A boy scout troop is practicing their archery skills when one of the boys overshoots the target. He is teased that he will never get his archery badge this way and is sent to recover his arrow. Tommy struggles down the bank to the river and looks around for his arrow. He sees a human hand dangling and then his arrow, in the corpse.
JAG Opening credits roll.
Tony is driving the truck carrying Gibbs and Viv Blackadder to the crime scene. Tony tells an anecdote about his days on the Baltimore PD homicide squad about a rookie who freaks when a corpse moans. The rookie empties his entire gun into the body. Gibbs doesn't disbelieve the story, he believes the rookie was Tony. They arrive at the crime scene and Tony is assigned to search the area, 100-meter perimeter. Viv is to interview the scout leader and Gibbs will take the boy. Viv thinks Gibbs will only further traumatize the boy and
we get our first taste at the Gibbs look. Ducky is all ready on site with the body.
The scout master is a bit hysterical. Seems the corpse has no face. He threw up at the crime scene just before he called the police. Viv suggests the scout master suck it up, for the boys.
Gibbs talks to the boy, assuring him that he knows he didn't kill her. Gibbs helps Tommy with his fear about dreaming about her. Gibbs gives Tommy his card as well as his NCIS ball cap and tells Tommy to give him a call. "If I have a nightmare?" Tommy asks. Gibbs assures him they've taken care of that and tells him to call for a tour, Tommy can bring along some friends. As Gibbs walks away, the rest of the scout troop rushes in to see the ball cap.
As Gibbs and Viv walk to the crime scene, Gibbs pulls another ball cap out of his pack. Viv reports on the scout leader and wants to know if Gibbs got something else from the boy. "Well, he didn't barf" says Gibbs. They approach the crime scene which is taped off. Ducky is standing inside of the tape, with his back to them, looking at the corpse. The corpse is "one deceased, pregnant Navy lieutenant who appears to have been tossed into a tree." He remarks on Viv's perfume and asks her to dinner after the autopsy. "I never date men old enough to be my father, Ducky" she replies. Ducky just chuckles. Agent Blackadder reminds him of a young women he autopsied. "When did she die" Gibbs asks. Oh, a long time ago. That was in Hollywood, at least 20 years ago, an assistant film editor and the film editor's wife caught them in flagrante delicato. "This one, Ducky." All Ducky will agree to is that it's been a while. He will not speculate until he does the autopsy. Gibbs pushes him so Ducky guesses 2 to 3 weeks. As to cause of death, Ducky just laughs and says it wasn't the arrow.
Viv is using a portable laser to diagram the crime scene. She catches up with Tony and they discuss the ground and the possibility of finding tracks. Viv calls Tony a concrete cop and finds tracks on the ground. Tony identifies them as deer tracks but has no idea how old they are and calls Viv Pocahontas. This upsets Viv because her brother, who taught her to track, used to call her that. Tony would prefer Viv didn't think of him as brotherly. Viv could never do that because Rex was much better looking than Tony. Tony starts teasing her about taking lessons from Gibbs than realizes just how upset Viv is. Rex was killed in the suicide bombing on the USS Cole. His death is why Viv left the FBI and came to NCIS.
Gibbs and Ducky are still processing the body. Gibbs is taking photographs and wants to know how pregnant she was. Ducky estimates 4 or 5 months. Ducky moves her hair so that Gibbs can photograph it and there isn't much left. Ducky explains that the crows got at her. The crows should also have gotten at her hands and feet but they didn't. Ducky doesn't know why and it is bothering him. Gibbs climbs up into the tree to get shots looking straight down at the body. Gibbs looks out at the river and as he does so the perspective shifts and we see the river from the corpse's POV as she drowns in it and then is washed ashore into the tree. Gibbs has figured this out by the water line marks on the trees. She was put in the tree by the flooding river as it thawed.
They're done with the body, Ducky can move it. As Ducky calls for a burrito wrap, Tony moves her sleeve and discovers she was a JAG officer. Ducky wonders if anyone ever worked with her, hoping for an ID. She is about a bit messy, but how many blonde, female JAG lieutenants can there be?
