A Year of NCIS, Day 117: Heartland (Episode 6.4)

Episode: 6.4, Heartland

Air Date: October 14, 2008.

The Victim: Corporal Kevin Taylor, USMC, Corporal Ethan LaCombe, USMC.

Emotionally Traumatized, But Ultimately Irrelevant, Witness Who Finds the Body: A bouncer tosses some unruly patrons out the back door of a bar and into an alleyway.  They are Marines and one of them is angry because his credit card is still inside.  The other Marines tell him to get it tomorrow, but “Sarge” wants to go around front.  These guys are drunk as hell.  Which doesn’t help them when some other guys appear out of the shadows and beat the tar out of them with baseball bats.  When the sergeant returns with his credit card, he finds his bloodied companions and screams for help.

Intense opening.      

Plot Recap: We jump right to NCIS processing the crime scene, which includes one dead body.  McGee reports that nobody at the bar heard the commotion over the music.  The surveillance camera was disabled, and the dumpster was moved as well, potentially as a hiding place. 

Ducky arrives at the crime scene in formal wear because the writers seem to pull weird little details like that out of a hat and insert them into the script to keep things interesting.  Ducky was at the opera, although that hardly explains why he is still in the tux, since it’s morning now.  Tony suggests Ducky got lucky.  Ducky and Tony do a Marx Brothers riff and McGee chuckles.

Ducky identifies COD as blunt force trauma to the sternum and asks Ziva to bag some nearby wood shavings.  The team IDs the dead guy as Corporal Kevin Taylor, and Tony reports that the other injured Marine, Corporal Ethan LaCombe is in the hospital with multiple fractures and internal bleeding and is being prepped for brain surgery. Ducky finds it unfortunate that Cpl. LaCombe took the worst of it and may live, but Cpl. Taylor appears to have died from a single blow.

Gibbs is interviewing Sergeant Welch.  And consoling him because Sgt. Welch is blaming himself for no reason other than being a good Marine who takes responsibility for harm to his men.  He describes Cpl. LaCombe as a bit of a mystery and says he doesn’t know much about him.  Gibbs asks about Cpl. LaCombe’s hometown and Sgt. Welch says he never said- wore a class ring and would gaze off into space and start twisting it, but never took it off, even when sand would get under it and rub his finger raw.  Dialogue starts to get awkwardly expository here as Sgt. Welch says he never pressed Cpl. LaCombe, but Cpl. LaCombe was hiding something about his past.  Gibbs tells the Sergeant to get himself to a hospital, presumably to check on his buddy since Sgt. Welch wasn’t touched.

McGee tells Gibbs the time stamp on the surveillance camera says it was disabled about an hour before the fight.  Gibbs calls the scene an ambush.

Back in the lab, Tony and McGee bring Abby evidence to process.  Including Cpl. LaCombe’s class ring, which is bent and has blood on it from him landing a few punches.  It might yield DNA.  Tony grabs the bag with the ring in it and grins a big toothy grin of absolute glee.  “It might give us more than that,” he almost gloats.  “Stillwater High School.”  Abby and McGee are clueless.  So, Tony repeats it.  And then chastises his teammates, “In all the time you two spend staring at computer screens, you never once peeked at the man’s file.  Come on!”  Still nothing, so Tony explains, “Stillwater is a small town in Pennsylvania coal country.  Primarily known for the mine, but only slightly less well known as the birthplace of one Leroy Jethro Gibbs.”  Now Abby and McGee are impressed, because our victim is from Gibbs’s hometown.

In autopsy, Ducky gives Gibbs the update on Cpl. LaCombe’s surgery.  The doctors are cautiously optimistic, but right now he is in a drug induced coma.  Corporal Taylor’s COD was a previously fractured rib that re-fractured on impact and stuck him in the heart.  Ducky reiterates however, that the beating of Cpl. LaCombe was far worse: spinal fractures, collapsed lung, head injuries, spleen injury.  Which makes Cpl. LaCombe the primary target of the attack.  Gibbs begins to leave and Ducky snidely remarks on the rumors that the search may take the team to Gibbs’s old haunts.  Ducky wonders what might be unearthed, and I don’t think he’s referring to the investigation into the assault on Cpl. LaCombe.

Tony is in the squad room and still excited as he barrels at breakneck speed toward Head-slapvania.  Ziva and McGee are trying to work while Tony wonders aloud at Gibbs’s past.  Ziva suggests Gibbs was molded from clay and had life breathed into him (but that’s Wonder Woman).  McGee suggests Gibbs fell to Earth in a capsule after his home planet exploded (I dunno- Batman, maybe?).  No, says Ziva, he burst forth full grown from the mind of Zeus (that’s Athena).  Tony is not impressed and thinks his fellow agents should take the quest to learn about Gibbs more seriously. 

