NCIS: Origins (2024) s02e03 Episode Script

1
OLDER GIBBS: Silence.
That's how Dr. Magnus liked to work.
He liked things to be orderly.
He liked things to be efficient.
He liked just the facts.
Subject is male. Uh, 53 years old.
Caucasian.
OLDER GIBBS: But
Dr. Magnus had this assistant.
And, man, did he like to talk.
I'm off, just popped by
to collect my things.
Almost left without them,
can you imagine?
Course airport traffic'll
be a nightmare now.
Oh, hello. Who have you got there?
Nasty bruise. What happened to him?
Blunt force trauma,
- by the looks of it.
- (TAPE RECORDER CLICKS)
Right, sorry.
"Respect the working silence."
We need silence to think.
To make sure we don't miss anything.
Yes, yes, of course.
And I don't want you missing
a thing out there, either.
Don't worry, I'll make meticulous notes
and report everything back
to Admiral Cane.
It'll be the most rigorously
chronicled three days
since The Woodstock Music and Art Fair.
What's in the, uh, mysterious package?
Something for an old friend.
Haven't seen him for a while.
I-It's not a social call, you know.
There's gonna be eyes on you, too.
Remember, you'll be representing
the East Coast on the West Coast.
("THE EDGE" BY DAVID MCCALLUM PLAYS)
Indeed, I will.
OLDER GIBBS: He was all squared
away for that cross-country trip.
Oh. Hold up, Doctor.
OLDER GIBBS:
But I had no idea he was coming.
Well, I'd be lost without that,
wouldn't I?
(ELEVATOR BELL CHIMES)
OLDER GIBBS: I had no idea
that Pendleton was about to get hit
by the one and only
Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard.
You see the memo this morning?
From headquarters? Yeah.
It didn't make any sense.
Says Admiral Cane is sending a liaison
to see if we need
an in-house medical examiner.
What part didn't make sense?
We already have a medical examiner.
Dr. Tango is the county M.E.
He's not exclusive to us, you know.
He's not?
How long you been
working here now, Gail?
- LALA: Morning.
- Morning.
Ooh, Mary Jo got the good coffee.
How's it going?
- Living the dream.
- GAIL: Awesome.
Hey, Sparky. Forgetting something?
Sourdough. It's your favorite.
(CHUCKLES)
- Here. It's sourdough.
- Oh, that's your favorite.
- What's wrong with it?
- Shh, nothing.
(MOANS) Yeah, no, this is heaven.
You never say no to Kowalski's bread.
Are you sick or something?
This is what my mom used to do.
Ow. What? I'm checking Ow.
- I don't want you to.
- Stop. I'm trying to check for
- I'm not sick!
- Then why don't you want the bread?
WHEELER: Watch the crumbs, Randolf.
You guys read this?
Yeah, we read it, sir.
Says Pendleton could be
next in line to get our own
- in-house medical examiner.
- Medical examiner.
- RANDY: Just like HQ.
- WHEELER: That's what it says,
but that's not what it means.
We are D.C.'s scrappy little brother.
They are never gonna
give us our own M.E.
- Then why are they
- WHEELER: It's a cover, Randolf.
- For what?
- The restructure.
Rumor has it,
they're talking about changing
the agency's name.
To what? What's wrong with NIS?
Forget about the name.
An agency-wide restructure
means transfers, firings.
This liaison is coming
to gather intel on us.
So, we need to, you know,
make the office look good.
Make it look necessary. Clear?
Mary Jo, has Franks seen the memo?
I briefed him, who knows if he heard.
What does that mean?
MARY JO: I don't know.
Something's up with him.
Yeah, well, he, uh,
submitted some veterinary bills
for reimbursement, and I rejected them.
Yeah, I know we all love Gary Callahan,
but he's still a dog,
and the bills were excessive.
I'm sorry, could you please just
not talk to me right now.
I have a splitting headache.
Why are you two not at the crime scene?
What crime scene?
We had a call come in
a half an hour ago.
I told Gail to tell you.
Gail, I swear to God. Gail!
NIS? The rest of your guys are
already inside with the body.
- Thanks, man, appreciate it.
- Victim's name is Mimi Lam,
wife of Navy Lieutenant
Commander Roland Lam.
