Summer is coming to a close, but the heat? Not so much yet. Fortunately, we can beat the heat with a little A/C, a tall glass of something frosty … and our favorite Classic NCIS episodes!
Screenshot of Mark Harmon as Gibbs in the NCIS season four episode Blowback. NCIS airs on CBS on Tuesdays.
This week Ducky gets the spotlight as he goes undercover to help our team of Very Special Agents solve the Dead Guy of the Week crime. Also? Armand Assante! Let’s not keep them waiting!
We open with a young man, possibly Middle Eastern descent, coming out of a jewelry store. He purchases a newspaper from a small vending machine by the curb and notes a van across the street. We see a window lower, a camera lens, and someone inside the van takes photos of the young man. As the van pulls away from the curb, Young Man ducks into a crowd and the van drives on by. Relieved, YM heads down a side street, only to hear screeching brakes, then suddenly the van is back and now heading down the side street toward him. He takes off at a dead run, heads down an alley, but the van catches up to him when he can’t scale the iron gate at the end of the alley. Two hooded assailants drag him down, hood him, then pull him into the back of the van. He struggles as one pulls his hood up enough to press something over his nose and mouth while the other administers a needle into his neck. He falls unconscious and our two assailants climb into the driver and passenger seat. They pull off their hoods and … Tony and Ziva?
Oooh, we’re already having fun! Cue awesome opening theme song and credits!
Screenshot of Assaf Cohen as Goliath, Michael Weatherly as Tony and Mark Harmon as Gibbs in the NCIS season four episode Blowback.
We shift to Tony and Gibbs doing a crossword puzzle. Gibbs needs an eight-letter word for TV drama. Tony offers up St. Elsewhere. HA! (For those of you too young to know, Mark Harmon played a handsome doc on that medical drama.) Gibbs grins and YM starts to come around. We discover they’re all on what looks to be a quite comfy private jet. Tony explains to a still handcuffed and groggy YM that they are in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, the asks Gibbs what kind of clubs they have in Morocco. He says it doesn’t matter, they aren’t going there. Tony thinks they can hit it on their way back. YM wants to know “way back from where” only Tony assures him they only got him a one-way ticket. “Who’s they?” YM wants to know as Tony continues to blithely plot out a little R&R side route. YM gets a little more demanding about it, so Tony explains that they are couriers delivering a “package” to their Israeli friends. And yes, the “package” is YM.
This segues into the discussion of the cheesy code names that gun dealers have, such as YM’s code name, Goliath. YM assumes they are CIA, but Tony and Gibbs chuckle, assure him no, that’s not it. Ziva arrives and Tony warns YM that she’s also Israeli and not going to be happy. She immediately slaps YM and, in their language, calls him a traitor. He swears he doesn’t sell arms to the bad guys. Disgusted, she tells him he sells them to people who do, so it’s just as bad. Ziva tells Tony and Gibbs they will only be on the ground in Zaire a few minutes as it’s too dangerous to stay longer. YM perks right up, and not in a good way, very concerned that Zaire is his drop spot. Ziva reminds him he sold Zaire some crap guns and they aren’t too happy about it. Turns out Zaire has some intel that the Israeli’s want, and YM was right there in DC for the taking, so they’re doing a little swap. Convenient, you know?
The captain signals they are ready for takeoff. YM turns savvy, explains he’s very wealthy, he has diamonds. Tony corrects him. YM had diamonds. Somebody had to pay for that private jet, after all. He changes tactics, says he “knows things.” Tony remains unimpressed. Tony wants to know what he could possibly know that would interest the CIA, prompting Ziva to laugh heartily at the idea that YM thinks they are CIA. YM doesn’t care which alphabet organization they belong to, he has info to trade for his life. YM says, “ARES,” prompting the three to reveal their sun signs in return. Ha! YM corrects him, says he’s talking about the Navy’s encrypted satellite system. He says if Iran had it, for instance, they could intercept cruise missiles, change their direction. They remain unimpressed. He insists ARES is for sale and he knows who is selling it.
