a tense disagreement, and she clearly gets more latitude to challenge him than the other agents. 

Gibbs is working on the boat in his basement.  Zack is there, wearing a NIS shirt, so it’s a little strange that the bourbon bottle is so readily visible.  Echoing the viewers, Zack would like to know how Gibbs plans to get the boat out of the basement when he’s finished.  Gibbs gets Zack to help with the boat, and at least this basement boat helper isn’t a murderer (Doppelganger, Episode 2.12).

Ziva finds that Cmdr. Tanner emptied out all his bank accounts before taking Zack to the park.  Tony has also traced the SUV and it’s a rental.  The ID is fake and the credit card was stolen, but the ID pic is of one of the kidnappers.  And the SUV is lojacked, so it can be tracked.  And Tony already has- to a parking lot not far away. 

The agents surround the SUV and there’s a suspect inside.  Tony and Ziva argue over who has whose back.  They storm the vehicle and Pazzo is inside, already dead.

But that gives Ducky something to do.  First, he finds the shoulder wound that Gibbs gave our bald friend earlier in the episode.  As to the fatal injury, Ziva jumps the gun on Ducky and notes that the burn marks on the man’s temple indicate a silencer was used, but by a sloppy amateur.  Ziva then gives a mini-lecture on how to kill a fool and make it not look suspicious.  Ducky is impressed and would like to have Ziva over for dinner to chat with his mother.  Gibbs notes that the perps are cleaning house- Gibbs shot Pazzo and made him a liability so they killed him.  Ziva is beginning to gloat about how the case is very simple and clearly implicates Cmdr. Tanner.  One suspects she will learn some humility before the episode ends.

Gibbs heads to the lab where Chip has shaved his mustache.  Chip stands at attention and Gibbs angrily tells him to stop.  The venom directed at Chip is impressive even for Gibbs.  When Abby points out that Chip shaved, Gibbs says he didn’t notice and Chip seethes.  Abby matches the slug that killed Pazzo to a .380.  But there are no prints on the bullet besides those belonging to the dead guy.

Gibbs meets the Director in the elevator.  She saw Ducky’s autopsy report, and now she wants to know what’s next.  Shepard, like Ziva, thinks Cmdr. Tanner is our culprit.  She gives Gibbs a mini-lecture about getting to close to the case because of Zack and then gets pissy with McGee when he tries to interrupt.  Gibbs takes the lifeline and says if Shepard wants the case solved, she needs to let them work on the case.  She allows McGee to speak and he announces that Cmdr. Wilder is here from Q&R.  Cmdr. Wilder bought a Nintendo for Zack since the NCIS agents guarding the house wouldn’t let him in to get any toys.  Cmdr. Wilder tells Gibbs he is concerned about the investigation and he swears that Cmdr. Tanner is no traitor.  Cmdr. Wilder thinks Gibbs should look at the civilian employees at Q&R.  He also wonders if Zack shouldn’t come home with him, but Gibbs says Zack is in protective custody.  Cmdr. Wilder says he’s going to go say goodbye. 

Tony walks in with a phone that he collected from Pazzo’s vehicle.  It’s a burn phone with Frank Connell, the Q&R security head, showing on the call log. 

Tony and McGee got a warrant (wait, since when do they do that?) and now McGee is searching the Q&R computer while Connell and Ms. Osgood look on.  Connell denies making the call.  McGee says that someone removed items from the hard drive, and it doesn’t look like the result of the virus.  Gibbs tells them to bag and tag the office, and Tony arrests Connell. 

Back at the squad room, Ziva drops an apple on McGee’s desk as a thank you for helping her adjust to DC.  The agents are trying to find something on Connell that Gibs can use to get past his lawyer, but his record is pristine.  Connell is not involved in the theft of Honor in Ziva’s opinion.  Tony notes that Gibbs loves to hear their opinions and Ziva suggests that Gibbs is too personally involved in the case.  Tony knows better than that and wanders off to see McGee, swiping the apple from McGee’s desk as he goes.  Ziva protests, but Tony says he’s just delivering it.

