The season premiere of NCIS began in Moscow, Russia where we meet Sergei Mishnev, who is a Russian mercenary. He meets with a counselor who discusses his past clientele, including Osama Bin Laden and Ari Haswari, and he is warned not to mess with NCIS since he has apparently been following them, especially Agent Gibbs. After the credits, the next scene shows Director Vance and Agent Gibbs discussing an IT Tech named Kevin Hussein, who went to Russia to care for his ailing uncle and believes he is being followed.
Vance sends Gibbs to go to Moscow to retrieve Kevin and bring him home. Down in the squad room, Agent DiNozzo, Agent McGee, and Bishop are discussing Kevin and who will go with Gibbs to Moscow. DiNozzo claims he still has jetlag from going to Spain while McGee says he is still out of shape from visiting his girlfriend in Dubai. Bishop offers to go, but Gibbs reveals only a senior agent can come. DiNozzo and McGee do rock, paper, scissors, and McGee wins with paper. He goes with Gibbs to pick up Kevin.
Upon arriving, Kevin gives McGee a hug. Gibbs asks Kevin who he believes is following him, but Kevin isn’t very forthcoming. They get in the helicopter and are introduced to the pilots, Lieutenant Hagen and Lieutenant Commander Banks. Kevin reveals his uncle passed away from cancer. The flight is uneventful for a while, with Kevin getting sick, until one of the pilots realizes a missile is coming toward them. The missile hits the helicopter and they go down.
In MTAC, Emily, DiNozzo, and Vance are on intercom after getting news of the crash, and they listen to the radio record of the helicopter going down. They are all shaken, but try to remain stoic. Emily goes to make some calls since no distress signal was picked up. Vance asks for a copy of the radio transmission transcript and for the Russian embassy.
Meanwhile, in the woods where the helicopter landed, Gibbs begins to get up until he spots a wolf just inches away from him. He tries to get his gun, but it’s far from him. After attempting to use a branch to get the wolf to leave, we hear a gunshot and McGee shows up, having saved his boss’s life. They rush back to the helicopter where the pilots are badly wounded. Kevin is fine as well.
Back in MTAC, the team realizes the coordinates that were given after the helicopter was hit shows they were over the Kola Peninsula. DiNozzo is angry when the counselor on the video call keeps calling it a recovery. He tells them to sit tight and DiNozzo is ticked. Emily comes back and tells them NSA will listen for a distress signal. DiNozzo asks if the guy really told them to sit tight and Vance assure sthem they won’t.
Meanwhile, Gibbs, Kevin, and McGee are trying to figure out if they can get a signal from the radio as they also try in vain to help the injured Banks as Hagen is already dead. McGee is unable to get the radio connection to work, but he’s hoping they can find a connection somewhere. Banks tells Gibbs they are near Finland. McGee thinks he can hook the radio up to the transponder to make it work, but Kevin worries it may signal the people following them. Gibbs asks Kevin who shot them down. They hear a vehicle in the distance. Banks tells them to go but Gibbs doesn’t want to leave her.
Abby, Ducky, and Palmer are in the squad room listening to the recording. Abby has a mournful look on her face, trying to figure out what she can hear to help Gibbs and McGee. It is obvious she is incredibly upset, but trying to remain composed. DiNozzo remarks that the helicopter route was close to Finland’s border. She decides to go down to her lab to listen some more.
Sergei finds the helicopter, where Banks is against wall of the helo. Gibbs, McGee, and Kevin are nowhere to be seen. Sergei tells his men to search the woods but not to kill the pilot since she’s dying anyway. One of the men with him tells Banks she is beautiful.
Abby is in the lab listening to the recording again. DiNozzo and Bishop arrive in time to hear it, too and tell her to turn it down. She reveals she’s trying not to lose it and DiNozzo reminds her if she does, then they all do, as well as Gibbs and McGee. Emily assures her the chances of surviving a helo crash are high. When DiNozzo tells her he refuses to listen to the recording again, Abby reveals she sent the recording to a friend of hers who would know what the missile type was based on the sound. Emily tells Abby she’s trying not to lose it too and Abby is able to tell them the missile was called a STRETLA-2 surface-to-air missile and had been stolen from a Libya stockpile by suspected Russian mercenaries funded by oligarchs. The three then share a hug to comfort one another.
