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Worst Nightmare Recap
◄ Back to 8.02 Worst Nightmare
In a middle school classroom, a teacher is lecturing about John Milton poem Paradise. He wakes a sleeping student with a blast from a oft-used air-horn, then returns his lecture only to see the entire class falling asleep. In a moment, he collapses as well.
Roll the opening credits.
McGee enters the squadroom, leading a tour of the facilities for three new interns from Waverly University. Ziva and Tony make comments from across the room before Tony approaches the group. McGee introduces him to the group. "This our senior agent, Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo" One of the students stares at him and murmurs "Ve-sat-di-na..." One of her compatriots explains that she uses acronyms of names to help her memory. Tony is not amused. Ziva joins the group. She and Tony begin to explain that Gibbs doesn't like (or want) interns, when Gibbs surprises them. "They'll be here all week," he says, and hands out assignments. The girl, Sarah Knox, is assigned to Autopsy. Michael Seelus is assigned to Forensics, and McGee offers to take Conrad Zuse. Time to gear up -- there's been some kind of gas leak at Quantico.
The school is buzzing with activity. DiNozzo and McGee (tailed by Zuse) are sent to check out the ventilation system. Gibbs is surprised to see Ducky at the scene since there's no body. Seems that Ducky's intern was "quite persuasive in her request to see some field work." An excited Knox joins Ducky then begins to relate a tale of when she had traveled to the Netherlands. Ducky offers his arm to her, and they wander down the hallway leaving a bemused Gibbs behind.
In the school basement, a gas cylinder has obviously been connected to the ventilation system, with the valve opened by a timer. McGee lectures Zuse about crime scene protocol. Zuse is not thrilled. "I thought I was going to get out of school this week, not go straight back to one." Zuse is quickly bored. "Look," he says, "I'm a finance major. This really isn't my speed." McGee is surprised that Zuse would sign up to be an intern. "I spent the summer on my fathers yacht, and forgot to register for classes. This was the only class that fulfilled my public affairs requirement." McGee is skeptical. Zuse finishes the story: "It's the only class that didn't meet on Fridays." DiNozzo just chuckles.
In the classroom, the teacher can't believe that this has happened. Ziva and Gibbs are interviewing him when they realize that one student is missing. Zoom in on a school backpack left underneath a desk, with "Rebecca" written on the side. Phoof!
In the squadroom, Tony confirms that the missing girl is 13-year-old Rebecca Mason, who lives on base. Her parents are both deployed on ships "in the Gulf", and she's living with her grandfather. Tony is proud of himself: He's arranged for the grandfather to come to NCIS right away, has McGee searching the base and has sent Ziva to Rebecca's house to coordinate with the FBI. Gibbs gives him a cold look, and Tony becomes concerned. "Did I miss something?" "No." "Overstep my authority?" "No." "Well, what's wrong?" Gibbs looks over at the plasma showing Rebecca's picture, and says "That's not enough."
In the NCIS conference room, Walter Mason (the grandfather) throws his fishing hat onto the table. He's concerned; doesn't understand how Rebecca could have been kidnapped from the middle of a Marine base. Her mother just received an inheritance, but he doesn't know how much it was. "Me and Becca, we were going to go fly fishing this weekend. How many 13 year old girls do you know that would give up a weekend to go fly-fishing with their grandpa?" She means the world to Mason. He notes that he used to be an insurance actuary, and knows that federal agents all have about the same success rate at resolving child abductions, and that it isn't good. Just then, his phone rings. It's a satellite call, he says, and that it could be the girl's father. He answers the call, and Gibbs leaves him so that they can talk in private.
Cut to Abby's lab. She's explaining her drastic ground rules to her new intern. He's not allowed to touch -anything- (not even Bert the Hippo) without Abby's express, written consent. If she accidentally turns her back on him, he is required to immediately move back into her line of sight. Intern Seelus tries to make a joke out of this: "Why don't I just wear bells?" Abby is taken aback. "That's a really good idea!" She turns away for a moment and continues. "I'm sorry about this. Darren worked out, but I've just had, problems, with people that have been assigned to my lab." She pulls a string of cowbells out of a drawer and returns back to Seelus. "It'll just be better this way" she asserts, and holds out the bells. Seelus looks at the bells, and refuses to put them on. Abby insists. Just then, Gibbs hustles into the lab.
