A Year of NCIS, Day 42: Conspiracy Theory (Episode 2.19)

Episode: 2.19, Conspiracy Theory

Air Date: April 12, 2005.

The Victim: Petty Officer Jessica Smith.

Emotionally Traumatized, But Ultimately Irrelevant, Witness Who Finds the Body: We don’t start with a body tonight.

Plot Summary: A lady is in bed.  She hears voices and sees an image of a Marine with a knife.  It’s another opening that’s practically shorter than the credits.

Tony is doing sit-ups at his desk.  Because, at this stage of the game, we’re running out of weird shit for him to do in public that doesn’t involve at least misdemeanors.  McGee tries to tempt him with a sausage biscuit, or something, but Tony is trying to be disciplined.  Per Abby, he romanced an attractive Georgetown undergrad whom he helped while her car was broken down.  Of course, she turned him down because she only dates guys in their 20s.  Presumably this means physically, or Tony would be golden.  Kate says that it’s time the “Sex Machine” hung up his spurs.  Tony seems embarrassed and asked how Kate knew about his college pledge name.  Kate notes the advantages of dating one of Tony’s fraternity brothers.  Although why even a man in his 30s would be embarrassed at the pledge name “Sex Machine” is beyond me.  It’s not like Tony is on the prowl for a wife and, if anything, last episode (Bikini Wax, Episode 2.18)demonstrated that he still craves a college lifestyle.  I would think he’d have “Sex Machine” on his business cards.  Hell, as pledge names go, that’s not even hazing, it’s a highly advantageous conversation starter.  “So, why do they call you ‘Sex Machine’?”  “Well, funny story…”

Gibbs arrives and, all things considered, would prefer that everyone do some work.  So, he tells the team to obtain their gear and orders “Sex Machine” to drive.  Kate laughs.  Which causes the other shoe from last episode to drop.  Tony presses a couple of keys on his keyboard, the chime of an email is heard, and Tony tells Kate that it’s important she check her email.  And it’s the picture of Kate as wet t-shirt champion that Tony found at the end of last episode.  Personally, if he was going to use it, he should have been a little more creative.  But maybe that’s coming, and he just wants Kate to sweat for now.  And sweat she does. 

Petty Officer Jessica Smith, who arguably has more pressing problems than the latest NCIS hostile environment, claims she experienced a home invasion.  When the team arrives, however, the local LEO is not so sure.  Petty Officer Smith is still in her PJs and doesn’t want to talk because people are listening.  Gibbs turns on the radio to obscure the conversation, and Petty Officer Smith starts talking about voices.  Tony fails at his job to secure the scene, and Lt. Commander Allan Witten appears.  He’s Petty Officer Smith’s therapist.  Petty Officer Smith freaks out and Gibbs takes Cmdr. Witten aside while Kate comforts the petty officer.  Cmdr. Witten tells Gibbs that Petty Officer Smith has a special kind of psychosis that they believe was triggered when her fiancée died in Iraq the previous year.  They recently released her on an outpatient basis.  When Tony describes what Petty Officer Smith told the LEO, Cmdr. Witten is familiar with the details of the hallucination.  It’s a routine delusion, and Cmdr. Witten wants to re-hospitalize Petty Officer Smith.  He tells Gibbs that no crime has been committed, and Gibbs pulls his usual “Why don’t you let me decide that,” response to people who try to summarily solve his investigations for him.

In the NCIS van, Kate is groveling.  She apologizes for calling Tony a sex machine (again, why?), and it’s just sad.  Then she moves to threats, which is a better look.  McGee is confused, but nobody cares.  Gibbs get in and brings sanity back into the van.  Kate says that Petty Officer Smith only said for Kate to call her CO and tell him the monsters were back.  Kate thinks it’s a relapse, but Gibbs wants to pull her record and look anyway.      

