Episode: 6.2, Agent Afloat
Air Date: September 23, 2008.
The Victim: Lt. Chad Evans, USN.
Emotionally Traumatized, But Ultimately Irrelevant, Witness Who Finds the Body: Tony, I guess.
Plot Recap: We’re on the USS Seahawk, where Very Special Agent Tony DiNozzo is our NCIS Agent Afloat. He is being summoned over the P.A. system, and he is in a hurry. He sprints through corridors and downstairs, dodging sailors all the way. He runs out on deck to see a group at the stern of the ship surrounding a folded Navy uniform with a military ID for Lt. Chad Evans sitting on the pile. Tony asks if anybody saw the guy jump. Nobody did. We get a look at the ship’s wake to demonstrate how fast it’s traveling.
Then we shift to the squad room, where McGee is absently hitting his coffee cup with a pencil while Ziva looks on. They try to make small talk. It’s too quiet, and I guess this is meant to show how boring the squad room is without Tony. Gibbs enters and says Tony called to tell them that a Navy lieutenant dove off the Seahawk. Gibbs sends Ziva and McGee to talk to Lt. Evans’s wife. As they leave, Gibbs looks over at Tony’s empty desk and seems vaguely lost.
As they walk up to the lieutenant’s house, McGee is talking about how tough it is going to be to talk to his wife. Ziva completely misunderstands and talks about how tough it must be for Tony, stuck on a ship while his team is now all re-assembled at HQ, “Completely alone, away from all those who care about him.” Then she gets that McGee is talking about telling Mrs. Evans her husband is missing.
There’s a vehicle parked in the drive so McGee is perplexed when they knock, and Mrs. Evans doesn’t answer. Ziva is less perplexed…at least once she looks in the window and sees Mrs. Evans’s bloody corpse on the floor.
Now that’s a long opening.
After the credits, McGee and Ziva process the scene at the Evans home. McGee is having to remember how to do it after 3+ months in Cyber Crimes (See Last Man Standing, Episode 6.1). Ducky arrives. Ducky finds snot in the victim’s hair and wonders if it belongs to the assailant. The murder weapon looks to be a toy guitar, but McGee identifies it as the controller for Lords of Rock, a video game (and the NCIS-universe’s answer to Guitar Hero). The particular controller model is called an ax, so Ziva makes us all chuckle when she wonders if the team is looking for an ax murderer. Ducky rolls his eyes, but at least agrees on blunt force trauma as a COD.
Gibbs arrives and notes that the thermostat was set for 40, which Ducky says slowed decomp. He is calling TOD five days ago, which, coincidentally, is when the husband deployed. The room is trashed so McGee posits a violent fight. Gibbs doesn’t call him a lazy amateur, but it’s in the tone when he points out that none of the furniture is broken and there’s no broken glass beneath the body. The victim died and the room was methodically trashed around her, staging the scene to look like a fight, and then the thermostat was rigged to mess with TOD. McGee thinks he would have figured it out eventually, but the point has been made that he needs to get his crimes scene mojo back. Gibbs hands McGee a laptop from the scene and tells him to look it over.
Ducky is interested in the swelling in the victim’s facial area being uncharacteristically low. It suggests that the blows were delivered…“Post-mortem,” McGee finishes. Gibbs looks at him and he hesitates, “Right?” Gibbs grins. Like riding a bike.
Abby is at Tony’s desk. We see the ubiquitous copy of GSM Magazine, this show’s version of Maxim and a Tony favorite. When the other agents arrive, Abby says she is prepping Tony’s desk for his big return. Ziva wonders if Abby knows something they don’t and that’s a no, but Abby is still confident in Tony’s return.
At the top of the stairs, Vance motions for Gibbs. Gibbs tells McGee and Ziva to contact Tony about Lt. Evans’s file and to pull his service record.
Gibbs enters Vance’s office. Vance makes small talk about the case, but Gibbs doesn’t care and wants to know why he’s there. Vance points out that Gibbs is a man down. And that Tony has three more months on deployment. He figures after that they’ll look for the right fit. Gibbs isn’t having any of that and says the fit is right here. Vance isn’t cowed and hands Gibbs the files for two San Diego agents from his last assignment, both of whom he vouches for. Gibbs doesn’t even reach for the files. Vance slides them over and says decide or have it decided for him.
