- At 04:19 in northern Virginia an 18-wheel truck accidentally and fatally hits a Naval Reserve lieutenant who had swerved and woven on a freeway, parked on the left side, and walked toward an emergency call box on the right side; Gibbs and company investigate. Ducky sees telling evidence at the site, finds an explanation in his workshop, and offers a theory. The gang check out the obvious leads; Ducky meets and courts an attractive and interesting new ladyfriend. While hiking through a state park, the team find a dead SUV and a dead body under circumstances similar to those of the other victim; this vic is a civilian, but his estranged wife is a Marine on active duty in Afghanistan. When Duckman again sees his new honey, he gets two real surprises. Meanwhile, Gibbs and the gang figure out what's happened, so they head out to help; they wrap up some loose ends; Gibbs offers Duck a ride home.—DocRushing
- Before dawn an 18-wheel truck accidentally and fatally hits a Naval Reserve lieutenant on a freeway; Gibbs and company investigate; later the team finds a similar death of a civilian. Ducky get surprises, and Gibbs and the gang get answers.—DocRushing
- A trucker chats with somebody on his CB as he drives down the road. Suddenly he sees a man stumbling in the road in front of him. He slams on his brakes but he's too late and clips the man. He gets out to check on him. The man is gasping for breath and can't speak. He keels over, a trail of water trickling from his mouth.
The team comes in to work having been summoned by a pre-dawn wake-up call from Gibbs. Duckie arrives with coffee, very chipper for the morning hour. Tony thinks Duckie's dating Tony's grandmother Penelope, but McGee says it's a woman named Mary and Ziva adds she met him on-line. Gibbs announces the body of the week: A reservist versus semi.
At the scene, they pepper Duckie with questions. She's Dr. Mary Courtney, in health services. They've had three lunches and tonight she's cooking him paella at her place. "Ah, paella, named of course, for Paellus, the Aztec God of sex after sixty," Tony offers. The victim is Lt. Jason Sims, 44, from Fairfax. Witness says he was driving drunk and pulled off the side of the road. The truck stopped his watch at 4:19 a.m. He had no cell phone and seemed to be headed to a call box. Duckie and Palmer notice adhesive on both of his wrists.
In the morgue, Duckie slices the victim's head open. His skin is loose. Abby reports his blood alcohol was .05, not very drunk. Duckie weighs his brain and reports it's a pound too heavy. He had water intoxication.
Up in the office, Tony sucks up to the mailroom clerk. Ziva calls him out for attempting to cultivate office gossip sources.
On to the big screen. Jason was divorced with two kids and owns a mailbox franchise. He left work at 4:30p after arguing with his wife on the phone. Tony finds a police report about a fight between Sims and Phillip Ekerley, who works in a gunshop.
In the morgue, Duckie points a bump on Sims' head, not from the pavement.
Mary (Cheryl Ladd) calls Duckie. He meets her outside. She came bearing pastries. Gibbs walks by from the coffee cart and Duckie introduces him.
Tony talks to Phillip Ekerley, who says Sims owed him $500 for a mailbox Ekerley had. Sims kept his deposit and tried to bully Ekerley into leaving it alone.
Palmer and Abby gossip in the lab. She wants to know about Mary. Duckie shares his pastries.
Abby reports the other head wound was from hours earlier from a bat or pipe. He was also drugged with three hits of Ecstasy. It would lead to insatiable thirst.
Upstairs, McGee finds that Sims called his wife from Ekerley's gun shop last night. Surveillance shows Sims giving Ekerley a box.
After dinner at Mary's, Duckie explains how Sims was killed. Then he segues to putting the moves on Mary. He notices a picture of her mom and asks about her dad, but they dance instead.
Gibbs, McGee and Tony intercept Ekerley outside his gun shop. He's carrying another box: it has grenades inside.
Back at NCIS, he admits he saw Sims. Ekerley was using Sims to transport the grenades. He says Sims asked for more money and was worried about losing his kids. Sims invited him to join him for a drink.
At the bar, the bartender says Sims stayed til about 10:30p and was trying to pick women up. Apparently he had a reputation. The young blonde bartender ducks out at mention of the word Ectasy and they catch her with a baggie full.
Back at NCIs, she denies ever talking to Sims. Gibbs tells her they can compare her E to the E found in Sims.
Down in the lab, Abby busts McGee for blabbing her Duckie gossip.
Abby found the mud on Sims SUV and trace it to a park.
Palmer tries to get info from Duckie about Mary, but Duckie guesses Palmer just wants to talk about his own upcoming marriage.
Ziva and McGee check toll booth footage leading into the park. They find him on tape and head to the park.
McGee's allergic to something in the park. They find a car partially submerged in the wetlands. It's registered to Sam Alcott. Tony finds his body nearby, duct taped to a tree with a water bottle nearby. He's been there awhile, they think he's the first victim. McGee says the words "serial killer."
Back in the morgue, they find the same blunt force trauma and water logged body. Duckie thinks the first killing went according to plan, but Sims got free, ruining the plan.
Mary calls and Duckie ignores the call, resolved to keep his personal and private life separate.
Upstairs, they find Sam's wife Jolene is a reservist and they're separated because he cheated. They find he was at a bar three nights ago and left alone. Two dead cheaters with military ties.
Abby reports the waitress' E was weak and the stuff Sims was doped with was 100 pure. Gibbs gives her the news and asks who sells the pure stuff. She gives them the name Randy.
McGee and Tony visit a drug rehab, where Randy Jonas is a patient. The security guard won't let them see him. He's been in for a week.
Duckie arrives at Mary's house where she's making baskets for kids at a homeless shelter. She asks about his day. He goes on about the sick diabolical "sadistic bastard" who killed two men. She gets still and stares at him. Then she throws her wine glass at him, telling him he's being ungrateful, because "someone" clearly went to a lot of trouble to show him something he hadn't seen before. Duckie realizes she's the killer.
Back at the office, they notice both men went to counseling with their wives. It was at different centers, but both part of the same outreach program for veterans, the same branch that oversees the rehab the drug dealer is in. They have footage of Alcott paying the toll to get into the park.
They check earlier frames to see if they followed someone.
Both facilities are supervised by the same administrators, including Mary. Gibbs recognizes her photo.
Back with the killer, Mary tells Duckie that she wouldn't go to the trouble for just anyone. She fiddles with scissors as she tells him she realized they had to be military so he'd see them. She says they killed themselves by drinking all the water. She says getting them to follow her out of the bar was the easy part. Duckie notices flashlights out front and stalls for time. She says her father was tricky, a real smooth talker. He tries to talk her down and asks for the scissors. Gibbs busts in and he grabs them from her. She runs into the bathroom. Duckie tries to talk to her. They hear a crash and kick open the door to find she's slit her wrists. He tells her love can cloud our vision. "I only wanted you to stay," she says.
Later, Gibbs pours Duckie bourbon in the dark in the morgue. Ziva joins them and reports Mary is being transferred to a psych ward. She leaves the men alone. Duckie wonders how he missed the fact he was dating someone psychotic. Gibbs offers to take him home, but Duckie asks for a moment alone. He checks his computer. An online introduction from his dating site pops up. He closes the laptop.
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