Admiral Chegwidden is speaking to his staff, telling them of the discovery of an unidentified JAG officer in Potomac Park. He reports that she was 4 or 5 months pregnant. Lt. Sims hopes that it is not Lt. Singer. Harm says it cannot be Lt. Singer because she is due in 2 weeks. The admiral asks if Harm has been in contact with her; Harm hesitates and says no. Mac agrees that it cannot be her because the ME would not miss the estimate by 4 months even if, as the admiral notes, the body was badly decomposed. A knock on the door brings the report that Lt. Singer is answering none of her numbers in San Diego. The admiral is not writing off Lt. Singer, but he certainly would know if one of his 750 JAG officers was missing for three weeks. NCIS will use DNA evidence to identify the body and they will know for sure. Harm excuses himself from the room. The admiral asks the rest of the room if there is something going on there that he should know about. He is met with silence.
In the NCIS squad room, Gibbs is detailing Dobbs to take a detail and do a full search of the crime scene area. Gibbs is looking for the purse. Dobbs says there aren't enough men available for that so Gibbs recommends contacting Quantico and requesting some Marines for a field exercise. Tony hangs up with the admiral and reports on the status of Lt. Singer. Viv is certain there is no way that body was full-term. Tony remarks some women hide it well. Not that well, Viv assures him. The NCIS director walks by and requests Gibbs and his team to follow him to MTAC. There they witness the identification and capture of a known terrorist, Amad Bin Atwa.
Tony tapes across the picture of Amad Bin Atwa on the NCIS Most Wanted wall. Viv knows all about him; he supplied money and explosives to Hussan Mohammed who executed the attack on the Cole. If Bin Atwa leads to Mohammed, Viv wants in on the takedown. Gibbs tells her that's not their job. She needs to get back on this murder case or Gibbs will send her packing back to the FBI. Gibbs gets right in her face to ensure she understands him. Tony remarks that all Marines think they're DIs.
Back at the river, the Marines are being given their search orders. They're looking for a Navy purse, but if they find anything, NCIS wants it no matter what.
Tony and Viv are trying to decide how the body could be full-term but not look it. Viv speculates that she gave birth early and it was too much for her and she committed suicide. Gibbs wonders about the baby. They need the fetus in utero so that they can match the DNA to the father. "You think that's cold" he asks? "Very" Viv answers. "Good" says Gibbs, "it means I'm focused." Viv doesn't want to be that focused.
Ducky is taking pictures of the body in autopsy. We see Ducky from the corpse's perspective as he talks to her, saying that apart from her face she cleaned up pretty good. Viv is applying vap-o-rub, but Gibbs warns her all that will do is make it smell like a dead body with a chest cold. You see the entire team looking down at the corpse from the corpse's point of view. The only missing JAG officer is nearly full-term so Ducky assures them she is not their guest. Tony asks if she could have all ready delivered. No. Ducky continues to take pictures and brushes past Viv, asking her if she's having a good day. "Oh, just ducky" she responds. Ducky chuckles.
The DNA results will be back shortly. Gibbs wants the fetus' DNA to find the father. When Ducky hears that the deceased was single, he chides her "Shame on you." Again, we see Ducky from the corpses' perspective. Viv starts arguing with Gibbs and Tony about whether or not they can use the DNA database to identify the father. The law says no but Gibbs says he doesn't intend to use that evidence in court. Viv says it is still illegal regardless of the justification. Ducky chides them to stop fighting as they are all on the same side and takes them over to show them the evidence from the body. A water soaked cocktail napkin and an airplane ticket in the same condition. The ticket looks like it was to San Diego so Gibbs wants a full investigation there. Plus there was a metallic fragment embedded in her scalp. Ducky speculates that she was hit on the head with a blunt metal object and then dumped above the falls. The other fractures were most likely sustained in her trip over the falls without a barrel. Tony is to check out all the bridges above the falls by himself. Viv is going with Gibbs back to JAG.
