2.19 - Conspiracy TheoryThis is a featured page

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 Episode #: 19 Air Date: April 12, 2005 Next Episode ►
Conspiracy Theory



Synopsis:
The team investigates a suicide case, believing that the main reason for her death is a nervous breakdown, but Ducky believes that she was actually murdered. FBI Special Agent Fornell helps them in the investigation. The traces lead them to a revelation that she was involved in a love triangle.

Episode Recap:
A young woman is in bed, when creepy voices start whispering "Jessica... Jess...i...ca... over here." The blanket is yanked off of her from the foot of the bed. She sits up, crying and trying to figure out where the sound is coming from, when she sees a figure in military battle gear standing near her bed with a knife.

The team is joking about Tony's sex life and his college nickname of "sex machine"; Gibbs comes in to tell them NCIS has got the call, the young woman is a Navy petty officer, Jessica Smith, aide to her commanding officer, and has reported an assault. Just before they leave, Tony tells Kate to check her e-mail; he has attached a copy of the photo of her on spring break in retaliation for her giving away his college nickname.

Local LEOs on the scene are happy to turn the case over to NCIS, but tell Gibbs that they don't think there actually was any assault. When they meet the girl, she is frantic and terrified. She tells Gibbs that she needs to talk to him, but not here - "they" are listening. Gibbs does not seem fazed by this, he advises her to turn on her radio so that "they" can't hear the conversation. Just as she seems about to talk, a man barges in to the room. One of the local LEOs apologizes and says that he insisted. He is Lt. Witten, her therapist. He has come to take her back to the psych ward at Bethesda. He tells Gibbs that she has paranoid delusions, and the voices and man by her bedside are common hallucinations for her. She is terrified of him, but he sedates her and takes her back to Bethesda.

As the team prepares to return Kate and Tony are still bickering about the photo.

The team background checks her, she is a model sailor. No history of any disciplinary problems, she has been Sailor of the Quarter three times. Her fiancé was killed in combat recently, which is apparently when her delusions started. She works in the Dept of Acquisitions and her commanding officer, Capt Vetter, however, is being investigated by the FBI. The team tries to pull the case file on him and - it's classified. And blocked from NCIS access.

The team goes to interview her - Tony has an encounter with a female patient in for nymphomania; but Jessica is sedated and therefore sleeping. Gibbs says he wants to talk to her when she wakes up. Witten again tries to put them off. He questions Gibbs' expertise; Gibbs says he just has a "BS meter." The FBI won't release the file when McGee enquires, but the team learns from Navy sources that Vetter was suspected of taking kickbacks to award contracts.

Late in the evening Jessica calls NCIS saying she wanted to talk to them, but when they get there, they find her dead, apparently she has hanged herself with her bedsheets. Ducky tells Witten off for the lax supervision of at risk patients. The other patients find out and Catherine (the nympho) looks shocked. The corpsman on duty has not seen or heard anything. He tells them it was Witten who classified Jessica as a non-suicide risk.

Tony is still winding Kate up about the photo and when Kate asks him what it's going to cost for him not to show the photo around, he jokingly asks if she still has her Catholic schoolgirl uniform.

Next morning, the team finds Fornell sitting at Gibbs' desk; they thought he was dead. They go for a meeting in the lift; Fornell tells Gibbs the authorities want him to back off investigating Vetter; in return he unofficially offers to help NCIS. Gibbs is taking payback on Fornell (Gibbs a fewer episodes earlier had helped him get out of a tight spot when he was being framed). But Gibbs will carry on investigating independently, of course.

So they turn up at Vetter's and Gibbs says he wants to hear Vetter's side. Vetter claims initially that he is being attacked for blowing the whistle on the corruption of military contracts. Vetter is clearly agitated. His wife appears and is in a hostile mood. Vetter says Jessica was like a daughter to him. McGee says that Jessica wanted to pass a message on to him, that the monsters were after her. Gibbs leaves, making the comment that the Vetter home is very nice, much nicer than he could have afforded as a marine.