They own the restaurant, Hawaiian joint,
not open to the public yet.
No sign of forced entry.
Husband came in this morning,
found the wife dead and called 911.
We figured out the
naval connection and called you.
Here is the husband's statement.
- Where is he?
- I sent him home.
- Why would you do that?
- MARINO: Guy was distraught.
Said he needed to be alone.
You sent our witness home
before we could talk to him?
MARINO: I wrote it all down.
We need to do our own interview.
- Ma'am.
- LALA: This is our crime scene!
I'm telling you right now,
I'm averse to people yelling in my face.
Well, I'm averse to idiots.
How about that?
Okay, wow. I think we might
be getting unnecessarily hostile.
- FRANKS: Rando!
- There's no need for name calling.
FRANKS: Quit yapping and get in here.
Well, you act like an idiot,
- I'm gonna call you an idiot.
- Ma'am.
♪
The hell is he? Randolf!
Yeah, I-I'm here.
She's frozen solid?
You think?
There's a computer over there
needs looking at.
Where the hell you been?
RANDY: Why is everyone so hostile today?
What?
Uh, I'm gonna look
at the computer, boss.
Cop's a dumbass.
I sent him and his buddies home.
Look at the pictures he took
of the crime scene.
His fingers are in half of them.
Here. I'll get that.
You might want to get some
of the freezer handle.
It's busted.
What do you think, Chief?
Someone put her in there,
or she walked into the freezer
herself, got stuck?
DUCKY: It's not the
freezing I'm concerned about.
It's the unfreezing.
I'm reminded of the Swedish warship Vasa
that sank in 1628
and was recovered 300 years
later, almost intact,
preserved by the icy waters
of the Baltic Sea.
The crew, however, were not so lucky.
Thawing a human body
is a tricky process.
Although, I do recall
there was one sailor
whose brain was salvaged
after being frozen for three centuries.
(LAUGHS)
Who the hell are you?
Dr. Mallard?
Hello, Jethro.
GIBBS: Uh
You haven't changed one bit.
What are you doing here?
I'm your liaison.
They were supposed to send out a memo.
GIBBS: Oh, it didn't mention a name.
- What memo?
- I didn't know you'd be here either,
until Admiral Cane gave me a file
on all the employees in your office.
Jethro is the reason
I came to work for NIS.
He once told me I'd make
a good medical examiner.
Do you remember?
12 years is a long time.
Our time together
was undeniably cut short,
but you must remember that?
It was the better part of a week
after I was driving
on the wrong side of the road
and smashed into a car
in which Jethro here
was being detained,
inside the boot of all places.
I don't care who sent what memo,
this here's a damn crime scene.
The last place one would expect
for a reunion.
Boss, Dr. Mallard
is the assistant M.E. in D.C.
He is here to figure out if our
office needs an in-house M.E.
Yeah, Wheeler reminded us
to be good hosts.
Yeah. Bernard Randolf.
I had a great grandfather named
Bernard. He had red hair, too.
We don't need an M.E., we've got Tango.
DUCKY: Of course you do.
I'm just observing.
That pattern is Luiseño,
if I'm not mistaken.
Although, I imagine you prefer
the tribe's proper name, Payómkawichum,
"People of the West."
- How'd you know?
- It's that distinctive weaving pattern.
It was featured
on a collectible postage stamp,
and I happen to have a fondness
for the fine hobby of philately.
Uh, but please do, uh,
carry on with your work.
Um, just, uh, yeah,
just pretend I'm not here.
Was the victim killed first
or did she die in the freezer?
I really can't make a call
in this state.
It's like Dr. Mallard said,
the body has to be thawed.
Thawing's gonna take about three days.
DUCKY: May I tell you a story
about my great grandfather Bernard?
Oh, my God, yes, please.
Shut your pie-hole, Rando.
So I ain't gonna get
a cause of death for three days?
When he was a boy, Grandpa
Bernard had an indomitable love
for windmills.
Wait, is that the-the metal
thing with a chicken on top?
No, dear heart, that's a weather vane.
Okay, I'm done. Get out.
Hey, come on.
Mike, he's our liaison.
I don't care who you are.
I said get out, now.
DUCKY: My apologies, Jethro.
