- Backstage before a charity-benefit concert in Washington, DC, an explosion kills a Navy petty officer first-class; Gibbs and company investigate; Abby fingers the bad guy, McGee finds out about him, and Gibbs and Ellie catch him at work.
- Backstage at the Convention Center, Washington, DC, during preparations for a fund-raising concert to benefit the Hero Comfort Foundation, an explosion kills two men: a janitor and a volunteer worker, who was also a Navy petty officer first-class; Gibbs and company investigate; the fire chief said that the source of the detonation is a part of the warhead of a WW2-era torpedo. McGee and Ellie speak with Mannheim Gold, the apparent target of the explosion; during questioning his agent shows up and starts running his mouth. Mannheim goes home with Tony, then to a sudden gig. The concert takes place at a different venue. Abby deduces who planted the bomb, McGee digs up that man's past, and Gibbs and the gang put the pieces together; they figure out the reason for the bomb and the change of venue, then Gibbs and Ellie find the bad guys and a bunch of loot. Palmer experiences some good ups and a disappointing down.—DocRushing
- Marines get ready for a charity concert. Backstage, a janitor encourages a Marine named Hunter to try out one of the musician's electric guitars. Hunter strums it and the amplifier explodes, taking out both men.
At the office, Tony gets off the phone with his dad, who asks him to plan his wedding for him. Tony wants to hire a wedding planner, but McGee is full of information on wedding websites, including great resources for napkin folding. Gibbs interrupts with the body of the week: A dead sailor at the convention center.
On the scene, one victim is Earl Grieve, the auditorium janitor. The function was a concert for the Hero Comfort Foundation. Petty Officer Damian Hunter is the other victim, he was volunteering to help make sure families of Marines could attend. Vivian Sutton, the director of the local HCF office, comes by along with Luke Pischedda, the concert coordinator. They identify the source of the explosion: a warhead from a WWII torpedo.
Back at the office for case rundown, Abby says the explosive wasn't set to go off until after midnight, but was activated by the vibrations. The concert was Country Rock Back-up Bands and the room was going to be used as a dressing room for the acts, including Manheim Gold, who missed rehearsal.
Manheim Gold opened for all the big acts decades ago but threw a TV and his agent out a window into a pool.
Bishop and McGee drop by Gold's day job at a drycleaner. He's living upstairs, but they find it has been trashed.
Down in the morgue, Palmer practices diaper changes on a doll. Their birth mother was due yesterday. Gibbs drops by. Duckie says the blast killed the victims and they were in perfect health.
Gibbs gets called up to the conference room. Tony found Manheim Gold in the drunk tank. They show him photos of his trashed apartment. He clarifies it always looks like that. He had been sober 15 years, but the brakes were going out in his car and he crashed into a telephone pole, so he had a drink.
Gold's agent Bobby drops by and is jazzed to hear about the bombing because it's great publicity. It's being moved to Pax River Naval Base. But Gibb informs them someone is trying to kill Gold so he has to go into protective custody.
Tony and McGee take Gold by his apartment to get things for protective custody, but all he grabs is his guitar. Gold says someone saw his old video on the internet and wanted him for the concert. When they ask who might want him dead, Gold suggests any of his band mates, or ex-wives. The agent he threw out of the window, Ronnie Mustard, died in the 80s.
Then he mentions a man who keeps bringing in the same suit to be cleaned, even though it hasn't been worn.
Down in the garage, Ellie, Palmer and Duckie try to install a child's car seat, and the car seat is winning. McGee brought the suit for Abby to try to find DNA. She's been going over the bomb in the torpedo shell. She also found that someone sabotaged Manheim Gold's brakes. She suggests they might be able to trace the brake fluid from the scene of the accident back to where they were sabotaged.
Tony is going through all Manheim's old contacts and finds most of them are dead. McGee returns with news that all of the NCIS-approved hotel rooms are booked for a convention. Tony gets stuck with Manheim. Once they reach Tony's place, he gives Gold a list of rules of the house. Gold agrees to sign if Tony plays for him, but there's a knock at the door.
It's Bobby the agent, he got Manheim a gig tonight. Tony tries to explain that Manheim is in protective custody for a reason.
Tony accompanies Manheim to the bar for 80s night. But Manheim takes one look around the sad dive and wants to bail. Tony accuses him of cold feet. Manheim confesses he hasn't played in public in two or three decades.
Abby calls with news that she got a hit on the DNA on the suit. She texts Tony a picture of the man, who is sitting at the bar. He runs when he sees them looking. Tony tackles him. Manheim doesn't recognize him, but he says he's Manheim's son.
In interrogation, Gibbs shows Denny Johnson the crime scene photos. He found his mother's diary three weeks ago and learned Manheim was his father. Watching in interrogation, Tony tells Manheim DNA confirms it. Manheim goes to talk to him in the hall. Denny tells him he tracked him down through his agent, Ronnie Mustard.
Later, it turns out that Manheim helped Ronnie spread a rumor he was dead to avoid some tax issues, but then Manheim forgot it was just a rumor when he went to rehab. When he got out, everyone told him Ronnie was dead.
Palmer races through the office, having just gotten the call that the birth mother is in labor.
Tony gets a call from his building manager. Manheim is there with Agent Holgate. The manager says there is loud noise coming from his apartment. Tony gets home to find a rager going on in his place.
He orders everyone out. Tony chews out Agent Holgate.
Manheim says when his team started calling his old friends, they started calling him. Manheim says the party was for his son, to get to know him a little. Tony tells him he should just sit down and get to know him. They hear the sounds of Denny retching in the bathroom.
Denny mentions he's great at getting stains out, and Tony should see the first dressing room they had him in at the HCF concert.
McGee and Bishop go visit Ronnie Mustard, who runs as soon as he hears the name Manheim Gold.
Back in NCIS interrogation, McGee tells Mustard they've traced the brake fluid to him and two witnesses saw him there.
Mustard tells him Manheim was big in Equatorial Guinea and he kept all his royalties. He admits to the brakes, but says he knows nothing about a bomb.
Tony reports that Abby says the bomb was put in place a week ago and Manheim switched rooms two days ago, so he wasn't the target.
Abby calls with a partial print from the bomb: Luke Pischedda, the concert coordinator. They think he's planning an attack at the base.
Palmer comes back, shell shocked. The birth mother decided to keep the baby.
Ellie and Gibbs call Tony at the new concert site at Pax River Base. They don't want to stop the concert yet, but tell Tony to find Luke.
McGee finds that Pischedda used to be a private military contractor who helped transport $2 billion in cash to Iraq. Hundreds of millions went missing. The money was stored at Pax River.
The team arrives and Gibbs tells Tony that the concert is a cover for a heist and they want everything to go as planned so Luke doesn't know they're on to him.
The band starts playing and Manheim is rooted in place with stage fright. Tony goes out on the audience to stall for him and Manheim finally comes out and sings.
Underneath the stage, Gibbs tries to figure out what's special about the venue. He hears something and kills the power. He and Bishop follow the sounds of jackhammers and catch Luke and his crew red-handed.
Back at NCIS, Abby tells Palmer that Luke hid the money there years ago and it got covered up by a concrete slab when Pax expanded. He spent years trying to figure out how to get at it and moving up the charity's ladder to be able to plan a concert and have it relocated there.
Gibbs drops by and finds Palmer unloading baby gifts. Palmer is crushed and ready to give up, but Gibbs assures him he has to fight to have a family.
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