- In an effort to find the terrorist Parsa, Gibbs and the NCIS team track down one of his cohorts using evidence from the drone attack. Meanwhile, an emotionally shaken McGee struggles with the ramifications of the incident.
- While McGee stays with Delilah in a hospital, Gibbs, Tony, and Ellie find and recover a bullet, which bears the DNA of the wheelman, whom Gibbs clipped during the escape; Abby identifies him, and she and Tony gather data about him, which Gibbs and Duck review. Gibbs, Tony, and Ellie see the escape SUV, which bears a message; Abby finds a modification to it. McGee gets approval to return to work, but Dr. Cranston learns that McGee has avoided an unpleasant new truth, so she talks with him. CIA and NSA help with the search for the terrorist; McGee finds an address for the wheelman, then Gibbs and Tony, with backup by FBI and DoHS, grab the wheelman and take him to the chat room, where Gibbs gets some information; apparently Parsa, the head bad guy in charge, escapes again. Delilah survives her injuries and complications, including paralysis; Gibbs and McGee sit together awhile outside Delilah's room.—DocRushing
- Gibbs, Tony, and Ellie find and recover a bullet, with which Abby identifies the wheelman; Gibbs, Tony, and Ellie see the escape SUV, which bears a message; the gang nab the wheelman, who provides information, but the bad guy escapes again.—DocRushing
- Following the drone strike at the Conrad gala, McGee goes to see Delilah in the hospital. Six people were killed and 22 wounded. "It was Parsa, did you get him?" Delilah asks, before she crashes. Nurses come to wheel her into surgery, she's not breathing.
Back at NCIS, Ellie is surrounded by their old intelligence, looking for something they missed. Tony, knowing she has her earbuds in, confesses he feels helpless to help McGee. Ellie takes out her buds out and explains why she's on her third bag of junk food. "Cheese puffs are the perfect food to support the linkage between new info and stuff already stored in the brain. Just like the cheese particles link the cheesy taste," she says.
But she hasn't gotten anywhere yet.
Gibbs arrives and suggests Parsa's surviving bodyguard knew nothing. Ellie thinks that makes sense given how Parsa operates.
Suddenly, Gibbs orders them to grab their gear. "I knew this day would come. Did you just hear about a body telepathically?" Tony asks.
"It's not a body, it's a bullet," Gibbs says.
Gibbs takes them back to the alley where he shot at Parsa as he was getting in the SUV. He sees a shell casing and follows the trajectory to a bullet hole in a door across the alley. Back in the lab, Abby has DNA from the bullet belonging to Bashir Malik, a U.S. citizen who grew up in Karachi. He's a suspect in an unsolved bombing at Camp Pendleton in 1990. If he was responsible, the two decades since is "a long time to get very angry and very organized," Abby says.
Back at the hospital, McGee gets a visit from Dr. Rachel Cranston, Kate's sister. She's there as a crisis counselor. McGee says Delilah's parents are on the way from Wisconsin, but he told everyone else to focus on Parsa. Rachel offers to stay, but he declines.
At the big screen, Ellie says Malik was arrested for assaulting a police officer in 2002 when the officer thought he was involved in a kidnapping. At the time of the 1990 bombing he was a delivery driver for Wellspring Fruit. He was brought in for questioning repeatedly but the investigation never got anywhere.
Ellie suggests that because Malik got away with it back then he wouldn't have a reason to change his tactics, so anything from back then could help them now. Unfortunately, the NIS agent who investigated it is Duke Turner, and he's dead.
Gibbs stays to go over the video of the interrogations while Tony and Ellie got to the NSA. NSA Senior Intelligence Analyst Sofia Martinez greets them. She says the recent Interpol summit on Parsa concluded that he would leave the country after the drone attack. Martinez delights Tony by thinking he looks like Robert Redford and getting all his movie references.
Martinez is the "Smee" (Subject Matter Expert) on Benham Parsa. She's been monitoring Benham's sister's communications since 2007, she gets lots of calls from payphones in code. They ask for her reports and she says good-bye, calling Tony "DiNoknowsitall," which he loves. He asks Ellie if Martinez is single, but says she reminds him of someone annoying, he just can't think of who. (Himself.)
Back at NCIS, Gibbs watches Duke's interview with Bashir, in which he insists he was in the area of the bombing only to deliver fruit. Gibbs asks Duckie to do a profile of Bashir. Duckie thinks it's odd that someone with Bashir's experience would bow to Parsa.
Neither of them has heard an update on Delilah from McGee.
Ellie announces that Parsa' SUV has been found. Tony, Ellie and Gibbs head to the scene, where the SUV is a smoldering heap following an explosion. Ellie recognizes Parsa's handwriting in the windshield message to them: "Try again."
Later, Gibbs joins Abby in the garage. She found two bolts that don't come from the SUV. Abby thinks the explosion was covering something else.