Down in the lab, Tony enters, eating McGee’s apple.  McGee thinks Cmdr. Tanner put a trace on Connell’s computer.  Nothing Mcgee has found implicates Connell or clears Cmdr. Tanner.  McGee also suggests that Gibbs might be wrong.  Abby is horrified.  Tony is keeping his powder dry. He tosses his apple into the trash can and nearly hits Chip.  Tony says, “You almost blocked my shot, Chipper,” and asks if Chip ever played ball.  Chip says yes, but it comes out that he means intramurals.  Tony laughs and says, “skins and mustaches” and walks off while Chip stares daggers at him. 

Chip has a fingerprint report.  Abby takes the report and dismisses him.  Sends him home, really.  Abby looks at the fingerprint report and becomes very irate because it shows Commander Tanner’s prints on the weapon that killed Pazzo, and now Gibbs is gonna kill her.

Back in the basement, Zack is still helping with the boat.  Shepard comes down the basement stairs and Gibbs actually mutters, “hubba hubba,” because she’s wearing a nice dress.  Shepard wants to know how long Connell has to stay locked up.  Zack comes back to listen, and hears Shepard accusing his father.  He starts defending his dad and reminds Gibbs that he promised to bring Cmdr. Tanner back.

In the squad room, McGee tells Gibbs that he has found nothing on Connell.  Ziva shows up and says that she spoke to her contacts at CIA.  She pulls up an old photo from Kosovo of Pazzo and his partner Willis Hurst and says they are specialists in torture.  Knowing these clowns for what they are, Ziva believes they have now framed Cmdr. Tanner as a diversion while they torture him to get what they want out of him.  Ziva then discourses on torture and explains that a trained interrogator could get the Honor code out of Cmdr. Tanner no problem.  She claims she could do it in two hours.  And the thieves have had Cmdr. Tanner for two days.  They have hours at best to effect a rescue.

Tony arrives and says he has tracked down the security video for the convenience store where Pazzo bought his burn phone.  Abby has it.  Abby says the phone was purchased with cash a week before Cmdr. Tanner was taken.  She and Gibbs and Tony are scanning the tapes to see if they recognize anyone.  Gibbs sees a woman with four phones in her hand. Her head is down and she’s wearing a hat, but Tony knows his neck and jaw lines.  It’s Ms. Osgood.  Tony and Gibbs leave. 

Ms. Osgood is shredding files when the agents arrive.  She feigns innocence, but Ziva pulls her phone out of her purse and it matches one of the numbers in the kidnapper’s phone’s call log.  Gibbs does that thing he does with attractive female suspects where he leans close, breathes in their ear, and talks softly while threatening them.  But Ms. Osgood says she wants a lawyer.

Confab.  Gibbs notes Cmdr. Tanner has been gone 47 hours.  Ziva agrees if he’s not dead yet, he will be.  McGee, ever the Boy Scout wonders if they can convince Ms. Osgood to change her mind about the lawyer.  Ziva, so not a Boy Scout, suggests she can convince Ms. Osgood of far more than that.  Gibbs, a Marine, asks “How long?”  Ziva promises, “Not long.”  Gibbs cheerfully asks McGee if he’s thirsty and offers to buy him a cup of coffee.  The men leave Ziva alone with Ms. Osgood.  Ziva locks the door behind them.

Downstairs, McGee starts to ask and then decides that knowing is not half this battle.  Gibbs agrees.

We don’t get to see any of the good stuff, but when we cut back upstairs, Ms. Osgood is singing like Celine Dion in Vegas.  Ms. Osgood was part of a three-man team.  She handled al the inside work including bugging Cmdr. Tanner’s computer and disabling Q&R’s security system.  She does not know who is running the show, however.  She claims not to know where Cmdr. Tanner is, but one back rub from Ziva later and she sobbingly changes that story.  Gibbs hands Ziva the coffee in his hand as she wordlessly walks out the door.

We cut to a garage identified by what’s left of Ms. Osgood.  Hirst gets a call and the caller says the code checks out.  Hirst says he’ll go clean up and walks into a room where Cmdr. Tanner is hung up on a rack of some type.  Hirst makes ready to kill the commander but sees the approach of the agents.  He grabs a big gun and kicks the door to the room shut.

I smell an MVP coming.