It seems our time together
has been cut short once again.
Slow down, man.
RANDY: So, we're at the crime scene,
and Dr. Mallard is saying
this unbelievably interesting
stuff in a super delightful way.
He's just sprinkling sunshine
on the whole crime scene,
but Franks
- gets weirdly hostile about it. He
- (DOOR OPENS)
MARY JO: Lost and found to the rescue.
Don't you dare ask me
to go to the dry cleaner.
My head is killing me,
and I told you not to put that
fountain pen in your pocket.
Why was Franks hostile?
RANDY: I don't know.
Him and Lala are both
- in a mood today.
- MARY JO: You know Franks is mad
'cause you didn't reimburse
them vet bills.
- WHEELER: They were excessive.
- Wait, is Gary sick?
- I don't know, Randolf.
- If something's wrong with Gary,
then Franks is probably sad.
You know, maybe Lala's sad, too,
because they both get aggressive
when they're sad.
They really are two peas in a pod.
Lala kicked a cop out the crime scene.
- Franks kicks out Dr. Mallard.
- Wait. Franks did what?
He kicked Mallard out. Sorry.
That's what I was gonna get to,
but then Mary Jo walked in
with the sweatshirt, which
looks great, by the way.
Don't worry, though,
Dr. Mallard is cool.
Yeah, that's what they want us to think.
They send a nice guy,
they get us to let our guard down,
and then they use
our vulnerabilities as a reason
to shut us down. Where did he go?
Dr. Mallard? I don't know.
Oh, this is a disaster. He's probably
on the phone right now with the admiral,
telling him our office
is a bunch of rude redundancies.
I need to make some calls.
RANDY: Oh,
we're also in the middle of a case.
We found a woman's body
in a walk-in freezer,
- if you want an update on that.
- (DOOR CLOSES)
ROLAND: It's my fault.
Mimi asked me to fix the
freezer door handle weeks ago.
You think it was an accident.
She went in to do inventory,
the door closed,
she couldn't get out.
That's not what happened?
The autopsy's not done yet.
(ROLAND SHUDDERS)
We had no idea how hard it was gonna be.
- Opening a restaurant?
- Moonlighting.
- Supply officer, right?
- Yeah.
And Mimi does IT.
Stands for information technology.
She works with computers.
She does consulting,
helps companies go digital.
What companies?
I could get you their names.
It's hard for me
to keep them all straight.
She's always coming and going.
Mimi's really good, though.
She had this idea
for the restaurant that,
one day,
people would be able to order
food right from their computers.
Wow.
Yeah.
Commander,
when was the last time
you saw your wife?
Friday morning. We had a fight.
I thought she went to her sister's.
The restaurant was a lot.
We were under so much stress.
What were you fighting about?
Prices on the menu.
Where were you over the weekend?
At home.
- Can anyone verify that?
- No.
We were just like anyone else.
We had a normal fight.
I would never hurt her. I love her.
I ain't buying the whole
sad husband act.
Me neither. Accident, my ass.
Guy probably tampered
with the door handle
to cover up the fact he killed her.
- Well, good morning to you, too.
- BOTH: Morning, Angie.
Chief, what the hell's going on in here?
Lenora's out, and we just had a
mass-casualty collision come in.
So, what, our body's
just gonna sit here on ice?
No. There's a plan in motion.
Dr. Mallard's gonna handle your case.
I hope to God you're
yanking my chain right now.
I am not yanking your chain, Mike.
Dr. Mallard came by
after you kicked him out
of the crime scene
to take notes on our facility.
Wheeler called,
apologized to him profusely.
TANGO: Long story short,
it's all in motion.
What's in motion?
A trial run for your
in-house medical examiner.
- What?
- TANGO: It's perfect timing.
Your victim needs to be thawed
carefully over three days,
but you can cut that down to two
if somebody's watering the body.
I mean, if the guy wants to
sit here and water the body
TANGO: Not here. Wheeler put in a call
for a temperature-controlled
shipping container,
so Dr. Mallard can give
your case his full attention.
He'll be located on Pendleton,
right outside your office door.
The hell could you agree to this?
You saw me yelling at him.
You know I can't stand him.
You yell at everyone, Mike.
