NCIS began with a news reporter discussing the murder case against a sailor named Kyle Friedgen, who was arrested on suspicion of killing an ex-girlfriend named Joyce Vanatter. The case is thrown out because the attorney, Wyner, mishandled evidence. When his wife, Hanna, loses faith in him, he turns to NCIS and asks to be court-martialed.
Tony and Tim are discussing phobias at one point since Tony’s girlfriend, Zoe, prefers to sleep with the lights on. He teases Tim about being afraid of heights and then Tim lets it slip that an ex-girlfriend had a fear of being tickled by flowers. Tony realizes that since Tim didn’t date a lot of people, it has to be Delilah or Abby. Tim’s silence means it is Abby. Ellie asks them for advice on where she and Jake can go for dinner.
Gibbs meets with Carrie Clark, Kyle’s attorney. She tells him about Kyle wanting to be arrested so NCIS can work on his case. At first, Gibbs is not sure about taking it on the case, but he talks to the team about it. They learn that Kyle and Joyce did have a violent relationship at one time, but while Kyle turned his life around, Joyce went to drugs.
Kyle talks to his lawyer about his concern that Hanna won’t let him see their baby. Gibbs comes in to talk to him. He tells Gibbs while he did text with Joyce, he did not meet with her and that the evidence that was thrown out, a syringe with heroin in it that was in his car, had to be planted.
Tim and Tony go to Baltimore PD and talk to Malone, the officer handling the investigation. They meet with Attorney Wyner, who admits it was his mistake in getting the evidence thrown out since he allowed the search of Friedgen’s car before the warrant was actually signed. They agree to cooperate with NCIS and give them evidence from the case.
Jake and Ellie are on their date when she asks him about Dubai. He is quiet about anything involving NSA and she admits she misses being able to talk and wants to spend more time with him. They also talk about a restaurant they used to go to together for lunch and he says he goes there alone now.
Tim and Abby do an inventory of the evidence from the case, which includes Joyce’s clothes, bills, and the syringe. While the syringe is still inadmissible in the case, Abby will still look it over. Ducky comes to tell them that he still has access to Joyce’s body since it was never buried so he can do an autopsy on her.
Ellie and Gibbs go to interview Hanna, who has a place set up at her parents’ house for her and the baby, a boy. She is upset that Kyle hadn’t told her about his past with Joyce and becomes distressed when Kyle comes by.
The team discusses Joy and the texts she did with Kyle. She also had a phone call with her that Kyle insists was only to tell her he wouldn’t meet with her. Joyce had also made another phone call to a burner phone so Tony and Tim go on the streets to see if they can find her dealer. Gibbs is going to interview Kyle’s C.O. while Ellie plans on surprising Jake for lunch. When she goes, however, she sees Jake talking to a woman at a table.
Tony and Tim talk to Francis Del Conte, aka Cheech, who used to be an informant for Tony. He tells them about Joyce and how she began to use high end heroin. They also find out that she was seeing someone who wore a lot of suits.
Abby begins to talk to Ellie about the bills found on Joyce’s body. Ellie asks her to pull up the image from MTAC the day they were trying to figure out where Jake was. She sees that he is in the car with the same woman from the restaurant, Taylor Matthews. She is NSA’s version from Internal Affairs and since she knows about a leak at the NSA, Ellie worries Jake is in trouble.
Gibbs talks to Kyle’s CO and learns that while Kyle was put back on duty, everyone feels he is guilty. He also finds out that while Kyle’s alibi about an accident that kept him on the freeway, they still don’t have proof that he was there.
Tony sees Ellie in the corner on a phone call. He goes over to Tim, who thinks it might be Jake and tells Tony to leave her alone. But when she comes back, Tony checks on Ellie. It appears that Jake has to go away again.
Abby comes to the team and tells them she was able to trace the bills to a bank that had them since they were so new and the person who took them from the ATM was Kyle. An angry Gibbs confronts Kyle, who admits that Joyce wanted money and he gave it to her since she threatened to tell Hanna about them. He didn’t say anything at first because he didn’t know Joyce was dead and then he panicked. Gibbs tells him he’s arrested for murder now. While Malone is happy, Gibbs reminds him it only means they met up and it is still their case.
Ellie visits Gibbs later that night and asks for marital advice, something Gibbs finds ironic. She wants to know how to get Jake to talk to her and he tells her to get him to share how he is feeling.
Gibbs and Carrie talk about the case and Kyle, but Gibbs tells her because of the arrest, they shouldn’t talk for now.
Tim and Tony stand behind Abby as she tells them the heroin found in the needle was low grade, something that piques the boys’ interest since Cheech told them she moved to high grade heroin. They ask her if she had seen Ellie since she didn’t come in, but Abby won’t talk. When Tony produces a feather, an annoyed Abby blames Tim, but won’t say a word.
Ducky is finished with the autopsy and tells them he will run a full tox screen. When asked about Ellie, Gibbs tells Tony and Tim she has the morning off.
Ellie is at home when Jake comes back and she sits him down to talk. When she begins telling him she knows something is wrong with him at work, he interrupts and tells her he is having an affair. A distraught Ellie leaves.
Ducky and Abby discuss Joyce’s body. Abby is concerned no one will claim her body so she can be buried. When Gibbs comes in, they tell him Joyce had high grade heroin in her system, not the black tar heroin found in the needle. They begin to feel that Kyle told the truth.
The team talks about who could have planted the heroin to blame Kyle for murder and decide to look into Joyce’s drug bust from two years before. Before Tony and Tim can leave, Ellie comes in and they can tell something is wrong. She tells them Jake cheated and Tim quietly hands Tony the keys to the car. Gibbs tells Ellie to go with Tony.
Tony and Ellie find out that Cheech was the person who busted Joyce two years ago, something Tony is confused about since he hadn’t said a word. Ellie notices the needle from the case and then finds out someone accessed the file three weeks earlier. It was Wyner, who Malone feels may have just been trying to be thorough.
Abby informs Ellie the needle in the old case file has no DNA on it at all and was never used. Not only that, but it came from a batch that was made three months earlier. It could not have been the one from the case.
Jake comes to NCIS to talk to Ellie, but protective Tim and Tony tell him he needs to go. Gibbs comes and tells Jake to leave, but not before reminding him he needs to treat his wife better and get his act together.
Tony and Tim inform Gibbs about another case that Wyner was involved in where he executed a search before the warrant was ready. Abby comes in with more evidence.
The team tells Wyner they have a warrant to search his property. They are pretty sure he was the one Joyce’s was dating and he had killed her. Then when Kyle was arrested, he planted the heroin and mishandled the evidence so that he would get off. He didn’t expect Kyle would try and clear his name.
Kyle thanks Gibbs for his help and is glad he can report back to the ship, but he knows things won’t be the same with Hanna. Gibbs tells him to be there for his son at least. When he leaves, Ellie tells Gibbs she needs to talk.
Jake comes home to an empty house to find a note from Ellie. She is leaving to go home to Oklahoma and doesn’t know how long she’ll be.