Abby reports. No fingerprints on the gas cylinder or mechanism, but she was able to highlight the print of a work boot from the tank. The gas inside the cylinder was a mystery -- Abby's never seen anything like it before. (As she's explaining this to Gibbs, she realizes that she's turned her back on the intern. With an arm motion, she moves him back into her line of sight, and returns to her explanation.) "I've searched every chemical registry known to man. This is some sort of novel formula, which means..." "That we're looking for a chemist", Gibbs finishes.
Back in the squadroom, McGee is working with his intern. He hands Conrad a stack of files and tells him to search for any criminal records. Conrad is incredulous. "You already did! On the computer.. I saw you!" McGee has no pity. "Well, if you want to learn the fundamentals, Conrad, you need to do it by yourself. By hand, several times." Conrad rolls back to his desk, exasperated. Ziva chuckles, and Tony grins. "Now you understand," Tony beams at McGee, "Feels good, doesn't it!" McGee just looks back at him as Gibbs arrives.
No response to the BOLO, and the FBI hasn't found anything at Rebecca's house. Gibbs tells them that they're looking for someone with a chemistry background, so McGee and Ziva start working that angle. Tony is still trying to reach the parents, but the ship that they're on is still on radio silence. Gibbs realizes that the grandfather has lied to him (had said that the parents had already called). Mason has already left the Navy Yard. The phone line to the house has been forwarded to another number -- to a Skype number, that received a call twenty minutes earlier. McGee says the audio files are still on the local server's cache memory, and is able to play the call. We hear Mason pretending to talk to his son, while a heavily disguised voice demands a ransom of $500,000 in cash in one hour, and tells Mason where to meet. The team takes off, leaving intern Conrad with a serious look on his face.
The team arrives at the rendezvous point (an alley) ten minutes after the deadline. They quietly approach and spot a pair of feet wearing work boots sticking out from behind a garbage dumpster. A man lies there, dead. It's not Mason. Phoof!
Back in the squadroom, they've identified the dead guy. No chemistry background, but he was known as a 'gun for hire' and his boots matched the print found by Abby. Video surveillance from Quantico shows he entered the base showing false identification. McGee arrives with Conrad in tow. They've been checking Mason's background. As Conrad passes around folders, McGee explains that Mason's former employer (the insurance company) was simply an empty shell. His tax return references bank accounts that don't exist. The list goes on and on, he says. If he was a retired spook, he wasn't "one of ours", no-ones ever heard of him. Just then Gibbs phone rings. MTAC reports that a call from Mason is coming in. Gibbs and McGee head off to MTAC. Conrad looks at Ziva and Tony. "You guys are good, I'll give you that. But you guys could be making a -killing- in the private sector." Tony is not pleased. "Then who'd catch all the bad guys?" Conrad doesn't have an answer.
In MTAC, McGee sees that Mason's call is being routed through military satellites, using technology that Mason shouldn't be able to access. Mason comes on the line. "It was self defense", he said. He couldn't trust NCIS, so he went to the ransom drop himself. The kidnapper lied, and tried to kill Mason. Gibbs tries to get him to come in, but Mason declines. Ominously, he says (in a line delivered as only William Devane can do) "I don't have a lot of time, so let me be as clear as I can be. There is not a force on this planet that's going to stop me from finding my granddaughter. You have to work within the law. I am a bit more flexible." Mason hangs up the phone.
Cut to Autopsy. Jimmy Palmer (dressed in jacket and tie instead of his normal scrubs) briskly walks in. Ducky and intern Sarah Knox have interrupted their autopsy of the kidnapper to sing a chorus of "Scotland the Brave". Palmer has just returned from a morning dental appointment, and is speechless at first. Ducky introduces Sarah and notes that her ancestors had come from a small coastal town north of Edinburgh. "Scotland! That's great" Jimmy oozes; he's clearly jealous of Sarah position as an assistant. "When are you leaving?" "Hopefully never", she tells him, and says that the crime scene was very interesting. Jimmy is not reassured when Ducky praises Sarah's proficiency. She smiles at Jimmy, "I just feel that the dead have so much to tell us if we just listen."