Tony is on the Seahawk and can’t figure out why Lt. Evans didn’t unpack his grip, and more, why he would have bothered taking the flight to meet up with the ship if he was planning on ditching. Lt. Armstrong, Lt. Evans’s bunkmate, is helping Tony search and calls Lt. Evans a headcase, even though he never met him (they stood different watches). Tony asks about the other bunkmate, Lt. Kaplan. And then goes to find him in a card game. The sailors all hide their money when Tony appears and pulls rank. He IDs Lt. Kaplan and asks him about his bunkmate. Credit Lt. Kaplan for wit when he differentiates between bunkmates by asking, “The mama’s boy or Louganis?” Lt. Kaplan said they only met once in passing and that that Lt. Evans was a nutjob with a thousand-yard stare. I’m not sure why Tony is conducting this interview in front of other sailors and giving Lt. Kaplan incentive to cut up, but here we are. Then Tony gets handed a message from DC.
Tony appears in the medical bay. The doctor, Lt. Cmdr. Nguyen, whom Tony calls “Dr. Feelgood,” asks if Tony found another sailor he is accusing of faking chronic pain. Tony says he has suspended that investigation…for now. Lt. Cmdr. Nguyen is angry because he has to fill out a form every time he dispenses an aspirin now, but Tony is fine with that since he questioned the doctor’s prescription habits anyway. Tony asks for Lt. Evans’s medical records. Lt. Cmdr. Nguyen, irritated, notes Tony has already seen these records, but Tony says cases open and close like suitcases and maybe if Tony stays distracted, the doctor’s dope dispensing operation will stay closed.
Tony: making friends everywhere he goes.
Keating, Mcgee’s now-ex-replacement, messed with McGee’s computer to make it more to his liking. It’s making it a little harder for McGee to put things like Lt. Evans’s service record on the screen. Per Ziva, Lt. Evans was an information systems officer. He received a commendation and appears to be a good officer. Although, he was loose with his money: five star vacations, new truck, custom furniture. All charged by his wife. Hmmm…could be motive.
Gibbs heads to MTAC to talk to Tony. Abby appears and wants to participate, but Gibbs says it’s not a social call. Ziva follows along, perhaps a little too eagerly and asks if she can come. Gibbs just gives her the eye.
In MTAC, Tony begs to return home. He is not acclimating well to being the only cop in a floating city of 5000. Gibbs focuses on the case, and Tony tells him to read the preliminary report he emailed…and…yeah….Tony just updates Gibbs verbally: Lt. Evans boarded at Cartagena five days previous. He reported for duty that evening, but left an hour later claiming he was sick. They found his clothes the next morning. There was an extended search, but no body was ever recovered. Nothing unusual in his medical records. Tony thinks this is all pretty obvious- kill wife, kill self.
McGee appears. He tells Gibbs and Tony that Lt. Evans’s credit card was used in Cartagena three days after the Seahawk left port. Tony helpfully/eagerly offers to helo over to Cartagena. Gibbs smirks.
Gibbs visits Vance to return the files on the two replacement agent candidates. He agrees that the candidates are good men. Then he changes the subject and tells Vance about Cartagena. Gibbs wonders if Lt. Evans is alive. Vance thinks it’s an Occam’s razor thing and that the credit card was lost or stolen. But Tony did threat assessments in Cartagena and knows the city, so Gibbs wants to send him in. Vance gives him one day. Then Vance wants to know if Gibbs even read the agent files. Gibbs repeats that they’re two good men. Vance asks for his choice and Gibbs says DiNozzo. Gibbs wants to know the score. He recaps that Vance sent Ziva back to Israel to follow a lead. He sent McGee to the geek squad to crack a code. There was no reason to send Tony to sea. Vance says after seven years as an agent, it was time for Tony to get his sea legs. Gibbs suggests that Vance thinks Tony screwed things up in L.A. while protecting Director Shepard (Judgment Day, Episodes 5.18 and 5.19) and Vance sent him to sea to punish him. Vance simply says that Gibbs’s choice is noted. They stare at each other and Gibbs leaves.
