- Aboard a destroyer of the US Navy during a storm at sea, the ship's medical officer dies, apparently by homicide; Gibbs and company investigate; McGee's father, an admiral, is aboard. The gang follow the tracks and catch the killer.
- A destroyer of the US Navy encounters an unexpected storm in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia; two sailors on the weather deck find and recover the body of the ship's medical officer; Gibbs and company meet the vessel in Norfolk and start to investigate; Ducky comments on a wound and a bruise, possibly resulting from a jab by a hypodermic needle. McGee's father, a full admiral, temporarily aboard the ship, raises objections, creates friction, hassles Tim, and spreads discontent. The Duck finds a part of a broken needle in the body; Tony identifies a suspect, whom he and McGee interview aboard the ship. Burley, an agent afloat working with the team, learns about the removal of a tablet computer; Tony and McGee find the tablet, and McGee obtains data from it, thereby learning the name of the last visitor to the sick bay before the doctor died. The gang identify the killer and bust him. McGee walks and talks with his father.—DocRushing
- On a ship at sea in a storm, a captain gets a report of a person above deck.
Two men are sent out in the pounding surf to look for whoever is out there. They strap in to the ship's cables and see a man prone on the deck. He's not moving. It's the doctor and he's dead.
In the office, Tony and Ziva wonder why McGee might be late. Gibbs arrives with the body of the week aboard the USS Borealis.
Cut to McGee in his car with a kid named Shimon, volunteering as a Big Brother. He's driving Shimon to his field trip in Colonial Williamsburg because his mom is sick.
Aboard the destroyer, the body has been moved -- by their old pal NCIS Special Agent Stan Burley (Joel Gretsch). McGee arrives an hour and 46 minutes late, apologizing.
Below, Duckie finds a puncture wound on the victim's neck.
The officer on board, Navy Lieutenant Carlton Mane, wants to talk to Gibbs. He's an admiral's aide and worried about keeping his admiral on schedule. Gibbs informs him the admiral can't leave the ship crime scene. The admiral arrives to talk to Gibbs himself. McGee sees who it is with interest. It's his dad.
He reiterates what Gibbs said that no one can leave until they finish investigating. "Understandable, but I have some place I have to be," says dad McGee (Jamey Sheridan). "Been hearing that my whole life," replies young McGee. "Good to see you, too, son."
McGee sits down with his dad, John, and Gibbs. He was on two other carriers before the Borealis and boarded during battle exercises.
As Gibbs asks questions, John turns on his son and critiques him. McGee says his dad was never there and his family was the Navy.
Ziva and Burley question Petty Officer Graves, who tells them Haber was about to come forward about a crew member's illegal drug use of an amphetamine/ADHD drug cocktail used to stay awake, but he doesn't know who.
Back at NCIS, Vance tells Gibbs that Sec-Nav said Admiral McGee should be allowed to leave the ship because he's on the fast track for a cabinet appointment. Gibbs isn't a fan.
On the ship, Burley asks Ziva how the investigation into her father's death is going. They still don't have suspects. They find Dr. Haber's medical records of the crew. Stan and Ziva pair off to investigate and Tony thinks he sees some sparks.
Gibbs joins Duckie and Palmer in the lab. They found a piece of a broken needle in his neck and are waiting on the tox reports from Abby. Duckie finds it surprising that the attacker was able to hit Haber's carotid artery during the rough squall.
Back at NCIS, Tony worries that Burley might be preying on Ziva when she's vulnerable.
Tony reports Petty Officer First Class Wyeth made repeated trips to sick bay for minor issues. He has a juvy drug record and has been under suspicion for drug use since being in the Navy.
Back on the ship to talk to Wyeth, Tony gently warns Burley to go easy with Ziva. But Burley tells him he's engaged.
They see Wyeth -- and he runs. They chase him through the ship and he sneaks up on Burley and decks him. Tony drops him.
Back at NCIS with Wyeth in interrogation, Tony has blood results that show he's on five different drugs. Tony notices he has the shakes -- and couldn't possibly have hit Haber's carotid.
