A Year of NCIS, Day 118: Nine Lives (Episode 6.5)

Episode: 6.5, Nine Lives

Air Date: October 21, 2008.

The Victim: Lance Corporal Rob Brewer, USMC

Emotionally Traumatized, But Ultimately Irrelevant, Witness Who Finds the Body:  We’ve got a runner!  But it’s just a jogger.  She gets home and determines that her tire is flat.  She can’t find her jack or her tire iron either.  Who loses a jack or a tire iron?  Where else would you put them besides the wheel well?  Regardless, our jogger knocks on her neighbor’s door.  His name is Rob.  Either that or she is announcing her intentions, since she goes into his garage without permission and starts going through his tools.  It’s dark, so she’s grossed out by sticky grease on his tools and even wipes her hand off on her jacket, staining it.  Come on, you know where this is going. 

She finally locates a portable hanging lamp and turns it on.  And realizes that isn’t grease in the toolbox.  It’s blood!  Blood that she has smeared all over her clothes.  Then she turns to find a dead serviceman, gagged, covered in blood, and hung from the ceiling by his wrists.  She screams.

Strong opening.

Plot Recap: Ziva is on the phone yelling in Hebrew.  Tony is nosy.  She lost her airline reservation for a trip to Israel.  Tony wants to know if she’s going to see a fellow, which would be nosy and stalky if she didn’t do the exact same thing to him.  But Ziva decides to mess with Tony and wants to know why he’s so interested in her “fun.”

But this is all interrupted by news of a murder and the Gibbs call to arms: “Dead Marine.”

We head to the garage abattoir.  Palmer takes us on a mini-tour of the grim realities of crime scene investigation when he holds up a knife to McGee, gestures at the still hanging body, and says, “Catch or cut?”  McGee takes the knife.  I would have too.

Tony and Ziva chat about the neighbor lady.  Like me, Ziva thinks it’s odd that she’s just helping herself to our victim’s tools.  Tony takes the position that attractive women get some latitude.  Gibbs asks for background.  Tony starts to give it on the recently divorced, attractive witness, but that’s not what Gibbs means.  The victim is Lance Corporal Rob Brewer, stationed at Quantico scheduled to go to Iraq in two days, and who already served two tours.  Lance Corporal Brewer lived alone, the house belonged to his parents, and there’s no evidence of a break in.  Ducky lists COD as bleeding to death 4-6 hours ago and suggests that somebody wanted to make him suffer.  “Or talk,” Gibbs replies.

In Abby’s lab, she finds mold on the rope holding Lance Corporal Brewer.  But she hasn’t matched it yet.  She did find fingerprints besides those belonging to Lance Corporal Brewer and the neighbor lady.  They match Lance Corporal Brewer’s old squad leader, Sergeant Jack Kale, who retired three weeks ago because, after he returned from his last tour, the medical folks diagnosed a blood disease.  Sgt. Kale also had a bad reaction to the medication, and it turned him psychotic.  Abby has earned her Caf-Pow.

Gibbs returns to the squad room and Ziva reports that Sgt. Kale had a rep for being volatile and tough on his Marines.  He is also in the wind and can’t be located.  He booked himself in a hotel near Quantico three weeks ago, stayed six days and vanished.  No credit card activity.  McGee reports that Sgt. Kale taking a medication called Mepolizumab- it’s new and there are only three people in the area taking part in the trial, all of whom get the drugs shipped directly to them.  McGee uses that to get an updated address and Gibbs takes Tony to find the Sergeant.

Gibbs and Tony arrive at the residence.  There’s no car there, but Tony looks through the window and reports two men, one armed.  One of them apparently heard something and gets close to the door to look.  Which doesn’t work out so well when Gibbs senses him there and slams the door right into his nose.  Gibbs and Tony secure the room.  The unarmed man says, “Easy!” while the armed man groans on the floor. 

Of course, then who should walk out of the bathroom, zipping up his pants, but FBI Special Agent Tobias Fornell.  “What the hell are you doing?” Fornell says to Gibbs.  Harmon expertly moves the character from confused to exasperated with just body language and facial expressions as we fade to black and white.

Always love the Fornell episodes.