However, back at the morgue, Ducky soon discovers Jessica has been smothered to death first and then hung up to make it look like a suicide. Abby gives a practical display of how it was done in her garage/workshop at NCIS. Abby uses an inflatable doll; Jessica was smothered with a pillow, then the rope was tied to the top of the iron-frame bed and the bed used as a fulcrum. But how come the corpsman never heard the noise of the bed?

Fornell goes to visit Gibbs in the famous boat-building basement. Fornell has discovered that the FBI thought they could get to Vetter through Jessica and forced her to co-operate, e.g by wearing a wire. However, they thought she was hiding something. Fornell is shocked to hear Jessica has been murdered.

Tony wonders if Jessica might have told Catherine Reynolds something. Kate is forced to be nice to Tony during the conversation, because of the blackmail dimension of the embarrassing photo. The corpsman has arrived and Gibbs interrogates him. He has not heard or seen anything suspicious. Now Gibbs tells him Jessica was murdered.

Now the corpsman has to admit he left his post for 40 minutes and was with Catherine Reynolds pursuing an illicit affair.

Gibbs and Kate go to Jessica's house; Gibbs has decided she was telling the truth about someone being in her bedroom; as they approach, they are shot at, but the shooter gets away and has shot the tyres on the NCIS car so he can't be pursued..In the house, Kate finds a radio receiver/broadcast setup hidden behind a ventilation grille in her house. This was producing the voices, triggered by a mobile phone signal and distorting the voice by repetition.
In the lab, Abby finds a speck of blood on the contraption; she hopes to find DNA.

McGee arrives to interview Reynolds and her friend Simons, who was also a confidante of Jessica's. Simons has been discharged, but McGee gets to see Reynolds, who agrees to answer questions if she can ask McGee some too. She straight away accuses McGee of being a virgin. Reynolds says Jessica was having an affair with Vetter and had asked Simons to deliver a message for her - that she loved him.

Tony has found Vetter and Witten were shipmates in 1999. Vetter has been brought into interrogation. He is hostile. Gibbs and Fornell confront him with the affair. He claims to have been at home with his wife at the time of the murder; but she has denied it. Did he kill her? Vetter says he loved her. Now he admits she caught him; though he had been embezzling to use the money to make a new life with her when he got divorced from his wife. The money, about $800k is in a storage locker.

The team prove this; but as they observe, Simons turns up and takes the money (which is now GPS tagged). Abby rings to say she has traced the blood (to Simons), but Gibbs (as he always does) has already guessed. Simons drives to the hospital and picks up...... Reynolds. Reynolds takes a gun out prior to throwing Simons out. Simons protests that without her (Simons), there was no way Jessica would have been re-admitted to the hospital - the voices were a trick. At this point though, NCIS is there and arrest the women.

The final scene shows Tony and Kate still bickering; Kate has photoshopped a picture of Tony as a topless cowboy; they both promise to delete simultaneously, but instead, they both send their attachments to Gibbs. The last shot has Gibbs about to open his e-mail.


New Character Development / Insights:
  • You see Gibbs show another side of himself when the girl calls for help and they are too late to save her. His is furious and mad at himself, even though it is not his fault. It just shows yet again that underneath his tough Marine exterior (there is no such thing as an ex-Marine), beats a warm, caring heart.
  • Ducky cares about his 'patients' in his own way, first time to see Ducky really angry with someone when he yells at the Lt. Commander in charge of the psychological ward.
  • McGee's conversation with the Commander in the hospital shows how efficient and confident he is really, when he is not around Gibbs or Tony.
  • The episode shows how strong the friendship between Gibbs and Fornell is becoming.
  • Gibbs has a master's degree in science.


