Last night’s episode of NCIS opened with Ellie and Tim at the video monitor looking over photos of Gibbs since his makeover. They are both discussing how he looks, with Tim thinking his boss looks great. Tony comes in and he isn’t amused about what they are doing. When Gibbs comes in, he goes to his desk as DEA Mitch comes in from San Diego. He immediately asks for help in locating Sergeant Cole Gleason, who has evidence on a drug dealer named Benson Long, who he has been trying to find. Gibbs is willing to help, even though Tony and Tim are unsure, especially Tim when Mitch refers to him as “buddy.”
Mitch and Gibbs discuss Gleason, who is apparently going on a road trip. There were no drugs found at the house and Mitch is worried if they don’t find Gleason, they can’t stop Long and he is the only one on the case since DEA won’t touch it. Gibbs tells Mitch he will help him since he has a debt he owes him.
Ellie, Tony, and Tim are in the squad room searching for Gleason, but they turn up nothing since he doesn’t have his phone. Tim mentions Mitch and Tony and Ellie see he is not a fan of him. Tony snarks back about him doing busy work versus Tim being a buddy.
Gibbs goes to see Abby, who has hurt her fingers after an incident while dancing at her home. After some help from Gibbs, she opens up an evidence box with Evans’ glock in it. The serial number has been removed and the gun has fingerprints belonging to Evans, Long, and a man named Fisher Hyland. Gibbs calls Tim to track him down.
Ellie and Tim go to talk to Hyland. Tim ends up admitting that he is not thrilled with being called buddy because it reminds him of a moment in high school when he received a pity vote from his mom for homecoming king. They see Fisher and when he doesn’t give them information, Tim sniffs a hat he’s selling and comments that it smells highly of weed. Fisher tells them about Evans winning his own gun from him during a card game. He also informs them Long was using different locations to push drugs off, otherwise known as raves, and he had a school location at one point. Ellie and Tim go to the school to investigate, where they find the body of Cole Gleason.
Gibbs goes toward the elevator after Tim calls him and Tony follows him. They go inside and Tony stops the elevator. He tells Gibbs he knows that Mitch is actual Luis Mitchell and he is the son of the NIS agent who was assigned to protect Kelly and Shannon the day they were murdered. Tony believes Gibbs isn’t making the best judgment about working the case since he has a personal relationship with Mitch. He tells Tony he doesn’t know what’s going on and Tony counters he is just trying to protect him. Gibbs balks and tells Tony to just “take care of your team,” focus on the case and not to tell them about Mitch’s family.
Gibbs sees Ducky in autopsy, who tells him Gleason had been dead for three days from a gunshot wound and he had fibers that were found along his hand and arms. He sent them to Abby for investigation. Ducky asks about Mitch, making Gibbs think he spoke to DiNozzo. Ducky tells him that he knew Gibbs long enough to know his background and brings up his own heart attack and how it made him look at things differently. He tells Gibbs the team needs to get used to the outlook he has. Gibbs counters that work still needs to be finished.
Tim and Ellie talk to Tony about finding Gleason’s car about a mile from the school and the bullet that killed him was not a match to the glock. When Gibbs comes in, Tony tells him that he got a call from NCIS Agent Malone, who wants in on the case and could get the DEA involved. Gibbs knows what Tony is doing and declines. He tells Tony to go get Hyland with Ellie after a warrant they were getting on him comes in. But Tim tells Gibbs he had been working on a relationship of trust with Hyland. Gibbs tells Tim he will be with him and Mitch, leaving Tim feeling annoyed.
Ellie and Tony are in the car talking when she asks if he is really okay. She mentions the story about Tim’s vote for homecoming king and Tony does some analyzing about Gibbs’ attitude and what he said about protecting the team. He feels as though Gibbs is being reckless. Hyland gets in the car with some hats for Ellie and Tim, but is surprised to see Tony. They tell him to go to Evans’ house for a game of cards with a gift, which is a poker cam that can listen in on anything. Hyland is unsure, but then they bring up the smell of weed on the hat to get him to cooperate.
Mitch and Tim are in the garage with Abby, who is thrilled when Mitch mentions he can shave down her platforms so she won’t hurt herself. Abby calls them “M&M” before referring to Mitch as the “Cool cobbler” while Tim is just “the other guy.” Tim asks for information on the evidence to get away from the topic. She tells them Gleason was carrying fibers that were also found in the car and it came from specific wool on a sheep from Afghanistan. The evidence that Gleason had was likely inside a rug. There are over 20 stores that sell imported rugs and Evans owns one.