Tony is putting tape on the FBI agents nose and the agent says there’s going to be payback.  Tony says sure and then tweaks the nose while informing the agent, “You lost a fight with a door. I wouldn’t try to get back at Gibbs.” 

Fornell, while making a sandwich, informs Gibbs that ex-Sgt. Kale, the unarmed man from the previous scene, is the key witness in an upcoming murder trial.  Gibbs wants to talk to him and explains why.  Fornell says Kale has been with them for two weeks and couldn’t have killed Lance Corporal Brewer.  Gibbs still wants to talk to him about his prints being at the crime scene.  Fornell figures the defense lawyers in the murder case will have a field day if they find out Kale is being investigated, so no notes, no recording, questions happen right here in front of Fornell.  He hands Gibbs the sandwich and, while they are good personal friends, this captures the essence of their professional relationship, where Gibbs is unquestionably the alpha.

Never mind.  Kale takes the sandwich.  Gibbs asks if it’s tough on a Marine to be cooped up like this.  Kale agrees.  Gibbs asks about the fingerprints and Kale says that it’s his toolbox and he let Lance Corporal Brewer borrow it.  Gibbs says Kale’s tools were used to torture the lance corporal.  Kale is nervous and asks “Who?”  Gibbs says “You tell me,” and Kale unconvincingly suggests he has no idea.  Which is why it’s interesting that Fornell wants to end the interview there.  But he has never been shy about protecting his own interests.  Gibbs goes along with this, for now.  Even when Fornell won’t say who they’re prosecuting.

As they leave, Gibbs tells Tony to get the intel on Fornell’s case, so they can find out what he’s hiding and why.  When Tony gets back to the squad room, McGee is already looking at upcoming cases involving Fornell.  The one they find involves a defendant business named Captain Melville’s and Tony thinks it’s a pseudonym.  They wonder if Fornell would lie to Gibbs about Kale’s alibi, and Ziva thinks he would.  As does most everyone else who has watched this show.  Tony and Ziva banter about her trip back to Israel and why until McGee manages to unlock the true name of the FBI defendant: Rick Azarri.

Ducky is in autopsy lecturing and working on Lance Corporal Brewer.  Gibbs arrives and Ducky reports that Lance Corporal Brewer experienced torture from a chisel and a box cutter.  Lance Corporal Brewer fought hard to get away too, but to no avail.  Lance Corporal Brewer would have passed out at some point.  Ducky found smelling salts in his nose, so they revived him and kept on keeping on.  The COD was a deep puncture to the femoral artery, using a Philips head.  Gibbs thinks the torturer got what he needed and finished the job.

Tony obtains Gibbs and the return to the squad room for some background on Azarri.  A protégé of a crime boss named Torres, when Torres went to prison, Azarri took over.  And killed lots of the old guard.  Azarri is a very notorious mob-style criminal.  He has been tried for murder twice, and walked both times.  Now he’s being charged for the murder of Randall Carlson, a drug dealer.  Kale was the only witness, so if he testifies, it’s over for Azarri.  McGee, through a source, has also determined that Kale is headed to witness protection after the trial.  So even if he did murder Lance Corporal Brewer, he’ll skate.

Tony is stretching and trying to liken Fornell withholding info from Gibbs to Ziva not telling him about her trip and any man-friends.  Although he gets in a great line when he asks McGee if he’s writing Fornell’s eulogy.  McGee points out that Gibbs is extremely pissed so maybe they should all get on task, and Tony and Ziva jump to find something to work on. 

Fornell arrives.  The agents greet him cheerily and direct him to the conference room where Gibbs is while measuring him for a coffin with their eyes.  Tony likens the impending conflagration to a boxing match. 

Fornell enters the conference room cautiously and notes that Gibbs hasn’t looked at him like that since Fornell proposed to Ex-Wife #2, Diane.  Gibbs is mad but Fornell says his hands were tied and he reiterates that his witness had an alibi for the time of Lance Corporal Brewer’s murder.  Although Fornell wasn’t there personally.  Gibbs drops a file on the table.  A couple of Marines in Kale’s firmer unit saw Kale and Lance Corporal Brewer arguing outside a bar the previous month.  The argument was about a third Marine, PFC Michael Strauss.  Gibbs is still looking for PFC Strauss, but, either way, they have a medicated Marine with anger management problems and prints at the scene. 

