Last week on NCIS, we were introduced to the New Orleans office, where we met Dwayne Pride, along with his colleague, Chris LaSalle, and Agent Meredith Brody, who had come to help out with the investigation into what appeared to be murders being committed as a copycat. At the end of the last episode, the team was standing outside some buildings in New Orleans, where the killer was watching.
When this episode begins, Brody and Pride are having breakfast when a call comes in about a body being discovered in the wetlands. They leave to head to the scene, which is what Gibbs, Bishop, and medical examiner Loretta Wade are doing well.
Meanwhile, LaSalle is having coffee at a bar. The bartender tells him she made it, right before a young man walks in to rob the place at gunpoint. As the bartender gets the money out, LaSalle calmly drinks his coffee before subduing the man just in time for Pride and Brody to come in to find LaSalle to go to the crime scene.
The team, along with Gibbs and Bishop, go to examine the body at the crime scene. His name is Henry Waynesgaard and from the looks of it, he has been dead at least two weeks. They confirm he is a possible victim of the Privileged copycat. They also notice fibers under his nails and tire tracks in the mud near the body. When LaSalle wonders why Waynesgaard was killed when he wasn’t a service man, Gibbs feels he was killed because he saw the killer.
Back in Washington, Tony and Tim are at their desks where Tony is examining a package sent from Bishop. After opening it, Tony is stunned to see a voodoo doll that looks like him, right down to the “insincere grin.” A note says the doll, or “Little Tony” will bring good luck. Right after, Tim gets a call from Gibbs about the victim. The voodoo doll immediately gets put in the garbage.
Ducky, Fornell, and Vance are down at autopsy, surrounded by piles of letters. The warden had saved the large pile of letters even after Lorta died. Vance wants Ducky to look over the letters to see if one of Victor Lorta’s admirers could be the copy cat killer.
Brody and LaSalle are back at the New Orleans office, where they are discussing the newest victim and how he has no connection to public service. Then, they begin discussing the Lego’s LaSalle has all over the place. Brody gets a call on her hang up call on her phone. They believe it might be because of the business cards Brody left at Agent Doyle’s crime scene. As they leave, Pride mentions he sent Gibbs and Bishop to the lab to see a man named Hobbs.
Wendell Hobbs is in a small lab, playing piano, since music apparently helps him relax. He eventually tells Gibbs the DNA found on the victim in the wetlands was compromised. Wendell also reveals the fibers were made from an old jacket that could be found in a thrift store.
Tony, Tim, and Fornell are in the squad room discussing the case when a Josef Hanlon is mentioned. He apparently was a financial sponsor for the congressman and had been cc’ed on a letter from someone who had correspondence with Victor Lorta. Since McLane had also been cc’ed on the letter, Tony and Tim go to see Hanlon for information.
Pride, LaSalle, and Brody all leave the office after Brody had received a number of calls on her phone. A young boy, who is practically a 17-year-old kid in a 10-year-old’s body, informs them that he saw a man get out of the car one night wearing a white uniform. He didn’t see the man’s face.
Tim and Tony meet up with Hanlon and he tells them what a great Congressman McLane was. He mentions how one man seemed to be a bigger fan of McLane than usual. His name is Emil Titus. Hanlon goes to find a mailing address for Tony and Tim, but not before Tony sees a family photo and comments on his “nice family.”
Back in Ducky’s morgue, he is talking to Vance and Fornell after having gone through the letters. In each of his letters, Lorta never failed to deny that he was innocent, a fact which Ducky feels that they must consider. Lorta felt someone had made the evidence look like he was the one who committed the murders.
In MTAC, Fornell and Vance tell Gibbs and Pride their suspicions. Pride is quick to deny the possibility, talking about what a great agent McLane was. However, when he turns to Gibbs for support, Gibbs is silent. He is considering the possibility, leaving Pride in dismay.
Pride and Gibbs have a talk about what’s going on. Gibbs points out they were young and didn’t see all aspects of the investigation. They decide to go talk to the other member of the Fed Five, Agent Felix Betts, who saw what was going on more than Pride and Gibbs.
Tony walks into the squad room with a pounding headache and discovers the voodoo doll on his desk, with a needle in the forehead. As Tony is about to pull the needle out, Vance and Fornell come to tell the boys about their suspicions in regards to Lorta’s possible innocence. Tim goes over what they know about Emil Titus, who had apparently become obsessed with the Privileged case and wrote to both Lorta and McLane, also proclaiming his belief in Lorta’s innocence.
