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Two park rangers find the burned body of a Navy test pilot on leave in a forest in the Appalachian Mountains; Gibbs and company investigate; McGee sees evidence that the pilot tried to fly a jetpack. The gang figure out what truly happened.

Two park rangers find the burned body of LCdr. Brad Sayers, a Navy test pilot on leave, on the site of a recent fire in a forest in the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia; Gibbs and company investigate; McGee sees evidence that Brad tried to fly a jetpack, and that it exploded. Gibbs places McGeek in charge. Palmer finds clues inside a dead squirrel, and Abby confirms them. Tony and Ziva interview a builder of jetpacks, and Ziva snaps a portrait; McGee learns about the builder's ex-wife, who's also the builder's top competitor; McGee questions the builder, then the builder's high-power lawyer shows up, starts talking, and keeps on talking. Ducky suggests an interesting alternate explanation, then Gibbs shows a piece of paper. The gang put the pieces together, and McGee brings in the bad guy by remote control. Gibbs notices the left hand of the lady lawyer; he concludes that someone else sent her there.—DocRushing

Two forest rangers check out the charred remains of a forest fire and find a man in a jumpsuit face down in the ground. He's only burned on his backside. Oooohh... mystery.

Ziva babbles about all the pop-up ads on her computer screen and McGee finds a story saying Col. Merton Bell (Robert Patrick) has been released from prison.

They're off to the dead Navy pilot in the Appalachians in West Virginia. The crisper is Lt. Commander Brad Sayers, who was on extended leave.

The helmet he was wearing was made for skydiving. A high temperature explosion appears to have blown his arm right off.

Duckie roars into the crime scene on an ATV with Palmer in the back. They're concerned they've found no parachute.

McGee finds the remains of a small fuel tank.

They also find a control arm and a joystick. McGee deduces that Sayers jet pack exploded.

"Jet packs," Gibbs says, "it's gonna be a weird one."

Back at the office, they find that Sayers was part of a group who flew experimental planes. Ziva and Tony know everything about jet packs thanks to McGee's constant schooling, which he's continuing downstairs in Abby's lab.

He even has a Power Point presentation about jet packs, frequently updated.

Abby finds kerosene and hydrogen peroxide residue on the flight suit.

Gibbs reads about Bell's release from a Mexican prison. He gives McGee the lead on the case after hearing another jet pack info recitation.

Tony and Ziva head to Sayers' base. His commanding officer refers them to Sayers' friend and fellow pilot Peter Sheridan. He guesses it's about Sayers and doesn't blink when they say the word "jet pack."

They refer him to Victor Tillman, an aerospace engineer for Tillman Air. His research was rejected by the Navy. The assume Tillman went to Sayers next.

In the morgue, Palmer performs a solo autopsy -- on a charred squirrel.

He's taken with the need to tell a tangentially related story to the situation, it involves France and black squirrels with rabies and the similar French words for squirrel and shark.

In the end we learn that the squirrel munched on Sayers and received secondary poisoning from his organs. He was poisoned.

Gibbs watches McGee's Power Point on jet packs, complete with narration.

Sayers had rat poison in his system.

Tony and Ziva go to talk to Victor Tillman. On the way there, Ziva notices they're being followed.

At Tillman's warehouse, he says that's exactly how Sayers would have wanted to go. But he wonders where Sayers got the jet pack. Tillman says he didn't give it to Sayers.

Ziva checks the parking lot and sneaks up on the car that was tailing them. She creeps around the driver's side and snaps a picture of the man before he drives off.

Tony looks at Tillman's model packs and sees some similarity to their charred jet pack remains. Turns out someone stole from Tillman. They bring him back to the office.

McGee finds Tillman was hiding cash from his ex wife and former CFO of the company, Vanessa. He finds records that Tillman paid Sayers $10,000 every time he flew, and Vanessa was giving him money, too.

McGee interviews Tillman. He didn't know Sayers was getting money from his ex wife, his top competitor. The kerosene mixture found on Tillman matches a patent under Tillman's name, but his wife got it in the divorce.

Ziva ID's the guy following them, a PI named Carruthers.

Allison Hart, a lawyer, comes for Victor Tillman. She's soon talking circles around a dumbfounded McGee, saying they had no right to look at his financials either. Gibbs talks alone with the lawyer, who cites all the illegal things the team has done to solve cases. Gibbs reluctantly lets her leave.

In Abby's lab, Palmer struggles to figure out if poison is what killed him. Abby wonders what caused the explosion. They think a valve on the jet pack was reversed.

Gibbs, Tony and Ziva meet with Vanessa Tillman, who calls her ex brilliant but stubborn. She says she wanted to experiment with fuels. She says Sayers last test flight for her was a month ago.

Ziva finds a jet pack similar to the one Sayers died in. They're about to ask more when Allison the lawyer comes in.

Back at the office, they want to figure out the connection between the Tillmans and the lawyer.

Gibbs visits Duckie in the lab, irked that they have no time or cause of death and that Allison is getting in his way.

Duckie found evidence that Sayers threw up before he died. But there was no vomit inside his helmet. Duckie says it was possible Sayers was flying dead and someone put the helmet on him.

McGee has found a receiver that could have been used to operate the jet back about a half mile away.

They meet with the Tillmans and their lawyer to find out who the receiver belonged to. Gibbs brings a court order. Both Tillmans claim they were out of town when Sayers died 13 days ago.

Allison the lawyer promises to keep an eye on Gibbs, saying he doesn't seem to have a clue what he's doing.

Abby and Palmer watch McGee put together the sequence of events over the remains of the jet pack. He thinks they're looking for a pilot and an engineer -- Sayers stole from both Tillmans and the Navy to build the pack.

So they start looking at Sayers' fellow pilots who might have been bitter with him.

Cut to lawyer Allison walking down the street, looking nervously over her shoulder. She walks into Gibbs. He thinks she was just looking for an excuse to get near him, and that she had his people followed.

McGee and Tony tell Sayers' commanding officer that his friend Sheridan killed him out of jealousy over the jet pack jobs. They mention the poison, a more common tool for female killers.

They have a court order to search Sheridan's locker. They find him there, but he says Sayers wasn't smart enough to build anything. They believe him and explain that they don't really think he did anything, they just needed it to look like they wanted him because they think if Sayers partner killed him and toasted the jet pack, there must be another.

They look outside to see Sayers' CO pushing a jet pack to his car. They come for him but he has time to strap it on. Soon, he's flying around Rocketeer-style. McGee grabs the remote control, trying to lock in on it. He gets it and brings him back, finally getting to fly a jet pack.

He lands safely and they arrest him.

Back at the office, Gibbs wants more info on lawyer Allison. Tony thinks it seems like Allison knew him. A search shows her in a picture with Col. Bell. They don't know what she and Bell are up to.