McGee is being denied access to Kale’s phone records, but he is failing, likely because the FBI would have given Kale a clean phone when they moved him into protective custody.  And McGee can’t get into the clean phone database.  Tony continues their ongoing war over database searches versus good ole’ fashioned police work (Family, Episode 5.2; Stakeout, Episode 5.12).  Tony has determined that Kale, on his old phone, called the same number in Florida every Sunday.  His mother.  So, all McGee has to do is search her and get the new number.

Back to the conference room, Gibbs tells Fornell that he knows Fornell and Azarri go way back and Fornell has been chasing him for 25 years, since he was a probie.  Azarri was a wheelman for Torres until Fornell took Torres down.  That gave Fornell a career, but also gave Azarri a path to power.  Azarri has a kill count approaching 20 now.  Gibbs thinks that’s the nature of the job- the many-headed Hydra that grows new heads, but Fornell could have cut a deal to get Azarri and underestimated him as a punk.  Gibbs calls it a mistake.  Fornell says marrying Diane was a mistake, this is worse.  To his credit, Gibbs laughs at that, but they’re still at impasse.  Fornell tells Gibbs to quit digging and gives his word that Kale didn’t kill Lance Corporal Brewer.  Gibbs asks if that’s what Fornell knows, or what he wants to believe.

McGee makes Tony’s phone strategy work, gets Kale’s FBI phone number, his call record, and his location.  But he’s not at the FBI safe house- he’s in Arlington.  Fornell appears and denies that, but Gibbs wants the location up on the plasma.  Fornell makes a call as Gibbs watches Kale’s signal move on the monitor.  The FBI guards report that Kale slipped out the window.  McGee tracks Kale to PFC Strauss’s apartment.  The agents all head to the elevator but only Gibbs and Fornell get on.  Gibbs tells them to let him know if Kale moves.  The door shuts and Tony, McGee, and Ziva mutually agree that it would be best if they hung back.

Gibbs and Fornell arrive at the identified room.  Per McGee, the signal hasn’t moved.  Fornell warns Gibbs not to give him hell and as they approach a hallway, they see Kale furtively emerging from a room.  Fornell yells (which was dumb) and Kale runs, jumping out a window and heading down a fire escape.  He leaps over a fence and runs into Gibbs’s Sig.  “Don’t move,” Gibbs says.  Fornell is “getting too old for this crap.”  Kale says he didn’t do it.

Didn’t do what? Gibbs wants to know.  And, sure enough, they go back up and find PFC Strauss, dead, gagged, and tied to a bed frame leaning vertically against the wall.

The team shows up to process and they find that the victim had his fingernails and toenails yanked out.  The agents puzzle over why Kale would kill his friends.  McGee suggests psychosis.  Tony, looking at Ziva, suggests Kale’s friends lied to him about a romantic attachment.  Ducky arrives to admire the torturer’s handiwork and ID COD as a broken neck. 

Gibbs and Fornell are squabbling, although it is hard to see how Gibbs doesn’t have the moral and legal high ground here.  Except that Tony comes out and says that Kale didn’t kill PFC Strauss.  TOD was four hours previous and an hour before NCIS shows Kale arriving at the apartment.  Gibbs says Fornell can have Kale…AFTER Gibbs interrogates him.  Tony liberates Kale from the FBI agent whose nose Gibbs broke and says, “I thought I told you to ice that.”  Then he gives Fornell a piece of paper containing the number of Tony’s locksmith and tells Fornell the locksmith is great with bathroom windows.  Fornell wads up the paper and throws it after Tony.

Azarri is leaving the courthouse when Gibbs accosts him.  A bodyguard tells Gibbs to move, but Azarri makes Gibbs as a fed and is willing to entertain an audience.  Gibbs informs Azarri that he’s after him for the two dead Marines.  Azarri is stoic, although his bodyguard gets fresh.  Gibbs asks if he’s intimidating Azarri.  Azarri says the only person who ever intimidated him has been in prison for 26 years.  Gibbs figures Azarri will join him soon and Azarri and his men walk around Gibbs.  Azarri says the feds have nothing on him for the murder over which he is being tried and he doesn’t care what the witnesses claim they saw.  Gibbs stares as they leave.

