A Year of NCIS, Day 196: Sins of the Father (Episode 9.10)

Episode: Sins of the Father, Episode 9.10.

Air Date: November 22, 2011.

The Victim: Lt. Dean Massey, USN.

Emotionally Traumatized, But Ultimately Irrelevant, Witness Who Finds the Body: Metro PD is investigating a Rolls Royce parked in an abandoned industrial district near a dock.  The car is way too nice for the neighborhood.  The man inside, mostly concealed from view, appears passed out.  Who hasn’t been this guy, right? 

Right…?

One cop hauls the man out of the car, gently.  The other cop inspects the car and sees something sticking out of the trunk.  She opens the trunk and finds a dead guy dressed like a Navy officer.  She yells, “body” and both cops have their guns drawn now.  The camera shifts and we see they have apprehended a confused, aching, and semi-conscious Anthony DiNozzo, Sr.

Uh-oh.

Plot Recap: Why does the elevator always open with a camera shot of Ziva’s feet and legs when she’s the one arriving at work?  Is it because she always wears weird pants, like bell-bottoms and military dungarees?

Anyway, she’s in a good mood and greets her co-workers.  She walked to work in the cold November weather, and I guess when you grew up in the desert, that’s a feature not a bug.  Tony is here to harsh her mellow, though.  He drops a box of cold case files on her desk.  They are -pre-digital and have to be reviewed and input.  And she’s low agent on the totem pole.  She grunts, but then asks Tony about dinner with his father.  McGee asks about the big news Senior supposedly had for Tony.  But Tony didn’t see Senior.  Tony called, but could never get the meeting place from Senior.  This leads Tony into a rant on how his father will technically appear for visits, but then not finish the deal.  Like the time he came to Tony’s graduation, but spent the ceremony with the school nurse in the infirmary.  Then Senior claims his blowing off is not a big deal.  Ziva, no stranger to fathers who let you down (by leaving you at the mercy of terrorists in North Africa, so it’s a little different), sympathizes.  Tony again deflects. 

Gibbs arrives and announces the dead Naval officer we’ve already met. 

At the crime scene, Metro is only too happy to hand the case off.  The male cop from the beginning reports that the body is in the trunk and nothing has been moved.  He reports that the suspect seemed relieved that NCIS was coming, and then calls the guy, “A real pain in the ass.”  Tony thinks this is all too easy. 

Senior calls out and Tony and Gibbs and the rest all look astonished to see him in cuffs.  Tony moves to his father, but Gibbs restrains him.  And then throws him outside the tape so he won’t compromise the crime scene.  Gibbs has got to be psyched that there are still cop witnesses here to witness this clear effort at transparency.  Although, frankly, the whole team is compromised.  But we wouldn’t want to watch an episode where some anonymous NCIS B-team worked Senior’s alleged crime, so we’ll suspend disbelief.

Gibbs tells Ziva to process the scene and he tells McGee to take Senior back to HQ.  Then he puts a cop on Tony to keep him out of trouble.  McGee approaches and switches out his cuffs for the officer’s.  He apologizes to Senior for keeping him restrained, but regs are regs.  McGee leads Senior past Tony.  They don’t speak, but there’s definitely an “Et tu, Junior?” look on Senior’s face.

At the vehicle, Ducky says this is going to be a sticky one.  Not without amusement.  I often think that Ducky is an even bigger jerk than Gibbs.  He just hides it better.

Back at HQ, Tony is staring at the big screen where the victim’s bio is displayed.  McGee warns him off even thinking too hard about the investigation.  Gibbs arrives and reports that Vance wants the FBI to handle the case because of the obvious conflict of interests.  Gibbs got him to hold off until they know more.  Agent Dorneget has Senior under supervision, but Gibbs hasn’t talked to Senior yet.  He asks for victim background instead of answering Tony’s incessant questions.

Lt. Dean Massey went to UVA.  Rugby player, OCS, flight training, recently divorced, no children, he flew fighter jets in the Gulf War, then became a multi-millionaire land developer but stayed in the Navy reserves so he could continue to fly supersonic aircraft.  Gibbs wonders why a reservist would be wearing his uniform at the time of his death.