The records demonstrate that Petty Officer Smith is an exceptional sailor.  She worked for the Department of Acquisitions at the Pentagon and her CO was Captain Ross Vetter.  The FBI have an open case file on Captain Vetter, but Tony isn’t cleared to read the file.

Gibbs and the team meet the other patients at Petty Officer Smith’s psychiatric hospital.  One of the patients, Catherine Reynolds, is wearing scrubs, and attempts to pass as a member of the staff.  And she looks legit until she grabs Tony’s ass, asks him to take her for a drink, and an orderly arrives to rein her in.  Tony looks relieved, and he should, because if that orderly hadn’t come along, Tony would have gone for it.

Petty Officer Smith has been sedated.  Gibbs asks to talk to her.  Cmdr. Witten says no.  A measuring contest ensues, and Gibbs says he’ll be back in the morning. 

At HQ, McGee informs Gibbs that the FBI refuses to brief them on the Captain Vetter matter.  McGee called the Pentagon, and talked to the Admiral in charge of the division.  The FBI is investigating Captain Vetter for taking kickbacks in exchange for government contracts.  The Captain is on administrative leave pending the investigation.  Petty Officer Smith was questioned, but so was everyone else in the department.

Petty Officer Smith calls Gibbs from her cell.  Hearing the fear in her voice, Gibbs and Kate rush to the hospital where an orderly, Corpsman Morgan, tries to obstruct them.  Or, he tries, until Gibbs kicks the half door to the reception cubicle and yells, “Open her door or I’ll break it down!”  The corpsman complies, and Kate and Gibbs find Petty Officer Smith hanging from the top bunk by her sheets.  It’s a pretty horrible image.

The entire team arrives.  Gibbs picks up Petty Officer Smith’s flip phone and tells Tony to check out the call log.  Ducky is furious and says that leaving Petty Officer Smith alone all night and without observation in her condition was negligent at best.  Right on time, Cdr. Witten shows up, and Ducky charges out into the hall to make his feelings known. 

The team pushes the gurney with Petty Officer Smith’s body down the hall and past the other patients.  Tony sees Ms. Reynolds in the crowd and asks her questions.  She hugs him and puts the moves on him again but only says that she and Petty Officer Smith spent a month in the facility together.  

Gibbs interviews Corpsman Morgan.  He checked on Petty Officer Smith around 7:30 and she was sedated.  The team doesn’t buy that because how did she call them, and, moreover, how did she hang herself.  The orderly says Cmdr. Witten classified Petty Officer Smith a non-suicide risk.  Gibbs wants Cmdr. Witten’s file and evidence of any contact between him and Petty Officer Smith.  McGee asks about doctor-patient confidentiality, and Tony says it doesn’t exist in the military.  He adds that it also doesn’t exist between NCIS teammates and holds up an image of the wet-t-shirt pic where only Kate can see it.  Now Kate shifts from threats to woefully fake indifference.  Which Tony punches right through when he asks McGee, “Hey Probie, want to see something hot?”  Then Kate wants to know what it will cost her to end the pain.  Tony asks if she still has her uniform from her Catholic school days. 

Tony arrives at work the next day to find Fornell typing on Gibbs’s computer.  The agents all think Gibbs is going to murder him, but the inevitable encounter when Gibbs arrives is civil as these things go.  They adjourn to the elevator.  But not before Gibb tells McGee to make sure Fornell didn’t stick a virus on his computer.

Gibbs and Fornell discuss the Captain Vetter case in the elevator.  Fornell tells Gibbs what he already knows about the investigation and then delivers the message that the FBI wants Gibbs to back off.  Fornell doesn’t know anything about Petty Officer Smith but he gives up on keeping Gibbs out of the case and non-promises to find out what he can.  Gibbs says that Fornell owes him, and Fornell can’t believe Gibbs is calling in the marker for a B&E on a petty officer’s house.  But, in the usual tradition of Gibbs surprising Fornell, Gibbs gives him the details on Petty Officer Smith’s death.  Fornell says he’ll look into it, but he wants Gibbs to refrain from jeopardizing the Captain Vetter investigation.  Gibbs doesn’t really promise and Fornell doesn’t really believe him, so we’re sitting where we usually sit.

