NCIS opens with a young man at his sink. He has blood on his knuckles and his hands are shaking. He makes a phone call to a guy named Vince before his power goes out. Going outside to fix the breaker, he hears rustling but it’s only a neighbor’s dog named Loki. After turning the light back on, he turns hearing another sound only to be shot multiple times by an assailant.
Breena and Jimmy are having a baby shower in the lab, where Breena gets a baby lab coat from Abby and ear plugs, wine, and cash from DiNozzo. Jimmy seems very concerned about what is good or not good for Breena to have for the baby and she asks for some water to get him to leave. After he leaves, she begs the team to distract Jimmy so she can have some quiet as well as a cheeseburger. She asks them to make up a case, but Tim says that’s not how things happen. Of course, Gibbs walks by telling them about the dead man, prompting Breena to say “Thank God” before realizing what she said.
The victim, Navy Lieutenant Eric Kutzler, was killed around midnight and the team finds evidence of a boot print and .22 casings. Tim tells Gibbs the perpetrator must have used a silencer since there were no shots reported. Tony mentions the dog, mispronouncing it “Lockey,” not understanding where the name Loki came from.
Tony goes inside to check the house while Ellie comes in as well. She notices the broken glass that Kutzler had dropped and Tony finds holes in a door from someone punching it. Outside, Gibbs talks to the first officer on the scene. But when the man begins to get upset, Gibbs realizes he knows him. It turns out the man is Eric’s husband, Vince, who last saw Eric around 7 the night before and didn’t get his message until the next morning. Gibbs gets a call on his phone and calls Tim to speak to him.
In Vance’s office, Vance is speaking to Hollis Mann when Gibbs comes in. The Department of Defense sent her to help with the investigation because Kutzler was being looked at to receive the Medal of Honor.
Ellie and Tony are looking up at the stairs as Tony talks about Hollis being their “Gibbs whisperer,” unaware that she is right behind them. They are both surprised when the two come to the squad room without being seen. Tony and Ellie update them with information on the victim, including that while in Afghanistan, he received injuries when he threw himself over a live grenade to protect his fellow soldiers. He had also spoken at rallies previously before Don’t Ask Don’t Tell so they think it could be a hate crime. Hollis tells Gibbs she is sticking around to help.
Abby is in the lab with Tim talking to Breena on the phone as Jimmy comes in. She tells him Breena got a burger and then with a smile, she hangs up and tells Jimmy to breathe before telling him Breena is in labor. Jimmy freezes and they worry he’s broken before Gibbs comes in and slaps him on the back of the head. Jimmy panics and runs out to get his baby go bag.
Tim and Abby tell Gibbs they found surveillance footage that showed the murder. They are unable to see the killer’s face, but they do see that Vince Armstrong found Eric’s body, but didn’t call police for twenty minutes. Gibbs and Tim leave so Tim and Tony can interrogate Vince. He tells them that he got a cut under his eye from being hit by a drunk individual and that he didn’t kill Eric. They bring up his discharge from 2007 for “conduct unbecoming” due to having a temper. But before they can finish the interrogation, Gibbs comes in and tells Vince to come with him.
Gibbs tells Vince he found out that he had gotten many commendations for his service until 2007 when they found out he was gay. He had gotten a general discharge instead of a dishonorable one and became a cop in order to help others. Gibbs knows he’s still hiding something and Vince tells him he had found a bag in the kitchen with vials inside and he knew they weren’t Eric’s and he asks for Gibbs help to protect his husband’s memory.
In the lab, Abby talks about Jimmy becoming a father before Tony reminds her “Hurricane Gibbs” will be coming. She tells Tony and Ellie that Eric was not on drugs and the drugs found in the bag were a mix of morphine and fentanyl, which were very potent and someone had made them into their own brand.
Down in autopsy, Hollis tells Ducky she had met Eric the week before and she moves the subject to Gibbs, wondering why he hasn’t reached out to her. Ducky begins to tell her that he has a thought for why Gibbs has been avoiding them, but then Gibbs comes in. Ducky tells Gibbs that it was an “anomaly” that Eric had no drugs in his system since because of the blast, he would be in excruciating pain and needed medication. Gibbs realizes he had purposely not taken medication to live with the pain and tells Hollis he wants details on the ambush.