Tony offers to check the wife, but Gibbs stifles that impulse.  Then he starts pleading his case noting (correctly) that Senior couldn’t take out a rugby player half his age.  He claims his father has been framed.  Gibbs hands Tony the box of cold cases from Ziva’s desk and tells him to get to work. 

Gibbs heads off to interrogation.  Dorneget reports a mostly model prisoner.  Gibbs enters interrogation, where Senior got to spend time the last time he was suspected of a crime (this happens regularly- see Broken Arrow, Episode 8.7).  Even Senior says, “Here we are again,” when Gibbs enters.  Senior, still looking disheveled, nonetheless pours on the charm and says the only crime he’s guilty of is over-indulging with alcohol.  His demeanor changes dramatically when Gibbs mentions a corpse in the trunk.  This is the first Senior is hearing of it.  Senior knows the guy though.  He’s in a land development deal with Lt. Massey.  They’re working together on a high-end golf course residential development nearby.  Senior got Lt. Massey hooked up with Prince Omar bin Alwaan (See Flesh and Blood, Episode 7.12) for funding.  Senior was expecting a financing fee.  But Lt. Massey said that he didn’t have to pay it because of a loophole in the contract.  Gibbs asks Senior how they left it, and Senior…ah, well, Senior threatened to kill Massey. 

Awkward. 

Senior remembers leaving Lt. Massey’s office.  He had a drink at a hotel bar.  He must have gone some place and drank more.  But he can’t remember anything else until the cops found him.  So, no alibi.  Gibbs says they have 48 hours to charge him or let him, go, and thus begins the ticking clock.  Senior is more concerned about his non-refundable ticket to St. Croix for that afternoon, but Gibbs obviously doesn’t care about that, and leaves.

In autopsy, Ducky and Abby are impressed with the types of shenanigans Senior manages to find for himself.  Ducky finds a sliver of glass in the wound to Lt. Massey’s head.  Gibbs arrives and Ducky says the lieutenant was killed elsewhere and put in the car.  TOD is between midnight and 2:00 AM.  COD is blunt force trauma, and Lt. Massey was likely struck from behind.  Abby reports that Senior’s tox screen was negative, but his BAL at 2:00AM would have been in the .15 range, so almost twice the legal limit.  Or “really drunk,” as Abby puts it.  Ducky confirms that this could cause the massive memory loss Senior is claiming.

Tony is not leaving well enough alone.  He walks up on Dorneget, who is still standing guard and offers him a piece of cake from someone’s birthday upstairs.  Dorneget is a little offended that Tony thinks he can buy his way into see Senior with cake.  But Gibbs said specifically not to let Tony in.  Cake having failed, Tony plays the “I know who you hooked up with on premises last month” card.  Susan Grady from polygraph was dressed as a nun and Dorneget was dressed as Gibbs, with a silver wig. 

(If Tony knows, Gibbs knows too.  But Dorneget hasn’t figured that out yet).

Dorneget says McGee warned him about Tony.  But he caves anyway. 

Tony enters the room with a hearty, “What’s the matter with you?”  He demands that his father look him in the eye and tell him he has nothing to do with it.  Senior admits he has no memory and thus can’t.  He was pissed at Lt. Massey for screwing him out of millions of dollars.  Tony asks about the Rolls, and Senior rented it because you don’t work show up for a multi-million dollar deal in a taxi cab (you also don’t drive yourself if it means that much to you).

Dorneget interrupts.  Tony tells Senior not to talk to anyone, especially Gibbs, until he has talked to a lawyer.  Sadly, but not surprisingly, Senior and his lawyer had a falling out over past due fees.  Tony leaves, exasperated.

Tony returns to the squad room and sees a Lt. Commander Mosner with Navy JAG introduce herself to Ziva and McGee.  She reports that Lt. Massey approached her at the Navy concert the prior evening (hence his uniform) and said he had information pertinent to a case she was working on.  He was supposed to come by that morning and give a statement.  Tony, sensing motive for someone other than his father to kill Lt. Massey, jumps in despite McGee’s protests and begins asking questions.  Lt. Cmdr. Mosner says that Lt. Massey and another pilot, Lt. Gregory Dennis were flying when Lt. Dennis’s plane malfunctioned and he and his radio operator had to eject over water.  The radio operator died.  Dennis claims the plane had an electrical failure.  Lt. Massey suggested to Lt. Commander Mosner that Lt. Dennis was lying.  Tony walks away.