Gibbs asks McGee for the home address of Captain Vetter (that didn’t take long), and they pay him a visit.  Captain Vetter answers the door and asks what they want, and Gibbs says they want to hear Captain Vetter’s side of the story off the record (which doesn’t mean anything in the world of federal agents, so the Captain is dumb to chat with Gibbs and McGee without his lawyer being present).  Captain Vetter says he’s being railroaded by the military industrial complex for not playing their game.  Captain Vetter goes on a mini-rant about Congresspeople making sure government contracts get awarded to people who fund their campaigns and hire them when they get out of office.  He thinks everyone is after him for trying to change that system, but his credibility isn’t helped when he spills his scotch mid-rant.  Even Gibbs remarks, “Kinda early for the single malt, isn’t it, skip?”  The Captain says Gibbs doesn’t know what his life has been like since the investigation began, and Gibbs mentions Petty Officer Smith.  Captain Vetter says he’s been meaning to visit her.  The discussion gets derailed when Captain Vetter’s wife arrives to clean up the scotch and demands that the agents leave.  Gibbs passes along Petty Officer Smith’s message: the monsters are after her.  But Captain Vetter claims not to know that that means.  Gibbs gives the Captain his card and, for no good reason, snarkily remarks that the Captain, a man under investigation for taking dirty money, and his wife have a lovely home- one that Gibbs could not have afforded when he was in the service.

Back in autopsy, Ducky informs Gibbs that Petty Officer Smith was smothered to death and then hung to make it look like a suicide. 

In the evidence garage, Abby has set up a sex doll on Petty Officer Smith’s bed to demonstrate the murder.  Kate starts to make a joke about Tony, but, oh he has the picture.  Per Abby, Petty Officer Smith had enough trazadone, a sedative, in her system to make her weak.  She was awake enough to call NCIS, but not strong enough to resist an attacker.  Problem is that you need two people to string up the body.  Abby demonstrates how the bed frame can be used to allow one person to lever the body into position.  Kate notes that this level of racket should have been audible at the nurse’s station.  Gibbs tells the team to get Corpsman Morgan to NCIS tomorrow, but to not tell him why. 

Gibbs and Fornell meet in their other conference room: Gibbs’s basement.  Unofficially, Fornell tells Gibbs that Captain Vitter wasn’t cooperating.  So, the FBI leaned on Petty Officer Smith as a weaker target.  NCIS was shut out of the investigation because the FBI didn’t figure Gibbs would go along with the hardball, which included threats of all types and forcing Petty Officer Smith to wear a wire.  When Gibbs points out that Petty Officer Smith had just lost her fiancée in Iraq, Fornell shrugs and says that made her more malleable.  Gibbs is not impressed and Fornell has to remind him that he’s just the messenger and didn’t work the case.  Gibbs tells Fornell about the murder, and that Fornell is going to help him find out who killed Petty Officer Smith.

Kate is listening in on Petty Officer Smith’s therapy sessions with Cmdr. Witten.  Petty Officer Smith is more guarded in those sessions and a little more open in the group sessions.  Tony points out that maybe she spoke to the other patients, like Ms. Reynolds, and gave them information that Cmdr. Witten didn’t have.

(Tony directs more veiled threats toward Kate here, but they’re not worth describing).

Corpsman Morgan appears and asks for Tony, who hands him off to Gibbs.  You can see the Corpsman gulp.  In the interrogation room, Gibbs explores the timing of the corpsman’s presence on the floor the night of the murder.  Then Gibbs makes clear that if all is as the corpsman says, then he must have committed the murder.