Ducky invites Viv to stay with him and see how their guest is hiding a full term fetus. He puts on a protective face shield, hands one to Viv, and picks up a scalpel. Viv looks extremely uncomfortable but right then the fax machine goes off. "Ah, saved by the bell" Ducky chuckles. It is the DNA report. The corpse is officially Loren Singer.
Admiral Chegwidden is giving the same news to his staff with Gibbs and Viv in attendance. NCIS will be investigating the case. Harm is not happy about that, he wants to run his own investigation but the admiral says no. Harm says she was murdered and Gibbs wonders why he suspects that. Because NCIS wouldn't be here otherwise. Mac asks why Singer was in DC when she was supposed to be in San Diego. Gibbs wants to know that as well. Harm says no one has spoken to here since she left. Gibbs wonders why he is doing the talking for everyone in the room. The admiral tells them that Gibbs and Viv will be interviewing them separately and Gibbs reminds them not to discuss things amongst themselves and other legal items. Harm interrupts to say that they know the law. Gibbs wants to start the interviews with Harm, but the admiral prefers they start with him. Gibbs is amenable to that and the admiral and Harm leave together. Gibbs sits back and relaxes as everyone leaves the room. Viv wonders why Gibbs is allowing the admiral to run the investigation. Because they're going to let the admiral do some of their work for them.
In the admiral's office, the admiral is busy chewing out Harm. Harm dances around the admiral's questions and suddenly the admiral realizes how Gibbs has set them up. Because this is an interrogation, the admiral is required to repeat anything Harm says to him. Harm can't believe Gibbs is that devious, but the admiral says Gibbs reminds him of Harm.
Tony is out on the bridges over the Potomac painstakingly spraying luminol and checking for blood.
Gibbs is interviewing the admiral who is giving him the background on Lt. Singer and how they managed to lose track of her. They discuss the timing of Lt. Singer's pregnancy and the various inquiries into it. The Sea Hawk did a formal investigation as did Mac, who was assigned by the admiral. Gibbs has a different file, the one of Harm's unofficial investigation into the same matter. Gibbs tries to unsettle the admiral who simply saves time and tells Gibbs exactly what Harm told him earlier. Commander Rabb did not murder Lt. Singer and has no idea who did.
Tony is still spraying along the bridges. He finds a small place where a metal fragment is missing and sprays down that support, finding a blood stain. Tony has found where Lt. Singer went into the water. Again, we see and hear things from Lt. Singer's perspective as she goes into the water and drowns.
Tony drives the team car into the evidence garage, checking in with Dobbs who conducted the search for the purse. No purse was found. Tony suggests that he buy a purse, soak it in mud, and then find it. They discuss whether or not Viv knows that Gibbs will be interrogating Bin Atwa and whether or not Gibbs will take Viv along when he goes. Tony hopes not, since he wants Viv to like him, not be grateful to Gibbs. Tony gets on the elevator and arrives in Abby's lab where we are introduced to Abby and her addiction to Caf-Pow.
Tony has brought her a gift, a blood sample from the bridge. Tony notices that Abby is changing the pictures on her walls, all blow-ups of photos of human parts that have interacted unfavorably with things like shotguns and ice picks. They flirt a bit.
Gibbs and Viv are interviewing Bud about the father of Singer's child. Gibbs' intimidation techniques work a little better on him than on the admiral. Bud gets flustered and speaks ill of the dead. They move on to Manetti who claims she is new and wouldn't know anything about Singer or her affairs. Manetti tells them that the bartender at Benzinger's said Singer was seeing a civilian. Now they're talking to Mac who is surprised to find out about Harm's unofficial investigation into the father of Singer's child, but she recovers quickly.
Gibbs and Viv leave JAG without questioning Harm. Viv is unhappy about that. Gibbs makes disparaging remarks about the FBI but Viv is having none of it. She wants to know why they didn't go after him. Gibbs doesn't want to start questioning Harm until they have all the pieces to the puzzle so they don't lose him. Harm is JAG's fair-haired boy and they need to have everything lined up before they go after him. Viv finally sees it Gibbs' way.