You yell at Lala all the time,
and you like her, don't you?
Guys, let's move it out.
Chief.
Chief, look at me.
That bowtie might as well be
speaking Swahili.
I can't understand a word he says.
Aw, buck up, Mike.
I couldn't understand you
at first, either.
Better late thrive as never,
as my great grandfather Bernard
used to say.
That an insult, what he just said?
Uh, I don't think so.
FRANKS: Can't believe
Tango would want this.
We give King George an in,
the next thing you know,
he's recommending
a permanent in-house yahoo.
No, Wheeler said that's not happening.
Yeah, and all this is really
about some big restructure.
LALA: Agency name changes,
firings, transfers,
our office could close.
It's a whole thing.
RANDY: Wheeler said Dr. Mallard's gonna
report back to HQ,
like, let 'em know
- if we're just a bunch of redundancies.
- Redundancies.
But, I don't know.
He seems pretty harmless.
DUCKY: Thank you, gentlemen.
Right through here.
FRANKS: He's writing
about us in that book.
- I doubt it.
- Jethro! Come and have a look at this.
The hell's he calling you Jethro for?
You don't go by
your middle name, do you?
Your middle name's Jethro?
What kind of person calls you
by your middle name for no damn reason?
I don't trust him. Get in there, probie.
See what your buddy's writing
about us in that book.
We're not really buddies.
I knew him for a couple of days
12 years ago.
Jethro! Come quick, old pal.
I've made an intriguing discovery.
Get moving, Jethro.
Find out if he's trying to shut us down.
Whew. Cold in here.
45 degrees, to be exact.
- So, what's the, uh
- Intriguing discovery, yes.
Yes, come look here.
If you peek right in there,
she's holding something.
Do you see it?
GIBBS: Huh. It's pink.
Plastic?
Impossible to tell
until the fist thaws enough
for me to unfurl it.
Uh, would you mind?
The valve's just outside.
I believe the time of death
was Friday evening.
Her body froze solid over the weekend.
You can stay and observe if you like.
Uh, sure, if you don't mind me
Sorry. I'm going to need you
to be quiet.
Respect the working silence,
as my mentor always says.
Applying water to subject's face
to speed the thawing process.
Do you really not remember
suggesting I join NIS?
We were in D.C that part
you remember, of course
and we were day drinking
which, to be fair,
doesn't exactly help one
recall detailed information
but there you were,
standing on the street,
looking into a little shop,
and there was a ship in a bottle
in the window.
You had this curious look
on your face, and you said
Thought you wanted silence, Dr. Mallard.
My friends call me Ducky.
(TAPE RECORDER CLICKS)
Attempting to lift
one of the eyelids now.
Ah, petechial hemorrhaging.
Our subject may have been
strangled. Jethro, come look.
There was foul play here,
no doubt about it.
And strangulation is often
a crime of passion.
Franks and Lala think her husband
could've tampered
with the freezer handle,
- made it look like an accident.
- A most astute theory.
It stands to reason,
whatever she was clutching when she died
will only tell us more.
(WHIMPERS)
Hey, Herm, he been like this all day?
Herm's down in the vault.
Who's watching Gary?
There's not much to watch.
He's just laying there.
- He looks sick.
- He ain't sick.
Took him to the vet four times.
They think he's depressed.
- About what?
- I don't know, Kowalski,
ain't like I can ask him.
Why don't you try cheering him up?
How's it going with the spy
from the district?
You see this? This is how it's done.
That idiot cop thinks he can
pass off his crappy Polaroids,
no. This is a crime scene photo.
The hell is everyone?
And then, he has the nerve to tell me
he's "averse to people
yelling in his face."
Frickin' idiot.
- Where did this come from?
- It's Mimi's.
I brought it over from the restaurant.
You can just pick it up and move it
without losing everything on it?
- Seriously, Mike?
- FRANKS: What?
You unplug a clock radio,
you plug it back in,
- it's blinking 12:00.
- No, no, no.
It's all here, boss,
and it's all pretty interesting.
The accounting log shows that
the Lams were in a ton of debt
with the restaurant already.
Husband didn't mention that to Gibbs.
Life insurance?
There's a modest policy on Mimi,
husband Roland is the beneficiary.
