McGee and DiNozzo pay a visit to Dr. Fleming. In a second spasm of levity, Tony taunts McGee about having his eyes shut “like a little girl” when on the rooftop. Tony threatens to post his cellular phone video on the Internet and McGee struggles with Tony for the phone. McGee is lying on top of Tony on the waiting room sofa just as the doctor opens his inner office door. Fleming assumes that McGee and Dinozzo are a gay couple in need of counseling. McGee is embarrassed and Tony proceeds to live up to his fraternity boy image, hamming up the mistake and pretending to be McGee's gay lover. McGee introduces him and Dinozzo as NCIS special agents with Tony adding suggestively, "Very special agents." It is good to have DiNozzo back in full form.
The interrogation goes poorly. The shrink provides little information and demands a court order for any more revelations. Back at headquarters, Gibbs catches Abby mocking him and asks her if she is feeling secure about her job. Gibbs demands a report to which Abby provides that the ballistics was a wash but she did have Arnett’s cell phone, sporting a last call from inside the NCIS headquarters. The roux thickens.
The next scene opens in the Director’s office with the director welcoming NCIS intel analyst Nikki Jardine (Susan Kelechi Watson) who questions the Director about Gibbs’ abrupt and demanding manner, to which the Director responds, “Special Agent Gibbs is not known for his people skills."
Agent Jardine starts as Gibbs makes his presence known in the Director’s office, having heard all of the conversation. The Director has agent Jardine work for Gibbs. Jardine reveals that she had been liaising with Arnett because he believed there was a leak in his unit’s intelligence community and they were trying to identify the source. Beautifully, Jardine also reveals a germ phobia to the delight of the team as they witness her disinfection of her phone. Summoning the basest of humor, DiNozzo pretends to sneeze on her, sending her into OC orbit.
Theories regarding the case begin to mount. After discovering that the sailor’s family is wealthy, DiNozzo suspects a Black Widow scenario (1987 film starring Debra Winger and Theresa Russell, one of DiNozzo’s many allusions to movies). The wife stands to gain much from her husband’s death. Ziva disagrees. Seeing an advantage of pitting team members against one another with respect to theories, Gibbs allows the team to work more independently when he notes that he hears a lot of talk and theories with no evidence. The director chides Gibbs for breaking his own rule 15 "Always work as a team" but a rather despondent Gibbs says he isn’t enforcing that rule this time. Gibbs holds himself responsible for the sailor’s death. The Director attempts to comfort the recalcitrant Gibbs, telling him that sailor was dead when he walked on that ledge. Gibbs asks if that is what he should tell the sailor's 17-year-old sister.
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