The next shot is of the sedan driving down a divided street going straight at the Capitol. This is the end shot in the opening credits of every season of NCIS.
Harm is using a pay phone to call Sergei to tell him the news about Lt. Singer. Sergei believed Singer when she said he wasn't the baby's father. Sergei wants to know why Harm is calling him about this now. He hasn't seen or spoken to Singer since that night. Harm tells Sergei that Singer was murdered. Harm fears that NCIS will think Sergei killed her when they find out he was in town when she was murdered and that he may be the father of the baby. Always the big brother, looking out for Sergei.
Abby has got a tentative match on the blood from the bridge, Lt. Singer. "Good job" says Gibbs. "Thanks" replies Tony. "I was talking to Abby" Gibbs informs him. Abby has managed to bring up the bar logo, Benzinger's, on the napkin Ducky found on the body. The stomach contents indicate that Singer's last meal was a bar mix, eaten about 2 hours before she died. The number on the napkin is a Moscow cell phone number. Gibbs knows because he was undercover there for 6 months. Gibbs wants the number traced fast. Viv says she'll go through the FBI. Gibbs must have had another method in mind because he says that he guesses that would work too.
Abby also got the name off of the ticket, they've got that, and the destination, they've got that too, and the departure date, January 6. It should be April 6, but it isn't. Tony says she got whacked, but not three months ago. Ducky strides into Abby's lab to say that three months is actually more accurate. Singer was in the Potomac at least that long. "What? Racking up frequent floater miles?" asks Abby. "Being an ice queen" Ducky responds. "She was frozen."
Viv pops her head back in to say she has a suspect. She tracked the Moscow cell phone number to Sergei. He was in the States when Singer got pregnant, left two days before she shipped out, and returned for 48 hours three weeks ago. Viv is pleased with herself, but the rest of the crew looks disappointed. They tell Viv that Singer was murdered three months ago, not three weeks ago. Gibbs wants to know if Harm and Sergei have spoken and Viv discovers that they are half-brothers.
Gibbs is briefing the director up in MTAC. They are watching Bin Atwa on the screen in chains as Gibbs informs the director that Harm is the prime suspect. Gibbs isn't 100 percent sure it is Harm, but he knows that Harm is deeply involved. Gibbs is going slow to make sure he gets it right. The director doesn't want him to go too slow since Hussan Mohammad is planning another Grey Hall attack. No one knows what ship, but Bin Atwa might have information that would lead them to that information. Gibbs needs to wrap up the JAG murder so that he can go and break Bin Atwa. Gibbs wants to leave now, but the director wants the JAG murder finished first. He's juggling priorities, but he feels that only Gibbs can handle the JAG murder and get it right.
The Marines are back out doing the land search for Singer's purse. Dobbs is promising a steak dinner to anyone who finds the purse.
Abby is dusting Singer's car for prints. Tony found it in the impound lot where it has been sitting for the past three months. Abby has found a man's prints on the glove box. It usually takes 12 hours to run prints, but if she does it in 2 Tony will take her to dinner at Cafe Atlantico.
Gibbs is in the squad room asking for reports. Viv has determined that although Singer rented a place in San Diego, she never arrived. There's been no bank activity since January 4. Tony reports that Abby has found a man's prints in the car. Viv needs to check with Ducky and make sure that those dates coincide with his autopsy. Gibbs takes off telling "lover boy" (Tony) to come along. They're going to Benzinger's for drinks. "They get drinks and I get Ducky" Viv complains.
Back at the river, the Marines are still searching.
Ducky is explaining to Viv how the corpse was frozen. As Ducky leans over the corpse, we see him from her POV. Ducky agrees that the date of death is probably between January 4 and 6. He has the fetus in a specimen jar of alcohol and Viv looks at it, concerned that Ducky used the DNA base to match Harm's DNA to the fetus. Ducky didn't have to, after all there wasn't always DNA. There wasn't always TV! Radio was much better because you had to use your imagination. The lecture starts to get rather impassioned, but Viv puts Ducky back on track. Ducky used Harm's blood type, perfectly legal, to rule him out.
