Parsons confronts Morrow (about the sidelined investigation), and the latter rebuffs him; moments later a bomb explodes at the site of a formal dinner, thereby killing the SecNav and injuring Morrow and others. Gibbs strides into the office, meets with Vance and McBride's CO, and volunteers for a highly sensitive special operation; Gibbs goes to Iran; Tony makes plans to go to Tel Aviv. Soon Gibbs gets into a gunfight in Tehran and runs into Parsons, who makes a semi-apology; Gibbs and Parsons investigate. Ducky and Palmer deal with an intruder. Before Tony leaves, someone shoots up his pad; Tony chats with Vance; Tony calls McGee, whom Fornell intercepts and takes to a meeting at Tony's place; Vance visits Morrow, who says that Ziva is the next target. Gibbs and Fornell find out who changed McBride's orders; they do business in Arizona; Tony talks with Adam, who tells him about Ziva and her activity. [To be continued.] Written by DocRushing

When Tony arrives in Tel Aviv, Mossad agents take him to their headquarters to draw him into the search for Ziva. Meanwhile the successor SecNav meets with Vance, Gibbs, and Fornell; she tells them that the PotUS has directed her to use any means necessary to bring to swift justice the Brotherhood of Doubt for its responsibility for the terrorist attack on her predecessor and others. Tony searches in Israel and elsewhere; after five months he finds Ziva, but she expresses displeasure; they converse at length. Fornell, providing protection to a government witness, accompanies him to a hospital, and they meet fireworks. At night a man jumps Gibbs in a dark alley; Gibbs wins and gets information. McGeek makes a huge discovery, and he tells Gibbs, who figures out the whole thing; with some difficulty Gibbs draws things together and takes a shot, eliminating one major player but leaving others. Tony returns home alone with a memory aid; Ziva calls Gibbs. Written by DocRushing

A bomb explodes in the apartment of a Navy lieutenant (junior grade), Keith, while he's not at home; the building manager dies; Gibbs and company investigate. Keith washed out of flight training and now serves at the Pentagon. Gibbs talks with Keith's CO; Abby says that Keith built the bomb. McGoo has a problem, but Vance takes care of it in two different ways. Vera, a retiring agent and an interesting person, works her last two weeks with the Gibbs gang. Tony and Vera check out the source of the explosive, who refers them to a local contractor, who reacts in a squirrelly way, but who reveals an important fact. Abby identifies a plastic blob; Tony and McGee elaborate; Tony traces Keith to an airport. Everyone shifts into overdrive to find Keith; McGeek proposes a technique, and Abby helps to implement it; soon the team and others track Keith in a rented private light aircraft. Gibbs speaks with Keith, who changes his plan and ends his flight. Written by DocRushing

Gibbs and company, including Susan, the agent from the polygraph room, investigate the death of a woman with an ID card showing her as a sergeant in the US Marine Corps; however, McGee quickly finds that the real sergeant died in Afghanistan almost three years ago. The Duck comments on the disfiguring of the face by an acid. Abby says that the victim's necklace appears to have come from Afghanistan; Gibbs and Tony learn that the impostor was an Afghan, and that Mike Franks and his daughter-in-law had a connection with her; Abby gets a lead on the killer. Gibbs experiences heavy-duty flashbacks, and he gains insight into the motive. Susan questions the suspect in the chat room. Acting on a lead, Gibbs and McGee investigate in Kabul; at a women's shelter Gibbs calls the bluff of five bullies until the cavalry arrives (with help from Tony). Gibbs returns to Andrews AFB, Maryland, with eight new friends. Mademoiselle Tavier tells Gibbs that Mike would feel proud of him. Written by DocRushing

A Navy petty officer (cryptologic technician first-class) dies of a single gunshot to the back in a park in Baltimore, Maryland; Gibbs and company investigate; at the scene both a clue and a man attract Tony's attention; Delilah joins the gang for this case. Abby shows Gibbs the victim's notebook computer and tells him about it; she also links Tony's clue (purple chewing gum) to the man whom Tony saw at the scene; Tony links that man, Anton, to one of his cases at the Baltimore PD, and he finds him again but loses him again. Gibbs and McGeek meet a headhunter, who provides missing answers, and who invites McNerd to call her. Tony goes to Anton's sister's pad, where he runs into Gibbs and McGee, and where the three of them find merchandise but no sister (because she has disappeared); later they find Anton elsewhere. Gibbs and Tony put the pieces together, find the bad guy and arrest him, and find the sister and return her to Anton. Tony finally gets some sleep. Written by DocRushing

