- A boarding party from a Coast Guard cutter visits a foreign-flag cargo ship; no crewmember is visible, but a gunman kills a petty officer. The NCIS and the CGCIS investigate. Gibbs, Borin, and the gang sort it out and serve justice.
- At 02:00 in US territorial waters near Norfolk, Virginia, an inspection party from a Coast Guard cutter steps aboard an unidentified foreign-flag cargo ship; no crewmember is visible, but a hidden gunman shoots to death a petty officer. Under joint jurisdiction the NCIS and the CGCIS investigate; Gibbs, the gang, and Borin go to Norfolk and to the towed ship at the Naval Station. While examining the body, Ducky hears tapping sounds; the team then find a hidden Lebanese family of four, for whom the father requests asylum. Abby tells Gibbs that there was no crew other than the family; the SecNav enters the picture, as does a woman lawyer of Muslim extraction. The mother and Ziva identify with each other, but the father's past catches up with him. Tony takes off his pants for Abby, who makes a startling discovery. Borin, Gibbs, and the gang prevent destruction, hold one bad guy and grab the second one, and serve justice. Gibbs says that he's not lonely because he has kids.—DocRushing
- The Coast Guard approaches a stalled vessel at sea. They board with guns drawn and find it's a smuggling ship. They wonder about the cargo and inspect. They're looking when shots ring out and one officer is hit.
The team gathers on Monday, complaining about Gibbs working too much and calling them all on the weekend. Tony thinks Gibbs needs a new woman. Officer Borin (Diane Neal) comes in to announce the body of the week. There's a dead Coast Guard petty officer on a ship, towed into Norfolk.
Tony thinks they should set Borin up with Gibbs.
At the ship, one of the guard described what happened. Gibbs and Borin ask the same questions. They found nothing on the ship when they searched except counterfeit cosmetics.
Ziva thinks the crew got off the ship on the missing life boat. Borin shoots down Tony's love connection plans, but she offers to set him up with one of her friends.
They found three shells on the ship. Duckie's explaining when he hears a repeated tapping. It's a Morse code SOS coming from below on the ship. They follow the noise to an air vent. They pop it off and find people inside. The man says he and his family are from Lebanon and want asylum.
Gibbs fields an inquiry from Vance, who tells him not to let the stowaways on US soil. Lebanon is an ally and they don't want to have to investigate any allegations of mistreatment.
Gibbs talks to the father, Farid, who says the crew locked them away when they approached the coast. He says "they" threatened to kill his family back home.
Tony talks to the grown son, Rafiq, in the hull. He's angry and combative. The younger son, Hakim, is a university student.
Ziva talks to the mom, Mariam (Shohreh Aghdashloo). She asks why they aren't being allowed off the ship. Ziva has food brought in. She asks Ziva if she has children. Ziva says she had a sister, mother and brother but they were all killed.
Back at the office, Tony and McGee look into Borin's friends online, narrowing it to three.
They still haven't found the lifeboat.
In the morgue, Borin is suspicious of the stowaway family. Duckie says the rounds were fired from American-made guns sold to Lebanon in 2009.
Gibbs arrives in Abby's lab to find tree air freshners hanging everywhere. She announces she has the grossest evidence chain ever: poop.
She looked into the feces DNA to determine there were four unique poop profiles. The family members were the only people to use the facilities in the last week. "Which means not only is our family lying to us, one of them in the shooter," she concludes.
Vance and Gibbs visit with a woman from an organization who helps settle Muslims. The Secretary of the Navy Clayton Jarvis joins them. She says she's filing an injunction then going to the media tomorrow.
Borin consults on Tony's efforts to find a date for Gibbs from among her friends. They switch back to the case when he arrives. The Bawali family also had a daughter, but she was killed in a US bombing raid of Hezbollah.
Ziva returns to the boat and confronts Mariam. She says they paid the crew out of Beirut and they set the course then left in lifeboats. She says she didn't mean to shoot the Coast Guard officer, she thought he was a pirate. Her story doesn't match the evidence. Mariam says she doesn't know who shot him.