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Gibbs and Pride go to visit Felix Beck, who is very old and appears to be having some problems with his memory. After receiving the news about McLane’s death, Gibbs asks him if there was a chance McLane took a bribe to put Lorta away. Felix is silent, as he doesn’t answer the question and avoids it with randomness, like asking if they want lunch.
Wade, LaSalle, and Brody are on the video monitor with Hobbs as they discuss the findings from the lab in regards to Waynesgaard. Not only did Hobbs match the weapon used to cut the victim’s throat to a steal blade, but he also found that there was jet fuel on the tire tracks in the mud. Since there was also jet fuel found on victim Agent Doyle’s car mats, they decide to go in and get Titus.
As they are preparing to go, Gibbs gets a call from Abby to tell him that the jet fuel found in the tire tracks matched the fuel found on the car mats belonging to victim, Agent Doyle.
When the team enters Titus’ home, they search the rooms, only to find the suspect’s dead body, sitting upright in his office. After examining him, Wade deduces it was a murder staged to look like a suicide, since there was no gunshot residue on the man’s hands.
Tony and McGee are discussing the case, or rather Tony is discussing while Tim plays with the Tony voodoo doll. Tony surmises the killer knew Titus knew his grandfather’s old navy jacket, so he decided to wear a white jacket when he killed Doyle. As Tony keeps talking, Tim realizes he is about to make a Jaws reference. Tony thinks there is a possibility Josef Hanlon could be a target and sends Tim to fill him in. When asked why he has to go, Tony tells him it’s because the voodoo doll incapacitated him.
In Louisiana, the team is going through their computers looking for information when Bishop discovers McLane deposited thousands of dollars into multiple accounts. LaSalle decides to take the task of telling Gibbs and Pride.
Gibbs and Pride talk about what was going on with McLane and decide they need to do what they need to do in order to catch the real killer.
As the team is conferencing with Tony, Fornell, and Vance, they discover McLane was most likely feeling guilty and wanted to come clean about what he had done. The contributions to his campaign were most likely hush money to keep him quiet. His largest donator was Josef Hanlon. Tony reveals Hanlon’s son runs the family business, which has multiple sites in all the areas where the murders occurred. When Vance asks Tony where Tim is, Tony is silent, as he’s the one who sent Tim to talk to Hanlon alone.
At Hanlon’s home, after filling him in on the case, Tim asks Hanlon for any of McLane’s fund-raising information that could help with the case. As Hanlon leaves the room, Tim begins looking at family photos. He notices photos of a young man near airports and he asks Hanlon where his son works. As Hanlon answers, Tim realizes every place he names is a place where a victim was. Before he can pull out his gun, Hanlon clubs him in the back of the head with a golf club.
Fornell and Tony are heading toward Hanlon’s house as they talk with the rest of the team by phone. Hanlon had been making contributions to McLane to keep him quiet in order to protect his son. They are unable to track Spencer Hanlon’s whereabouts, but they find out he has been using a car service in Louisiana and are able to get an address. Gibbs orders Tony and Fornell to “get to McGee.”
Upon arriving at the house, Tony and Fornell begin searching. Tony immediately finds Tim, who is on the floor, holding the back of his neck. In the bathroom, Hanlon had taken an overdose of pills, but not before calling his son to warn him what was happening.
Upon searching the place Spencer was staying, the team finds that he had been keeping archives on the murders he committed, even framing newspaper clippings of Gibbs and Pride. They realize he is on foot and set out to find him.
At a military bar, Spencer approaches a young woman and sweet-talks her into leaving the bar with him. He lures her out just as LaSalle and Brody are searching the same bar. Outside, Spencer immediately puts a cloth over the woman’s mouth and leads her away.
The team finds out Spencer had just been seen leaving the bar with a young woman and they try to figure out where they would go. After Pride names locations close to the bar, Bishop picks up on the word cemetery, telling them about marble dust being on Doyle’s floor mats.
Just as Spencer is about the cut the woman’s throat, Gibbs and Pride show up, immediately shooting him when he ignores them and goes to murder the woman.
After the case, Brody is seen packing to go home. However, Pride comes to tell her that he has asked the director to give her an indefinite stay in Louisiana, which she is quick to accept, as long as she gets her own Lego sculpture. LaSalle has one prepared.
On a bench outside in town, Gibbs and Pride are sitting with Felix as Gibbs is waiting on Bishop so they can go home. The three men are interrupted when LaSalle and Brody come to tell Pride they have a case. As they leave, while discussing having chicken after the case, Gibbs looks on with a fond smile.