1.19: "Dead Man Talking"

by DC

opening scene: A fire alarm goes off, and the security guard complains that it's the workers giving him trouble again. He goes to use the elevator and finds a man dead and disemboweled inside.

It's NCIS Special Agent Christopher Pacci. He was shot in the neck and bled out quickly, making it into the elevator after pulling the fire alarm. He died quickly in the elevator, and then the killer cut him open looking for something. Gibbs feels it's his fault, because Chris asked him for help while he was chasing Jack Curtin in the last episode ["UnSEALed"] and didn't have time to discuss the cold case with him right away. The cold case got smoking hot - Chris had McGee pull files on a car accident report from Norfolk, and he swallowed a memory chip from his NCIS-issue camera, hoping Ducky would find it during his autopsy.

Gibbs and the team, including McGee, take over the case. The camera has surveillance photos of a woman who turns out to be a rich woman named Amanda Reed. The car accident report is on a Lieutenant Commander Hamilton Voss. Kate's disbelief about Voss being burned to death spurs Gibbs to have Ducky look at the autopsy report again, and then to have Abby retest the tissue samples. He and Kate will take first shift in staking out Reed's home, and Tony and McGee will do a shift together. Kate feels sorry for McGee until Gibbs offers to assign her with Tony; she promptly is fine with the arrangement. Tony loves the stakeout idea.

Gibbs, Ducky, and Kate go to the memorial service for Chris. Morrow had asked Gibbs to give Chris' eulogy, but he said it didn't feel right. Morrow gives it instead. Right then, Tony enjoys the stakeout - he watches, then makes contact and flirts with Amanda Reed (as "Stringfellow") while trying to find a prank to play on Kate. Abby has some interesting results - the blood type of the victim of the car crash does not match Voss's. He's alive somewhere, Tony complains, living it up. But not for long, if Gibbs has anything to do with it.

Kate does the typical female navigator thing when she gives Gibbs directions to the lab which tested Voss's remains. She reminds him that people make mistakes; Gibbs counts her backseat driving as one of those mistakes. She smiles and points out that she is in the front seat. Laurie, the technician who tested Voss's remains and a high school classmate of Voss's, died in a car crash two years ago. Abby has the results from the fingerprints - (HIGHLIGHT BETWEEN THE ~ FOR THE ENDING) ~ Amanda Reed is Lieutenant Commander Hamilton Voss himself. But Tony is not alerted until he's managed to have a make-out session with Reed. ~ Reed tries to escape and runs straight into Gibbs' gun. Reed brings up a gun at him, and he fires. Kate teases Tony about Reed.
 

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Crazy Credits

• Tony's made-up name when he meets Reed is "Stringfellow"; Stringfellow Hawke is the main character of "Airwolf", a show created by the creator of "NCIS". (Tony's love of helicopters, which we learn in "Vanished", might also come from "Airwolf" - Airwolf was a special helicopter.)

• Listen for the cold cases in the episodes after Chris Pacci (Tim Kelleher)'s death. Nearly every cold case Gibbs picks up is one of Pacci's. It's like the guy never solved a thing while he was working at NCIS.

• McGee mentions a retired special agent Clay Williamson. In real life, Clay Williamson is one of the assistants to the producers.

• Some might recognize the actress who plays Amanda Reed/Lt. Cmdr. Voss: Jamie Luner, who was "The Profiler" in the last years of the show.

• Frederic Lane (Capt. Graves) is credited with Harmon on "From the Earth to Moon".