An explosion and a fire damage an offshore drilling platform near the Virginia Capes, killing one (a major in the US Marine Corps Reserve) and injuring many others; Gibbs and company, along with Abby of the CGIS, investigate. The CEO and the chief legal counsel of the oil company assure the SecNav and Gibbs of their utmost cooperation. Tony and McGeek trace one lead, which appears to reach a dead end, but which leaves egg on McGoo's face; Gibbs and the other Abby suspect that the target was not the platform but rather the dead victim. Tony and McGee plus Gibbs and Borin revisit the dead end, where they make a major discovery; Abby puts things together in her shop; Borin questions the corporate lawyer in Gibbs's chat room and brings the investigation to a close. Meanwhile Halloween pranks abound, eventually tripping even Tony. Written by DocRushing

A Marine sergeant, Dawson, dies of gunfire during an alleged armed robbery of a men's clothing store in Washington, DC; Gibbs and company investigate; while at the scene Gibbs receives a call from a local cop nearby in Howard County, Maryland, near Baltimore, saying that his father, Jackson, has become involved in an incident; Jackson wants Leroy to go with him to see a fellow WW2 pilot in North Carolina, so they go. The rest of the team step up to the plate; Gibbs tells McGee to take the point; Tony and McGee compete and compromise; while Tony talks with Dawson's mother, she says something unusual, then he turns up a pattern; he and McGee pursue it. Abby learns more about Dawson; McGee identifies a person of interest, who gives a touching account; then Tony and McGee check out a second suspect, find incriminating evidence, and bust the killer. Abby traces Jackson's friend, then Leroy and Jackson go to him, and Jack introduces the other two to each other. Written by DocRushing

At night at the Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia, a hit-and-run driver strikes and kills a running woman Navy petty officer third-class; Gibbs and company investigate; Abby identifies the nature of the vehicle, Tony and McGee narrow the search to one pickup truck, and they find the owner, who stops talking, hires a mouthpiece, and in confidence tells her an incredible alibi. Abby confirms that someone else drove the truck; the lawyer checks out the alibi and assures Gibbs that it's solid, but she properly declines to reveal the story; however, she drops a bread crumb, which Tony and McGee trace. Abby finds a thumbprint attached to a name, which leads the gang to a second Marine at Quantico. Tony and McGee develop a hypothesis about a three-way murder club; the weak link flips on his co-conspirators, so he gets the deal. Gibbs and the lawyer share a dinner and a pleasant conversation. Written by DocRushing

At the end of a classified presentation by the SecNav, a security system detects a bug, which proves to be inside a pen on the person of the SecNav, who tells Gibbs that she attended three classified briefings yesterday. Tony contacts the National Security Agency (NSA), where he finds a two-year-old paper describing the possibility of a breach such as the one which just occurred; Gibbs and Tony meet NSA analyst Ellie Bishop, who wrote the playbook. The SecNav receives a demand for money to prevent a leak of classified information; Ellie proposes a plan, and the SecNav approves it. Ellie identifies a suspect, Stalin, and Abby elaborates; Ellie's boss at NSA dies of gunfire; Gibbs, Tony, and Ellie catch Stalin, who provides a name and an address of another suspect; the gang find him and some evidence, Ellie puts the pieces together, then Gibbs and others nail the man responsible. Gibbs tells Ellie that he wants to keep her around on a joint duty assignment. Written by DocRushing

A clown kills a Marine corporal with two rounds to his chest in Washington, DC; Gibbs and company investigate; McGee finds calls to the victim's second cellphone, and he traces them to a hotel; when Gibbs and Tony enter the room from which the calls originated, they find Fornell and Diane, the mutual ex-wife of Gibbs and Fornell; Diane says that she called Eddie, her recent boyfriend. At Gibbs's pad he finds Emily, the 13-year-old daughter of Fornell and Diane. In Eddie's car McGee and Abby find a clown's nose and minute traces of blood; the gang eventually find Eddie, who says that he's someone else, and that he knows the clown. Eddie and Fornell receive a call from the bad guy in charge, who offers a deal; Ellie makes a swap; Emily rejoins Fornell and Diane and draws them together, then she, saying that her name too is Fornell, arranges for the gang to bust the main bad guy. Fornell and Diane give Gibbs a bottle of booze and make a request of him. Written by DocRushing