Hannah Banks is alone when the man from before comes back. He calls her beautiful again and bends down like he is about to do something to her. However, someone puts their hand around his mouth and proceeds to kill him. It is Gibbs, who has come back with McGee and Kevin.
Director Vance is on the phone with the Secretary of the Navy when Ducky comes in. He reveals that Kevin’s uncle was supposedly in remission from cancer before he died and Kevin’s sister didn’t know he had died. So Ducky had Uncle Edgar’s body brought to his morgue via Palmer.
Hannah is slowly dying, even as Gibbs tries in vain to save her. He begs her to stay with him and asks where her dad is. Hannah says ‘right there’ as the others look off to the side. She eventually passes away from her injuries.
Kevin, Gibbs, and McGee get some weapons ready, and vow to go to higher ground, since Sergei and his men are coming back. Plus, McGee thinks he might be able to get a better signal to get help.
At the morgue, Palmer opens the body bag with Ducky and, with Vance at their side, discovers the uncle has two bullet holes in his chest. Back in the woods, Gibbs is using a leaf to figure out the direction they need to go in. McGee also has a contraption he didn’t realize would work and they begin to make their way across the woods.
Back in the morgue, Palmer has done x-rays on the body and found something small embedded in the uncle’s body. They take it out and discover it’s a chip so they send it to Abby.
In the forest, Gibbs asks Kevin once again for information. He revealed that Sergei had come to him wanting help with weapons, but that he tried to back out of it. He admits someone had killed his uncle and was bringing the body back. He had a chip in his body that contained a virus he was working on. McGee, frustrated, tells Kevin that Abby is going to get that chip and plug it into her computer.
Abby has the chip and she puts it into a laptop that is hooked up separately from the NCIS database. However, when two icons show up, of a cat and a shark, she asks herself what McGee would do before opening it. After setting up a firewall, she clicks on the icon, but discovers that it has penetrated the firewall and is in the database anyway.
McGee finally gets a signal after walking a certain amount of time and calls the squad room. DiNozzo answers and is amazed to hear McGee’s voice. Emily and Vance also arrive and are told too late by Gibbs not to plug in the chip. Kevin tries to figure out of he can do something to put a stop to the virus. As they are talking, gunfire erupts and McGee loses the connection as they run for cover.
Gibbs gets into sniper position and tells them to prepare to run, even though Kevin is shot in the leg. Gibbs sees the sniper through his scope and shoots him as they prepare to run. Back in the squad room, Emily decides to use her NSA connections for help while Vance tells DiNozzo to get to the jet.
It’s night time in the woods and McGee is attempting to build a fire. Gibbs helps by using his lighter. Then, he puts his knife under the heat so he can use it to stop the bleeding in Kevin’s leg.
Back in Abby’s lab, she is trying her hardest to get rid of the virus. Palmer comes in and takes Emily’s place at the computer where she and a bunch of other techs were helping. When Abby tells him to go on three, Palmer hits enter and is able to get rid of some of the virus. She desperately needs her team to be alive.
Sergei arrives at the campfire with his vehicle. His men begin shooting at what appear to be sleeping bodies under blankets, but it turns out no one is there. Gibbs uses a grenade to blow up their vehicle before the three make a slow walk away from the attackers.
In the squad room, Emily is able to get into the NSA network thanks to her husband and she is able to see a satellite view showing lights that indicate people are walking through the woods. They can see what appears to be fire; people walking quickly, and then further away, three slower people moving. They realize it must be their guys.
When they make it to the road, Gibbs tells McGee and Kevin to leave him. McGee offers to stay, but Gibbs says no, so they walk away while Gibbs goes back into the woods. Sergei arrives on the road and Gibbs appears. Before anything can happen, a jeep appears with flashing lights. Gibbs shoots Sergei and then gets in to see DiNozzo at the wheel with McGee and Kevin in the back.
We then see Gibbs in his basement working on his boat. Vance comes down to tell Gibbs about Sergei’s connection with Ari Haswari. Then, Vance drops the bombshell that Sergei is alive. Gibbs is stunned, knowing he had hit him. He then proceeds to take the photo of Sergei that Vance brought and pin it to his board. Looks like we have a new bad guy on the block.
image via INFphoto.com