Gibbs arrives at that point and Tony immediately changes direction.  He reports that the team has been tracing the movements of the Marines’ squad.  They came back from Iraq three weeks ago and have been stationed at Camp LeJeune- no telephone calls or visitors.  Ziva reports that Cpl. LaCombe’s only relative is an aunt on the mother’s side.  Tony announces she lives in Stillwater, Pennsylvania, and emphasizes the syllables as he gauges Gibbs’s reaction.  Gibbs leaves him hanging.  Ziva reports that Abby lifted coal dust off the bat chips they found at the scene.  Like from a coal mine.  McGee excitedly whispers, “Road trip,” and he and Ziva hurry to prepare. 

Gibbs tells Tony to follow up with Cpl. Taylor’s family.  Meaning stay behind.  McGee and Ziva grin at him from the elevator and he whispers that he hates them, but tells them to take lots of pictures. 

McGee, disingenuous puppy that he is, says he printed directions off the internet.  Gibbs sighs and says he knows where they’re going.  McGee asks when Gibbs last when home.  Gibbs says, “I make it a point to go home every night.”  McGee doesn’t take the hint and clarifies as if Gibbs misunderstood him.  Gibbs sighs again but answers- he had just joined the Corps.  Summer 1976.  Ziva asks what it was like, lo, 32 years previous.  Gibbs describes a whole lot of fanfare- fireworks, parades.  He figures it might have been the Bicentennial and flashes back to a parade in a small-town square and two kids beating the hell out of another kid.

Charming.

The team pulls up at the same town square from Gibbs’s flashback.  There’s a general store in the shot, and mountains in the distance.  A police car flashes its siren and drives up to greet the team.  “Well, that didn’t take long,” Gibbs smirks.  A sheriff gets out and tells Gibbs he almost reminds him of a skinny little wiseass he used to know.  Since this is mostly how dudes talk to each other, it’s hard to tell if this is beef or not.  Ziva seems amused, McGee seems uncomfortable. 

The sheriff wishes Gibbs had called ahead and says he hears he’s a fed now.  The sheriff expresses surprise that they ended up on the same side.  Gibbs laughs that sort of scary laugh he laughs where he’s being charming right before he does damage.  But he simply agrees and asks “Ed” how he has been.  It’s admittedly not a fair question for Ed- Sheriff Gantry- to answer after 30+ years because where do you start?  But I guess you start with knocking up Debbie Leonard and marrying her, and now the sheriff’s a grandfather- a Pappy to be specific.  He tells Gibbs, “You know how it goes,” and it’s hard to tell who knows what and whether that’s a highly dangerous dig at a highly dangerous man’s dead family.  And yeah, this is beef, by the way.  Sheriff Gantry asks Gibbs if there’s anything he can help him with, regarding the police work.  Gibbs says he’ll let him know and Sheriff Gantry says, “You do that, Leroy.”

So yeah, Gibbs changed everything, including his name when he stepped out of that dump and kept on stepping.

Sheriff Gantry leaves with a not-exactly-concealed sense of menace, and Ziva asks, “Old friend?”  Gibbs doesn’t respond.

As they walk up to a house, Gibbs tells Ziva to check in with Tony.  He and McGee approach Janet LaCombe, Cpl. LaCombe’s aunt.  Gibbs says they need to talk to her about her nephew and she says he’s dead.  McGee feels bad and says that they didn’t mean to give her that impression and that her nephew is injured but alive.  But “that impression” was pre-existing.  She genuinely thought he was dead…from four years ago.  So, rather than being horrified at the catastrophic injuries to her loved one, she’s tearfully overjoyed that he’s not a corpse after all.  I hope he pulls through or this is just mean.

Meanwhile out at the sidewalk, an old guy walks up to Ziva and notes her frustration at the absence of a cell signal.  He’s not optimistic about her getting anything.  The old guy tells her she can use the public phone in his store and introduces himself as Jackson.  Jackson notes that Ziva dropped something.  It’s a $20 bill.  She reaches for it and he puts his cane on it.  They have a philosophical discussion about the context of a $20 bill on the ground versus in one’s wallet and how much more exciting the former is.  Then he pegs her as being from Israel and there’s more to this than meets the immediate eye.  He also flatters her as an exotic beauty.  And he knows she’s NCIS and figures she should have picked up on this all being a pretext to talk to a pretty girl. 