Gibbs walks in. Ducky says that the man died of a broken neck, but that there are extensive injuries all over the body. They look like they were inflicted by someone, presumably Mason, defending themselves against a determined attack by the man. The defense was that of a well-trained man. Ducky summarizes. "Certainly, with the skill Mason exhibited, if his intent were to harm he could have ended the fight a great deal sooner. You can tell he was extensively trained. What concerns me -- Look at the damage he wrought playing defense. I'd hate to see what he's capable of on offense."
Back in the squadroom, Tony is talking to someone that's called in on the tip line. When the caller says that she's clairvoyant, Tony quickly hangs up. "You got anything good, mini-Gee?" he asks intern Conrad. When Conrad starts to explain that he had other plans for the evening, Tony cuts him off. Ziva hasn't found anything either, but Tim hustles in. He's finished processing the kidnapper's car and found a DVD. He urgently calls Gibbs to see, and they fire up the plasma. It's a brief video showing the kidnapped girl, Rebecca, crying and asking to be let go. A newspaper with that day's headlines is shown. "It's proof of life," Ziva muses. Conrad is visibly affected. "That was really real," he says. "As real as it gets", Tony solemnly agrees.
As the video finishes playing, a virus from the DVD attacks McGee's computer and sends out a packet of data that contains his phone number. A moment later, McGee's phone rings. "Put it on the speaker phone," Gibbs orders. We hear the same heavily disguised voice. He's angry because one of his men has died. The price is now one million dollars, and NCIS has 24 hours to comply. The call doesn't last long enough to trace, but McGee detects that someone else was also tracing the call. (Mason!)
They head to the address of the second trace point. The door lock has been broken, and they burst into the mobile home. A dead man (not Mason) is inside, gagged and bound to a chair. Jumper cables are nearby, along with a picture of the girl -- it looks as if the man may have been tortured. "This was not self-defense," Ziva observes. Phoof!
Back at NCIS, Tony and Gibbs are climbing the stairs to MTAC. No identification of the body yet, and no trace of Mason. Jimmy Palmer, still in his coat and tie, try to bring them up to date but Gibbs already knows everything that Jimmy tells him. Jimmy's clearly uncomfortable with Sarah's presence in Autopsy, and he has nowhere else to go. In MTAC, the parents are calling. They don't have a million dollars; the recent inheritance was only half that amount. In an aside, Tony notes that it will take NCIS two days to get that much money, but Gibbs reminds him that they don't have that much time. The father is trying to figure out what could have happened. "Why did the kidnappers double the ransom? What has my father done now?" He goes on to explain that he knew that the stories his father told about being an insurance actuary weren't true, but the family knew not to ask. If his mother knew anything, she took the secret to her grave. There's a lock-box under the floor in his father's bedroom; he hopes it may contain something useful. The mother vows vengeance if anything happens to their daughter.
Cut to the evidence locker. Gibbs is admitted; we see intern Conrad sweeping the floor outside. Gibbs pulls a specific evidence box off the shelf and empties its contents onto a table: it had contained several bundles of money. Conrad sees the money through the fence. "That's for the ransom, right?" Gibbs just looks back at him. Conrad withdraws the question. "How about we just pretend that I was never born. Kind of like we're pretending that I'm actually learning something." He goes back to sweeping. Gibbs begins to put the money into a duffel bag.
With a sigh, Gibbs decides to answer. "Yeah, it's for the ransom." "And you can just do that? You can just take the money like that?" "Can in two days." Conrad thinks about that for a moment, then tries again. "You can get in a lot of trouble..." Gibbs gives him one of those "don't be stupid" looks. "So why do it?" Conrad asks. Gibbs zips up the duffel bag. "It's my job." "Your job is to stick your neck out?" Gibbs puts the empty box back on the shelf. "Building catches fire," he says, "Most people run away. Some people run in." Conrad reacts. "It's not safe to run into a burning building." "Nope," Gibbs agrees, "It's not." Duffel bag in hand, he leaves the evidence locker and heads to the elevator. Conrad follows. "I heard you never allowed interns on your team before. What's changed?" "I don't know," Gibbs says, "Maybe me." The elevator doors close behind him, and Conrad thinks about the response.