Funny Moments:
  • In spite of the serious plot and heartbreaking crime, Conspiracy Theory is one of the funniest NCIS episodes.
  • How Gibbs pronounces McGee (Mug gee!)
  • That whole scene between Tony and the nurse - specially the expression on Tony's face when he discovered that the hot nurse who grabbed his ass was a patient!
  • The second scene between Katherine and Tony, when she says "it's hard" and he thinks she was talking about the death of her friend.
  • The team's reaction to Fornell sitting at Gibbs' desk and using his computer.
  • Tony telling Fornell that he was supposed to be dead and Fornell saying "I got better."
  • Gibbs asking if Fornell is comfortable, and getting answered: "Not really, there is no lumbago support."
  • Fornell telling Gibbs he should have a password for his computer, Gibbs showing him his gun and saying: "That's what this is for." (Gibbs doesn't lock his front door, why should he have a password on his computer ?)
  • Gibbs and McGee go to interview Vetter, and they both end up sitting together on a rather small loveseat, the glare McGee receives and his reaction, trying to scoop away from Gibbs is hilarious.
  • The "several" purposes of the doll Abby used for the mock-up of Petty Officer Smith in the bed.
  • Abby calling Gibbs "my silverhaired fox".
  • Tony stealing the manual of Abby's multi purpose doll.
  • McGee not hearing Gibbs with the earphones on, Gibbs pushing them out from his ears.
  • Opening of the scene with Fornell in Gibbs' basement.
  • The scene between Tony and McGee after Gibbs thought that listening to the group therapy sessions was McGee's idea.
  • Abby trying to explain a 13 part movie to Gibbs and he is amused when she could not explain why the guy in the movie kills.
  • Gibbs leaving Abby telling her to call when she finds something else and she calls before he even leaves the lab telling him she found something else.
  • Gibbs kissing Abby's finger with the owie! (So cute!).
  • McGee being intimidated by Catherine and insisting on reopening the door to her room after she closes it.
  • The whole question and answer session between Catherine and McGee. Catherine: "Are you a virgin?" McGee (with a cute expression): "Yes". Catherine (laughing): Are you sure? and McGee answers: "Last time I checked." And then later asking him what type of underwear he was wearing.
  • Tony and Kate commenting on Gibbs and Fornell interrogating Vetter. Tony asking if it's going to be good cop bad cop and Kate saying it was going to be more like bad cop scary cop. Tony asks if she could tell which is which and Kate says: You're going to have to ask their ex-wives that."
  • The whole interrogation of Vetter scene and the interactions between Gibbs and Fornell.
  • Tony's reaction when he discovers that Catherine had a girlfriend.
  • Tony's reaction to his photoshopped photo.
  • Tony and Kate fleeing when they discover that they had both sent their photos to Gibbs.
  • The expression on Gibbs face when he sees the photos.
  • Gibbs calling Tony Sex- Machine.
  • Kate tries to kiss up to Tony so he would delete the picture.
  • Tony mouthing, "I don't believe in coincidences" at the same time Gibbs was saying it!



Trivia:
  • Tony and Kate playing *** for tat against each other: Tony kept jibing Kate about the wet t-shirt contest threatening to spread it around, and Kate got Abby to do some Photoshop on some gay hulks putting Tony's head on one. In the end each said they'd delete their handiwork, however, Gibbs ended up being mailed with each other's photos making Gibbs chuckle as we see Kate and Tony rush out of the squadroom together.
  • The woman was admitted to a psych ward. They would have taken away her cell phone when they took her in, no way would she have been able to call Gibbs.
  • In this episode, the murdered officer was under the treatment of a psychologist, who worked in and ran a ward of a mental facility, and handled her medication. A psychologist can't actually dispense medicine -- the actual term is psychiatrist.



Recurring Cast:
    Guest Starring:
        • Kevin Quigley (William the Truthteller)
        • Jonathan Redford (Corpsman Timothy Morgan)
        • Robert Ray Manning, Jr. (Officer Alex Taylor)
        • Jennifer Dundas (Lynn Simons)
        • Molly Hagan (Audrey Vetter)
        • Dan Ziskie (Captain Vetter)
        • Brigid Brannagh (Catherine Reynolds)
        • Dean McDermott (Lt. Allan Witten)
        • Hilary Salvatore (P.O. Jessica Smith)
        Written By: Directed By:
        • Jeff Woolnough




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        quiltbunnyr Who killed Jessica? 1 Jul 2 2011, 9:19 AM EDT by ncisfan2310
        Thread started: Jan 26 2011, 11:27 AM EST  Watch
        Catherine Reynolds can't have done it - she was the corpsman's alibi for the time of the murder. Simons had been discharged 3 weeks earlier.
        1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
        Keyword tags: Conspiracy Theory Episode 2.19 conspiracy theory episode guide NCIS season 2
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