Ms. LaCombe is headed to the hospital and McGee protests that they still have questions.  But she’s excited- Cpl. LaCombe’s mom was a wild child and they knew she’d die young.  And nobody knows who his dad was because…well…that wasn’t a very sisterly thing to say.  Cpl. LaCombe took after the mom and got in all sorts of trouble, including car theft, fights.  He left town as soon as he got done doing time for the car theft.  Gibbs asks if Cpl. LaCombe had any local enemies, but, per Ms. LaCombe, how can you have enemies when everyone thinks you’re dead?  She drives off.

McGee wonders if they’ve taken a wrong turn in light of Ms. LaCombe’s logic.  Gibbs isn’t convinced just yet.  They rejoin Ziva and her new friend.  Jackson and Gibbs make eye contact, and Gibbs says, “Word travels fast.”  “That it does,” says Jackson.  “When people actually open their mouths and speak with one another.  You don’t call.  You don’t write.  Were you gonna come by and say ‘hi’?”  Gibbs says “Hi…Jack.”  Jack says, “Hi…Leroy.”  Then Gibbs remembers his manners (I guess) and says, “Ziva, McGee.  Jackson Gibbs.  My father.”  Jackson nods.  Ziva and McGee try to pick up their jaws.  Gibbs remains stoic.  We go to commercial.

At the General Store, McGee is impressed by how wired Jackson’s store is.  Unlike his Luddite son, Jackson Gibbs believes you have to keep up with technology.  Ziva looks at a photo of Jackson in the cockpit of a plane, and she is also impressed with the photographic evidence that Jackson went mountain climbing in Nepal.  He tells her he was 60 and shouldn’t have tried to smoke a cigar when they summited.  But fortunately, a Sherpa gave him mouth to mouth and he always makes it a point to return home after every adventure.  “Unlike some people I know,” he says, passive aggressively. 

Jackson asks if Gibbs ever talks about him.  McGee offhandedly says he thinks he heard Gibbs refer to Jackson as dead, which is tone deaf even for him.  Ziva’s eyes shooting wide at this comment makes the scene.  She tries to cover, and McGee takes the hint and then changes the subject by asking about a photo of Jackson with an African-American man.  Jackson says it’s from the opening of the store, which he and “LJ” opened after too many close calls in the mine.  McGee asks about the initials, and Jackson says, “Leroy Jethro,” like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.  And thereby explaining why Gibbs, the whitest of white men, has two arguably African-American names- at least if you confine your review to 20^th Century naming trends.

Gibbs returns, and frankly, I’m surprised he left his agents alone with his father.  Or brought them along at all, really.  Ziva asks if the shotgun above the register was the gun Gibbs learned to shoot with.  Gibbs says no one was allowed to touch that Winchester.  Jackson figures the lesson is tell a kid he can’t have a rifle and watch him grow up to be a sniper. 

Now it’s time for Gibbs to stand there uncomfortably while the old man tells stories.  He thinks he can help Gibbs with the case since Jackson and Cpl. LaCombe had some beers once.  Jackson says that Gibbs, anti-social even in childhood, never saw the benefit of keeping a six-pack on ice and cracking one open with pals.  He pretty much just did manly projects in the garage.  Including working on some wreck of a car that Gibbs could never quite get restored.  There’s tension but Gibbs refocuses the case to Cpl. LaCombe.  Jackson said Cpl. LaCombe was a little reckless but everyone liked him except for Chuck Winslow, who we learn owns the town’s mining company.  Jackson refers to Winslow as Gibbs’s “old buddy.”  Cpl. LaCombe had a thing for Winslow’s daughter Emily, but she married a guy named Nick Kingston.  Cpl. LaCombe took off after that.

Gibbs heads for the door.  Jackson wants to know if Gibbs is going to walk up to the Winslow place and start accusing people, but Gibbs assures his father that he’ll drive.  Jackson yells, “Leroy!”

And then we flash back to a young high school age male walking out of Jackson’s store as Jackson yells, “Leroy” after him.  Jackson tells Young Leroy (Leroy for ease of reference) to not go doing anything stupid, and Leroy walks down street with a purposeful look on his face.  He spits to show he’s tough.  He also spies a pretty girl arranging the mannequin display in a dress store window and shyly smiles.  She smiles back, with more ease and confidence.  They stare at each other as he walks backwards in that unsubtle way that teenagers have. 

And we’re back to Gibbs looking at the store window in real time as a train whistle blows in the distance.  Jackson appears and puts a bottle of liquor on top of Gibbs’s car and suggests that going another round with Winslow might work out better with kind words and gifts of booze.  Then the old man gets in Gibbs’s car.  McGee and Ziva tap out and say they’ll wait at the store.  Gibbs grudgingly gets in the car as well.  Ziva and McGee watch them leave and Ziva says, “I’ll call Tony!”  McGee says, “I’ll call Abby!”  And they race inside the store.