Gibbs is updating Vance, who still wants to hand the case over to the FBI.  Gibbs, noting that Senior has done nothing to help his case, agrees.  Tony knocks and comes in.  He swears Senior is not a murderer and then mentions the JAG officer’s story.  Vance finds this compelling enough to give Gibbs 24 hours of leash.  Tony thanks him, but Vance makes it clear than Tony cannot get near the case.  Gibbs smirks when Vance suggest Tony take personal days.

Downstairs, Gibbs takes Lt. Cmdr. Mosner to the conference room, and sends Ziva and McGee to Lt. Massey’s office.  Tony gets to stay behind with cold case files.

At Lt. Massey’s office, Ziva and McGee meet with Morgan Hunt, the in-house lawyer for Lt. Massey’s company.  He asks if Senior was arrested.  Turns out Hunt was in the meeting between Lt. Massey and Senior.  The contract was airtight that the company owed Senior no money because the deal wasn’t consummated within a year.  Hunt tried to get Lt. Massey to give Senior something, but Lt. Massey was ruthless in business.  Hunt even called Senior at his hotel later.  But Hunt supports the notion that Senior was out of his mind at the meeting.  He has a recording too.  Hunt affirms that Senior knew he was being recorded, and he tells his female assistant to switch to the last twenty seconds of the video.  Lt. Massey tells an angry Senior to sue him and Senior says he’ll kill him instead and then tries to throttle Lt. Massey before security breaks it up. 

Doesn’t look great for the old man.

Back at HQ, Tony, having watched the video, agrees.  Ziva heads off to visit Lt. Massey’s ex-wife.  Or she starts to.  But Dorneget has let Senior out of the hoosegow, and he walks into tell her how ravishing she looks.  Senior channels the audience and asks when Tony is going to get off the pot and date Ziva.  Tony subtly reminds his father that mum is the word and apologizes for not getting to talk to him earlier.  Ziva leaves, Gibbs seems annoyed, Senior tells “Dorney” to go get him a glass of water.  “Sure thing, Mr. D,” Dorney says.  Senior advises Gibbs to keep his eye on Dorneget because big things are in his future.  Gibbs is still annoyed.  He tells Senior that they’re transferring him to the federal detention center.  Senior heads over to Tony’s desk to get intel on his cellmate.  Senior calls the prison something out of Dickens.  Gibbs tells Dorneget to get Senior something to eat in the break room.  “And if he gives you any trouble, shoot him.” 

Gibbs meets with Lt. Dennis, the pilot who had to eject, in interrogation.  He’s already defensive about NCIS’ involvement.  Lt. Dennis switches from defiance to confusion when he hears of Lt. Massey’s death.  He claims he was driving back from visiting his parents in Georgia during the time McGee identifies for the murder.  Gibbs mentions Lt. Massey’s conversation with the JAG prosecutor.  Lt. Dennis calls the allegation crazy but does what few on this show do and claims he’s clamming up until he gets a lawyer. 

Ziva meets with Lt. Massey’s wife.  They don’t keep in touch.  She was his third love after flying jets and making money.  She says he became obsessed with his business.  She says she did OK in the divorce and she has no future claim on the estate.  She has no idea who gets the money in light of the lieutenant’s death and suggests taking to Hunt, the lawyer.

In the evidence garage, Abby is processing the rented Rolls.  McGee stops by.  They pause to appreciate the luxury aspects of the car.  She says Senior never turned on the nav system.  She doesn’t really think Senior could kill someone, but she’s starting to have doubts.  For example, Senior’s mileage as compared to the rental agreement demonstrates a 102 mile total, well in excess of the portal-to-poral rental place>hotel>meeting>hotel path he described.  She also reports that Lt. Massey had wine stains on his uniform.  She also thinks, based on the glass from the wound,  that Lt. Massey was bludgeoned with a vintage bottle of wine. 