The scene shifts to the observation room.  Kate believes Corpsman Morgan’s denials.  Tony suggests he might be a good actor.   Tony then offers to delete the photo of Kate, and Kate sighs with relief and thanks him.  Tony then doesn’t delete the photo and when Kate asks what he’s doing, Tony says, “Acting.”

Back to work.  Corpsman Morgan says he lied.  He left his post for about 40 minutes.  To have the dirty, dirty sex with Ms. Reynolds.  They’ve ben banging for three months. 

Gibbs sends Tony to talk to Ms. Reynolds and confirm the alibi.  But then he changes his mind when McGee steals Tony’s idea and says maybe Petty Officer Smith told her fellow patients, like Ms. Reynolds and Petty Officer Lynn Simons,  something she didn’t tell anyone else.  Gibbs sends McGee to do the interviews instead of Tony, and Tony gets to babysit Corpsman Morgan. 

Gibbs and Kate head to Petty Officer Smith’s house.  They approach the front door and hear something inside.  Suddenly someone fires through the door.  Gibbs pulls Kate out of the way just in time.  He asks if she’s OK, and when she says “Yes,” Gibbs says, “Let’s get this bastard.”  They kick down the door.  But the perp sneaks out the back and shoots out the tire on the agents’ car before speeding away.

They head back into the house.  Gibbs sees evidence that the perp was trying to unscrew an air vent near the ceiling.  The vent contains a radio receiver and broadcast speaker.  So, the voices Petty Officer Smith heard were real.

Abby examines the radio and explains to Gibbs that it’s rigged to be remote activated by a cell phone call, and set up to play a creepy, distorted voice calling Petty Officer Smith’s name.  She also found blood in the innards of the radio.  Whoever engineered the radio cut themselves on the unfinished metal. 

McGee arrives at the psychiatric facility wanting to speak to Ms. Reynolds and Petty Officer Simons.  Cmdr. Witten says Petty Officer Simons was discharged three weeks previous and McGee cannot speak to Ms. Reynolds.  McGee then has a measuring contest with Cmdr. Witten, and wins by dropping some knowledge on the good commander regarding his Corpsman boning his patient and his other patient being murdered.  That gets McGee his interview, although Ms. Reynolds is bummed that he’s not Tony.  McGee asks about the sexy time with Corpsman Morgan.  Ms. Reynolds admits it.  Her turn to ask a question, and she asks if McGee is a virgin (no).  McGee asks about the timing of the liaison with Corpsman Morgan and it fits.  She asks McGee if he has ever been in love (maybe).  Ms. Reynolds says that Petty Officer Smith told her about having an affair with a married man.  She didn’t tell Ms. Reynolds who it was, but she told Petty Officer Simon, who then told Ms. Reynolds.  “Boxers or tighty-whities,” she asks (McGee says both).  Turns out Petty Officer Smith had an affair with her CO, Captain Vetter.  He never returned any of her calls after her admission to the facility, so Petty Officer Smith asked Petty Officer Simon to deliver a message to Captain Vetter for her: she loved him and promised to forgive him if he would just contact her.”

Back at HQ, McGee reports that Petty Officer Simon received a medical discharge three weeks ago.  Petty Officer Simon failed to report to her therapy session at the VA two weeks ago and nobody has seen her since.  Gibbs tells Kate to find her, and tells McGee to bring Captain Vetter to NCIS, in cuffs if necessary.  Tony reports that Captain Vetter and Cmdr. Witten also served on a carrier together, although carriers are huge, so Kate questions whether that’s really a connection. 

