'NCIS' recap - 'The Searchers'

Two boys are snooping through someone’s garage when they spot the body of someone they call Old Man Hawkins.

Meanwhile, Tony and Tim are coming into work discussing a cat that followed Tony home. Tim is pretty sure Tony doesn’t like cats, but Tony tells him he will get rid of him but there is something he likes about him. Tim then asks about his fish and finds out Kate and Ziva are safe in the bathroom. Tony then notices Ellie nervously looking at a folder on her desk. It’s her field evaluation report and she’s afraid to open it. Tony and Tim assure her not to have expectations since Tim got a 63, Kate got a 60, Tony got a 58, and Ziva…refused to tell. Ellie opens it to discover she got an 82, much to the boys’ dismay. Gibbs comes to tell them about the body.

The deceased is identified as George Hawkins, who was a master sergeant who retired as operational chief. Gibbs notices two gun shot wounds and that the victim is holding something. Tony comes over and takes a photograph of his hand before they discover a dog tag with the name CJ Kent, who they believe may be the killer. However, Tim finds information that a man by that name died in the Vietnam War.

In the squad room, Tim and Ellie are working since Tony is still processing the garage. He apparently needed some alone time due to his “cat issues.” Ellie asks Tim how they want to give the case update since she is still riding on a high of getting a great score on her evaluation. Gibbs comes in and Tim tells him that Kent was Hawkins’ squad leader in Vietnam and when he was killed by an ambush in Vietcong, only four bodies from the attack were found, but not his. There is also no record of his dog tags being found. They also found that Hawkins had been in touch with Kent’s daughter, Alice Kent Staley.

Alice tells Gibbs that Hawk, as everyone called him, watched over her growing up after her father did. While she didn’t know Hawk had her dad’s dog tags, she did know that Hawk was doing research to try and find her father. It consumed him in his later life to try and find information.

Ducky tells Ellie that Hawkins was dying and had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just a month earlier. He also tells her that the bullets were .38 caliber and came from a revolver. Before she leaves, he begins to talk to her about her probie evaluation as he has done in the past. She is excited, until he tells her Gibbs gives people low scores to push them and that he believes they will do well. Ellie is stunned and when asked about a high school, Ducky says she may as well “turn in your badge.” Not realizing she got a high score, Ducky and Palmer have a chuckle.

Tony is watching one of the videos Hawk made to Alice’s daughter, Greta, about her granddad. Tim, meanwhile, is going through files. Tony begins going on about friendship and Tim thinks he means him, until Tony shows him photos of the cat he named Rick Blaine from Casablanca. Tim goes back to looking at records indicating that Hawkins made investments in his search for Kent’s remains.

Abby tells Gibbs she has big news and that the dog tag that was found did not belong to Kent. It had been made on a graphotype machine and someone weathered it with hydrochloric acid. The tag is a fake and the blood on the tag is not Kent’s blood type so Hawkins had to know the tag was not his. Abby also discovered the blood trail found on the floor came from Hawkins crawling across the floor to reach the dog tag on the table. Gibbs surmises Hawkins was sending a message.

Tony comes into the squad room running late because his cat sat on his alarm clock. Tim is trying to find out who made the fake dog tag. Tim tells Tony that he sent him a list of charities and private investigators that Hawkins used during his research. Tony takes the PI’s but when Ellie is asked about taking the charities, she seems to not hear them. But they find out she is “silently agonizing” and then she asks them why they didn’t tell her the truth about her score. They admit it isn’t their place and Tony tells her that she has to follow their boss’ lead just as Gibbs comes in. He tells Ellie to look into the missing remains of Kent, but she’s not sure at first.

In MTAC, Ellie is on intercom with one of the searchers who tried to find Kent’s remains. She shows Ellie pictures of items that were found, but none belonged to Kent. Ellie finds out that the Vietcong knew about “no man left behind” and could have moved the body.

In Abby’s lab, Gibbs sees her rescuing her favorite pen because Hawkins made her realize how important saving things were. Hawkins had saved a lot of things, including an envelope that had rust particles inside similar to the dog tag. Abby managed to use part of the logo to find the sender of the envelope, which was Blue Summit Travel.

Tim and Tony interview the man who works at Blue Summit Travel, but he’s never heard of Hawkins. While searching, Tony finds a notepad written by someone named Henry, whose handwriting matches the envelope. He’s Henry Caldwell and he was fired earlier that week. The man goes to get the address but Tony distracts him with questions about cats. Before the conversation is over, Tim tells them Abby already got the address since he had called her. Tony is stunned and Tim reminds him she “is the master.”

Ellie and Gibbs are at the address and they see Caldwell’s car. She wonders where the guys are and he tells her they are on their way. Caldwell comes out and when Gibbs shows his badge, he runs from them. Gibbs tells Ellie to cover the back and they begin to try and catch him. However, Ellie hears a crash and runs back inside to check on Gibbs. Unfortunately, this decision allows Caldwell to get away when Gibbs finds her first.