In Cartagena, Tony greets Hector, an old bartender friend. He shows Hector a photo of Lt. Evans. Hector sees about 2000+ sailors in a week. This one left a $100 tip on a $50 tab and Tony thinks that would be memorable. Then Tony segues into threats and then just cajoling. Hector says whoever used the card wasn’t a sailor- just someone who paid Hector to accept a clearly stolen card. Tony wants the name or Hector’s bar goes on a Navy no-go list. Hector IDs a guy in the bar. When Tony makes eye contact, the suspect runs. But Hector knows a shortcut, so when the suspect runs up a flight of stairs, he runs into Tony’s fist and comes tumbling back down the stairs. Tony questions the writhing man about where he stole the credit card. The man claims he found it and leads Tony to a spot that looks like a building was demolished. Tony handcuffs the suspect to a fence. He sees blood on some of the rocks and finds what looks like a shoestring. This leads to a body, and the suspect swears he just took the card. The body has dogtags. Tony calls Gibbs and says it’s Lt. Evans, and he has likely been dead before the Seahawk even sailed. Which, Gibbs notes, means the killer impersonated a USN officer to get on board an aircraft carrier.
Vance and Gibbs brief Captain Owens of the Seahawk on the scheme. Including the fake suicide and the face that the perp is still on the ship. Given the amount of trouble involved in pulling this off, Vance wants to know what Lt. Evans did. Lt. Evans was IT and tasked with performing routine tests of the ship’s security. So far, no reported breaches. Captain Owens says he’ll increase the security on weapons and the reactor, but Vance warns him to not go on a manhunt or otherwise panic the perp. Tony will find the guy and Captain Owens can best serve by confirming the IDs of his personnel discretely. They end the call and Vance tells Gibbs to pack a bag and head to the Seahawk.
In the squad room, McGee shows up for work and his computer greets him as Agent Keating. Gibbs’s phone rings and rings and rings and McGee finally answers it. It’s Tony. Tony begs for a case of tequila as Vance walks over, asks McGee if it’s Tony, and puts the call on speaker. Just in time to hear Tony say that, with Vance in charge, he’ll be agent afloating until his 60s. Vance announces himself and lets Tony squirm and then asks for a sit-rep. Tony says the local police turned Lt. Evans’s body over to the local coroner and he is insisting on doing the autopsy. Vance wants the report, but Tony thinks the coroner doesn’t like Americans. Or doesn’t like Tony. Vance figures they’ll learn the difference when Gibbs and Ziva arrive. Tony gets excited and asks when they’ll be here. Which is the perfect time for Gibbs to announce their presence right behind him.
And, after 3+ months of misery, everybody is all smiles. Even Gibbs.
In the lab, Abby and McGee are working on the hard drive from the Evans home. Abby gets the readout from Mrs. Evan’s body and she and McGee do a “Who’s on first?” routine using “It’s snot”/“It’s not.” Either way, Ducky was right and the substance in the dead woman’s hair is snot. Major Mass Spec also found a rare spore in the killer’s mucous, and Abby is trying to trace it. McGee technobabbles and cracks into the laptop. The four months in Cyber served him well and even Abby is impressed.
Tony, Ziva, and Gibbs arrive at the Cartagena morgue. Tony is doing the Tony thing where he talks about how much they must have missed him. Gibbs leaves to take a phone call. Ziva says Tony seems different. Older. She asks if he is still beating himself up over Director Shepard’s death or drinking himself numb. Tony says not as much. She thinks he could have called her, which means she thinks he should have called her. Gibbs interrupts before this goes anywhere and says they have an hour before they head back to the carrier. Tony suggests letting Ziva handle the coroner, but we find Tony intends for her to use her flirting skills rather than her killing skills. The coroner is smitten as they converse in Spanish and Tony and Gibbs read the autopsy report. The COD was blunt force trauma resulting in the nasal bone perpetrating the brain. According to Ducky, Mrs. Evans was killed the same way.
