1.05: "The Curse"

by Sammie

Hunter finds a drop tank...with a body inside. Wow, a lot of people die around that Washington area. Time to move.

GIBBS: You [KATE] pick up Ducky. Tony, you gas the truck.
TONY: Gibbs, you know, most agencies have people that do that sort of thing.
GIBBS: Mhm. So do we.

The guy inside is a lieutenant; the pilot is a Lt. Comdr. Farnsworth. Tony identifies the huge torpedo-looking this as a F-14 fuel tank turned into a cargo pod; Kate's impressed. Tony has been a NCIS agent for two years at the time of the episode. Hiring him, according to Gibbs, "seemed like a good idea at the time."

Hm...with how honking huge that pod is, wouldn't somebody have noticed it earlier? I mean, it's not like it was hidden deep underground.

Back at headquarters, they cut open the pod...and Abby, of course: "Oh, sailor on the half shell!" They ID the guy - Lt. Mark Schilz. Not the pilot (Farnsworth), not the RIO (Lt. Lynch). And Schilz was married.

Kate's pulled Schilz's service record. He had dishonorable discharge - charged in absentia with stealing $1.2 mil from the Navy carrier he was on. It's not in the pod, Gibbs replies - otherwise "Abby'd be up here screaming 'lotto'." Love Abby. Ducky rambles about the body - seems the body got a lot of post-morten fractures. We also learn wife #3 clobbered Gibbs with a bat four years ago, and he lay on a table (as Ducky stitched him), a table right next to a Marine who died from being buried in an ant hill. EW.

(Interesting note: First, the CBS dossier on Gibbs mixes up Ex #2 and Ex #3. See also "Eye Spy" for Ex #2. Second, two fans on two different boards have noted that Ducky calls her "your...wife," implying Gibbs was still married four years ago when this episode went into first run. By "Kill Ari, Part I", it's been six years. We are told in that Season 3 premiere Gibbs had a fling with another woman - six years ago.)

Kate is sure the coffee Gibbs drinks has to be decaf - but nope. Hi-test.

Kate heads out to interview the widow, Mary, who has remarried and is now Mrs. (Randy) Wiles. Tony comes in right at the same time Kate rushes out.

TONY. Was it something I said?
GIBBS. Not yet.

Mary tells Kate about her late husband; they were genuinely happy. He managed to swing a phone call to her the day their daughter was born (also the day he disappeared) - a big, big deal in 1994. Because he was dishonorably discharged, she never got benefits. She doesn't care for the money for herself, but she'd like it for their daughter. Says her second husband helped her move on.

Abby is reporting on the pod - it seems somebody futzed with the pod, loosening its hooks so that it would fall easily from the F-14 as it flew - so whoever was working on the flight deck for Farnsworth's plane was in on it. Tony also reports to Gibbs that the assistant disbursing officer to Schilz was an Ensign Wiles. Kate is puzzled - Randy Wiles? "[Mary] didn't tell me Randy Wiles was the assistant dispersing officer. She said he was her husband."

Tony and Owens were waiting at Norfolk while Kate and Gibbs go to talk to Randy Wiles. He left the Navy - the Navy didn't trust him. He obviously doesn't have the cash - otherwise he wouldn't work two jobs and just make it by.

Gibbs arrives in Norfolk and chows down Owens for just convicting Schilz in absentia; but when Kate starts referring to suspects, Gibbs corrects her - Schilz's accomplices. Kate is determined to solve the case, but she wants to exonerate Schilz - so his widow and his daughter can get benefits from the Navy.

The former petty officer Erin Toner (Melora Hardin), who helped in disbursing, is a little witch. I'm glad Kate messed up her drive - she walks in and calls her right when she's swinging. Haha. They ask how she got in, and she pulls back her suit jacket to reveal her badge and her gun. "I showed these at the door." That's right. Toner says she hit the lottery; that's how she made her money.

Gibbs thinks something was up between Owens and Toner while he was the agent afloat, but Owens denies it. He's mad until Gibbs points out that he should have investigated and reported that Toner was having something going on with P.O. Martinez...who left the Navy right at the same time Toner (and Wiles) did...which was when Schilz disappeared. Owens is now much more cooperative.

And what else? P.O. Martinez was the plane captain in charge of Farnsworth's plane. Abby's also found orange hairs along Schilz's clothes, right where Ducky found a lot of post-mortem cracks on the body.

Back at DC, Owens is supposed to be flying out, but now he's determined to fix the one blot on his record. He and Tony are tasked with searching for Martinez, long into the night. Next morning when Kate arrives, he's the only one still awake - Gibbs and Tony are out like lights...until Kate passes Gibbs' desk with her coffee, and he wakes up like a lion at feeding time. "Coffee?" Poor Kate. He just up and gulps down HERS.

Kate calls the lottery - Erin Toner only hit for $37,000. She stole the money. Then the news pops up - Martinez was murdered. (Told you Toner was a witch!) Gibbs sends her up to work Toner and bring her voluntarily to Washington; Kate tries, but Toner is suspicious. What is she working?

KATE. I want to exonerate Lieutenant Schilz so that his wife and his daughter can get the money due them.
ERIN. Tell them to play the lottery. (WITCH!)
KATE. I can call you back to the Navy, Petty Officer Toner.
ERIN. The hell you can.
KATE. These are orders recalling you to active duty as a material witness in a capital offense. All I gotta do is ink 'em, honey, and your a** is back in the Navy.

They show her two animations...the second being the way they are sure it happened. She and Martinez surprised Schilz right after his phone call to his wife and his daughter, killed him, stuffed him in an orange mailbag, and dragged him out to the plane...the reason no one noticed? Toner turned heads all the time - they were too busy looking at her. Stuffed Schilz into a pod, Martinez loosened the hooks, and the pod fell away while the pilot was over Maryland.

And then Toner killed Martinez in Mexico. They show her that they matched her fingerprint to the one of the gun which killed Martinez...in Mexico and threaten to extradite her.

OWENS: You know, in Hawaii, it takes forever to get anything from the federales.
TONY: Same way here.
OWENS: Nooooo, no, no, guys, don't tell me that - that fingerprint match was faked? OK. You guys are crazy.

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Crazy Credits

• BLOOPER: The RIO was a Lt. Lynch, but at one point is referred to as "Ensign" Lynch.

• Travis Aaron (Lt. Mark Schilz) is credited in Mark Harmon's movie "Local Boys".

• Oddly, Gibbs brings Abby coffee in this episode; not a Caff-Pow.

• from Kip: DPB is using crew member names as characters in many of the NCIS episodes. They all get a kick out of it.

  This episode's characters:
  Mark Schilz: in the episode, the deceased; in real life, a producer.
  Farnsworth: in the episode, the pilot; in real life, (first name Diamond) is the stunt coordinator. He also stunt coordinated for "JAG", "NCIS"'s mother show, and doubled for Scott Bakula in Mr. Bellisario's series "Quantum Leap".
  Richard Owens: in the episode, the NCIS agent stationed at Hawaii; in real life, the post-production supervisor.