Also, Gibbs just stopped by,
said there's possible evidence
of strangulation,
but we got to wait
for the body to finish thawing,
so Dr. Mallard can see
if there are bruises on the neck
'cause blood can't pool
when it's frozen.
It's actually really fascinating
what Dr. Mallard said about the
FRANKS: So, husband had motive,
means and opportunity.
And when the body's finished melting,
we can prove she got strangled.
Everything we have got on Roland
Lam's circumstantial, though.
We need to build a timeline.
I talked to Mimi's sister.
- She was super unhelpful.
- Coworkers?
Roland called in with the names
of the companies where Mimi did IT.
What is that?
Computers, Mike.
Mimi consulted
at an electronics repair store,
a factory, and a law firm.
She went to all three places
the Friday before
she was found in the freezer.
Saddle up, Rando, let's go.
Don't you want me to finish
looking through these files?
Mimi is a computer lady.
How am I supposed to talk to her
employers without embarrassing myself?
You got Lala.
She knows what IT stands for,
and I'm pretty sure
she's already in the car.
(LAUGHTER)
And next thing you know,
we're both kidnapped.
Mind you, this is his second time.
- MARY JO: Second time, really?
- Hey, probie!
So was it the mob?
Well, it was more of a
The hell is this?
(DUCKY CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY)
(GIBBS CLEARS THROAT)
You find out what he's writing
about us in that book?
No, but I don't think it's anything bad.
- He's just focused on the case.
- (LAUGHTER)
- Don't look like it.
- They all just came out
to look at the shipping container.
Then, Dr. Mallard
cured Mary Jo's headache.
- He used to be a medical doctor.
- Really?
He got to you.
What?
You're soft, probie.
Dominguez, I'm subbing you in.
Me and probie'll go to the companies.
You stay here and get a read on Mallard.
(LAUGHTER)
He was very, very brave, that man.
Well, until the time came
to have a conversation
with the woman that he loved.
Yeah, Mimi was a real nice lady.
What was she doing here on Friday?
She was setting up a digital system
to help us track all our repairs.
Dude, people love claiming
we didn't fix stuff we already fixed,
but when they see it itemized
on a computer screen,
they can't say it didn't happen,
you know what I mean?
Need me to turn that on for you?
Turn it on myself.
(MONITOR BEEPS)
(COMPUTER BEEPS, WHIRRING)
So what's in the notebook?
Oh, that? Nothing earth-shattering.
No strangulation bruises
apparent on the neck as of yet.
Will check for a collapsed
trachea once the body's thawed
and I'm able to conduct
a full physical examination.
We're a seed processing plant.
We sort and treat in-house,
then we distribute the seeds
around the country.
What time did Mrs. Lam leave on Friday?
Around 5:00, 5:30.
She was digitizing our files
so we can go international.
She's the only one I trust
with my computer.
You're welcome to see
what she was doing on it.
(COMPUTER BEEPS)
(FRANKS CHUCKLES)
No loose teeth
or other evidence of an altercation.
Right mandibular second molar
appears to have a filling.
Porcelain.
Most people don't know I'm pretty handy.
It is brilliant.
(CHUCKLES)
You fancy a cup of tea?
GREYSON: Mimi was going to install
Windows 3.1 on all our systems.
She was great.
Lot of experience setting up I
for sensitive projects.
We have high-profile clients,
so discretion is key.
I have a 6:00. Holler if you need me.
GIBBS: Top-secret projects.
Think Mimi told her husband about 'em?
(SIGHS)
Let's see what we got.
FRANKS: Oh, come on!
What happened?
(DUCKY LAUGHS)
And unbeknownst to any of us,
she had the antidote
hidden in her knickers
- the entire time.
- (LAUGHING)
Oh
What is it, my dear?
Has your tea gone cold?
Gibbs said you used to be
a medical doctor?
Your doctor's good. Extremely thorough.
I just, uh,
I can't talk to anyone here about it.
(SIGHS)
You'll leave it out of your report
- to the admiral, right?
- You have my word.
You know Kowalski?
With the glasses? Lovely chap.
He's the best.
He bakes this bread.
His sourdough is my favorite.
But I don't like it anymore.
At all.