Gibbs gets a call from McGee and Abby. On the laptop, they found numerous communications between Lt. Evans and someone in Singapore. They can’t say who yet because the emails are filled with encryption…but the conversation still going on between the person in Singapore and someone claiming to be Lt. Evans. And two words they can make out are Seahawk and cipro. Which is the antibiotic used to treat anthrax.
Our agents rejoin the carrier. Captain Owens greets them. He updates the team on efforts to verify the identities of the crew and to locate any possible breaches. The agents suggest locking down water and ventilation based on the potential anthrax threat. Gibbs wants to talk to the officer of the deck who let the impostor on board and Tony IDs Lt. Kaplan as having encountered the impostor when he clocked in for an hour.
Oh boy. Ziva looks at Tony’s work area and he has posted pictures of her in a bikini like pin-ups. Tony weakly asks how those got there. She gives a look as if she’s suddenly wondering why she missed him.
Captain Owens has posted guards in vulnerable areas. He can only be so discrete when the safety of the ship is at stake. He gives Gibbs 12 hours before he takes over the investigation.
Oh. Looks like Tony and Ziva weren’t done talking about the photos. McGee was supposed to destroy them. Tony figures he forgot, and Ziva figures he should be reminded. Tony reminds Ziva that McGee had a difficult summer, and it was tougher on him than anyone else because he doesn’t handle change well. But Tony is mostly talking about himself, missing everyone, never getting to see the people he cared about, not being able to rely on the people on whom he is accustomed to relying. He and Ziva have to maneuver through the cramped halls while they have this discussion and the ole’ sexual tension is till there as they get closer and closer.
Meanwhile, Gibbs breaks the bad news to the officer of the deck, Ensign Solomon, that the man she let on to the carrier wasn’t Lt. Evans. She checks orders and IDs and matches them to face, so whoever she let on had the necessary credentials. Ensign Solomon makes clear that she has done this job for two years and knows how sailors, walk, talk, and carry their bags. She is 100% she didn’t let a civilian on the carrier.
Tony and Ziva check in to look for Lt. Kaplan, but he’s off duty. Lt. Almeida IDs station 3-F as the one used by fake Lt. Evans, but he says it’s classified to all but people with the highest clearances. Lt. Almeida can’t even access the station. Tony decides to page Lt. Kaplan.
In MTAC, McGee joins Vance. For the second episode in a row, McGee offers Vance an illegal hack. This time into the Seahawk’s IT systems. He figures he can search for the intruder better and faster, he’ll be quick, and he won’t get caught. Also, as he reminds Vance, his time in Cyber was like the Olympics of hacking and he specialized in a way he never could while a field agent. McGee is frosty. Vance doesn’t say anything, and McGee takes that as permission.
Captain Owens reports that everyone has been verified. But Tony notes that Lt. Kaplan has gone UA and is not answering his pages. Conveniently, Lt. Kaplan was in DC before shipping out and he’s also the only one who claims to have seen the killer. So, he’s either colluding with the killer or he is the killer. In fact, Lt. Kaplan could have checked in twice, first as himself and then as Lt. Evans. And since Lt. Evans had a higher security clearance, Lt. Kaplan may have needed him for that purpose.
Gibbs says to find Lt. Kaplan, so Tony sends the man’s face out to the ship with the carrier equivalent of a BOLO. Gibbs asks if Tony has a Plan B. Tony stammers, but the phone rings and Lt. Kaplan is announced as being in the infirmary. The team heads down.
Lt. Kaplan is in ICU. He collapsed and they rushed him in. Ziva opens his file. Lt. Cmdr. Nguyen comes out and says they had to induce a coma. Lt. Cmdr. Nguyen is coughing a bit and Gibbs asks if the symptoms are consistent with anthrax. Lt. Cmdr. Nguyen thinks that Lt. Kaplan hasn’t been exposed to anthrax and Gibbs and Tony get coy and hypothetical and wonder what if. Then Lt. Cmdr. Nguyen wonders if he should be treating for anthrax. Tony figures Lt. Kaplan will wake up in Leavenworth either way, but Ziva looks up from Lt. Kaplan’s file and says he wasn’t in DC when Mrs. Evans was murdered. He’s not the killer.