Screenshot of Sean Murray as McGee and Pauley Perrette as Abby in the NCIS season four episode Blowback.
Shift to Abby Lab with Abs and McGee as Gibbs on speakerphone tells them they are looking for a guy named Charles Harrow and that there is an email from him on Goliath aka YM’s computer. Problem is, McGee hasn’t been able to hack past Goliath’s screensaver yet, much less dip into his email. Gibbs tells them the username is Paragon and gives them the password along with it. Dang, Gibbs, being all techno savvy. Cue back to the plane as they all debark … and YM realizes they’ve been sitting on the runway in DC the entire time. Heh.
Our team arrives back in the Bull Pen of Orangey Goodness. Tony steps aside to take a call as the other two head on in and McGee hands Gibbs the email from Harrow to Goliath/YM. He’s wanting to sell YM a “villa” on an island in the Aegean, and the asking price is a cool twenty mil. YM wants it for the bargain basement price of fifteen. Only McGee doesn’t think it’s a villa he’s trying to unload. Ya think, McGee?
Screenshot of Assaf Cohen as Goliath and Michael Weatherly as Tony in the NCIS season four episode Blowback.
We shift to the Screen of All Knowing as McGee shows them the background on Harrow. Encryption specialist for the DoD until his retirement three years prior. His most notable project? Why, ARES, of course. Gibbs reads off the address on Harrow’s driver’s license, a photo of which is on the SoAK and McGee confirms the address is still good. Gibbs sends Tony and Ziva to go collect Mr. Harrow. Ziva notes that Tony isn’t in the bull pen yet, so Gibbs sends McGee in his place. Cut to Tony who is having phone foreplay with Dr. Benoit. Oh, Jeanne, how we miss ya. Okay, maybe just me. But it’s a story line that came back around at the end of last season before Tony’s exit, so it’s kind of bittersweet now all over again. Sigh. We see Gibbs come up behind him and all the feels turn to snickers. Oh, Tony. Tony turns, sees Gibbs, ends the call, realizes he can’t explain, so ducks back to the bull pen. For Gibbs’ part, he looks after his young protégé with something of a disconcerted expression.
We shift to McGee and Ziva as McGee struggles with the directions and Ziva reminds him she is a driver, not a navigator. McGee tells her he’s driven with her before and he’d rather be lost than dead. Ha! Ziva jaw-drop. A car is backing out as they arrive, so they follow. Ziva gives McGee some defensive-maneuver suggestions. He thinks they can just wait for the car to stop. Heh.
Back in the bull pen, Tony has finished entering the Goliath info into the system. Gibbs runs down a few other tasks he was assigned to do and Tony has them all under control. Tony gets a hit off of the names from Harrow’s e-mails he entered into their database. And it’s none other than Trent Kort. Another end-of-season-13 resurfacer, only not nearly so favorably. In this instance, we know a lot more about Kort than our team does as this is his very first appearance on the show. Tony says Kort is on the FBI arms dealer watch list from five days prior. When Kort’s photo pops up on the SoAK, Tony stalls a moment, has a little flashback of when he first saw Kort (as part of his undercover assignment launched on a prior episode to this one by Director Jenny Shepherd that has Tony embedded — and actually bedded — with Dr. Benoit to learn more about her arms-dealing daddy) prompting Gibbs to ask Tony if he recognizes the guy. Tony doesn’t miss a beat, says nope, makes a comment on the Hawaiian shirt Kort is wearing in the photo, and moves smoothly on to explaining that most recently, Kort is reputed to be working with Le Grenouille (aka Dr. Benoit’s arms-dealing daddy. Ruh roh. Case overlap. Awkward!) For his part, Gibbs is now past disconcerted and well into WTH is going on here. Fade to black and white.
Screenshot of Mark Harmon as Gibbs in the NCIS season four episode Blowback. NCIS airs on CBS on Tuesdays.