Ziva is visiting Hunt, who shows her Lt. Massey’s will.  A bunch of Navy charities are the beneficiaries of his will.

Tony encounters McGee in the break room and asks for an update.  McGee refuses, so Tony snatches his case file, and they wrestle for it.  Until a staffer interrupts them.  As they walk down the hall, McGee allows that they checked out Lt. Massey’s residence.  There was no sign of a struggle but one of his cars was missing.  McGee put out a BOLO for a Porsche.  But that’s all Tony gets.  Tony plays the “This is my father card.”  McGee allows that Senior’s hotel room was clear of incriminating evidence.

They enter the squad room where Dorneget is setting up Senior with an ankle monitor as Gibbs looks on.  That’s better than prison.  And he gets to sleep at Gibbs’s place. 

Senior is up walking around at Gibbs’s house.  Gibbs, from a prone position on the living room couch, asks what he’s up to.  Senior accuses Gibbs of standing watch, but Gibbs says he always racks on the living room couch.  See Engagement, Part One, Episode 9.8.  Senior is just looking for a drink.  Gibbs offers him some warm milk.  Whole milk.  Senior continues to talk about how he was too drunk to remember anything.  He asks if there’s a chance he killed Lt. Massey.  Like most drunks, he talks about how he can normally hold his liquor and tries to imply there was something else behind his blacking out besides overconsumption.  Gibbs is silent through all this, not feeling the need to discuss the case with the suspect.  Senior asks why Gibbs stuck his neck out and let Senior stay over.  Gibbs says he didn’t do it for Senior.  He did it for Tony.  “He deserves better,” Gibbs says, handing the Senior the milk.  Senior actually agrees.  He thought this deal was the answer- retirement, inheritance, etc.  He could actually be the person he always pretended to be and leave Tony something worth having.  Gibbs says Senior doesn’t get it, and that Tony never wanted his money.  “He wants a father.”  Then he turns out the light and turns over.

The next day, Senior and Dorneget join Ducky in autopsy.  Abby already drew blood, but Gibbs wants a full panel on Senior, including urine. 

In the squad room, Tony asks after his father.  Gibbs says he’s in autopsy.  Tony assumes Gibbs shot him but doesn’t cast any blame. 

Lt. Cmdr. Mosner arrives and says Gibbs frightened the hell of Lt. Dennis and now he wants a deal.  But he did not confess to murder.  He admitted that pilot error, not electrical failure, caused the crash and even produced a cockpit recording he was hiding.  But his alibi for Lt. Massey’s murder checks out based on toll booth videos. 

McGee gets a call and reports that local LEOs found Lt. Massey’s Porsche on a back road at the development Lt. Massey was building and that Senior was involved with.  Tony doesn’t like this development.  Everyone leaves, but Tony appears to have an idea.

He joins Abby in the lab.  And tries to bluff Abby into giving him intel.  The attempt fails miserably, and she banishes him. 

At the development site, Ziva and McGee are processing the scene.  Ziva finds a busted bottle of wine, which could be the murder weapon.

In the break room, Senior pours Dorney a cup of coffee.  Dorney notes that Senior and Tony are the only two people he has ever seen mix decaf and regular (my father also does this).  He also notes other similarities between the two men and assumes the two are really close.  Dorney says that Tony is very concerned about Senior.  Senior asks if Dorney is close to his dad, but Dorney says he died when he was a baby.  He was a Detroit cop who got killed in a traffic accident. 

Tony comes by to visit and Dorney clinches.  Tony tries to get rid of him, but Senior insists, “Junior, we have no secrets from Dorney.”  Dorney smiles with pride.  Tony (who seems to have picked up something from his visit to Abby’s lab) asks if Senior brought the family’s good wine to DC.  Senior proudly says of course he did.  Tony points out that the bottle might just be the murder weapon.  Senior asks again, “Did I kill him?”  Tony wants to know where the bottle is.  Senior last saw it in the Rolls.  He was taking it to the restaurant to celebrate the closing of the deal with Tony.  But Tony never knew the location, so Senior says they were going to Halligan’s Pub for a drink and then to the Adams House for a ribeye.  Senior can’t remember if he went to either place. 