Tony is back at the office.  He gets off the phone with Gibbs and, rather than do real work, decides to snoop Ziva’s desk the way he used to snoop it when it belonged to Kate.  McGee catches him, but acknowledges that Ziva is traveling to Tel Aviv.  Tony assigns the work Gibbs assigned him to McGee and tells him to look at the arrest report on Randall Carlson, the drug dealer Azarri killed.  Local LEOs handled the initial investigation, so McGee will have to contact them for it.  Or he won’t, because he suddenly realizes that Gibbs told Tony to find the file.  Which Tony agrees to do as soon as he’s done searching Ziva’s desk, which McGee is not seeing him do.  McGee agrees, but says Ziva had better not catch him.  Tony picks up a piece of paper and finds a photo of an attractive shirtless man on a boat.  He is recognizable to the audience as the man Ziva was working with in Tel Aviv and Morocco in Last Man Standing, Episode 6.1. 

Tony visits Abby.  She shows him that the moldy rope that tied up Lance Corporal Brewer is the same moldy rope that tied up PFC Strauss.  Tony hands Abby the file on the Carlson murder.  Neither is sure what she should be looking for, but Abby wonders why a murder victim would have phosphor on the soles of his shoes.

We cut to Gibbs and Fornell interrogating Kale and wondering why he snuck out of a safe house to visit PFC Strauss.  Kale says he tried to call and didn’t get an answer.  So, Kale was worried that news of Lance Corporal Brewer would hit him hard.  Gibbs and Fornell ask about the violent argument between Kale and Lance Corporal Brewer.  Kale blows it off.  The agents press and Sgt. Kale says they disagreed over drugs.  PFC Strauss had a drug problem.  Kale tried to keep the lid on PFC Strauss’s problems when he was squad leader and he felt like Lance Corporal Brewer was dropping the ball after he left.  Gibbs offers a branch and says, “It’s not easy walking away from your unit.”  Then he asks what Kale saw the night Randall Carlson was murdered.  Fornell says not to answer that and pulls Gibbs away for a sidebar.  Fornell says this is an official interrogation and if the testimony doesn’t match up word for word with prior testimony, the defense lawyers are going to spring Azarri.  Gibbs says, “Then he’d better get it right.”

Gibbs returns to Kale.  Kale says he walks out of a diner…

…and we segue to Tony using the police report to set the scene for McGee.  Carlson was parked down the street.  They are in the evidence garage and they’ve dimmed the lights to recreate the scene.  Tony tells McGee to stand under a light and be Carlson.  Ziva and Tony bicker over who gets to be Azarri.  He’s got flair like Azarri, but she’s the assassin.  He wins the argument with “Style over substance,” and we see their not-always-seen-but-always-there sexual chemistry.  Tony sits in a swivel chair and Ziva pushes him toward McGee.  He pretends he’s driving and makes vroom noises and I laughed.

We head back to interrogation and Kale says that both Azarri and Carlson got out of their vehicles.  Azarri approaches, says a couple of words, then pulls a gun.

Back to the evidence garage, Tony fakes shooting McGee and McGee directs Ziva to where to stand to view the shooting.  Ziva thinks the view is good.

Gibbs asks what else Kale saw.  Kale gets agitated and says he saw a man take another life and that should be enough.  But if he felt so strongly about it, Gibbs wants to know why he waited until the next day to report it.  Kale says he was scared.  Gibbs doesn’t buy it- 3 tours in Iraq, a tour in Afghanistan before that, Marine. 

The agents are assessing Kale’s view.  They think it’s possible.  Until Abby arrives to spoil fun.  She says that Kale would have needed night vision to identify Azarri, and then shatters the lamp above Tony’s head with a baton, setting off a shower of sparks and causing Tony to yelp and dive for cover.  Abby announces that the phosphor on Carlson’s shoes was from a broken streetlight.  Tony notes that Abby could have just turned off the light, and she agrees.  But what’s the fun in that? 