Within 30 miles of Washington, DC, eight kids in Navy and Marine Corps families have suddenly become badly ill, requiring treatment in ERs and ICUs; Gibbs and company investigate; Carol, of the Naval Medical-research Center, joins the effort; immediately the number of sick kids grows to 14, then 19, 23, 28, and 34, and none of them responds to treatment. Duckie announces the first fatality, who was a veteran of Vietnam, then he describes the cause of death and the treatability in the kids. Abby says that she has misidentified the particular nature of the illness, so she, Jimmy, and Carol keep working, and they eventually nail it. Abby gives Jimmy a lecture about kindness, optimism, and parenthood. Then the gang identify an international traveler who in many places has recently encountered many kids and the fatality. Meanwhile Vance has three tense chats with his estranged father-in-law and then a nicer one. Written by DocRushing

A Navy petty officer first-class dies of a single shot in Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC; Gibbs and company investigate; Gibbs says that the weapon is 7 m.m. and maybe a high-powered sniper rifle; witnesses describe a strange event. Hollis Mann, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a lady from Gibbs's background, reappears; for the DoD she has investigated a contractor connected to the current case; she names one suspect (Erin, a woman software engineer); while on a stakeout for a second suspect, Gibbs and Mann find, rescue, and interview Erin, then arrest her. An explosion damages a hotel, routs a gala award-presentation dinner, kills six people, and injures 22, including Delilah, McGee's girlfriend, who undergoes surgery to repair her injuries from shrapnel. Tony and Ellie provide the location of the bad guys to Gibbs and Mann, who pursue; they zap two underlings, but the ringleader slips away. [To be continued.] Written by DocRushing

While McGee stays with Delilah in a hospital, Gibbs, Tony, and Ellie find and recover a bullet, which bears the DNA of the wheelman, whom Gibbs clipped during the escape; Abby identifies him, and she and Tony gather data about him, which Gibbs and Duck review. Gibbs, Tony, and Ellie see the escape SUV, which bears a message; Abby finds a modification to it. McGee gets approval to return to work, but Dr. Cranston learns that McGee has avoided an unpleasant new truth, so she talks with him. CIA and NSA help with the search for the terrorist; McGee finds an address for the wheelman, then Gibbs and Tony, with backup by FBI and DoHS, grab the wheelman and take him to the chat room, where Gibbs gets some information; apparently Parsa, the head bad guy in charge, escapes again. Delilah survives her injuries and complications, including paralysis; Gibbs and McGee sit together awhile outside Delilah's room. Written by DocRushing

Ellie's boss, Marlens, at the NSA, hassles her about her communication with him about her current work on Parsa at the NCIS, and Gibbs hassles her about her previous work on Parsa at the NSA. Ellie describes to Gibbs her new insight into Parsa; her gut says that he's in his home district, in NW Pakistan. The Gibbs team investigate a body, wearing the clothing of Parsa's bodyguard, found at the ocean terminal in Portsmouth, Virginia; Duck and Abby say that the body is that of a security guard at the port; Tony and McGee elaborate on him. At the Norfolk airport Gibbs, Tony, and McGoo intercept Khalil, the live bodyguard; Ellie and Gibbs lean hard on him, who reveals important information, which enables a SEAL team to capture Parsa alive. Gibbs, McGee, and Ellie fly to an aircraft carrier, where Gibbs and Ellie question Parsa; Ellie winds up in an extremely dangerous predicament, but Gibbs saves her. Back in the US Gibbs and Ellie share a hug and a handshake. Written by DocRushing