I can't stand the taste of it.
Your doctor did explain
what a traumatic brain injury means?
He said there aren't many studies.
Correct,
but we do know that it can
rewire the brain,
meaning we may no longer like
the things we once did.
Like a river that hits a dam
and starts to flow
in a different direction.
It's like
Who am I, you know?
And what if this is just the beginning?
And I
I don't want to hurt
Kowalski's feelings.
I don't want to hurt anyone.
There is one thing
you can take solace in.
Your heart clearly
hasn't changed one bit.
You are still you.
Perhaps you just have a penchant
for pumpernickel now.
(TIMER DINGS)
Thank you.
Ooh. Cecilia, wait. It's thawed.
Her hand? You can open it?
DUCKY: It's a note. "Rolam."
Roland Lam. Her husband.
Oh, my. It appears our victim
has just handed us
the name of her killer.
(CHUCKLES) Sorry to keep you
waiting. I forgot the file,
and I had to run upstairs to get it,
and yesterday was leg day, so, yeah,
the hammies are on fire.
Special Agent Randolf.
Thanks for coming back in, Roland.
Do you mind if I call you Roland?
Or do you have a nickname
you prefer, maybe Ro, or RoRo?
Roland is fine. Why am I here?
Well, unfortunately,
someone named you as a suspect
in your wife's murder.
Who?
Your wife, actually.
Uh
We found this in Mimi's hand.
The shaky handwriting
suggests she was in a rush
or under duress when she wrote it.
It was possibly the last thing
she did before she died.
So, anything you feel like
getting off your chest?
I already told Agent Gibbs,
the freezer door handle was broken.
Yeah, you mean the accident theory?
Here's the thing. Our M.E.
is saying there was foul play.
Possible strangulation.
Someone strangled her?
RANDY (ON MONITOR): That's
what the evidence is suggesting.
ROLAND: That-that does
that doesn't make any sense.
Mimi and-and I are the only ones who had
keys to the restaurant.
The police said there was
no sign of forced entry.
- Hey.
- Look at this.
Randy's nice-ing him to death,
the guy's still denying it.
- Boss.
- What did Lala find out
about Mallard's notebook?
What? Oh. Nothing.
And she agrees with me.
He's not trying to get us
shut down. Boss, please.
I need you to look at this.
Lala was looking through
that cop's photos again
- and found something.
- What?
This is the cop's polaroid
of Mimi's desk.
There's a stapler next to the computer.
- Lala's photo, stapler's gone.
- Where'd it go?
- We tracked down the cop.
- You think he's withholding evidence?
- Let's get that son of a bitch in here.
- We did.
He's outside talking to Lala.
LALA: What evidence did you take?
You're withholding evidence?
- Hey. No, it's not
- Sir, I'm telling you,
- I'm averse to people yelling in my face.
- No. Mike.
- I'll show you averse!
- GIBBS AND LALA: Hey!
Are you out of your mind?
- Stop! Stop! Enough!
- All right.
LALA: Stop it.
All of you. Stop. Enough.
Mike. No one is withholding anything.
Officer Marino thought that
the evidence he got
from the scene was dropped off
at our office, but it wasn't.
One of his guys is bringing it over now.
Good heavens. What's all the commotion?
You and your little book
can go back inside.
Bollocks. You're bleeding.
Step inside. Let me tend to the wound.
Well, you're in luck.
No stitches required.
Are you feeling at all woozy?
Not fully domesticated, I see.
That's unfortunate.
What is this?
Where's all the stuff about us?
- About shutting us down?
- What?
I'm afraid you've been
misinformed, dear boy.
My objective here is to determine
whether this office would
benefit from an in-house M.E.
Now, these were special circumstances
in which I could be of service,
but overall,
this office runs smoothly
as is, don't you agree?
So you're just in here working the case?
As Mother always says,
"A helping hand is a gift
ne'er forgotten."
I finished thawing the body
and conducted a full autopsy.
Oddly enough, there was
no bruising on the neck.
It seems she wasn't strangled after all.
- What, she freeze to death?
- No.
No evidence of perimortem hypothermia.
Believe it or not,
the petechial hemorrhaging
could be consistent with poisoning.
The moment the body thawed,
I had a blood sample
couriered over to your forensics lab.