Tony and Ziva are tearing Lt. Kaplan’s bunk apart. They find morphine, and they’re not shocked that the sole witness who can ID the killer overdosed. They banter and Tony gives Ziva hell about her English, as usual. She gives him hell about being stuck out on the water for three more months. He gets exasperated because she’s back in DC, which is what she wanted. She says orders are orders, and then he catches on to the idea that maybe she didn’t want to come back to DC. He figures something happened in Israel. He guesses it might have been a guy. Ziva says she doesn’t want to talk about it.
Gibbs arrives and says Lt. Kaplan is negative for anthrax and positive for morphine. The killer is tying up loose ends. Gibbs gets a call. Abby has ID’d the spore from the mucous on Mrs. Evans’s body. It’s Samoan influenza. Gibbs calls it good work. He hangs up and wants to access the ship’s sickbay records. Tony says McGee isn’t here, but Gibbs wants him to come up with something.
Speaking of McGee, he’s hacking in the subbasement. He can’t hack the Seahawk’s maintenance area. He realizes he can use a logic bomb.
Tony is slow at computer work, but he gets in. Of the sailors who checked into sickbay with the flu, none joined the ship in Cartagena. Gibbs wants to see an American Samoa connection. Tony manages to make this happen (he is usually more technologically savvy than he lets on). Six sailors joined from American Samoa, only three at Cartagena, and only one via DC. Gibbs says “Sickbay,” and they take off.
McGee calls and says that he just found a breach in the ship’s requisitions and accounting systems. There was an order placed for 100 cases of cipro (worth a lot), only half of which showed up and the rest was routed to Singapore. So, we’re probably looking at a black-market drug distributor, and not terrorism.
Gibbs enters sickbay and demands to see Corpsman Henley. Lt. Cmdr. Nguyen says he left with the flu. Lt. Cmdr. Nguyen is coughing and says Corpsman Henley gave it to him. Lt. Cmdr. Nguyen also reports that Lt. Kaplan is being med-evaced, but Gibbs sees liquid seeping out from a supply closet and finds an unconscious Lt. Kaplan inside. So, Corpsman Henley is pretending to be Lt. Kaplan to get off the ship. Tony calls up to hold the launch, while Gibbs moves.
On the flight deck, the plane is powering up. Corpsman Henley is lying in the bay and hears a woman radioing a change of status. He opens his eyes and pulls a gun.
Gibbs appears on deck, sees the plane’s open back bay. He runs across the deck and dives inside. Corpsman Henley is standing at the front of the plane with a gun to the pilot’s head. He tells the pilot to take off, but the pilot says he isn’t cleared. Gibbs rises with his sidearm and says for Corpsman Henley to drop his weapon. Corpsman Henley says for Gibbs to drop his weapon or the pilot’s a dead man. Except Gibbs points out that Corpsman Henley can’t exactly fly the ship himself. Corpsman Henley tells Gibbs to get off the plane and then tells the pilot to hurry up. Gibbs tells us the scheme: Lt. Evans was buried in debt and Corpsman Henley was his way out. He bought the drugs, forged the documents, until Mrs. Evans found out. Corpsman Henley killed her, found Lt. Evans in Cartagena, tried to talk him around it, and that didn’t work out, so Corpsman Henley had to kill Lt. Evans too. Corpsman Henley tells Gibbs he is not stopping the plane from taking off. Gibbs asks “Do you want to fly?” Corpsman Henley hesitates. Gibbs yells it in his gunny voice, “DO YOU WANT TO FLY?!” Gibbs says “Let’s fly.” The pilot says they’re not clear. Gibbs says, “Tell them Special Agent Gibbs said launch.” If you’ve watched the Season One carrier episodes, you know where this is going.
In the control room, Captain Owens is unenthused, but Tony says to launch. On the plane, the control room grants launch permission and Gibbs and the pilot exchange a look. Gibbs yells, “GO!” and we get to see the look of horror on Corpsman Hensley’s face as Gibbs grabs the cargo netting in the rear of the plane and a seat belt and quickly secures himself. The plane accelerates dramatically, as is necessary to lift off a carrier deck, and Corpsman Hensley goes flying to the back of the plane. Gibbs gets the injured corpsman cuffed.