While investigating an overturned van in Washington, DC, the Metro PD finds cargo marked as the property of the USMC; Gibbs and company take over; the gang find crates of body armor, which Abby determines to be faulty and fatal. Ellie, the new probie, discovers what caused the wreck, then Tony interviews the two boys who did it; they give a clue, which points to the missing driver; Gibbs and the three musketeers find his body at his pad. Abby gives a hard time to an official of the manufacturer of the faulty armor; Gibbs and McGee speak with a discharged Marine with experience with faulty armor; a group of concerned mothers shows up, and they start asking questions. Tony and Ellie interrupt a rendezvous, then Gibbs and Ellie get some answers. McGeek asks a seminal question, which leads to two more meetings, one of which results in a confrontation and a demonstration of the faulty armor. McGee introduces someone to Delilah, who gives McGee a dare. Written by DocRushing

When Tony meets his father at the Adams House, he seeks to question a man wearing a suspicious dress-blue uniform of a Naval officer; the man draws a pistol and threatens Tony and his father; Tony kills him with two shots. Abby says that the impersonator was an infamous private investigator; Tony deals with an unlikable investigator from the office of the inspector general; at the hotel McGee and Ellie find the body of an executed man, who worked on the staff of a woman senator. Abby gives the investigator a cold treatment; Tony and McGeek check out the PI's office; Gibbs and Ellie meet the senator and her staff; Senior lays news on Junior. The gang uncover international wealth, influence, and bribery, then Gibbs and McGee meet with the senator and several of her staffies; McGee places a phone call, and everything falls into place. Tony sees an old friend, and he and his father share a happy goodbye. Written by DocRushing

Backstage at the Convention Center, Washington, DC, during preparations for a fund-raising concert to benefit the Hero Comfort Foundation, an explosion kills two men: a janitor and a volunteer worker, who was also a Navy petty officer first-class; Gibbs and company investigate; the fire chief said that the source of the detonation is a part of the warhead of a WW2-era torpedo. McGee and Ellie speak with Mannheim Gold, the apparent target of the explosion; during questioning his agent shows up and starts running his mouth. Mannheim goes home with Tony, then to a sudden gig. The concert takes place at a different venue. Abby deduces who planted the bomb, McGee digs up that man's past, and Gibbs and the gang put the pieces together; they figure out the reason for the bomb and the change of venue, then Gibbs and Ellie find the bad guys and a bunch of loot. Palmer experiences some good ups and a disappointing down. Written by DocRushing

In New Orleans, Louisiana, two local special agents of the NCIS, Pride and LaSalle, start to investigate the death of Dan McLane, who was not only a member of the US House of Representatives but also both a retired Naval Reserve commander and a retired agent of the NIS (before the NCIS); Dan had worked with Franks and had served as a mentor to both Pride and Gibbs; King Pride, a former partner of Gibbs, goes to Washington, DC, and spends time with Gibbs. Inter-agency intrigue begins; the FBI seizes control; a joint FBI-NCIS effort proceeds; Fornell joins the hunting party; the Gibbs team start producing results; King and Gibbs use an old-school technique; LaSalle in Nola says that he suddenly feels new respect for the Great Lakes office. An FBI agent in Nola dies in the same way as Dan; King goes back there, and Gibbs and Ellie go with him; Abby provides answers; the bunch in Nola follow the breadcrumbs left for them. [To be continued.] Written by DocRushing

In New Orleans, Louisiana, 20 years ago Dan McLane was the lead agent of the NIS in charge of a team (the Fed Five), who tied a series of deaths to a salesman named Victor Lorta, whom a jury held to be guilty. The Gibbs team and others now continue to investigate the recent death of McLane. Another body turns up in the wetlands; again the MO is the same as that of the Privileged Killer; the bunch believe that a copycat killer is at work. A concerned young citizen provides a clue. Ducky suggests the possibility that maybe someone framed Lorta, and that maybe the original killer is still on the loose; Gibbs reluctantly considers that theory, and he concedes that sometimes people make mistakes. The bunch in Nola find another body, and they discover an old mistake; McGee comes close to the truth, then the bunch find the real killer and take care of him. Pride, LaSalle, and Brody get their next case, and Gibbs and Ellie prepare to fly back to Washington. Written by DocRushing