Borin and Gibbs tell the sons they can prove their mom shot the officer. The older one, Rafiq, charges Borin but is restrained. The younger one is calm and polite and says whatever their mother says is the truth.
In the lab, Abby and McGee find a photo recognition hit for the father Farid, who is wanted by another name for a bombing of a coffee shop for US servicemen 27 years ago.
They can't reach Tony and Gibbs below deck, but they call Ziva. Tony is talking to Farid, who says he is doing his family's laundry on the stove. It smells like a floral explosion. Ziva goes downstairs to warn Tony and Farid suspects something is up and runs, knocking a laundry pot over so it splashes on Tony.
They race through the ship after him. Ziva draws on him and tells him to freeze before he jumps over. They arrest him.
Back at NCIS, Vance is angry Gibbs took Farid off the ship. Jarvis backs Gibbs up.
In the office, Borin finds Farid was in the Lebanese army. McGee think he's found the girl for Gibbs, but it disappointed to learn she's a natural red head.
Tony comes in, reeking of laundry detergent. Borin gives him a hand trying to remove it from his pants bottom. Vance sends Ziva back to the ship. The ship is being refueled to take the family back to Lebanon.
Gibbs talks to Farid, who denies his past.
Ziva talks to Mariam again on the boat. She doesn't believe Farid was a terrorist.
Back at NCIS, Borin threatens to send Farid's family to Guantanamo. He says his son Rafiq killed the officer.
Abby examines Tony's pants and announces the smell isn't laundry detergent. She cuts out a piece.
Ziva is talking to Mariam when they hear noises in the hall and the door to the room they are in is thrown shut and locked. Ziva sees a Coast Guard officer down in the hallway.
Abby calls Gibbs, who's in the car with Borin, McGee and Tony. She says they're driving into a trap, a massive terrorist plot. The residue on Tony's pants was pure Glycerin, distilled from perfumed soap. Mixed with other ingredients on the ship they form a detonator for the 30,000 gallons of fuel they just put in the ship.
It's docked near enough ships with enough weapons to take out half the Norfolk naval base. Ziva crawls out an air vent and lets Mariam out. The officer is OK.
Gibbs and the team arrive. They find Raffiq, the angfier son, tied up and chained below deck. Hakim, the educated calmer one, attacked him and tied him up. Rafiq tells his mother Hakim did it. They hear a noise coming from the engine room below. Mariam tells Ziva she understands she can't turn a blind eye to her family anymore. She follows Borin and Gibbs below deck, where they find Hakim about to ignite the detonator.
Hakim says her father shot the officer so they would bring the ship in to port. He wants continue with his plan to avenge his sister. His mother tells him he's not the only one who hurts and she still tried to teach him understanding.
Gibbs and Ziva keep their guns aimed at him while Mariam tries to talk him down. Finally, he relents and puts down the detonator, crying.
Ziva accompanies Mariam off the boat, where sets foot for the first time on US land.
Later, Jarvis says Lebanon wants the US to try Farid for his old terrorist actions, and Hakim is giving information on their contacts. Rafiq and Mariam have been granted temporary Visas.
Vance isn't happy about how things were handled. He tells Jarvis he thinks he's having trouble letting go of bad habits. Jarvis says he's fine, but Vance says he can come to him any time.
The team surveys the profile of Dustyn Kenner, the woman they think is perfect for Gibbs. Gibbs comes in and asks what "Dusty" is doing up there. He dated her. He says she's perfect and there's nothing more boring than perfect. He tells them to go home and keep their phones on.
Borin lingers and asks Gibbs if he's lonely. He says no. Borin is called away.
Gibbs pauses to tell Ziva that some times people do the right things for the wrong reasons. She him her mother never told her what kind of a man her father was. He says she was just being a mom. She asks if he's lonely. He says you're never alone when you have kids, then kisses her on the forehead good night.
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