Tony walks into Abby’s lab.  With Gibbs gone, Tony becomes Gibbs, per usual, and even says, “Whatta ya got, Abs?”  Abby’s got three separate blood samples on Cpl. LaCombe’s ring.  Only one belongs to Cpl. LaCombe, so hopefully his assailants will have some marks on them.  McGee manages to get Abby on-screen and she says, “Hey Luke.  How’s Uncle Jesse?” “Gibbs has a father!” McGee and Ziva both squeal in unison.  “Tell me everything,” Tony and Abby respond, equally in unison.  They describe Jackson as a talker and Gibbs as a surly teenager in Jackson’s presence.  Tony immediately announces he’s coming.  Abby too.  But she really can’t- since there’s evidence to process.  Still, they aren’t emptyhanded.  Tony shares a link to a YouTube video showcasing and tagging Cpl. LaCombe which explains to McGee how a town full of people who thought Cpl. LaCombe was dead may have learned he was alive.

In Stillwater, Gibbs and Jackson pull up to a nice home.  Gibbs, annoyed, takes the liquor bottle from Jackson.  Nick Kingston, Winslow’s son in law, answers the door and he and Jackson warmly greet each other.  Winslow himself walks out.  He’s more political than the sheriff and refers to Gibbs as “Local boy makes good.”  And when Jackson exposits a bit and congratulates Winslow on his own success, Winslow is self-effacing enough to say he’s made his money off “hard work and sweat- mostly other people’s.”  He invites them in to sit and drink bourbon. 

And that’s the end of his charm.  When Jackson offers to help Emily, Winslow’s daughter, clear the table, Winslow pronounces it woman’s work and tells Jack to sit.  Winslow asks what brings Gibbs back to Stillwater and Emily blanches when he says Cpl. LaCombe’s name.  Winslow says it must be a night for raising the dead and Gibbs reveals that Cpl. LaCombe is not in fact dead.  Kingston says he heard Cpl. LaCombe drowned in Alaska and Emily calls it a fishing accident.  Winslow thinks Cpl. LaCombe was a thrill-seeker with a death wish.  Jack starts up diplomatic- Gibbs is just doing his job, beating bushes.  But Gibbs has to go and use the ‘M’ word and make everyone uncomfortable.  Gibbs tells them about Cpl. Taylor’s death and the search for motive in the attack on the Marines.  Kingston says they haven’t seen Cpl. LaCombe since he left 6 years prior, and Winslow is honest enough to acknowledge that Cpl. LaCombe tried to run off with Emily before she came to her senses.  Emily sits passively and lets menfolk speak for her, as is likely expected in this burg. 

Winslow asks about the investigation and Gibbs slyly drops that NCIS has blood traces on the ring- a class ring just like Kingston’s.  Kingston thinks that’s odd, since Cpl. LaCombe never graduated high school (not that graduation is a requirement for getting a class ring).  Jackson is trying to defuse the bomb threatrening to go off amongst his neighbors, but Winslow persists in fiddling with the fuse and Gibbs explains how the blood will be used to convict suspects.  Or rule them out, Jackson casts desperately.  Gibbs denies any reason to believe there’s a suspect in Stillwater.  At least not yet. 

Then a child enters- Chris, Winslow’s grandson and Kingston and Emily’s kid.  Chris is five.  Hmmmmm.  Gibbs lightly smirks and then thanks Winslow for the drink and gets up to leave. 

Back at the store, Jackson is picking old fights.  He accuses of Gibbs of being hyper-suspicious.  Then low blows: “You were such a happy child.”  McGee would like the awkwardness to end and wants to brief Gibbs.  He calls him “boss,” and Jackson is flabbergasted that Gibbs allows this (perfectly ordinary) managerial distance to persist.  But he backs off undermining Gibbs’s authority when he gets the death stare.  Ziva and McGee provide updates as to the blood and the Iraq video.  McGee will have to sift through some data, but he should be able to tell who has seen the video.  He technobabbles until Gibbs says he’s tired, and Mark Harmon impressively conveys the fatigue of a man who has had to spend the day confronting his past.  McGee cuts to the chase and has conclusively determined that the video was viewed from the Winslow home account.  Jackson says anybody could have viewed the video and found Cpl. LaCombe.  And Gibbs agrees- it could have been anybody.  “But they lied to me about it!”

