- A Navy captain dies of gunfire while with his fiancée, who is Gibbs's first mother-in-law. While Gibbs and company investigate, they find several discrepancies and inconsistencies. Gibbs figures it out, and he and "MAllison" work it out.
- A Navy captain, soon to retire from the Supply Corps, dies of three gunshots about 02:00 in a marina in Norfolk while wearing his blue monkey suit, including a gold cummerbund and white gloves; Gibbs and company investigate. The major witness is Joann Fielding, Gibbs's first mother-in-law (Shannon's mother and Kelly's maternal grandmother). The facial sketch produces an anomalous result, then Abby spots a significant discrepancy, and she finds a connection to a bridge coat and the shoulder boards. Gibbs tells Joann that her story does not add up. When Tony and Ziva check a lead in Nogales, Arizona, on the Mexican border, they get a rude surprise. Gibbs and Tony interview a Navy lieutenant involved with the victim. Ducky tells Gibbs quietly that he feels sure about a certain point. Gibbs puts all the pieces together, then he and "MAllison" work out the details. Palmer introduces an embalming assistant.—DocRushing
- A young couple walks their baby to sleep on the pier at 2 a.m. They hear gun shots and see a woman cradling the body of a man in a naval dress uniform.
Tony comes in to work, psyched for a Kurosawa retrospective. Ziva studies for her citizenship test. McGee arrives and is high on just having programed his entire apartment to work one remote control. Gibbs calls them out for the dead body.
At the scene, Detective Philip McCadden is happy to see Ziva. The dead officer's fiance is waiting on a nearby bench, has been all night. They find an empty ring box by the body.
Ziva is already talking to the witness when Gibbs goes over. He knows her. She's Joanne Fielding, his former mother-in-law. They haven't seen each other since the funeral of his wife (her daughter) and child.
Back at the office, they learn the security cameras caught nothing, which means the suspect knew the area. The victim is Captain Joseph Norton, 63 year old never married.
They're looking for the ring now. Gibbs tells Tony good job, and they know something's up with him.
Gibbs talks to his former mother-in-law. She asks about his dad. She tells him she and her husband divorced two years after "the girls" died. He reminds her he called her, but she never called him back.
Back to the night before. She tells him they went to a retirement party for an admiral and Joe proposed later. She had the ring on her finger when a white man in his 20s came up with a gun.
Gibbs goes to talk to Vance, expecting to be asked to step aside. He is, and declines. Gibbs tells Vance he needs to stay on the case for Shannon, his late wife. Vance agrees. Gibbs goes to the bathroom to splash water on his face and remembers an argument with Joanne over him transferring and Shannon and their daughter going with him.
Detective McCadden visits. He points out that Joanne said she had the ring on, but she has arthritis and the ring was a small size, so it'd be hard to get on. He doesn't believe her.
They run Joanne's sketch artist depiction through facial recognition, but Gibbs sees something wrong with it. He goes to talk to her and points out the guy she described is an old high school friend of his who died three years ago.
DiNozzo takes Joanne to her home. He asks her about Gibbs as a young man.
At the office, McGee reports that Norton had two burn phones in his apartment. He called Nogales, Mexico, a major drug smuggling point. There were three Zurich bank accounts with a total of $10 million in them on his laptop.They think he was smuggling.
Gibbs visits the morgue, where Ducky is giving Palmer a hard time about his pre-date cologne. Ducky tells Gibbs that Norton had a parasite of sand flies, which are found mostly in third world countries.
On to Abby, who's trying to recreate the spatter patterns on Joanne's coat, but is failing. She wasn't standing where she said she was.
Abby also found navy pea coat fibers under Joanne's fingernails, with traces of chemicals that mean it was on an aircraft carrier. And they came from epaulets, which are only on officer bridge coats.
Gibbs visits Joanne to tell her that her story doesn't add up. Soon, they're talking about how she didn't respect him, because after the girls died, he did nothing. He tells her Norton was smuggling drugs. She doesn't believe it and blames him for her daughter's death.
Gibbs calls Tony to tell him to check Joanne's phone and financial records.
McGee finds calls to Nogales, Arizona, the US side. She called a PI who specializes in missing persons. She spent almost $28,000 on it.
Gibbs sends Ziva and DiNozzo there.
They head to the house of the PI Hendricks and find him dead and dessicated, tied up inside. His house was sealed up and he was left to die slowly in the heat.
Back in DC, Gibbs tells Joanne about Hendricks. But he thinks she already knew. She says she hired him to find Norton, saying they met on vacation in Mexico and she lost his number.
Gibbs doesn't believe she spent that much to go on a second date. He thinks she has no idea who she dealing with.
Later that night, Gibbs welcomes Margaret Alison Hart the lawyer to his house. He plies her with beer and cold pizza and asks if she might represent Joanne, without telling anyone he asked her to. He gives her the file and tells her to turn out the lights when she leaves. "This may be the worst date I've ever had," she says.
Ducky and Palmer examine Hendricks' corpse. He died of extreme thirst.
McGee reports Norton's cell phone was found near the crime scene. It had a call from Lt. David Shankton, who just happens to own the same kind of gun Norton was killed with.
Gibbs and Tony interrogate him, mentioning that they were both in the same place in Mexico 18 times. He was in on the smuggling. His coat matches the fibers from the scene. He claims he's being set up.
DiNozzo goes to pick up Joanne and finds her with M. Allison Hart.
Gibbs meets with Detective McCadden and Vance, both of whom think Joanne shot Norton and set up Shankton because of their dealings with the drug cartel.
Duckie tells Gibbs he looked at the autopsy again and has determined Joanne couldn't have been behind Norton, based on the blood spatter she was in front of him and he's sure she fired the shots herself.
Back at his house, Gibbs tells Allison he wants to talk to Joanne. She says she'll advise her client against it, but it's up to her.
Later, Gibbs shares a bourbon in a Mason jar with Joanne in his basement. He tells her he knows everything. He tells her the cartel killed her PI so she romanced Norton instead, then killed him and framed Shankton for it. He tells her that Norton didn't kill Shannon and Kelly, but he knows who did.
Flash to Gibbs the young sniper taking out the person responsible for Shannon and Kelly's deaths.
Joanne hugs him and tells him that Norton proposed then hugged her. She whispered their girls' names in his ear then shot him three times. She says no one needs to know.
Gibbs takes out his cuffs and starts to place her under arrest when Allison comes down the stairs and tells him he just illegally interrogated her client and failed to read her her rights. He asks if the case will ever stick, but doesn't seem too upset when Allison says he made a big mistake.
He tells Joanne to take care of herself.
Back at the office, Vance comes for Gibbs. Vance doesn't argue when Gibbs says Shankton should do time. Vance says Joanne is no longer a suspect and gives Gibbs a knowing look.
They all head out for the night, but not before Palmer drops by with his date the undertaker. She is a blonde fox and Tony thinks the world is unfair.
Back at his house, Gibbs tosses the file on Joanne in his fireplace.
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