We return to Tony entering Director Jenny’s office only to find Jenny’s secretary fixing the back of Jenny’s bra with a safety pin. Whoops! Once they are alone, there’s some flirty-flirty, then Tony brings up their current case on the director’s computer. He explains about Harrow putting ARES up for bid and how Le G Daddy is one of the bidders. Then he shows her Kort’s photo and explains that now they know who he is, whereas apparently when Tony tried to hunt him down using his own photo of the guy just weeks prior, nothing popped on the guy. Director Jenny is happy with this new evolution on their case. Tony is not happy about having to lie to Gibbs. She says she’s got his ass covered, he says it’s not his ass he’s worried about. She asks if Gibbs put Harrow under surveillance, and he says nope, they just went out to pick the guy up. Alarmed, Jenny asks her secretary to get Gibbs, but he’s already walking in the office. And while he appears all smooth, we know he is none too happy.
Screenshot of Mark Harmon as Gibbs and Lauren Holly as Jenny in the NCIS season four episode Blowback.
Jenny orders him to call off McGee and Ziva from getting Harrow, and as Mommy and Daddy start to fight, Tony eases right out of the office and leaves them to it. Gibbs calmly explains why they are picking him up and Jenny loses her cool and tells him it’s an order. He merely smiles … aaand we shift to McGee and Ziva on the hunt for Harrow. They have apparently followed the guy to a … nail salon? They are watching from the car with Ziva disparaging a man getting a manicure and McGee saying there’s nothing wrong with that. This makes Ziva hoot in laughter as McGee explains he has sensitive cuticles. Of course you do, Tim. Harrow is exiting the nail salon and they get out of the car, intent on picking him up. McGee gets a call from Gibbs just as Ziva is making contact with Harrow before he gets in his car. McGee interrupts and playacts as if they were asking for directions. Ziva picks up the cue, and they leave Harrow to get in his car as they walk off a different direction with Ziva wanting to know what the heck that was all about. The new plan is follow but do not approach.
Screenshot of Sean Murray as MGee and Cote de Pablo as Ziva in the NCIS season four episode Blowback.
Back in HQ, Gibbs is telling Jenny she hasn’t been honest with him and she retorts that when Gibbs briefly retired not that long back (she calls it his “margarita safari” HA!) that the agency kept operating in his absence, and maybe he doesn’t know every last thing, but then, she couldn’t know he was going to un-retire himself. Gibbs says he can’t have Tony working separately for her and he should have known. She tells him he only has himself to blame for teaching her his rules. “Best way to keep a secret? Keep it to yourself. Second best, tell one other person.” And how there isn’t a third best option. Rule No. 4. She’s got ya there, Jethro. He quickly follows her down the stairs to the bull pen, exclaiming that Rule Number One supersedes all the others: never screw over your partner. She turns and neatly pins Gibbs to the window, getting in his face and making it clear she never screwed him over and that she’s no longer his partner, she’s his boss. A lot of Jenny Shepard sexual energy going on in this episode.
Screenshot of Lauren Holly as Jenny and Mark Harmon as Gibbs in the NCIS season four episode Blowback.
She walks away to the bull pen and Gibbs heads to the elevator, only Tony calls him back and tells both Gibbs and Shepard that McGee has info on another possible bidder. This one is a woman, code name Black Rose. MI-5 has been tracking her around the globe. Her most recent whereabouts reputed to be in Brazil using the name Grace O’Malley. This makes Jenny laugh and she reveals Gracie O was the name of a 16th-century pirate. Nice. Her bid for ARES beats the Goliath bid by a few mil. She’s offering 18 to his 15. Gibbs exits and Tony asks Jenny if she thinks Gibbs will forgive them for not keeping him in the undercover loop. She merely asks Tony to send her a hard copy of his findings and leaves, and he’s all, “Yep, that’s what I think, too.”