I'm awaiting the results.
May I?
(GROANS)
Gibbs says you used to be
a people doctor.
I was.
Know anything about dogs?
Got a dog.
Well, he ain't mine.
(GRUNTS)
He's a special agent.
Vet says he's depressed.
You ever heard of anything like that?
What's his name?
Gary Callahan.
Sounds like more of a friend than a dog.
There is a phenomenon I've heard about,
in which animals
mimic their owners' state of mind.
Is it possible that
you're depressed, Agent Franks?
Is something bothering you?
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
You know anything about brothers?
Me and mine, we don't talk.
Older or younger?
Older brothers can be
complicated, can't they?
And if I'm correct about Gary
mirroring your emotions,
then the only way
he's going to get better
is if you fix yourself, Michael.
Don't wait until it's too late.
Call your brother.
(CAR APPROACHING OUTSIDE)
Evidence is here.
Thanks, doc.
Look at this crap.
RANDY: This just looks
like normal desk stuff.
FRANKS: What about the box?
RANDY: What is happening?
LALA: It is shocking what
that cop considered evidence.
Also no spoons?
Hm. What is this?
RANDY: It's a floppy disk.
- It's for the computer.
- FRANKS: For the computer to what?
Dang it. It's password protected.
'Cause you're using her
computer, Rando. Put it in ours.
LALA: It's the disk that's
password protected,
Mike, not the computer.
RANDY: Password could be anything.
Maybe
"123456"?
Nope. Um
Try "password."
DUCKY: Pardon me.
Forgive the intrusion. I just heard back
from Woodrow at the lab
tremendous sense of humor, by the way
but it turns out
our victim's blood is clean.
You're telling me
she wasn't poisoned either?
So what happened to her then?
It pains me to say.
I simply don't know.
- Yeah, baby! We're in!
- (LAUGHS)
GIBBS: What, how?
"Rolam."
Mimi wasn't naming her killer,
she was writing down her password.
Password for what?
Her limp disk.
Floppy disk.
RANDY: Holy crap. These are plans
to a frickin' bioweapon.
They were gonna sell it
to the highest bidder.
Bioweapon? Like Agent Orange?
No, this is some kind of nerve agent.
Says it makes your muscles
spasm, the heart stops,
- leads to suffocation.
- Where you getting that?
It says it right here.
FRANKS: I can't read it,
he's rolling the words up.
- Put it on the board, Rando.
- How?
Write it on a paper, Rando,
grab a pen, put it up there,
- so I can read it. Mary Jo!
- This is what killed her.
What?
This very nerve agent
is what killed her.
The suffocation caused
the petechial hemorrhaging.
Her blood was clean
because it was thawed.
It says here the nerve agent
is only stable when frozen.
You can't trace it at room temp?
Oh, dear.
I believe I've just thawed away
the murder weapon.
(CRICKETS CHIRPING OUTSIDE)
We think Mimi was doing I
for a fourth company
her husband didn't know about.
Something off the books.
Partner at the law firm
where Mimi worked
said it was something she'd done before.
We're trying to track down
the company now.
She's setting up their computers,
she copies them to a disk
to report the company,
they kill her first
using their untraceable
nerve agent. It's unfathomable.
Yeah.
Sounds like something
out of a spy movie.
No, unfathomable
that this seemingly ordinary individual
accomplished the extraordinary.
She knew about the nerve agent.
She'd read about it in the file.
She was at the restaurant
when she started feeling the symptoms.
In her final moments,
she had the wherewithal
to write down the password.
She'd read the file. She knew
what was happening to her.
You think she walked
into the freezer on purpose?
She knew that if her blood was frozen,
we could figure out what killed her.
She was trying to communicate with me,
and I didn't hear her.
In all of Dr. Magnus' years
as a medical examiner,
he never managed
to destroy a murder weapon.
There's no way you could've known.
When I was a medical doctor,
I could cure a headache.
Talk patients through
distressing symptoms.
Even give advice about a dog.
Because it's all about
communication, conversation.
Now, I speak into a bloody machine
about how the subject
had coffee in her stomach,
a filling in her molar,
or a blockage in her artery
that she probably never even knew about.