Gibbs is leaning on Kale now.  He knows he wasn’t scared.  So, who is he protecting?

Abby has confirmed the streetlight was busted with city authorities, so there’s no way Kale could have seen anything unless he was much closer.  “Much, much closer,” says McGee.

Fornell is pissed.  He and Gibbs want the truth now.  PFC Strauss went to score some coke.  Lance Corporal Brewer went with him, but it was just to stop him.  Either way, two guys who lived to be Marines would be court-martialed if they were linked to a coke deal.  Gibbs says, “You weren’t there.”  Kale believes that if Lance Corporal Brewer and PFC Strauss said they say Carlson’s murder, then they saw it.  But Fornell knows this is a sunk boat.  And he’s pissed.  When Kale says he was protecting his men, Fornell stands up and yells that his men are both dead and Kale just set their killer free.  So, nice work. 

Fornell calls to report.  And then he tells his guy to get Kale back to the safe house.  Fornell says it’s all over, and Gibbs calls him a quitter.  Gibbs says not to dwell on mistakes and to figure out the next move.

Abby and McGee are in the lab, looking at mold spores.  The mold matches both ropes in both Marine killings, and it’s rare. 

In the squad room, Tony and Ziva report that Azarri has witnesses, paid or not, to say where he was at the time of the Marine murders.  Ziva gets a call and they found Kale’s guard unconscious in the NCIS garage.  Gun and car are both missing.  Tony locks down the base, but Kale has already bulldozed through the checkpoint in the FBI car.  Fornell is apoplectic, but Tony notes that base security is designed to keep people out, not in.  Tony goes for a BOLO, but Gibbs knows where Kale is going, so he and Fornell head for the courthouse.

A TV reporter is talking about the Azarri case at the courthouse.  Azarri hasn’t arrived yet when Gibbs and Fornell pull up.  Gibbs gets a call.  Abby and McGee inform him that Azarri filed suit against the contractor who built his beach house because of mold problems.  And the conveniently rare mold found in Azarri’s house matches the mold on the rope used in both murders. 

Fornell sees Azarri’s SUV ride by.  He parks down the street and Gibbs and Fornell run towards him.  Azarri gets out of his car and Kale stands up from where it looks like he’s messing with a parked bicycle.  He pulls a gun on Azarri.  The bodyguard reaches for his jacket, but Azarri tells him not to bother because he figures Kale doesn’t have the balls to shoot him. 

Fornell and Gibbs arrive.  Kale says Azarri killed his men.  Gibbs says he knows, and they have evidence to prove it.  Fornell says to let the system do its work.  Azarri, for some reason, says they both know how that will work out and Kale agrees.  He keeps pointing his gun at Azarri who keeps taunting.  I’m not sure what the play was from Azarri’s standpoint, but Kale puts two in Azarri’s chest and then surrenders to an angry Gibbs. 

Fornell leans over a dying Azarri, who grabs at his coat and seems to want to tell him something.  Then he dies.  Kale says he did it for his men.  “Yeah, I know why you did it,” Gibbs says, perturbed.

Back in the squad room, a reporter is summarizing Azarri’s death when Tony turns off the TV.  Ziva is getting ready to leave.  Tony offers her a neck cushion, but she’s flying first class.  He bids her farewell in Hebrew, and she smiles in appreciation at the gesture.  Tony sighs.

Fornell is watching the news reports.  Gibbs arrives.  They appear to be at FBI HQ.  Gibbs notes that Fornell didn’t take the shot at Kale.  Fornell says Kale was too quick for him.  Fornell wants to know if the FBI Director called him too, but Gibbs invited himself.  Fornell would do the same, Gibbs figures.  Fornell says Diane figured Gibbs would be here, and asks what Gibbs plans to say.  Gibbs says, “Whatever he needs to hear.”  Fornell thinks she should have figured Kale was lying.  Gibbs wonders if Fornell will fall on the sword.  Fornell figures they have a young ex-Marine facing life so he’s going to need to be able to explain why.  Gibbs says that Kale made his choice, and both men agree they’ll have to live with it.