Tony trails Gibbs to the men’s room and apologizes, says he’s been employing all the things Gibbs taught him on this job and hated lying to him. Gibbs lets him off the hook, saying he was following orders and he’d have done the same thing. Tony says, “You would have lied to Mike Franks?” (Gibbs’ NCIS mentor), and that doesn’t go over all that well. Gibbs exits and we move back to Ziva and McGee still trailing Harrow. They follow him down the street when two guys get in Ziva’s way, forcing her to use force to get them to leave her alone. Harrow spots this and takes off running. And the chase is on. Very unfortunately for all concerned, the chase puts Harrow down with a heart attack. Director Jenny isn’t happy but the team explains they had no other choice, including Gibbs who glibly says they could have just shot him. Same result. Enter Ducky, who reads the exceedingly thick tension emanating from D.J. and turns to leave, but ends up explaining cause of death was a cardiac infarction. He’s being all amusing in his ducky way, but DJ is having none of it and stalks off.
Screenshot of David McCallum as Ducky in the NCIS season four episode Blowback.
Shift to Tony and Ziva on the road with Z behind the wheel while Tony briefs her on what ARES looks like. It’s a big machine, but they are looking for only a small part of it. More spirited badinage about size not mattering and the difference between pirated and pirate (one being stealing and the other being Johnny Depp) and we’re there, entering Harrow’s house. The house is full of electronics, prompting Ziva to say it will be like looking for a needle in a needle stack. Heh.
Screenshot of Lauren Holly as Jenny and Mark Harmon as Gibbs in the NCIS season four episode Blowback.
Back at HQ, Gibbs brings apology coffee to DJ in MTAC as they review info on the Black Rose (who DJ says she’d like if she didn’t happen to be an arms dealer) and Le Grenouille (who she very clearly doesn’t like at all). Gibbs tells DJ that Le G’s code name means The Frog and even ribbits like one, but DJ doesn’t crack. He tells her she was a little out of control earlier that day and wants to know why, what is really going on? Gibbs says she doesn’t want ARES so much as she wants Le G and she admits she’s been tracking him for a decade and yes, she would very much like to nail him. Gibbs wants to know what Le G did to her to make her so angry. She reverts to protocol, saying he has no need to know and refers to him as Special Agent Gibbs. On that, he exits while she looks daggers at the larger-than-life photo of Le G on the MTAC screen. (Hello, Armand Assante!)
Down in Abby Lab she is gleefully unpacking all the electronic goodies confiscated from Harrow House. They find the software chips in resealed condoms (::gag::) then discover that what looks like a very old school computer has actually been reconfigured as a very modern laptop. They turn it on only to find the same screensaver as Goliath/YM. McGee thinks the rest of ARES has been hardwired into the motherboard of that computer. Bingo! Back in the bull pen we revisit Gibbs complete unfamiliarity with terms like PS3, Commodore 64, and Atari, but he manages to boil McGee’s explanation down to the software wouldn’t work without the hardware.
Screenshot of Sean Murray as McGee and Pauley Perrette as Abby in the NCIS season four episode Blowback.
DJ stalks in, still all agitated and tense. There are no other bidders for ARES. At the moment that leaves Le G in the lead. They track down an email Harrow sent to Le G when he was at the coffee shop earlier explaining the details on sale. The coordinates of the exchange show it’s in Quebec. They have five hours to make that meeting. The only problem is Le G expects to meet Harrow and we all know that can’t happen. Fade to black and white.
We return to the gang discussing various ways to snag Le G, but the bottom line is, until he buys ARES, they don’t have anything on him. So since he hasn’t met Harrow, all they need, DJ says, “is a 68-year-old Englishman.” Um … we happen to have one of those! Oh, Ducky! And we skip right to seeing them prep Ducky for his meeting as they make him up to look like Harrow. It’s a lot of techno gobbled-gook that goes right over his head, and all he’s concerned about is whether they are pronouncing Harrow correctly. DJ calls in a favor and they get a private jet to Quebec. They send McGee along as the techno guy in case anyone asks any questions.