In the squadroom, McGee is going through the contents of Mason's lock-box. It apparently contains quite a bit of material -- everything from classified presidential itineraries to satellite access codes. Palmer strolls up and tries to insert himself into the conversation, but Gibbs shoos him away. It looks like Mason was "on our side", but has been retired for quite some time. McGee is still surprised at what he's finding. "Kidnappers definitely picked the wrong girl to ransom. Imagine kidnapping Jason Bourne's granddaughter." Gibbs tells him, "I'd rather you imagined where they are."
"Abby thinks she might be able to help with that", says intern Seelus as he walks into the area. He's wearing a white lab coat and, perhaps not surprisingly, a string of bells around his neck. Somewhat self-consciously, he says "She wants to see you. Says it's urgent."
Seelus follows Gibbs out of the elevator towards Forensics. As the bells jingle loudly, Gibbs pauses. "Sorry," Seelus apologizes, "I'm more scared of her than of you." They head into the lab, which smells of mesquite-grilled hamburgers. Abby sends Seelus to his corner, where he snags a doughnut from a box labelled "For parked interns only!" "Computer," Abby orders, and Seelus promptly moves to the keyboard and starts a display. Abby has found a recently-filed patent for producing smells from advertising billboards. The patented molecule is very similar to the one used for the knock-out gas at the school In fact, the molecule is sufficiently complex that there are literally one hundred million permutations of the chemical component. The person that filed the patent must be the chemist for whom they are searching. As Abby turns away for a moment, Seelus confides to Gibbs "She's scary, but I like scary." Abby hands over the name and address of the chemist, and is rewarded with a quick kiss to her cheek. Gibbs leaves and Abby turns back to find Seelus looking intently at her. "Hi" he says with a smile. "Oh God," she's alarmed and shakes her head. "Oh no. Don't go there."
The team is parked outside Greystone Pharmacy. Everything is quiet, but then someone peeks out through a set of curtains. Looking through binoculars, McGee recognizes Mason. They rush the building... McGee is first in. Mason disarms him with a kick, then puts him in a headlock. Ziva approaches with gun drawn, but Mason kicks her back against a wall of shelves. Gibbs comes in and orders Mason to stop. Mason releases McGee and puts his hands in the air. "You're making a mistake." Referring to a dead man on the floor, he continues. "I didn't kill that man (or the kidnapper at the trailer park). They're not kidnappers. They're part of my team. Whoever did kill them is playing us all." Phoof!
Cut to Interrogation. In the observation room, Conrad has several questions for McGee. Gibbs enters Interrogation, and the game begins. Gibbs asks Mason about his background, and Mason tells Gibbs that he's not authorized to know. When Gibbs asks who can authorize him, Conrad tells him "the President of the United States." Gibbs pulls out his cell phone and starts dialing. Mason amends his statement "The one buried in Simi Valley, out in California." (referring to Ronald Reagan). Eventually, Mason agrees to tell Gibbs. Mason led a team of operatives that worked within the law but outside of the chain of command, doing "what needed to be done." The team started with eight operatives, but by the time it was cancelled 20 years ago, there were only three remaining. They returned to civilian life, hid their backgrounds, and were under orders never to contact one another again.
When Mason's daughter was kidnapped, he fell back to relying on -his team- as the only ones he could trust to save her. The sedative used at the school sounded exactly like a gas invented by one of his team members for their operations. Mason knew that the chemist was selling the gas on the black market, and was hoping that he could trace it down to one of the buyers. The dead man in the trailer was the team's communications specialist. Mason had taken a cell phone from the first dead kidnapper, and wanted his communications specialist to trace it. Mason realizes that was exactly what the kidnappers wanted him to do: Flush out Mason's original team members so that they could be killed. Mason is angry and distraught. If the ransom was just a diversion, then there would be no reason to keep Rebecca alive.
In observation, Conrad is concerned. "You really think she's dead?" he asks McGee. "I don't know." As Abby steps into the room, Conrad asks again. "What are you going to do?" Abby answers the question. "We're going to do what we always do. We're going to catch the bad guys." She needs to see Gibbs when he's done with Mason.