In the squad room, Ellie tells the guys with an edge in her voice that no one has seen Caldwell since his escape. Tim found information on the man’s laptop that he was using a charity known as Lost Heroes Alliance in order to contact families hoping to find missing loved ones and tell them he found their dog tags. Ellie tells them she found that Caldwell called in a prescription for Insulin since he has Type 1 diabetes and he hasn’t picked it up. Tony and Tim go to the pharmacy and Ellie goes to apologize to Gibbs, but he tells her it’s okay. She tells him she hasn’t found anything else about Kent’s remains and Gibbs tells her to keep trying.

Ellie is on the floor in the morgue watching one of Hawk’s videos. He tells a story about Kent finding a couple murdered by the Vietcong and their son left alive. Kent stopped his men so they could give his parents a proper burial and he shows a photo of Kent with the child. The doors open and Ellie turns off the video. Ducky comes in and sees the photo, which sends him back to being in Vietnam during an exchange post with the U.S. military. Ducky is about to go home but asks Ellie if she wants to talk. She tells him that she screwed up and he reminds her that even when there are things going wrong, she can still accomplish something, but she’s unsure. She looks at the photo of the boy and something causes her to zoom in on something he is wearing.

Tim is sitting in the pharmacy when Tony comes in agitated. He tells him Rick Blaine escaped and he is upset, wondering why the cat would leave. Tim thinks maybe the cat wanted some freedom. He wonders if male cats could be in heat when they see Caldwell come in. Tony and Tim place him under arrest.

Gibbs is interrogation with Caldwell, who apologizes for running. He tells Gibbs that Hawkins confronted him about the blood type on the dog tag and said he’d call the police. Caldwell is stunned when he finds out Hawkins is dead and tells him he only worked with the clients while his partner did the work with the dog tags. His partner’s name is Todd Price from Blue Summit Travel.

Tony and Tim can’t find Price, but they did find a 38 caliber Special revolver in the place where he lived. Tim is unable to locate him by phone, but then finds out that Price paid cash for a flight to Vietnam right after their visit. Price was apparently getting half the money from Caldwell like he said. Abby calls Tim to tell him the ballistics from the revolver match the victim.

While Tim is making flight reservations for Tony and Gibbs, Ellie comes in with a lead on Kent’s remains. She realized the necklace in the picture matched a picture found by the searchers in Vietnam and wants to go to Vietnam despite him saying no. She wants to be able to prove herself and Gibbs asks if that was what she did with Caldwell. Ellie mentions her evaluation and Gibbs gives the guys a look. They rush off as Gibbs tells Ellie the score meant she did well, but she is still upset and knows Gibbs wants to say more than he is. She assumes he’s been going easy on her since the beginning and leaves upset.

Tony and Gibbs are in Vietnam where they meet with the colonel working with the searchers. She is looking forward to using the work Ellie did to try and find Kent’s remains. She tells them that there are always dog tags being made, and some even belong to service members still alive. There may be no way to trace the graphotype machine used.

Back in the lab with Abby and Tim, she is telling him to jump up and down to try and get him to stay awake, but he has pulled two all-nighters. Jimmy comes in with two Caf-Pows and Abby tells Tim to take a sip. She asks Jimmy to stay so she can give him some information to see if it sounds logical to someone who is more awake. They tell him Price went back to Da Nang all the time to make dog tags and Tim begins to feel more awake thanks to the drink. Jimmy asked them why Price didn’t just ship the machine to the U.S. and they realize he had to have had another business in Vietnam. After finding a hidden account through the travel agency, they realize he has a girlfriend named Phan Thi Kim in Vietnam.

Tony and Gibbs arrive at the girlfriend’s house to find Price. As they arrest him, he tries to tell them the murder was self-defense. Gibbs tells him no defense is enough for killing a Marine. Gibbs gets a call from Colonel Leland.

The boy in the photograph was Ky Van Tu and he had left the flower at the site because it was a sacred symbol and he wanted the area where Kent died to be blessed. She introduces him to the boy, who is now an old man and he tells Gibbs he wanted to thank Kent for burying his parents and had followed him. He had seen Kent’s body and buried him beside his parents; not knowing Kent’s family was looking for him. Ky shakes Gibbs hand and tells him it was his way of honoring and thanking Kent.

While we see a video of Hawkins once again, scenes show Colonel Leland and others digging the ground where Kent is buried and they find his dog tags. Gibbs brings them home and gives them to Alice and her daughter, who thanks Gibbs.

In the squad room, Ellie is on the floor working after Tony and Tim have left. Gibbs tells her she was right and he had gone easy on her because he had already lost two people at her desk and he thought he was doing something wrong. Ellie tells him he is fine and that Tony and Tim are great agents. She wants him to push her so Gibbs says okay. He starts by telling her to get off the floor and sit in her chair. Ellie does and she smiles as the screen goes poof.

Image courtesy of INFphoto.com