- While investigating the death of a US congressman, the Gibbs team and the gang in Nola continue to seek both a killer and a connection to an old case. Another man dies. Ducky suggests a theory, and the bunch put all the pieces together.
- 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.—DocRushing
- Brody and Pride bond over a traditional New Orleans breakfast at Mother's. They get called to a crime scene, Brody is bummed to leave her grits. Jefferson Parish Coroner Doctor Loretta Wade gives Gibbs and Ellie Bishop a ride to the crime scene. She's from Santa Fe originally and settled into New Orleans in 1997. She goes on about loving the area and especially LSU football.
NCIS Special Agent Christopher Lasalle gets a cup of terrible coffee at an empty bar when a punk teenager comes in to rob the place. Lasalle coolly continues sipping his coffee as he tells the teen he's a federal agent. When the teen taunts him, Lasalle easily disarms him. Brody and Pride join him on their way to the crime scene and Brody takes note that Lasalle is starting his morning in a bar. "This is New Orleans: It might be daylight, but the evening's still young," he says.
The body is dumped in a swamp. His ID says it's Henry Wainsgard, but he's been gnawed on by wildlife. He was killed two or three weeks ago, by the same throat slashing MO as the Privilege Killer.
There are tire treads nearby. Becaues Wainsgard doesn't fit the victim profile, Gibbs theorizes he was killed because he saw the killer.
Back in Washington, Tony opens a gift from Ellie from New Orleans. It's a Tony voodoo doll. He's creeped out and dumps it in the trash.
Down in the morgue, Vance, Duckie and Tobias Fornell examine boxes of letters. Vance had the prison warden where the Privilege Killer, Victor Lorta, was incarcerated send them Lorta's correspondence, which the warden kept after Lorta died.
Down in New Orleans, we learn that Lasalle makes landmarks out of Legos and donates them to the children's hospital. Brody gets another hang-up phone call, she assumes it's related to the business cards she left at Boyle's crime scene. The trio heads to follow them up.
Gibbs and Ellie pay a visit to Wendell Hobbs in the coroner's office. He's her assistant (Jimmy Palmer's counterpart) and plays jazz keyboards during their conversation. The DNA under the victim's fingernails was over 70 years old. Hobbs then shares that the killer was probably wearing a Navy jacket from a thrift store because he likes the way it makes him feel. Gibbs seems to be impressed by his insight.
Back in DC, they come upon a letter that's CC'd to Joseph Hanlon, who gives money to Congressman McClane.
Down in the Quarter, a streetwise young kid approaches Brody, Pride, and Lasalle and shakes them down for his memory of the night Boyle was murdered. He saw the killer in a white military jacket.
Tony and McGee visit Hanlon. The threatening letter CC'd to him came from Emile Titus. He offers up his company's security information on him.
Duckie goes over Lorta's correspondence. He wrote copies of every letter he sent and insisted in each one that he was innocent and that he was framed by Dan McClane.
Duckie wonders if maybe the murders today aren't being done by a copycat, but by the real Privileged Killer.
From MTAC, Vance and Fornell talk to Gibbs and Pride. Pride says there was a mountain of forensic evidence connecting Lorta to the murders and defends McClane fiercely. Pride and Gibbs were both probies on the case. Gibbs isn't so sure McClane didn't cross the line.
Pride storms out into the Quarter, angry at Gibbs for not sticking up for their former boss. Gibbs suggests they talk to another agent who was there at the time.
In DC, Tony has a crushing pinpoint headache and finds his voodoo doll on his desk with a needle in its head.
McGee gives Vance and Fornell a rundown on Emile Titus, an aerospace magnate whose father was an admiral. Titus followed the Privileged Killer case and wrote letters insisting Lorta was innocent. Once McClane became a congressman, Titus started making sizeable donations to his campaign. He's been lying low and now lives in a house in the Garden District in New Orleans.
Gibbs and Pride go visit their old pal and fellow agent Felix Betts. They break the news to him about McClane. Gibbs asks Betts if he ever heard of someone framing Lorta as the Privilege Killer. Betts isn't entirely there, and doesn't answer directly, but he doesn't deny it.
In the coroner's office, Hobbs reports -- after turning down his blasting Blues -- that the murder weapon was an antique steel blade. There was aviation jet fuel in the tire treads. They get a warrant to search Titus's house.
As they prep to execute the warrant, Pride pulls Brody aside. He got her confidential file -- she saw the bomber aboard a ship but froze and he detonated the bomb before she could react. Pride assures her he only cares about how ready she is now.
Before they go, Pride busts out his "mistress" Charmaine, an old handgun.
Abby calls Gibbs about the jet fuel -- the stuff in the tire treads is identical to what was on Agent Boyle's floormats. She thinks it means Titus is their guy.
Everyone storms Titus' house -- but they find him dead in the study, wearing a white admiral's jacket with a bullet to his forehead.
After examining the body, Wade says the scene was staged. They think the real killer is playing with them -- the killer wore Titus' jacket while killing Boyle to lead them to him.
In DC, Tony suggests McGee go update Hanlon, who could also be in danger.
Brody and Ellie find deposits in McClane's offshore accounts totaling $750,000.
Pride is upset that his friend isn't the man he thought he was.
From MTAC, Tony tells them that McClane's mother was dying at the time and his daughter had been diagnosed with lymphoma when he took the money. He was ready to tell the truth with re-election coming up, and so the killer offed him. They look into McClane's campaign money, assuming it was hush money. Hanlon was McClane's biggest contributor, but he's been in DC the whole time. He has a son, Spencer, who runs everything now, including their factory in New Orleans. And he'd have access to a private jet.
Meanwhile, McGee finishes briefing Josef Hanlon on the case. Looking at family photos, McGee gets suspicious of Spencer and starts to draw his gun, but Hanlon knocks him out.
Hanlon has been paying off McClane to protect his son. Spencer wanted to be a Marine but was rejected.
Tony reaches Hanlon's house and finds McGee knocked out, but OK. Hanlon is dead in the bathroom after taking pills. He called his son to warn him.
In New Orleans, they close in on Spencer's house, but he's not there. He has framed newsclippings of his killings. Thinking Spencer is freaked out and on the run, they plan to case every military bar in the city.
Spencer picks up a Navy woman at a bar and gets her to leave with him when he sees Brody and Lasalle walk in.
Walking down the street, he chloroforms his victim and drags her into a cemetery.
Brody calls from the bar -- the bartender saw Hanlon leave with the woman. When she mentions the cemetery is nearby, Ellie remembers marble dust in his apartment.
In the cemetery, Hanlon is about to kill his victim when Pride and Gibbs find him. Hanlon considers their commands to halt, but when it looks like he's going to go ahead with it, they shoot him.
The next day, back in the office, Brody starts to pack up. Pride tells her he asked the director to extend her assignment indefinitely. She's happy to stay, but requests her own Lego sculpture from Lasalle. He hands over a fleur de lis.
After lunch with Betts and Pride, Gibbs waits for Bishop to catch their plane back to DC. Brody and Lasalle pull up and take Pride to the next crime scene, with plans to stop for chicken on the way back.
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