With a living patient,
I can look at them and ask,
"What can I do to help you?"
I can't ask her that.
What can I do to help you?
Mimi Lam, what can I do to help you?
You have a porcelain filling
in your molar.
- What?
- Porcelain, Jethro.
Porcelain is an insulator.
It can stay colder longer
than the rest of the body.
Oh, Mimi, you clever girl.
Some of the nerve agent you
so valiantly tried to preserve
in your blood could still
be present in your tooth.
Jethro, quickly, find some ice!
- We need to get this tooth to Woodrow.
- It's There's
Go on, give it some stick!
(DOOR SLIDES CLOSED)
I hear you, darling, loud and clear.
Welp, Dr. Mallard is a fellow genius.
Porcelain kept the tooth cold
long enough
for us to grab a sample
of the nerve agent.
Can you trace it
to the company that made it?
No. But I can tell you how it works.
Liquid A and liquid B come together
and activate each other.
Like Voltron.
Yeah, and just as deadly.
Like I said,
I can't tell you who made it,
but one of the chemicals is a pesticide.
We need to run down all the
pesticide companies in the area.
Well, I'm not a detective, but
it's probably the company that
Mimi's consulting at now, right?
What do you mean, Phil?
Uh, Mimi wasn't consulting
at any pesticide company.
Symbiosis Seed Co. That's a
seed processing plant, isn't it?
- Yeah.
- Well, a lot of times,
these places make
their own pesticides, too,
so their specific seeds can withstand
their specific pesticides.
How do you know that, Phil?
I don't know. 32 years
of living on this planet.
WOODY: Well,
you're very knowledgeable for your age.
OLDER GIBBS: When Ducky came to town,
it all came down to something
as ordinary as a tooth.
The owner of the seed factory
confessed to poisoning
Mimi Lam's iced coffee
to stop her from blowing the whistle.
The whole company went down.
Lives were saved.
Thanks to one extraordinary lady.
Evidence?
No, I'm returning these
to Mimi Lam's husband.
Oh. Hey.
Uh I found this recipe.
I was wondering
if you could make it sometime.
I didn't know you liked pumpernickel.
Just trying something different.
Kick-ass.
OLDER GIBBS: When Ducky came to town,
he helped us
with more than just the case.
- Rando. Been looking for you.
- Hey, boss.
I know I'm off the desk now,
but after today,
I feel like it's pretty important to get
these case files
typed into the computer.
I'm gonna do it on my downtime,
but being able to search
all these old cases just by
clicking a button
seems like the future, you know?
Yeah, whatever. Listen,
word is, Gary reflects emotions.
Need you to take him a few days.
Make him happy.
Like you.
Give him back when he's good.
- Junie's allergic to dogs.
- So, get a hotel room.
Submit your receipts to Wheeler.
OLDER GIBBS: There was
a lot of "extraordinary" stuff
that happened when Ducky came to town.
Oh, Gary. (LAUGHS)
OLDER GIBBS: But that's how it
always was when he was around.
Jethro Tull, the band's namesake,
was an English farmer
who bolstered the British
Agricultural Revolution
by inventing
a horse-drawn drill in 1701.
Jethro.
A name for a leader of men.
Am I really the only one
who calls you that?
Around here? Yeah.
Ah, this is me.
What's this?
I thought you should have one
of your own. Open it later.
Let's not let another 12 years
go by, young Jethro.
Hey, Ducky.
Seemed to work pretty good in
there without the tape recorder.
(CHUCKLES)
OLDER GIBBS:
When Ducky got back to D.C.,
something extraordinary
happened for him, too.
He ditched his old way of doing things.
He took what he learned and
started doing what came natural.
He started talking to the bodies
like they were people.
And he listened
like they were people, too.
Hello. I'm Dr. Mallard.
What's your name?
Julian.
I met a Julian on the island
of Karpathos once.
You ever been to Greece?
It's gorgeous this time of year.
OLDER GIBBS: What I didn't know
was
that, once he started talking to them,
he would never shut up.
(CONTINUING INDISTINCTLY)
OLDER GIBBS: I miss that.
(CHUCKLES)
OLDER GIBBS:
I miss hearing him every day.
I miss my friend.
He always had a way of knowing
who I was meant to be.