Senior Chief Lansing Donahue, Petty Officer Davis Riley, and five Afghani civilians were among the survivors of the ambush and are all being tracked down, although Hollis said Donahue was a “pivotal” witness for Eric’s Medal of Honor. Ellie finds that Eric had received a letter of reprimand from his CO Rear Admiral Xavier Meade, but it was later retracted.
Ellie and Gibbs talks to Meade, who tells them that Eric was a good officer and he had written the reprimand due to verbal exchanges and a brawl between Eric and another guy who had issues with him being open. Meade took back the letter because he felt uneasy about it and just gave Eric a verbal warning. The person he got in a brawl with was Davis Riley.
Hollis and Tony talk to Davis Riley, who is stunned to find out that Eric is dead. He talks to them in the interview room, where he tells them he changed his attitude about Eric after he saved his life. He surprises Hollis and Tony when he tells them that both he and Donahue had worked to file for Eric to be nominated for a medal of honor.
Gibbs goes to see Vance, who tells him that the press got wind that a medal of honor nominee was found with narcotics and that they are possibly canceling the nomination. In the squad room, the team is very nervous and Tony mentions the “Gibbs threat level” as Ellie comes in with a stack of newspapers. Gibbs comes in, looking very angry, and they quickly get to work. But because it is taking time to get information, it is frustrating for Gibbs, who gets angry with Tony when he mentions breaking rule ten, not to get involved in a case too personally. Vince comes in, upset at Gibbs for what happened with Eric’s name.
Abby is worried about Gibbs, but Tony tells her they need a lead. She tells Tony that Eric’s GPS system in his car received hourly updates via satellite and for two hours, he was in Berwyn at an outreach center. A man named Mat, who is a total hipster, tells them that Eric came to nightly meetings and was seen arguing with a man from his group. Tony deduces Eric must have been selling narcotics to patients and since they can’t tell Gibbs they don’t have information, Tony decides they need to go on a stakeout.
Hollis comes to Gibbs with coffee to try and make him feel better. She also tells him that Davis was telling the truth about his nomination packet and the person who buried it turns out to be Meade. He tries to deny anything about it, but they have evidence that he did receive the nomination back in 2012 since his yeomen had recorded it. They also note that he has given subpar scores to every gay sailor who worked under him. Gibbs tells him he looks forward to his court-martial.
The team is on the stakeout, where Ellie is annoyed that someone has constantly been smoking and Tony brings up Tim’s pipe collection. They see Davis coming out of the AA building and Tony and Tim go to talk to him. But he is very disorganized and woozy. Tim finds drugs in his backpack before Davis collapses. Tony shouts for Ellie to call for help.
Hollis goes down to talk to Gibbs, who is building some sort of cabinet. She deduces he blames himself for Diane’s death and he tells her that Sergei wanted to “make it personal.” Hollis knows he is trying to protect her since she could be targeted and she tells him she won’t leave his side.
In the hospital, Davis wakes up to see Gibbs. He tells Gibbs about being haunted by the ambush and that Kutzler helped him when he saw he was using. Eric had gone with him to the meetings to help him and when Davis relapsed, he got mad and took his drugs from him. When Gibbs mentions he went back to the outreach center, Davis realizes he had most likely told Eric he got the drugs from Mat Jebson.
Mat Jebson is seen going to his car as Tony and Ellie arrive. Ellie tells him about Agent McGee finding his drug lab at home with the same drugs found in Eric’s home. Mat goes to open his trunk, but Tony already has his gun, the same kind used to kill Eric.
Gibbs talks to Vince as they walk up to a monument commemorating sailors. Vince apologizes for his actions and thanks Gibbs for helping Eric’s Medal get endorsed. He wants to find a way to honor his husband and Gibbs tells Vince that Eric died doing what he had done in that ambush, which was saving a friend. He tells Vince to “finish the mission.”
In the hospital, Abby arrives with a blue balloon and a pink one as the team waits to find out if the baby is a boy or girl. Jimmy comes out and takes the pink balloon, earning a hug from Abby. Meanwhile, Gibbs watches as Vince tells Davis he will help him. At the other end of the hospital, the team meets the baby girl, who is named Victoria Elizabeth Palmer in honor of Ducky’s mother. They notice Jimmy has a splint on his finger and he mentions that epidurals don’t work on 5% of patients. Breena apparently was one of those patients. As Abby takes the baby to hold her, a proud Gibbs comes in to meet the baby.
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