An admin comes to collect Fornell and we end on he and Gibbs walking into the FBI Director’s office.  Then the camera pans ominously toward the TV where we hear that Azarri’s bodyguard, the man who got in Gibbs’s face earlier and who Azarri told to stand down when Kale approached, is expected to take over operations.

You cut off the head…   

Quotables:

(1) Tony: What are you McDoing McGee?

McGee: Working on Kale’s phone records.

Tony: I thought you already McDid that.

(2) McGee: But you know Ziva will kill you if she finds out you’re doing what I’m no longer seeing you do.

Tony: Then it’s a good thing you’re not seeing me do it.

                        -Tony searches Ziva’s desk.

Time Until Sexual Harassment: 3:30. The woman who finds the body is attractive and would probably be upset to learn a crime scene photo of her made Tony’s personal collection. 

Ziva-propisms: Ziva says “hot and bothersome” when she means “hot and bothered.”  She doesn’t know the word “pseudonym.”   She refers to Fornell keeping his cards close to his “breast” when she means “vest.”

Tony Awards: Tony mentions Ordinary People (1980).

Abby Road: Abby knows a lot about mold sex.  And she discourses a little on her niece.

McNicknames: McProbie.  Probie.

Ducky Tales: Ducky’s back!  Ducky lectures on torture and his own run-ins with the practice while Palmer delivers the moral that torture is not a reliable method for getting at the truth.  Later, Ducky gets more specific about countries that use fingernail/toenail pulling as a torture technique.  He is probably a hoot (quack?) at Christmas dinner.

The Rest of the Story:

-When Tony is grilling Ziva about her “vacation,” he appears to be reading the magazine upside down.  I don’t think that’s a production error.  I think it’s a Weatherly ad-lib to demonstrate that Tony is trying to look casual and failing at it.

-Busting in, guns drawn, on some other agency’s op is a routine plot point on this show.  See Sharif Returns, Episode 4.13, when they busted in on Lt. Col. Mann’s CID interrogation; and Under Covers, Episode 3.8, where the FBI was unknowingly surveilling Tony and Ziva while they were undercover and received a surprise visit from Gibbs and McGee.

-A drug dealer trying to kill the lone witness to a murder he committed hits Gibbs right where he lives.  See Hiatus (Part One), Episode 3.23.  I’m a little surprised more wasn’t made of this.  But I guess every episode can’t be about Gibbs’s PTSD.

-Tony’s seeming obsession with Ziva’s relationships is going to take this show to a dark place.

-We learned in Twilight, Episode 2.24, that Fornell married Diane, Gibbs’s second ex-wife.  They are divorced and share custody of a child, Emily.  See, e.g., Escaped, Episode 4.2.

-Kinda funny (and self-aware) for Fornell to give the alias of Captain Melville to his own white whale.

-This isn’t the first mob boss Fornell has been chasing for a while but needed Gibbs’s help to catch.  See, The Boneyard, Episode 2.5.

-Abby mentions her brother again, but then mentions a niece we haven’t heard of before.

-Ziva’s beau will grow in importance as the season goes on.

Casting Call: Ray Abruzzo plays Azarri and also had a significant role on The Sopranos.  Gina St. John plays ZNN reporter Cindy Ames, who also appeared in Black Water, Episode 2.11. 

Man, This Show Is Old: The debate over the efficacy of torture was a lot fresher and more contemporary when we were still in Iraq, although this episode aired 4.5 years after the Abu Ghraib scandal.

MVP: I don’t know that anybody came out a winner here.  Give it to Abby for the mold work.

Rating:  The weakest episode of what has so far been a strong season.  As I’ve said before, I don’t care much for NCIS getting involved in street crime, so I find these organized crime episodes underwhelming.  Even the vengeance aspect, which I usually appreciate, left me cold here.  Maybe because Azarri almost appears to have been working some weird suicide by ex-Marine angle.  In any event, Fornell on a vendetta is a routine thing on this show, but it’s a weaker characterization than Fornell as a pure foil to the NCIS team.  Here, they tried to do both and didn’t satisfy me.  It’s by no means a bad episode, but it’s not great either.

Six Palmers.

Next Time: A little serial killer murder mystery action.  With flair.