Gibbs and Jackson are sitting at a table the next morning, reading the paper and drinking coffee.  And speaking in monosyllables.  McGee and Ziva arrive.  Ziva reports that Cpl. LaCombe regained consciousness but doesn’t remember the attack.  McGee says that Tony is trying to line up court orders for blood samples from the Winslows (although there’s no way they did their own dirty work).  Jackson is pissed at the invasion of his neighbors and wonders if Gibbs is just lining up people he doesn’t like to take their blood.  Gibbs denies its personal.  They squabble.  Gibbs says he does this for a living.  Jackson figures Gibbs just likes feeling superior to everyone else.  Gibbs asks what Jackson would like him to do and Jackson would like him to get more evidence.  McGee and Ziva would like to look at these products over here, and they have vanished down an aisle of the store to avoid the drama.  They sheepishly look back. 

Ziva and McGee are going though a dumpster and seem to have issues with both Jackson and the way Gibbs is accommodating him.  They’re definitely annoyed at Jackson’s distrust of their investigation.  Kingston comes over and wants to know what they’re doing.  Ziva says they are searching a public dumpster for DNA.  He finds that annoying but offers to help and tosses a half-eaten apple in the dumpster. 

Back at the store, Gibbs is helping Jackson price store items.  Jackson says he appreciates Gibbs making an effort not to tear the town apart.  “Give people a chance and they might surprise you,” he says.  “That’s what worries me,” Gibbs retorts.  Wow.  Jackson asks Gibbs to tell him about the investigator gig and says they haven’t talked since he started it.  Meaning, it has been roughly 16 years since Gibbs talked to his father.  Jackson drives that point home to the audience by saying, “In fact, we haven’t talked since the funeral.”  Jackson says he adored Shannon and Kelly and figured Shannon was the one who sent him Christmas cards.  Gibbs ignores this part but likens investigating to his dad telling stories.  Except most of Gibbs’s stories start with dead bodies: you look into how they got that way, meet the people they knew, see what they try to show you, read what they try to hide.  Jackson says people come into his store and tell him their life stories- what are they trying to hide.  Gibbs retorts, “Insecurity.”  They need assurance their life means something.

Jackson asks what he did at the funeral to piss him off.  Gibbs responds, “You mean other than showing up with a date?”  That seems a little petty depending on how long Gibbs’s mom has been dead.  Jackson says he thought he and Mrs. Gibbs had a love story for the ages and he never regretted giving up flying planes to work in a coal mine to give his family the white picket fence life.  Jackson says it was good, but it didn’t work out and he knows how Gibbs hated him for getting on with his life after Gibbs’s mother died.  Jackson says, “I saw the look in your face.  How you wanted vengeance.  And that look went away when you met Shannon, but it came back quick after they died.  I knew what that meant.  You were gonna find someone to take it out on.  Didn’t matter what I said.”  Gibbs asks what Jackson sees now.

But Winslow and Sheriff Gantry show up and interrupt.  Winslow is annoyed about the agents sifting through his employee’s trash.  Winslow suggests this is about their so-far-unexplained grudge.  Gibbs takes a different tact and says he got Cpl. LaCombe’s record unsealed and the car he stole belonged to Winslow.  Sheriff Gantry wrote the arrest report and they both made sure Cpl. LaCombe did time, but they couldn’t get rid of him.  Winslow suggests that if Gibbs wants to settle a score, they can settle it like men.  This is funny because Gibbs would probably beat the shit out of both men now, and, frankly, he wouldn’t have to because Ziva would drop Sheriff Gantry like an empty beer can.  But Gibbs just chuckles and says he knows how Winslow and Sheriff Gantry handle things. 

We flash back to young Leroy and presumably Winslow, having a fight that Leroy looks sure to win.  Until young Gantry grabs Leroy from behind and pins him.  Leroy pulls up and kicks Winslow in the face and knocks him flat.  But he can’t extricate himself from Gantry, and Leroy takes a few punches from the coward, Winslow.  While the other schoolkids, including the girl from the dress store, look on.  It ends when Jackson fires a shotgun in the air (ouch, saved by your dad).  Winslow says the next time, when Gibbs’s daddy isn’t around, he’s going to kill him.  Gibbs responds, that the next time, when his buddy isn’t around, Gibbs is going to kill him. 

One of these men will grow up to kill lots of people.  All of whom will deserve it.

We segue back to the present.  Sheriff Gantry smugly asks Gibbs if he’s sure he wants to pick this fight, and Gibbs says it wasn’t his choice.  Winslow smirks and they leave.  Gibbs looks at the Winchester on the wall, and then at his father, who actually smiles a little.