Down in the lab, Abby tries to stab a dummy in the carotid and can't do it. The needle used on Haber contained a slow-acting strychnine that led to paralysis and eventually asphyxiation. She thinks whoever did it must have been very skilled.
Abby encourages Tim to stand up to his dad. "Abby, he's the admiral, no one talks to him, they just listen," McGee says.
Upstairs, McGee's "little brother" Shimon ogles Ziva. He took the bus from Williamsburg. He was supposed to share a motel room with a bully. McGee encourages him to stand up to him.
Back on the destroyer, Burley has found surveillance of Haber being jabbed in the neck, but the attacker's face is obscured. Footage also shows Petty Officer Graves sneaking into Haber's office and removing data from his computer.
Graves tried to be a SEAL and excelled in hand to hand combat, but couldn't handle the psych pressure. They wonder if he was selling drugs to the crew.
Vance sits down with John McGee and asks about Tim's status at NCIS.
"I want to know if he'll ever amount to anything more than an overpaid paper-pusher," dad says.
"Special Agent McGee is a valuable asset to this team. As a Navy officer and as a father, you should proud of what your son has accomplished," Vance says.
McGee doesn't respond when Vance asks why he suddenly cares.
On the ship, Graves didn't report for duty. Burley gets a call that an ambulance is waiting to pick up a crew member with a ruptured appendix. They find Graves in back, having faked it.
Back in interrogation, Gibbs tells him half the crew gave him up. He says he was trying to get rid of the paper trail on the doctor's computer. He doesn't have an answer for why he first told them about the drugs.
In the office late at night, Gibbs commends McGee for working with Shimon. McGee says he was thinking about moving on from it because he doesn't have the time. Gibbs encourages him to "let him know who you are." McGee wonders if Gibbs is talking about his dad or Shimon.
McGee calls his dad to go for a walk. His dad knows how much his mom hates it when they fight, but they don't resolve anything.
At the office, they find a $10,000 payment to Graves. They track the missing sign in log -- on a tablet -- to John Hamilton University.
On campus, McGee and Tony track the tablet and Tony brings up fathers. "The fact is, fathers start out as heroes and they end up disappointing," Tony says.
McGee doesn't think his dad will ever understand him.
They track the tablet to a pick-up basketball game where one of the players turns it over. He found it in the trash yesterday.
Back at NCIS, McGee checks out the tablet. The last to sign in was Henry Newbolt, which McGee immediately recognizes as the name of his dad's favorite poet. He used a pseudonym to see the doctor.
McGee tries to discourage Gibbs from bringing his dad in, but Gibbs insists.
In interrogation, John McGee says he was with his staff the entire time on the ship. The admiral gets indignant when Gibbs asks about the phony sign-in, then asks who's on the other side of the interrogation glass, if Tim is.
"You make him think he's nothing, you're the one with nothing," Gibbs says.
Gibbs asks why he'd lie.
"Because I'm sick, no one could know. Stage 4," he says. He didn't feel well when they started the exercises so he transferred to see Haber, but Haber was going to report his illness, which would mean the end of his career.
Gibbs points out that could give him motive, but he doesn't really mean it.
Watching from the other side, Tim cries as he learns about his dad's illness.
Ziva, Tony and Gibbs talk to Vance. They wonder who would have motive to keep the admiral's illness quiet and was close enough to know about it. Tony goes to look into the admiral's aide, Carlton Mane, but Vance offers his own computer.
Mane's a former intel officer who worked black ops. There's a letter in his file from the admiral requesting Mane go with him to the White House if he's appointed.
Gibbs, McGee and John McGee confront Mane, who says John McGee treated him like family. John McGee asks him outright why he killed Haber. Mane says he had to do something to keep Haber quiet.
"You taught me that commitment to success comes first," Mane says. "I was wrong," says John McGee.
Back at NCIS, McGee is thinking about calling his dad to talk. And he's staying on as Shimon's big brother. Gibbs says it might be time for McGee's dad to learn from him.
He gets a call from his dad.
They go for another walk. McGee asks if the rest of his family knows and suggests he call his mom. John McGee says Tim's mother would like them just talking a walk together.
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