Mitch, Tim, and Gibbs go to talk to Evans. He denies knowing anything, but looks coldly toward Tim when he begins looking around. Evans goes toward his desk and opens a drawer with a gun in it. Gibbs calls out “Gun” and Tim immediately draws his weapon. As Mitch fights to keep Evans from using his gun, Tim shoots Evans when he sees Mitch is in danger. Mitch is upset, thinking Roy may die before he talks.
Tim photographs the evidence after the shooting and we learn Roy is in surgery. But then Gibbs comes in to tell Tim and Mitch that Evans died. Mitch is furious with Tim for shooting him and Tim counters that he was about to shoot Mitch. Gibbs, however, calmly assures Tim he did the right thing and sends him back to the office.
Ducky helps Abby cut a rug they found when she is unable to because of her bandages. They find a long strip of paper that may have been used to smuggle narcotics and it looks like it only happened when Long was in town. Ducky begins going off on a tangent and Abby hugs him to interrupt. None of the rugs they have were the ones Gleason had. Abby begins talking about needing to find evidence they need and Ducky hugs her to calm her down.
Tim goes back to the squad room and Tony asks about how Gibbs is doing. Tim mentions he is fine then sarcastically tells Tony he is all right as well. He goes over what happened and mentions Gibbs was probably going to talk to Mitch, but he didn’t know what was going on. Tony is not subtle as he makes it clear something is going on. Tim glares up at him, questioning what he doesn’t know. When Ellie comes in, Tony calls a campfire and sends them to the conference room with Ellie’s laptop.
Ellie and Tim find out Mitch’s connection with Gibbs and Tony is relieved not to be the only one who knows, as he is worried about Gibbs and Mitch working this case. Then Ellie surprises them when she sees Long’s name in the file they have on Mitch’s father, Kurt Mitchell. Long had a drug operation around Pendleton at the time Pedro Hernandez murdered Mitchell, causing him to crash the car that lead to the deaths of Shannon and Kelly.
Tony confronts Gibbs in autopsy about Long. He worries they are going to go overboard in the investigation. Gibbs assures Tony they will get Long on good evidence. When Tony asks about Mitch, Gibbs says he is at his hotel, but Tony informs him that his phone pinged him at Long’s place. Gibbs tells him he is going alone.
Tony tells Tim and Ellie that Gibbs left. They all try to figure out what to do, especially since the Reynosa cartel is no longer after. Ellie mentions Hyland and are hoping still use Hyland, but their cam is not working because of interference so Ellie calls Abby for help while Tony and Tim leave.
Gibbs finds Mitch, who has his gun out. Mitch feels he needs to take care of Long on his own, but he knows there are more names he works with. Mitch wants Gibbs to leave. Gibbs talks about Mike, his old partner, who had told him that a previous NIS Agent assigned to detail on Kelly and Shannon had asked to be reassigned because he felt it had been too dangerous. But Kurt Mitchell raised his hand to take the assignment, saying he would hope someone would extend the same courtesy to his own family. He refuses to leave and Mitch takes this in as Long comes in. He asks them about where Roy is and Gibbs informs him Roy is dead.
As they stand in the room, Mitch still has his gun out and Long eventually makes a confession about killing Gleason. When he brings up “daddy,” referring to his order to Pedro to pull the trigger on Mitchell, Mitch holds his weapon up. Gibbs tells Mitch it won’t bring their loved ones back and he reluctantly takes his weapon away. Just then, Tim comes in with Tony to arrest Long. Abby had gotten the cam to work and they got his confession on tape. The girls hug and Mitch thanks Tim.
Gibbs is at home preparing for a trip to California when Tony comes in to give him a garment bag for his nice new clothes. Tony asks about Iraq, but Gibbs tells him it was never about that. He wonders if Tony wants to have his own team again since he had turned down the chance once already. H wonders if Tony wants to be back and to lead. He mentions that when he joined NIS, he had a reason to join, which was the death of his family. He tells Tony that even as things change in life, the reason stays the same.
Mitch and Gibbs are in California spreading Kurt Mitchell’s ashes. Mitch tells Gibbs his mom made dinner and Gibbs mentions he has something to do. Gibbs leaves to go to the old house where he lived with Kelly and Shannon. He goes over to a fountain, which bears two handprints with the words “1991” and then “Mom” and “Dad.” He smiles sadly as he looks down at the handprints.
This episode once more touched on the sadness Gibbs still carries for his family, and after almost dying himself, you have to wonder if he wishes he could be with them. We’ll have to see where Gibbs’ journey from near death brings him and how Tony’s role at NCIS could change because of recent events.
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