McGee joins them. He says Delilah is stable and in recovery. He's ready to work, but Gibbs is concerned and asks for his fitness for duty paperwork first.
Gibbs sits down with the witness who saw Bashir at Camp Pendleton 23 years ago. He was out for an early morning run and saw the fruit truck parked at the side of the building, when deliveries are usually to the front. He saw Bashir Malik by the truck. He's kept tabs on info about him since then, and thinks he might have been responsible for the Keely Smith kidnapping that he assaulted the officer over in 2002.
Rachel Cranston comes to NCIS to talk to McGee. She sees Ellie perched above her desk for a fresh perspective on the evidence. They talk briefly about the women who sat there before, without Rachel saying she's Kate sister. Rachel says she thinks both women would say there's no better place to grow than a desk next to McGee, Tony and Gibbs.
Martinez calls Ellie with info. Ellie goes to MTAC to take her call securely. Martinez starts the call by saying Tony reminds her of someone annoying, but she can't think of who. "Yourself?" Ellie suggests.
Tony joins them and Martinez relays that they picked up a call that Parsa's sister received containing the numbers 180, 60 and 45. The sister said "it's not enough."
McGee talks to Rachel, saying he's fine. She thinks he's giving the perfect responses, but she'd rather hear the real ones. "Is it just me you're shutting out, or is it everyone?" she asks. He says again that he just wants to get back to work.
Gibbs watches more of Bashir's interview. He helplessly insists that he was there to deliver fruit and parked in the wrong place because he hadn't been there before. "Sir, I am not a terrorist, I just move things from one place to another," Bashir says.
Gibbs takes that to Duckie. He thinks he delivered the fruit while someone else delivered the bomb. And he didn't kidnap Keely Smith, he was helping her flee her abusive husband. He's hired transport, which could mean Parsa is gone for good.
In the morning, Tony volunteers to bring McGee a casserole, saying his men's health group encourages him to be sensitive during difficult times. Gibbs comes in for an update. McGee has found cash deposits in Bashir's account around the time of the 1990 bombing and Keely Smith's 2002 disappearance. Malik knows all about trucks, trains and cargo planes from his work at Wellspring as director of transportation.
Gibbs tells McGee to take it easy.
Down in the garage, Abby tells Gibbs that she found the SUV was modified. The gas tank was moved and split into the doors and there was a compartment big enough to hold a person.
Back upstairs, Tony tries to fit in a 6 x 2 x 1.5' space and asks if Pakistan uses metric. Those numbers come out to about 180, 60 an 45 in centimeters. Benham's sister was worried the space was too small. They don't think there's a chance she'll turn on her brother, so they decide to use her loyalty instead.
The CIA sends one of their embedded agents to Parsa's sister's house in Karachi to tell her something went wrong with his escape. Martinez conferences in in MTAC as they wait to see if the sister will react. Martinez says she's methodical, so they have to wait.
Rachel stops Gibbs. She just spoke with Delilah's parents -- a piece of shrapnel moved and Delilah is paralyzed. McGee left the hospital before she ever woke up.
In MTAC, Parsa's sister makes a call and McGee traces it as the CIA and Martinez at NSA listen in. The sister talks to Bashir Malik, who assures her he's doing his part. They trace Malik's phone to a DC address.
When they're done, Gibbs tells McGee to talk to Cranston.
Tony and Gibbs head to the address where they traced the call. They find Malik burning documents in an oil barrel. They take him into custody.
Back at NCIS, Rachel tells Gibbs that McGee took off and she doesn't think he's fit to be at work. She suggest they let him process things on his own.
In interrogation, Tony has confidence that Gibbs will get Malik to give up Parsa's location. Ellie is restless and goes to help Abby with the burned documents.
"Sir, I am not a terrorist, I just move things from one place to another," Malik says.
Gibbs shows him pictures of the victims as Bashir boasts about his skill but insists he's not a terrorist. Gibbs leaves, frustrated, and goes to think.
McGee approaches him at his desk, telling him he wants to work. "You're more important than the job," Gibbs says.
Gibbs knows McGee feels responsible and is just blaming himself so Gibbs tries to assure him they are responsible. He tells McGee to go back to the hospital and just talk to Delilah and tell her the truth.
Gibbs goes back to Malik and makes a pitch to him to do the right thing. He says he put Parsa on a freight train in Baltimore hidden inside a car. He was supposed to move the body guard as well, but couldn't after they lost the SUV. The train was going to Miami and Parsa was supposed to get off along the way.
He asks Gibbs to be sure to tell people he's not a terrorist.
Back at the hospital, McGee joins Delilah.
The team works in the garage to figure out where Parsa could be. McGee texts Gibbs. Gibbs goes to the hospital. McGee plans to come in tomorrow to tell the others what happens. He asks Gibbs to sit with him.
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