Back on the Seahawk, Lt. Commander Nguyen is trying to patch up our perp. Tony informs Gibbs that the transport is ready to take Gibbs and Ziva and Corpsman Henley home. In turn, Gibbs informs an excited Tony that it’s “Your collar. You ride him home.” So, Tony gets to leave too, and he dashes off at full speed to grab his gear. Gibbs grins.
Back at HQ, the team is chatting in the squad room and Vance is observing from the upper level. Gibbs emerges from MTAC and says Captain Owens wants to know if he’s getting his agent afloat back. Gibbs makes the case for Tony staying. Vance says he has already made his decision but tells Gibbs that sending Tony to sea was never about punishment. Gibbs grumps off.
Gibbs joins the team downstairs and Tony is telling some wild story about his adventures at sea. Then Abby runs in screaming excited at having Tony back and asks if it’s for real. Tony says the Director just told him he’d been re-assigned to DC effective immediately. Gibbs doesn’t say anything, but he looks up and Vance smirks. The audience is reminded of all the times Shepard pulled this trick- making Gibbs think the worst of her and then doing him a solid- and it’s not a better look on Vance. Gibbs certainly isn’t impressed, and Mark Harmon does a good job of depicting this with only muted facial expressions.
Everybody is happy, and Even McGee admits it’s nice to have Tony back. We end on Abby updating Tony on her life in general and on Gibbs shaking Tony’s hand to welcome him home.
Quotables:
(1) Tony: So, let me guess. You guys caught a bad case of “DiNozzo-it is,” had Vance send you down south?
Ziva: “DiNozzo-itis.” Sounds venereal.
(2) Ziva: This is where you have been for the last month?
Tony: Yeah. It’s just like the squad room, only I’m the squad and there’s no room.
-Ziva and Tony assess Tony’s new digs.
(3) “It sinks at the end. Very weird.” -Abby describes seeing Titanic (1997) for the first time.
Time Until Sexual Harassment: 25:55. Ziva sees the photos Tony took of her in a bikini, including a close-up of her ass, in Los Angeles during Judgment Day, Episode 5.19. He has them displayed next to his work area on the Seahawk.
Ziva-propisms: Ziva says McGee’s crimes scene skills have gotten dusty. She means rusty. She doesn’t understand “cowinkydink” as a colloquialism for coincidence.
Tony Awards: References are made to Romancing the Stone (1984), The Blue Lagoon (1980), Seems Like Old Times (1980), and Titanic (1997).
Abby Road: Sister Rosita, one of the nus with whom Abby bowls, bowled a 260. Also, Abby spends a good bit of time spazzing about the agents being sent away again.
McNicknames: McGoo. Mcgeek.
Ducky Tales: Ducky tells no tales.
The Rest of the Story:
-We were early in Season One the last time a perp impersonated a Navy officer. Sub Rosa, Episode 1.7.
-Based on Abby’s calendar, it has been less than a week since the events of Last Man Standing, Episode 6.1.
-I don’t think Gibbs had introduced himself at the time Lt. Cmdr. Nguyen referred to him as “Agent Gibbs.”
Casting Call: I don’t recognize anyone.
Man, This Show Is Old: Guitar Hero was quite the party game for a while there in the mid-aughts.
Greg Louganis is a former Olympic diver for the U.S. team. He famously cracked his head on the platform during an Olympic performance in 1988 in Seoul. When Louganis came out as HIV positive, people became a little upset that this wasn’t disclosed at the time of the injury since he bled into the pool. But the odds of other athletes being infected in chlorine water is almost non-existent.
MVP: Gibbs nails the perp and prevents his escape.
Rating: Nowadays, and with decompressed storytelling, it might take Tony half the season or more to return to the nest. Which is perhaps a bit much. But two episodes seems like too little, such that his return seemed too inevitable to build tension. Either way, it was good to see the team reunited, the mystery was solid, and Gibbs had a cool solution for disabling the perp. Enjoyable on the whole.
Seven Palmers.
Next Time: Gibbs helps out an old Marine buddy and a Senator when the guy’s extra-marital girlfriend gets murdered. Classy.
A Year of NCIS 