Vance visits Abby.  Gibbs is already there.  They are looking at the murder weapon.  Abby reports that the blood on the bottle matches the victim.  Tire tracks at the scene belong to the Rolls.  Abby is reluctant, but, on prompting from Vance, she identifies Senior’s thumbprint from the bottle.  Vance calls it motive, means, opportunity, and says it’s time to book Senior.  Abby looks horrified, but Gibbs makes sure to tell her, “Good job.”

Dorney brings Senior to the squad room.  Gibbs says the FBI is on its way.  Ziva says they can’t locate Tony, though.  McGee says Tony’s cell is turned off. 

Tony is at the pub his father identified.  But not drowning his sorrows.  He flashes his badge, and the bartender asks if he’s “Anthony’s kid.”  The bartender knows Senior well and calls him one of his favorites.  He confirms Senior was present on the night in question, but says he was worried about him.  The bartender mentions that Senior can ordinarily hold his liquor, but the other night he had a couple of drinks and got wasted.  The bartender was going to call him a cab, but then a lady he picked up offered to drive him back to his hotel in his car.  The bartender never saw the lady before.  She was in her forties and attractive.  Tony asks to see the video surveillance. 

Back at HQ, Senior is grimly doing an FBI-escorted perp walk.  Robert Wagner, who is one of the best actors this show hires, nails the quiet desperation of a man who has fallen lower than even he could have imagined. 

Then Abby rushes in and announces to Senior that she doesn’t think he killed anyone.  Gibbs orders the FBI to hold up.  Abby ran tox screens for roofies and the test came back positive.  Also, the neck of the wine bottle was wiped clean, and Senior’s fingerprints were only on the barrel. 

McGee gets a call from Tony.  Tony is sending a pic of the woman Senior left the bar with.  They pull it up on-screen.  Senior is pleased at the attractiveness of the girl he’s holding in his arms.  But he doesn’t know her.  Fortunately, McGee and Ziva do.  It’s the female assistant from  Lt. Massey’s company.  Senior smiles and says, “Take off the cuffs.”  Gibbs smirks at the FBI agents and says, “You heard him.”  Everyone is happy again.

Gibbs decides to let Senior go along for the bust.  Senior, Gibbs, and Ziva arrive at Lt. Massey’s company and Senior tells Linda, the female assistant, that he ordinarily remembers a pretty face.  They ask all sorts of awkward questions like, “Did you slip me a roofie,” in full view in the lobby.  Ziva suggests a more discrete place to talk.  Linda takes them to a conference room where Gibbs tells her she’s at least an accomplice to Lt. Massey’s murder.  She swears she was told nobody would get hurt.  By Morgan Hunt.  Gibbs does that thing where he dangles a non-existent dea,l and the perp confesses.  Linda and Hunt were banging, and it led to talk of marriage.  Then Hunt came to her after Senior’s meltdown and said Lt. Massey was going to try to screw him too.  He asked her to erase the video of his own argument with Lt. Massey.  She did, but she kept a copy for herself.  Just in case.  Even Senior is appalled at the sketchiness of these people, which is funny.  Ziva goes with Linda to retrieve the flash drive with the video.

Hunt sees Linda and Ziva from a distance and moves to escape.  He runs into Senior.  Senior doesn’t get to punch out another perp (although he probably could KO this weasel) but gives himself an assist when Gibbs puts Hunt against the wall and cuffs him.  Gibbs offers Senior the cuffs, but then snatches them back when Senior excitedly reaches for them.

It’s all over but getting the Director’s buy-in.  Gibbs shows Vance the video Linda was supposed to have deleted.  Lt. Massey says he’s going to get a new lawyer and he’s also removing Hunt as executor of the estate.  Since those fees would have been north of seven figures, that’s motive.  Linda admitted to drugging Senior and driving him out to the golf course.  Hunt lured Lt. Massey out there and killed him with the wine bottle.