Hirst fires out the door and the wall while Tony and Gibbs take cover.  Then the writers must have figured they didn’t have enough run time for an extended siege, so Hirst loses his mind and charges out into the open where Gibbs and Tony share the MVP.  Ziva had not made it into the room yet, but she doesn’t have room on her shelf for another trophy this soon anyway.

Gibbs starts cutting down Cmdr. Tanner and the commander said he gave up the code because the kidnappers had his son.  That’s news to Gibbs, so he asks Cmdr. Tanner what the kidnappers used for proof.  Cmdr. Tanner looks over at Zack’s iPod, sitting on the table, and then Gibbs flashes to Cmdr. Wilder putting it in Zack’s bookbag when he visited NCIS HQ. 

The agents surround Cmdr. Wilder as he leaves Q&R.  Cmdr. Wilder tries to play innocent, but, as in See No Evil, Episode 2.1, Gibbs get pissy when people endanger kids.  He throws Cmdr. Wilder to the concrete and sticks a pistol to his head.  Cmdr. Wilder notes that he’s not resisting.  Gibbs says, “Too bad.”  Cmdr. Wilder claims he could have never hurt Zack and it was strictly business.  Tony says they’ll be sure to tell Zack that as he cuffs the commander.

Back at HQ, Gibbs and Zack are staring out the window and drinking out of identical coffee cups (one assumes Zack has something other than coffee in his- milk based on the mustache).  Gibbs asks if Zack’s ok.  Zack thinks so, but he says Cmdr. Wilder was his friend and he fooled him.  Gibbs explains that very bad people sometimes fool you and that it has happened to him too.  Zack vows to grow up and put them all in jail.  Gibbs believes him.  Then Cmdr. Tanner arrives and Zacks drops his empty cup and runs to embrace his father.

Gibbs picks up the cup and watches their reunion.  He flashes back to Zack, wearing the NIS shirt, working on the boat.  Then he flashes back to a little girl, wearing the same shirt, also working on a boat with a smiling Gibbs.  

And now I want to start crying.      

Quotables: Nothing much here.

Time Until Sexual Harassment: None.

Ducky Tales: None.  Ducky does try to teach Zack some magic, but no Tales.

The Rest of the Story:

-Tony’s father once left him in a Maui Hilton for two days and didn’t realize he was missing until he got the room service bill.  This is starting to sound like the Tony’s dad we will eventually get to know.

-Ziva confuses “social security” for “social services.”  Gibbs correct her.  Tony comes to the rescue when she says “spick and spam” instead of “spick and span.”

-Director Shepard asking Gibbs if he ever thought of having any children of his own is awkward for people who were paying attention to Gibbs’s revelation about his daughter in Kill Ari (Part Two), Episode 3.2.

-A little kid punching a grown man, even in the nuts, would not be sufficiently distracting in and of itself to allow the child to escape.

-Abby makes a reference to Mini-Me from Austin Powers and, wonder of wonders, Gibbs not only gets it, but makes an Austin Powers reference back.

-Great touch on the NIS shirt.  Why else would Gibbs have a child-sized shirt with the old logo handy unless some other child owned it?  Although, does that fit with the timeline?  I guess we’ll find out.

-It’s not surprising that some of the team would think Cmdr. Tanner was the culprit.  After See No Evil, Episode 2.1, it’s markedly less hard for them to imagine a guy putting his kid in danger to make a buck.

-In fact, this one has a lot in common with See No Evil.  It’s not a retread necessarily, but the episodes rhyme.

Casting Call: Nobody I recognize.

Man, This Show Is Old: That’s a big iPod Zack has. 

This is the period of overlap between phone booths and burn phones.  Soon, like mammals replacing the dinosaurs, there will only be burn phones.

The Segway was all the rage in 2005.  It never lived up to the ridiculous hype that it would be a more important invention than the Internet, but it had its moment.

MVP: Gibbs and Tony combine for the kill.

Rating: It’s a slightly weaker version of See No Evil.  Primarily because the child actor is not quite so amazing as Abigail Bresslin.  Well, and also because the twist isn’t as good.  But we get a happy ending this time, and the Gibbs revelations are handled in a top-notch manner.  Seven Palmers.

Next Time: Tony and Ziva hook up.  Or do they?  We will wonder for years.