McGee and Ziva are still picking trash, but this time near Winslow’s house.  Ziva thinks they’re being watched.  It’s Emily.  Ziva goes over to talk to her.  Emily recognizes her as being in town with Gibbs about Cpl. LaCombe.  Ziva tries to bond with her and when Emily says she used to be close to Cpl. LaCombe, Ziva notes those feelings don’t go away overnight.  Emily admits she found the video of Cpl. LaCombe on the internet.  She made some calls.  He was her best friend and she just wanted to talk to him again.  A car pulls up so Ziva’s on the clock.  She asks Emily who else knew Cpl. Lacombe was still alive.  Winslow gets out of the car and Emily clams up.  Winslow tells Ziva to get lost and Ziva asks McGee is they’re finished with the trash.  Carrying a trash bag over his shoulder, McGee jauntily announces they are.  Ziva smiles and they saunter off. 

McGee finds Gibbs sweeping the store and reports about the trash and Emily.  Gibbs asks if there’s a reason McGee isn’t on the road back to HQ.  McGee says he knows Gibbs is treating this case differently, “Some might say with kid gloves.”  Although not McGee.  A look from Gibbs and McGee makes clear he would not say “kid gloves.”  What McGee is saying is that Gibbs’s skill set is intimidating the shit out of witnesses and suspects until they get confessions.  Why isn’t that happening here?  Gibbs is snarky with him and tells him in so many words where he can put his complaints.  But before Gibbs can draw a diagram, an explosion happens outside.  Somebody Molotov cocktailed the agents’ car.  And all of the evidence.  Jackson arrives and sort of frantically asks if everyone is OK, and Gibbs’s nonchalant, annoyed, “Yeah, fine,” is an amazing yet completely in-character piece of acting.  Jackson shrugs and figures they can do it Gibbs’s way now.  Flaming cars tend make one’s neighbors look more guilty, I suppose.

Tony arrives.  With Abby.  Tony enters the store, a look of barely concealed delight on his face, and encounters Gibbs’s father.  But Gibbs cuts off any inquiries.  Tony hands Gibbs the court order for the kind of pervasive DNA testing of all Winslow family members (including the little kid) and employees that no judge would ever allow.  Gibbs tells Abby to set up at the store and reaches for the shotgun behind the counter, but that belongs to Jackson. Gibbs tells Tony to take Ziva and McGee to the mine and he’ll handle the residence.  Tony reminds Gibbs they only have one car.  But Jackson has a car. 

Jackson takes Gibbs to the shed and shows Gibbs the vintage machine that Gibbs was trying to build as a kid.  It’s a Dodge Charger, finished and looking fine.  Jackson hands Gibbs the keys and he’s coming along too.  Gibbs smiles, and it’s a real smile.  The smile is even bigger, when Gibbs peels around the corner in the new old car and Tony’s jaw drops in jealousy as the Gibbs men speed off.  The show even plays a Dukes of Hazzardish riff as they drive.  Good stuff.

At the mine, Tony meets up with Kingston and shows him the court order.  Kingston has some employees with him who have suspicious cuts on their face.

At the Winslow residence, Gibbs appears.  Winslow says that’s the man he remembers- who busts in before he knows what’s going on.  Gibbs shows the warrant.  Gibbs says he knows.  Emily appears and asks if things are OK.  Winslow sends her back upstairs.  Gibbs asks Winslow if he gave Cpl. LaCombe the same threat he gave Gibbs back in the day.  Winslow says the boy stayed gone, but Gibbs reveals that Emily found him.  “So I went after him?” Winslow asks.  Gibbs taunts him and says that’s not the way he works and says he got somebody else to do the deed.

Outside, Sheriff Gantry arrives to once again back his boy’s play.  Shame Jackson Gibbs has that shotgun.  He’s sitting on the porch and when Sheriff Gantry makes to go inside, Jackson shifts the gun and suggests, “Why don’t we sit this one out?” 

Gibbs and Jackson return to the store and Jackson is glad things went smooth since he has no idea where he keeps his shotgun shells.  Jackson sits down and Abby is trying to explain DNA to him, but he just wants to talk about how pretty she is.  In any event, Abby technobabbles, and she demonstrates that two of the blood samples are a father-son match.  That’s predictable.  What happens next isn’t.