Delilah finds a clue, which may help to solve the alleged death of a US Navy lieutenant, Kit, two weeks ago in Budapest, Hungary; then her boss orders her that she has never seen it; however, she surreptitiously speaks with Tony, McGee, and Gibbs, who sends Tony and McGee to check for chinchillas and to find evidence. Then Tony and McGee meet a man who claims to be an agent of the CIA, who tells a wild story to Vance and Gibbs, and who asks them to back off; still, though, Vance tells Gibbs and Ellie to continue pushing quietly. Abby and Jimmy, interpreting the evidence from the chinchilla hunt, paint a picture of Kit, who appears to be alive. The director of the CIA backs out and leaves the case to the NCIS. Delilah finds that Kit has left breadcrumbs; Kit encounters Gibbs and Ellie, and Tony joins them. Kit provides illuminating answers, and the gang finish putting the pieces together, so Tony and McGee grab the bad guy, and McGee and Delilah give Kit a ride. Written by DocRushing

In Chesapeake, Virginia, in the burbs of Norfolk, a distracted texting driver runs over the dead body of Tate, a Navy ensign; Gibbs and company investigate; the gang pursue a clue from the XO of Tate's ship; Tony and Ellie check out a derivative lead. McGee learns that Tate reported to the NCIS a sexual assault on Holly, a woman fellow officer, who first refuses to admit the rape but later both describes the incident and expresses bristling noncooperation; however, Abby lends a sensitive feminine hand, which persuades Holly to cooperate. Tony and Ellie, acting on a tip, after a tough start, question a suspect; with help from Abby and Jimmy, they also figure out what caused Tate to die. McGee and Abby, acting with persistence, find a new lead, which the gang then pursue; basic detective work directs them to the rapist, whom they take to the chat room, where a woman agent belts him, and Gibbs cuffs him. Written by DocRushing

In Afghanistan a Marine Corps photojournalist, SSgt. Shooter Roe, while accompanying a joint Army-Marine task force, took a photograph of an Army first lieutenant in a compromised position; an unknown person leaked the image to the press; the lieutenant now faces a court-martial for the execution-style killing (allegedly for revenge) of the Afghan villager in the picture; the photographer, due to testify as the key witness for the prosecution, disappears; Gibbs and company lend a hand. Roe's current assignment concerns homeless military veterans in the DC area. Tony and Ellie find evidence inside Roe's pad; later they and McGee find his body elsewhere amid unpleasant circumstances; Duckman and Abby present important clues and an implication to Vance and Gibbs. McGoo goes undercover. The gang find a lucrative moonlight enterprise, they solve two murders, and the Army court-martial resumes. Written by DocRushing

Vance gives Tony a sensitive assignment to escort an admiral's daughter, Amanda, from Marseille, France, back to Washington, DC; meanwhile Gibbs and the others investigate in Norfolk, Virginia, where a plumber discovered a body inside a septic tank in off-base military family housing. When Tony arrives at the field office of the NCIS in Marseille, he meets the local gendarmerie, who take special interest in him -- because someone has shot and killed all five employees of that office. Tony finds Amanda at a night club and persuades her to go with him, then a French woman cop pulls a switch, and another man dies. Tony and Amanda catch a ride aboard a party bus. Gibbs and Abby find a link between Amanda and the guy from the septic tank; Vance and Gibbs take the admiral to the chat room. Tony figures out Amanda, so they talk about that, then they return to Marseille, find a mess, get help, wind it up, and return to Washington. Jimmy receives a special message. Written by DocRushing

Gibbs and the three musketeers catch a snail during an apparent burglary; the next morning they learn about a fire in the galley aboard a Naval vessel in the Atlantic Ocean; then Vance tells Gibbs that Jackson, Gibbs's father, has had a stroke and died; Gibbs goes to Stillwater, Pennsylvania, his hometown. The gang learn that the fire resulted from arson by an incendiary device. Abby finds a connection between the fire and the supposed burglary; Tony learns more and hears a familiar name, then he disobeys an order by calling Gibbs; both Tony and McGee pursue Abby's lead; Gibbs returns to work. Ellie finds a key player, then she and McGee learn much from her. At home Gibbs receives a visitor and deals with him, then Gibbs meets with Rivera. Abby gives a big warning. Inside Jackson's shop Gibbs receives another visitor and deals with him too, then he goes to his father's funeral and burial, where the whole gang, including Vance, along with L.J. Moore, join him. Written by DocRushing