Gibbs walks into the NCIS garage. Tony reports that no-one is willing to acknowledge Mason's past, but there is a "request" to drop all charges, and Gibbs agrees to do so. He turns to Abby, who reports that her "new Number 1 has found something." (Hearing that nickname, intern Seelus looks up in surprise.) Seelus has found that Mason's car has been sabotaged -- the fuel line was cut in such a way that gasoline would have leaked onto the hot engine block, exploding and causing what would appear to have been an accidental fire. The killer was apparently saving Mason for last. They have the killer's fingerprints. Abby and Seelus celebrate with a "high-five" hand slap.
The fingerprints are tied to Walter Carmichael, a substitute teacher at Rebecca's school. Everyone thought he had been killed in Sri Lanka in 1987. After the attack at the school, he said that he had needed "some time to recuperate". McGee is already searching Carmichael's home, but Rebecca isn't there. There isn't a clear motive for the kidnapping and killings, so Gibbs heads down to their best resource for psychology: Ducky.
Ducky has been studying Carmichael's records and some items from his home. Carmichael apparently has a fascination with guilt and penances -- he has a book on the history of flagellation, and a collection of the "more popular" tools for self-flagellation such as a Catholic cilice (a hairshirt), body skewers, etc. They've all been used. Carmichael apparently regrets the operations they performed, and is trying to atone for his sins. As his final act of penance, he's trying to execute all of his old teammates. Ducky believes that Carmichael feels he is responsible to a higher power, and that they'll never learn about Rebecca until Carmichael's mission has been completed.
Carmichael calls. He realizes that the ransom charade will no longer work, so he offers a trade: Mason for Rebecca. Gibbs agrees.
The team pulls up to a quiet city location, and escorts a handcuffed Mason to the meeting place. Ziva is in position with a rifle aimed and ready to fire. Carmichael has been waiting quietly on a bench nearby, dressed in very casual clothes. Carmichael greets Mason; tells the team to put away their guns. "If you shoot me, you'll never find Rebecca." He demands that they let Carmichael drive away with Mason, and Carmichael will call an hour later to tell them Rebecca's location. They'll just have to have faith that she's still alive.
Mason slips out of his handcuffs and snatches the gun from Tony's hands. "Stand down, Mason!" Gibbs orders. The argument escalates, Gibbs moves his aim from Carmichael to Mason. Mason swears at Carmichael. Ziva fires, shooting Mason in the chest. He falls to the ground. "NO!" Gibbs shouts and checks Mason's pulse -- he's dead. McGee and DiNozzo handcuff Carmichael while he recites a biblical verse about vengeance.
Gibbs shouts at Ziva. "Why did you take the shot?" Ziva defends her actions, "Mason was going to shoot!"
"The girl. She's in the trunk." Carmichael calmly confesses. Gibbs and Ziva pick the lock on the trunk of a nearby car. Rebecca is inside, bound and gagged but still alive. They help her out and release her bonds. Carmichael says "Of course [the girl's alive]. Wanton collateral damage was one of our sins. She's an asset."
Mason hears this and sits up. "What am I, chopped liver?" Rebecca runs to his arms for a big hug. He reassures her and thanks Gibbs. Carmichael is confused. Mason points at the blood on his jacket. "Corn syrup!" he tells Carmichael. "Blanks," Ziva says.
Back at the squadroom, Carmichael is escorted down the hallway. Intern Conrad turns to McGee. "So that's it. Happy ending?" "Not exactly," McGee says, and nods across the room. "There's the happy ending." We see Rebecca run to the arms of her parents for a joyful reunion (along with Grandpa).
"That's, uh..." Conrad is at a loss for words. "Feels nice, doesn't it?" McGee asks. "I could get used to it," Conrad agrees, "Not sure I could get used to the pay. But for the sake of curiosity, if I wanted to, um..." McGee hands him a packet of papers. "What's this?" McGee smiles. "Application. For a full internship at NCIS." He steps away. From his desk, Gibbs speaks up. "Yeah, it's all filled out. Just needs your signature." Uncertainly, Conrad smiles. Gibbs holds out a pen with a small expectant smile. Phoof!
Roll the closing credits.
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