McGee had to use the cuffs, but Captain Vetter is in interrogation, where he is joined by Gibbs and Fornell for a round of what the agents call “bad cop, scary cop.”  Gibbs springs the affair on Captain Vetter and he asks for a lawyer.  Then they spring the murder and blame him for it.  Captain Vetter says he was home with his wife, but they already checked with her and she said he went out and didn’t come back until around midnight.  Hahaha- they also told his wife he was cheating on her because nothing loosens a woman’s tongue like adultery.  Captain Vetter denies the murder, but he admits that Petty Officer Smith caught him taking kickbacks.  The money was supposed to be for Captain Vetter and Petty Officer Smith to live on together after Captain Vetter’s divorce.  He wants a deal, but Fornell says that’s only happening if he reveals the location of the money.  Captain Vetter admits he stashed the money in a gym locker. 

Tony and Kate stake out the money location, and here comes Petty Officer Simons with the money.  According to Abby, who calls from her lab while seemingly photoshopping some sort of gay cowboy picture, Petty Officer Simons’s DNA also matches the blood found inside the radio. 

Petty Officer Simons meets up with…well, they pump fake Cmdr. Witten, but he just gets in his car and drives away to remain free to let his patients die some other day.  No, it turns out Petty Officer Simons and Ms. Reynold are working together.  Ms. Reynolds leaves the facility (somehow), gets in the car, and gives Petty Officer Simons a passionate kiss.  Or not so much.  Because Ms. Reynolds then pulls a gun on Petty Officer Simons and tells her she’s taking the money.  Of course, our agents close in and make the arrest before anybody gets killed. 

Thanks to some expository dialogue from Petty Officer Simons, we learn that Petty Officer Smith told both Petty Officer Simons and Ms. Reynolds about the money.  But Petty Officer Smith was released from hospital before she told anyone where the money was.  So Petty Officer Simons obtained her medical discharge (somehow) and, after being released, used the radio stunt to cause Petty Officer Smith to think she was relapsing, and to get her re-committed.  Once Petty Officer Smith was back in the hospital, Ms. Reynolds got her to reveal the location of the money and then killed her.

So yeah, convoluted. 

Tony and Kate finish their day, and the episode, with the photo wars.  Tony sends Kate her photo, doctored up with some NCIS pin-up language.  Kate sends one right back, and it’s Tony’s head, flawlessly photoshopped into the gay cowboy picture from Abby’s lab.  It’s good to have a friend like Abby.  Tony concedes, and they agree to mutually delete on three.  Of course, at the moment they press the keys, they hear two emails appear on Gibbs’s computer (somehow).  Tony and Kate flee the office as Gibbs opens up the unseen-by-us emails and smiles.

Quotables:

(1) Gibbs: What do you want, Tobias?

Fornell: I’m hurt.  Can’t an old friend just stop by to say ‘hi?’

Gibbs: Well, you are old.  I’ll give you that.

(2) Abby: most of the metal inside electronics is unfinished.  I cut myself all the time on burs and rough edges.

Gibbs: Yeah, well, you oughtta try building a boat with hand tools after a couple of shots of Jack.

Time Until Sexual Harassment: Admittedly, Kate starts the fight here, but Tony’s use of the photo seems over the top.  And when Tony escalates things at 10:10 or so and asks Kate how much she shivers when they poor cold water on her chest, even Gibbs threatens to put a foot up his ass. 

At 14:30, Tony appears to offer to turn over the picture if Kate will wear her uniform from Catholic school.

Ducky Tales: None.

The Rest of the Story:

-We found out that Kate is dating one of Tony’s fraternity brothers in The Meat Puzzle, Episode 2.13.

-Gibbs says his first two marriages were based on appearances.  Not sure what he means by that, or why the third one was different.  Also, the statement in and of itself is disingenuous, but we’ll learn more about that later.

-Tony’s uncle ran a Fortune 500 company until he went crazy and started digging holes in a golf course looking for Mole People.   

-Tony and Kate both greet Fornell with, “Thought you were dead.”  It’s a reference to Fornell’s last appearance in The Bone Yard, Episode 2.5, in which he faked his death for…reasons. 

-Fornell criticizes Gibbs for not having a password to protect his computer.  The bigger issue is that the computer doesn’t log itself out after a time period.  You would think that program would be mandatory for anybody with a security clearance.