Screenshot of Cote de Pablo as Ziva, David McCallum as Ducky and Sean Murray as McGee in the NCIS season four episode Blowback.
We shift to the tarmac in Quebec, late that night, where Le G’s plane is sitting, as they await the meeting. DJ, Gibbs and company are inside a surveillance vehicle, while Tony and Ziva play sniper on top of a nearby building. We see Kort manning the door to the plane through one of their scopes, but then we’re back with DJ and Gibbs as she brings Ducky on line. He has an ear bud in which allows McGee to feed him any techno info he might need during his meet with Le G. A clearly nervous Ducky is instructed to make the exchange and get out. With a tally-ho, he drives through the gate, makes it past Le G’s security guy and greets Kort at the plane.
David Dayan Fisher as Kort in the NCIS season four episode Blowback.
Kort seems surprised to see him and they think maybe their charade has been blown. Kort asks if he has ARES, and Ducky retorts, “Do you have the 20 million?” Gibbs smiles, says he’s a natural. A woman steps out and Ducky gives her the ARES laptop. She seems surprised by the seeming outdated equipment, but Ducky tells her not to be fooled by its shell. McGee feeds the log-on info to Ducky, who gives it to the woman, and she disappears inside with the machine. Ducky asks if they are going to invite him in out of the cold, calling Kort Le G. Kort corrects his assumption, then takes out his phone, takes a photo of Ducky, then waves the phone in an arc. And out from the shadows on the tarmac, Le G appears, prompting DJ to say, “Finally.”
Screenshot of Armand Assante as Le Grenouille in the NCIS season four episode Blowback.
Le G apologizes for the dramatic entrance, then the two swap a few bon mots in French before McGee prompts Ducky to switch to English. They get in Ducky’s car to get out of the cold. When Ducky calls him Le Grenouille, Le G explains his nom de guerre is for rivals and enemies, two categories he would not put Ducky aka Harrow into. He extends his hand, asks to be called Rene. In response, Ducky offers his real name. Le G chuckles at the unusual nickname while the folks in the surveillance van audibly gulp. Ducky plays it off as an unfortunate nickname earned during the Blitz and they climb in, while Kort is on his phone urging whoever to run Ducky’s photo. Le G’s security guy boards the plane as Kort still anxiously scans the tarmac. He asks if the security guy saw anything but is reassured that Canadians are in bed by nine. Nothing to see here. You know, except those long-range scopes that have you in their cross hairs.
Screenshot of Cote de Pablo as Ziva in the NCIS season four episode Blowback.
Inside the car, Le G’s security guy delivers his favorite evening aperitif, some cognac, which he invites Ducky to enjoy. Back in the van Gibbs comments that Le G is more careful than Gotti, which, DJ rejoins, is why he’s never been caught. Le G pours the cognac, warms the crystal glass with his lighter, and talks about his children, after ascertaining that Ducky aka Harrow has none. Le G says everything he does now is for them. They toast with 200-year-old cognac as DJ watches Le G through the Ducky cam with venom in her eyes.
The woman comes out and asks Kort if there is a problem. He says no and asks if the system is worth 20 mil in diamonds. She tells Kort they can get 100 million for the system from the Iranians. He is pleased, and tells her to instruct the pilot they will be wheels up in five minutes. Then he heads to the car with the diamonds.
Screenshot of David McCallum as Ducky and Armand Assante as Le Grenouille in the NCIS season four episode Blowback.