Ducky again asks Viv out to dinner as he dumps a human organ into a hanging scale. Viv finds that disgusting, but Ducky assures her that "the pursuit of sex is an affirmation of life. That's why older men are so lascivious." Viv doesn't mean that, she means his disrespect for the dead. Ducky disagrees. "If you were dead wouldn't it be nice if you were spoken to, rather than about?" Viv doesn't feel that Singer's soul is in her corpse. Ducky again disagrees. He always feels a presence when he does an autopsy. As Ducky talks about the presence, the POV shifts again so that we are the corpse looking up at Ducky and Viv. Ducky saw himself in a block of ice with only his head exposed, thus explaining why the crows didn't eat her hands and feet. If it was Ducky's subconscious, shouldn't he have seen the victim in the block of ice? The corpse is watching Ducky explain this and asking Viv out to dinner yet again. As Singer watches, Viv says not tonight and Ducky exults that she didn't say no. The corpse's POV moves from straight up and watches Viv leave autopsy.
Gibbs and Tony are interviewing Coates. She was at Benzinger's the night Singer and Harm were there having a heated argument. Coates tells them she tries not to eavesdrop, but they know how loud the fight was. Coates admits she may have heard a few things.
Back at the river, the Marines are still searching. Finally they find something. A Navy Commander's cover. It's been there a while judging by the condition.
Gibbs has Harm in the interrogation room. Viv is watching from behind the one-way mirror. Gibbs and Harm jockey for position with neither giving the other any slack. Harm gets up and slams his open hand into the glass. Tony comes in to the observation room saying Dobbs has found a cover just like Harm's. Harm figures he can leave since he's not officially a suspect. Gibbs stops him by asking him how the admiral would feel if he didn't cooperate. Harm says he doesn't know who murdered Singer nor who fathered her child. Gibbs wants to know about Harm's investigation. Not the one into Singer's murder, but rather the one Harm had Manetti do on Singer's love life. Harm didn't know they knew about that. In the observation room, Viv is getting antsy. She texts Gibbs and tells him to read Harm his rights. Harm explains away his unauthorized investigation. Gibbs asks for a DNA sample for a paternity test. Harm refuses. Gibbs ignores Viv's text message. Harm says he hasn't seen Singer since early January, before she went to San Diego. Tony has been unconcerned about Harm's rights because he knows Gibbs is setting Harm up. And here it comes. Harm saw Singer the first week in January at Benzinger's? Again Harm is surprised at the extent of Gibbs' knowledge.
Abby walks in to the observation room with the news that Harm's fingerprints are the ones in Singer's car. Viv texts that to Gibbs as Harm tries to find out how Gibbs knew they were at Benzinger's.
There's a knock on the interrogation room door and coffee for two has arrived. Harm wants to know who is prompting Gibbs from behind the mirror. Gibbs turns his PDA around and displays Sergei's Moscow phone number, asking Harm if he recognizes it. Harm doesn't deny it but he dances around the truth. Gibbs says it is his brother's. Harm stands up and tells Gibbs that Sergei did not kill Singer. That Singer said Sergei was not the father and Sergei believed her. Harm isn't sure, but the important thing is Sergei believed her. Harm gave Singer Sergei's Moscow number. He wrote it on a napkin at Benzinger's. As Harm continues to explain, Gibbs stands up and reads him his rights. Harm is dumbfounded by this action. Tony and Viv come in to interrogation and Tony handcuffs Harm. Harm waives his rights so Gibbs stops talking but Viv picks up where he left off. "She used to be FBI" Gibbs explains.
"How long have you been doing this Gibbs?" "Nineteen years." "Can you tell if someone is guilty by looking in their eyes?" "Yeah, I can." "Well look in mine. Ask me." Gibbs looks deep in Harm's eyes. Harm repeats "Ask me." "Would you kill for your brother?"
That is not the question Harm expected. He has to look away from Gibbs.
TO BE CONTINUED… appears on the screen.
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