1.03: "Seadog"

by Sammie

Why is it every teenager on this show is always having a party? Or necking? Or something? Next episode, it's another party. I don't know 'bout y'all, but I had actually had to open a book in school.

One fat LEO has contaminated Ducky's crime scene, and he is mad beyond belief. (It's quite funny.)

GIBBS. I haven't seen you this mad since you shoved that French flic off a cliff, Ducky!
GERALD. Wait, you shoved a French cop off a cliff?
DUCKY. There was a lake below.
GIBBS. Sixty feet below!

The two dead guys up the beach are drug dealers with tons of cash on them; the dead guy at the contaminated scene is a commander. The money carried on the dead guys? Forged. Kate, being Secret Service, quickly finds the flaw in the microprinting.

KATE. [DIGITALLY ENHANCES THE FLAW ON THE BILL] It's got one tiny flaw.
GIBBS. I'll be d--ned.
TONY. What?
KATE. You think a man that could find heroin in a horse's a-- could find this.
...
TONY. [READING...INCORRECTLY] 'United States'. What's wrong with that?
KATE. [DIGITALLY CIRCLES THE MISTAKE] Read it again.
TONY. 'UNTIED States'. Ah, so the forger was dyslexic.
KATE. Not just the forger. (Giggle.)

GIBBS. You disappoint me, Kate.
FORNELL. Me too, Gibbs. I thought she knew better than to trade down. [UNFOLDS HIS ARMS TO INDICATE GIBBS' DESK] Oh. Is this yours?
GIBBS. [SITS DOWN AND TURNS TO KATE] You need to seriously rethink your definition of the word 'friend'.
KATE. If I were in Marcy's shoes, I would have done the same thing. (GO KATE! You tell 'im.)
FORNELL. Careful, Agent Todd. You're running out of job options.

Here it all gets confusing. I got that the commander was caught in the crossfire between two rival drug dealing gangs, but after that...? The counterfeit money Gibbs PRETENDS is terrorist money in order to break the dealers, but he doesn't actually know they are tied to terrorists until Fornell shows up.

And I got that the dead bad guys were in a shootout, but with whom? Terrorists? Because that drug dealer's boat ended up being used by some terrorists. Oh, whatever.

There were two Australian ladies sailing along the Eastern coastline, and they happened to see two guys on a shot-up boat the day before. Tony was supposed to interview them, but he's going on and on about them grilling prawns and having champagne.

FORNELL. What the h-ll's he ranting about?
GIBBS. I should've known better.
Hold yer horses...Tony got a videotape of the marina where the boat was docked. Go Tony!
KATE. That's really smart, Tony.
TONY. Any guy could have done it. [POPS THE TAPE IN]
KATE. [ANNOYED] 'Guy'? Learn to shut up when you're ahead. (Hehe.)
...
ABBY. [ENTERING] Are we submitting to the Sundance Film Festival? (I love Abby!)
TONY. Best terrorist film category. (These two are so funny.)
ABBY. Sweet. So, if anyone's interested, the only prints off the boat I could match were the druggies in the cooler.
...
KATE. [TO ABBY] We got a match on the terrorist.
TONY. You didn't tell me that.
KATE. Who could get a word in?
ABBY. I ran those prints through the Bureau. I got nada.
GIBBS. You did not have access to the full database.
ABBY. [SHAKES A FINGER AT FORNELL...have to see it to see how cute it looks] You're holding out on us! That is not nice.

The team figures out that the terrorists are going to blow a node so that all the electricity goes out like in the August blackout in 2003. (Ok, look. It was dangerous to have power out that long, but in general, it was NOT THAT BAD! For the BILLIONTH TIME!) They shoot the bad guy before he can set off the detonators.

Gibbs, who has spent the entire episode trying to clear the Commander's name of association with drugs, finally succeeds. His redhead with the terrific car appear again.

______________________________________________________________

Crazy Credits

• from Kip:
  • [Gibbs' signing] was intended as an inside joke (we like to have fun, too) because Mark Harmon learned to sign working with Marlee Maitlin in "Reasonable Doubts."

  • Kate draws a picture of Gibbs in the episode. [Kate's drawings] are done by a free lance artist who also does story boards for us.

  • Printing on [the] bill was micro printing. We just continued to blow it up, it is hardly noticeable to naked eye and was by the way something that really happened--phony Franklins made in North Korea.

  • To explain the Navy Commander's involvement (we cringe when we have to explain the show--means we blew it--or if you lived in California the local tv stations did. They cut into the middle of the Teaser and never ran the Main title. Although they ran every commercial and promo.)

    The teaser showed gunshots off shore and an empty boat running ashore with bullet holes. Boat turned out to be the Commanders.

    Now to explain:
    * NCIS can only be involved in Naval related investigations
    *Navy Commander fishing at night is killed and body washes ashore. NCIS is called in by local cops to investigate.
    *Local cops, DEA and media assume since two dead drug dealers also washed ashore, the Navy Commander--who ran a local "Urban Lights" basketball program for kids--must have been involved in drug dealing and using the program as a front to deal.
    *Urban Lights Program is shut down by outraged community leaders.
    *Gibbs investigation leads him to believe Commander was simply an innocent bystander caught in crossfire between two drug dealers.
    *in process of solving murders he clears Commander's name.