Inside the van, they hear the jet’s engines start up. He hands Ducky the cognac and the case, tells him it’s been a pleasure, they shake and Le G gets out of the car. All the time he’s in Ziva’s cross hairs. Ducky asks if he’s forgotten something and he tells him he can keep the cognac. Ducky is flustered by the extravagant gift, says he doesn’t know what to say. Every person inside the van says, “Give me the diamonds!” Ha! He climbs out of the car, apologizes for being crass, but asks if he might have his diamonds now, please. Ziva, meanwhile, is asking for instructions, and Gibbs is reminding DJ that this was supposed to be a snatch and wonders now if DJ had something else in mind. Namely, letting Ziva do her thing. Then the phone rings inside the van as DJ stares at Le G and Ducky continuing their conversation on the tarmac. DJ takes the call as Tony and Ziva tell her that they have a five-second window and need instructions. At the last second, DJ tells them to stand down, and Le G enters the plane unscathed.
Kort comes over, leans in the car with the diamonds, asks Ducky if he “got the damn call.” Ducky doesn’t understand, so Kort leans in, plucks Ducky’s earpiece out, and repeats himself. DJ tells Kort yes, she got the damn call. Ooooh boy, so Kort is in on the deal. (Well, of course he is, but still! So slimy, that Kort.) Kort hands Ducky the diamonds, calls him Dr. Mallard, then walks back up the steps into the plane. Moments later, the plane is in the air, while everyone else in the van is staring at DJ, feeling played. Because they were. Or almost were.
The gang near the end of NCIS season four episode Blowback.
Ducky reunites with the troops and is told that Kort is CIA, as was Harrow. It was a sting op and they stumbled right into it. End result, they were the ones who got stung.
Back in HQ DJ spreads the diamonds across her desktop. Enter Gibbs, who tells her that Ducky fixed Harrow’s time of death showing he will drop dead of a heart attack the following day. DJ explains to Gibbs that Harrow put a Trojan horse inside the ARES unit, so if the Iranians try to use it, it will automatically target their own defense systems. So, they have that going for them. Gibbs says he didn’t need to know that.
Screenshot of Lauren Holly as Jenny and Mark Harmon as Gibbs in the NCIS season four episode Blowback.
DJ says apparently she didn’t need to know, either, but was trusted to run the op as planned. She vows to get Le G another time. Gibbs turns to leave, asks her if she’s sure she wants to get him. Surprised, she says of course she does. Goodness knows she’s been cutting glass with her teeth the entire episode. Gibbs tells her that some people need to have someone to hate. She says that’s not her. Gibbs said then she should have let Ziva take the shot, and walks out. Fade to black and white.
There is so much more to this story, before and after, but this was a pivotal episode in that grand chase. And we got Ducky undercover! Good drama, good banter and good personal storylines being moved forward. What did you think?
Well, you can drop me a line to donna@donnakauffman.com and let me know, or chat about the upcoming season with all those new faces (where will everyone sit?) and, while you’re at it, you can enter this week’s giveaway! Simply put “Signed copy of Starfish Moon? Count me in!” in the subject line, and you’re in. Winner announced in my final classic NCIS summer recap, on Sept. 14. Speaking of winners, Kitty Hadley is the winner of last week’s giveaway and wins a signed copy of Starfish Moon and a Blueberry Cove tote bag because she’s fancy schmancy like that. Kitty, drop me a line to donna@donnakauffman.com with an address and your prizes will go out in the mail to you!
Only a few more weeks and we’re off to the races!! I, for one, am very much looking forward to the new season. More on that in my next recap! What is the final classic ep, you ask? We’ll be traipsing down memory lane back to season six and the episode Bounce. I thought it would be nice to let Tony have the final spotlight this summer as he and Gibbs change places when Tony has to reopen one of his old investigations. You can catch the episode at 1 p.m. ET Thursday on Cloo. I hope you’ll join me!
In the meantime, drop by my Facebook page to keep up on all the latest NCIS news and for the occasional additional chances to win free stuff!
Donna Kauffman is the USA TODAY bestselling author of over 50 titles. Born in Washington, D.C., she now lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southern Virginia surrounded by wildlife that thankfully no longer has anything to do with the kind going on in our nation’s capital. You can check all that out for yourself and more at www.donnakauffman.com. Also? She loves to hear from her readers (and NCIS viewers!) Yes, even you.