The team arrives at the Winslow house.  Gibbs announces to Winslow, Kingston, and Emily that they’ve tracked two mine employees by blood traces and arrested them for killing Cpl. Taylor and trying to kill Cpl. LaCombe.  Fortunately, Cpl. LaCombe will live.  Gibbs tells Winslow he thought he’d want to know…since Cpl. LaCombe is family.  Kingston takes the path that the show was setting up and accuses Emily of stepping out on him with Cpl. LaCombe and getting pregnant.  She denies it and says she was already pregnant when Cpl. LaCombe got out of prison.  Emily says it broke the corporal’s heart, but he didn’t want to tear apart her family.  Gibbs notes that Emily gave Cpl. LaCombe her class ring, but she says she never slept with him.  Kingston doesn’t believe her.

“Well you should,” Gibbs says dismissively.  He hands Kingston a folder and says. “Chris is your son.”  Then he tells Winslow that Cpl. LaCombe is his son.  Emily’s look of disgust is a highlight for an actress who didn’t have much to do in this episode.  Golf clap.  And Winslow’s motivation in keeping them apart makes sense.  And, as someone who comes from a small town, I can even see why a prominent local businessman would rather use violence and threats than admit to his family that he got cozy with the town harlot and filled her with baby.  Gibbs says that Winslow never said anything because it would have meant acknowledging an heir to the Winslow fortune, but that doesn’t make any sense (see below).  But, as Gibbs notes, while Winslow has done a lot of shitty things in his life, even he wouldn’t try to kill his own son.  And since Kingston signed the timecards for two employees who were demonstrably not present in the mines based on their DNA at the crime scene, he’s the mastermind.  All to rub out a guy his wife wasn’t even screwing.  Awkward.

The team is packing the car in front of Jackson’s store.  Abby and McGee fight over shotgun, but Ziva already claimed it.  Tony has a lot of questions for Jackson.  Gibbs gives him two and Tony burns one on, “Where do I start?”  Amateur.  Tony goes in a solid direction with only one question and asks if Jackson taught Gibbs his rules.  Jackson denies it.  Gibbs says, “He taught me to drive” and snatches the keys to Tony’s car.  Which puts Tony in backseat middle hump.  Jackson solves the problem by giving Gibbs the keys to the Charger. 

Sorry, not a car guy.

Jackson asks Gibs to call him.  Gibbs says it’s the least he can do.  “Goodbye, son,” says Jackson.  “Bye Dad,” Gibbs says as he hugs his neck.”

Gibbs is driving solo in the Charger and stops at a railroad crossing as a train comes through.  Ugh…and we get one of those slow songs that accompanied shows of this era during emotional moments.  They don’t do it a lot on this show, but it screams mid-late-aughts when they do.

Gibbs stares at the train station and flashes back to a young man in a Marine uniform joining a redheaded young woman on a bench.  Its Leroy and the girl from the dress store.  Leroy still has facial lacerations from his fight with the clown brigade.  He looks at the girl and then quickly looks away and she asks what he and those guys were fighting about.  He claims not to even remember.  She tells him he should stop.  He timidly asks if she’s waiting for the train too and if they can sit together.  She’s not sure, it’s a long ride.  “But I guess you’re not a lumberjack.”  He agrees that he is not.  And she says she has a rule, it’s either #1 or #3, and that rule is “Never date a lumberjack.”  Leroy asks if she has a rule for everything.  She replies, “Working on it.  Everyone needs a code they can live by.”  He nods at that and she asks his name.  “Leroy Jethro Gibbs,” he says.  She says she’s just gonna call him Gibbs.  He says, “You can call me anything you want.”  She says, “I’m Shannon.”

The two teens fade from the bench and we’re back in the present.  Where Gibbs is still staring as we end.

Quotables:

(1)  [Tony gets out of the car rubbing his arm]

McGee: Pass a lot of Volkswagen beetles on your way up?

Tony: Abby cheats at punch buggy.

McGee: I know.

(2) Jackson Gibbs: I mean it’s wonder Leroy can get any work done surrounded by such beautiful women.

Abby: Are you always this awkward around girls?

(3) Young Shannon: Well I have a rule. It’s either one or number three: Never date a lumberjack.

Young Gibbs: You have a rule for everything?

Young Shannon: Working on it. Everyone needs a code they can live by. What’s your name?

Young Gibbs: Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

Young Shannon: I’m just going to call you “Gibbs.”

Young Gibbs: You can call me anything you want.

Young Shannon: I’m Shannon.

                                    -The beginning.

Ziva-propisms: None that I caught.

Tony Awards: The old Marx Brothers flick A Night at the Opera (1935) gets a mention.  Tony makes reference to the team being in Hazzard County- a nod to the old 80s TV show The Duke of Hazzard.  Abby runs with it too.

Abby Road: Abby discourses on tidiness.

McNicknames: None today.

Ducky Tales:  Is Ducky going to go the whole season without digressing?