That’s all well and good, but Vance has a problem with Tony disobeying direct orders from both he and Gibbs.  “What are you gonna do?” he asks Gibbs.  “Ignore it,” says Gibbs.  “That’s what I figured,” sighs Vance.

At Gibbs’s house, Tony visits.  Tony is pissed that Senior skipped out without calling him yet again.  He says his dad makes him crazy and that he should be pissed off at him.  Gibbs asks, “Why aren’t you?”  Tony thought he was going to lose him for a second and, as crazy as he makes him, he does love the guy.  He thinks it’s pathetic that he’s never been able to tell him.  Of course, Senior is in the kitchen and says, “Consider it done, Junior.”  See, Senior is still here because he can’t afford the room at the hotel that keeps renting him rooms he can’t afford (Flesh and Blood, Episode 7.12), but it’s Thanksgiving and Senior wanted to stay in town to spend it with Tony.  He is making a turkey in Gibbs’s kitchen and asks Tony to dispose of the innards.  We end on Gibbs asking if Tony wants an apron.

Quotables:

(1) McGee: Don’t give up hope, Tony.

Tony: I gave up hope when [Senior] started dating girls younger than me, and that was in the late ’80s.

(2) Tony: How’d it go with my father last night?  Where is he?

Gibbs: Autopsy.

Tony: You shot him? Can’t say I blame you.

Ziva-propisms: None.

Tony Awards: Tony watched Stagecoach (1939).  He does a De Niro impression.

Abby Road: Abby really likes Rolls Royces.

McNicknames:  Nothing.

Ducky Tales:  Also nothing.

The Rest of the Story:

-Agent Dorneget becomes a recurring character for a while.  Interestingly, he also becomes a recurring reference, to establish that he’s helping out behind the scenes but without the show having to pay the actor for an appearance.

-Tony always suspects the wife.  He was right once.  Jurisdiction, Episode 7.19.

-While I agree that Senior’s odds against a fit man used to combat would be low to quite low, he did knock out a softer man with one punch the last time he appeared.  Broken Arrow, Episode 8.7.

-Dorneget hooked up with Susan Grady from polygraph.  She has made a play for McGee in the past, and she’s not a good decision-maker for life choices generally.  See The Inside Man, Episode 7.3 and Moonlighting, Episode 7.20.  That said, a near-future episode will demonstrate that Dorney’s character bible entry wasn’t complete when this plot point came up.

-What is it with NCIS and sex at work.  Palmer and Agent Lee spent a season playing hanky panky all over the building.  (See all of Season 4). And Tony almost certainly hooked up with Agent Barrett in the showers.  One Last Score, Episode 8.17.

-We learn that Dorney doesn’t drink.  Good for him.

-In reality, this was harder than it needed to be.  Unless Senior paid cash for booze, the team should have found the bar and the surveillance way quicker than they did.  Yes, they were a man down, but checking the credit cards is usually McGee’s thing.  Maybe Linda paid?

-Senior got to cuff the perp in Broken Arrow¸ Episode 8.7.

-Tony also visited Gibbs at home after the first adventure with Senior.  Flesh and Blood, Episode 7.12.

-I like holiday episodes that don’t bring up the holiday until the end.

-Senior’s experience aside, your friend who claims he can normally hold his liquor and doesn’t know why he had a blackout or a hangover this past weekend was not secretly drugged.  He just has a drinking problem.

Casting Call: Dorney is Matt Jones.  He has also had roles on Mom and Breaking Bad.     

Man, This Show Is Old: Nothing noticeable.

MVP: Tony saved his old man’s bacon.  Although Abby gets the assist.

Rating: As Senior episodes go, this had a better mystery but less compelling characterization.  It’s pretty good but not quite at the level of prior Senior appearances.

Seven Palmers.

Next Time: A Christmas episode.  And one of the most bizarrely awesome scenes in the entire history of the show. 

Alex Barfield is an attorney in Atlanta, Georgia. When not practicing law or writing about NCIS, he chases his children around, volunteers at his church, and looks for other television shows to obsess over. He can be reached at albarfie@gmail.com or on Twitter at @AlexBarfield1.