-Gibbs and Fornell visit their usual conference room in the elevator, and follow up with their back-up in Gibbs’s basement.

-As in Reveille Episode 1.23, Fornell complains about Gibbs’s taste in bourbon.  And maybe he should, because Fornell brings his A-game and a flask of MaCallan 18.  On an FBI agent’s salary.  Now I wonder if it’s Fornell who is getting the kickbacks.

-Gibbs has never heard of Friday the Thirteenth.

-Once again, the LGBTQ community gets a bad rap, as our criminal murderesses this time around are in a lesbian/bisexual relationship.  See also, UnSEALed, Episode 1.18 (lesbian adultery); Dead Man Talking, Episode 1.19 (transsexual murderer); A Weak Link (Episode 1.22) (gay adultery); An Eye for an Eye (transsexual suicide).  In fairness, this is all a function of trying to preserve the mystery in these episodes and give the early 2000s network TV audience something they wouldn’t necessarily expect.  But it’s still a weird look.

Casting Call: Captain Vetter’s wife, Audrey, is played by Molly Hagan.  She was the love portion of Herman’s personality in Herman’s Head.  Catherine Reynolds, is played by Brigid Brannagh, and she has had large roles in Army Wives and Runaways.

Man, This Show Is Old: Tony’s phone looks like an early blackberry.  I guess they could display digital images at this point in time.  Still, for 2005, that’s top-end tech.

Flip phones and old school camcorders abound.  My daughter watches with me sometimes and asked tonight, “Why are their phones walkie talkies?”

MVP: Gibbs and Fornell break the captain, and that was all she wrote.  Honorable mentions to Ducky and McGee for getting in Cmdr. Witten’s face about his shitty oversight of the psychiatric facility.

Rating: =Not great.  The ladies in in the psych facility were awfully capable, implausibly so.  And how did Ms. Reynolds just walk the hell out of the facility to meet Petty Officer Simons?  And this plan had a lot of moving parts to come within a Captain’s confession of working out.  Petty Officer Simons is clearly a violent nut case based on her attempted murder of Gibbs and Kate.  Why not just kidnap Petty Officer Smith and torture her until she gives up the loot instead of relying on Ms. Reynolds to presumably do the same thing?

Actually, come to think of it, how did this work?  The opportunity to kill Petty Officer Smith depended on Catherine Reynolds having sex with Corpsman Morgan while the murder took place.  So, Catherine Reynolds didn’t kill anyone.  Presumably that means that Petty Officer Simons, who had been discharged three weeks previous, snuck past the unattended nurse’s station and killed Petty Officer Smith.  If Petty Officer Simons tortured the information out of Petty Officer Smith, then why did she need her re-institutionalized to accomplish that.  That’s actually harder than just breaking into Petty Officer Smith’s house and torturing her there.  And Petty Officer Simons also said that she engineered Petty Officer Smith’s return to the facility so that Catherine Reynolds could get the location of the money out of Petty Officer Smith…but when did she do that if Petty Officer Smith was doped up on trazadone all day?

Yeah…

The subplot with Kate and Tony and the picture was lame.  When this episode first aired, my co-workers and I were in our late 20s and early 30s and in our heyday of office pranks and photoshop and email goofs.  So, maybe this all would have been funnier if I’d watched in real time.  But in the here and now, we had a good potential gag (albeit pretty over the line from an HR standpoint), based on the lucky happenstance of one co-worker randomly finding the perfect old school drunken fun picture of another co-worker.  Instead of turning that into the pranking gold it could have been, Tony used it for petty emotional terrorism.

It was a creepy mystery with some good, if unearned, twists.  And Gibbs and Fornell did their thing.  But there was nothing brilliant about it, and frankly, it may not have worked at all.

Four Palmers. 

Next Time: Back to college for some NROTC fun.