The Rest of the Story:

-Gibbs’s personal life shows up in cases a lot.  The most recent story of this nature involved his ex-wife Stephanie being a murder suspect in an NCIS investigation.  Ex-File, Episode 5.3.

-One of the show’s conceits is that Gibbs is about 8 years younger than Mark Harmon.  If he graduated high school in 1976, that means he went to Desert Storm in his early 30s, and is roughly 50 as of the time of this episode.  Kelly would have been born when he was roughly 26, and would have died when he was roughly 34.

-Apropos of nothing, your humble author was born in 1976.

-Gibbs did refer to Jackson as dead in The Bone Yard, Episode 2.5.  But, in fairness, he was also explaining to a mob boss why he (and his non-family) had nothing to fear regarding standard mob reprisals.  It wouldn’t have made sense to acknowledge a father in that context.

-Once again, NCIS leaves a shattered family in their wake.  A young boy will grow up without his father.  A daughter will never trust her father again.  A badly beaten Marine will wake up to realize he has spent years fantasizing about his sister.  Our heroes will go back to leading their funny, zany, and in Gibbs’s case, horrifically dysfunctional, lives. 

-Shannon and Kelly are Gibbs’s deceased wife and child.  They were murdered in the early 90s by a drug dealer.  Gibbs later shot the killer’s head loose from the rest of his body.  See Hiatus (Part One), Episode 3.23.

-Ahhh…one of the strange (yet also strangely admirable) aspects of Gibbs’s character is the way he hangs on to the memory of his wife.  Children are one thing, but most people don’t grieve a spouse this long and this self-destructively.  But if Gibbs, as a teen, developed a deep-seated conviction that his father betrayed his mother by moving on after her death, that explains a lot about his psyche and his tendencies.  That’s really good, really subtle writing.

-Winslow acknowledging that Cpl. LaCombe was his son would have had minimal effect on the family fortune.  As worst, during Cpl. LaCombe’s minority, Winslow might have been on the hook for some child support.  But unless he died without a will, he can leave his money to whomever he wishes, and Cpl. LaCombe would have no claim. 

-It’s pretty easy to judge Gibbs for not talking to his dad for 16 years.  But, if your son lost his wife and his daughter, would you really let him cut you off like that after their funeral, or would you stay in his face through the grieving process?  And if you thought your son was looking for a punching bag, wouldn’t you then agree to be his punching bag because that’s what being a dad is?  Gibbs isn’t such a raging asshole that he would have thrown his dad out if he’d come home and found him sitting on his couch one evening.  And it’s not like Gibbs locks his door.  There were opportunities for Jackson to end this rift.

-It’s a little weird that, in a town that size, Gibbs is only just now meeting Shannon as they graduate and leave town.  Maybe she was new to town?  I mean, I’m from nowhere and I met a girl at a ten-year reunion that I didn’t know in high school, but Gibbs’s dad is a man about town and Shannon worked in a downtown dress store.  It’s nit-picky to complain about it, but it seems an unlikely plot point.  Shannon’s mom shows up down the road, so maybe they explain it there.

-Of course Shannon Gibbs came up with the idea for the rules. I wonder if that was always the intention or if someone in the writers’ room slapped themselves in the head at how brilliantly obvious it is.  

Casting Call: You know Ralph Waites (Jackson Gibbs) from The Waltons.  Richard Lineback plays Chuck Winslow, and he’s been around.  I think I recognize him from Varsity Blues (1999).  And young Leroy Jethro Gibbs is played by none other than Sean Harmon, son of Mark Harmon and Pam Dawber.

Man, This Show Is Old: Remember having to print out Internet directions?  It’s strange to consider how short that fad was.  We went from using maps and spoken directions for centuries to printing directions off the Internet for maybe 10-15 years, and now…

In that same vein, signal coverage has improved even since late 2008.  I still lose my signal out in deep rural South Georgia, but you can usually get something in a city/town.

MVP: Abby’s DNA analysis solved the case.  But Jackson gave Gibbs a Charger.  Call it a tie.

Rating: I like this one a lot.  Characters don’t always come off as their best selves and “rural guy hates his hometown” is a bit of a cliché, but this is ultimately a pretty good story about a father and his son and a son and his father that only lacks for having to be compressed into 44 minutes.  And the ending, where we learn that Shannon Gibbs came up with the idea for the rules, is excellent.  Ultimately, we will see Jackson Gibbs again, and he is always a treat.  In fact, fathers, and the shadows they/we cast ends up being a powerful recurring theme on this show.

Eight Palmers. 

Next Time:  Fornell’s after another of his white whales.