'NCIS' recap: 'Shooter'

This episode opens up with soldiers in the desert on some type of mission. A marine photographer, who we later learn is Staff Sergeant Martin Roe, is taking photos of the marines as they go into a village home. There, he runs in and snaps a photo of a soldier, alongside the dead body of a villager. He is told to stop taking photos, but just looks at the scene in silence.

At NCIS, Vance is talking to Commander Chad Henderson, who is updating him on a court-martial for the marine who had shot the villager. The photo Roe had taken was leaked to the press, and there is issue over whether Roe or his task force commander had leaked it. Gibbs comes in and is informed Roe was supposed to testify at the trial against Lieutenant Michael Waters, but he’s been missing for four days. The shooting of the Afghan villager is suspicious because while Waters claimed he was a terrorist, Roe thought it was a revenge execution.

The team is in the squad room talking and they soon focus on Tim, who is not so clean-shaven as he usually appears. He tells them he has a skin condition and the doctor told him not to shave for a week. This doesn’t stop the team from teasing him. Gibbs comes down to let them know about the Roe situation, and Commander Henderson tells them Roe was on an assignment about homeless veterans. As they begin working, Gibbs looks at Tim’s face before looking toward his computer.

Gibbs decides to talk to Waters and his lawyer, Richard Huggins, to find out if he knows anything. Since his case relied on Roe’s testimony, he stood a chance of benefiting from Roe not showing up. Waters denies any involvement, telling Gibbs the logs at the facility he was in, Fort McNair, would show where he was. Huggins feels the interview is turning into an interrogation and decides they are done. Vance sends Gibbs a text telling him to tread lightly.

Ellie and Tony go to Roe’s apartment to look around. Ellie is uncomfortable going through people’s property, but Tony is enjoying himself. Ellie goes into the bathroom to look around and soon, Tony finds a threatening note in one of Roe’s drawers, telling him to ‘Wise up or shut up.’ Ellie comes out with a bent spoon and a needle, which indicates the possibility of drug use.

The team is going through Roe’s photos of the homeless and a series of photo he had taken include multiple ones of a man with a dog, which are used to help Tim make a GPS map, leading toward a two block area outside the Navy Yard, so they decide to go investigate.

Abby tells Gibbs and Henderson that she found prints on the note, but they were just Roe’s. However, she also reveals that the spoon had presence of a drug known as China White, and so did the needle. Plus, the needle had some DNA from Sergeant Roe. Henderson is confused, not buying that Roe was on drugs.

Ellie, Tim, and Tony are investigating the area and are able to recognize some places from the photos. One photo from inside a building leads them inside, where it is filthy and smells badly. Tony finds a dead body and it turns out to be Roe, who has a needle in his arm.

Ellie talks to the owner of the building, who had just been there two weeks earlier. He had been trying to board it up to keep the homeless from breaking in. Tim identifies Roe’s body and Ducky estimates his time of death as between 4-5 days earlier. He doesn’t see any old track marks on Roe’s arms. Gibbs tells Tony this wasn’t how he expected things to go.

Back at the squad room, Vance informs Gibbs Waters’ court-martial will most likely be dropped. Gibbs gets a call from Abby, who is down with Ducky. Vance goes with Gibbs, but not before looking at Tim and telling him he’s looking ‘scruffy.’ Gibbs and Vance find out from Ducky that before he had put Roe’s body away, he saw irritation on Roe’s nose. Samples from his nostrils turned out to be chloroform, indicating that Roe was left unconscious before the needle was put into his arm, indicating murder

The team goes over the case, wondering if either Waters was involved, or if something about his story on the homeless veterans had led to his death. As they look at the photos, their attention goes to one particular homeless man and a dog. Gibbs sees in one of the photos that Blue has a Navy tattoo. Abby comes up, recognizing the man in the photo. She knows them as Blue and Dave, respectively. She often goes to give Dave some dog food, and she gave Blue a sweater. However, she says she hasn’t seen them in days.

Ellie and Tony are out trying to find Blue, but because of their badges, none of the homeless people on the streets will talk to them. They decide someone should go undercover, but neither of them would be plausible, since they’ve already been seen. Then, Tony remembers Tim and his scruffy appearance.

Huggins goes to talk to Vance. He is not happy that Gibbs wants to talk to his client again. Vance explains that they are now investigating Roe’s murder and need to go through all angles. Huggins goes through Waters’ honors, including the villager’s murder being self-defense after the death of one of his team members. Vance tells him that’s for his court martial to decide. Huggins accuses Vance of acting on an inter-service rivalry. Vance counters that NCIS is a civilian agency and they do not report to a uniform like Huggins. They will investigate whatever they are led to.

In Abby’s lab, she is going over facial recognition to find out who Blue really was. Ellie asks where Tim is, since she took over his investigation and can’t understand his handwriting. Abby indicates toward her back office and warns Ellie that Tim is not happy. In the office, we see Tim wearing a wig and looking filthy. He is not pleased as he is made to look homeless, thanks to Christopher from tech services. Tony decides to up the ante, by spraying Tim completely with a combination of cat urine and body odor. Tim is further annoyed and Abby comes in, disgusted and annoyed with how messy her lab is. She tells them she knows Blue’s name is Everett Turpin, a petty officer who was honorably discharged in 2003, before scolding them to clean up.

Ellie is working late and Gibbs offers to give her a hand. The civilian lawyer for Roe’s team won’t cooperate so she can compare their handwriting to the threatening note. She tells Gibbs while the logs show where Waters was, it is possible that Waters could have been involved since the building Roe was found in was close to Fort McNair. Gibbs wonders if they have heard from Tim and Tony, but Ellie says no.

Meanwhile, at the homeless site where Blue had been, Tim has been walking around, but didn’t find anything out about Blue. He is hungry and cold, but Tony tells him that coming to the car will break his cover. Tim is already fed up and is heading back to the car when Tony spots a man who is following Tim. Tim turns around and the man asks him what he wants with Blue. Tim manages to come up with a story about Blue having helped him. The man informs him that Roe had taken Blue to a health clinic and there was a rumor he was dead.

The team is going over the case, having found out that Blue did indeed die of heart failure one day before Roe’s estimated time of death. Tim asks Gibbs if he can continue working the Waters angle and he wants to put pressure on him. Gibbs tells him to go ahead. Abby comes in and asks if they found Blue. The team is solemn and Gibbs gives her a hug before telling her what happened. Abby is heartbroken and wishes she could have helped more. Tim gently tells her she can’t save everyone and she agrees. When she asks about Dave, Tim says they didn’t see the dog.

Gibbs and Ellie go to the clinic, which helps homeless people on the streets. The director, Lorin Davis, tells them what happened when Blue came in. He suffered a heart attack and died before paramedics could come. Doctor Graham Novak had signed his death certificate and Gibbs asks for medical files. They also discover Roe did bring him in and had stood over his body afterwards for some time. Ellie looks over at the many people waiting to be seen.

Abby is out looking for Dave when she spots him with a homeless girl, who had been looking after him for Blue. Abby tells her Blue passed away and the girl is clearly shaken, having known Blue wouldn’t leave Dave for so long. She doesn’t look at Abby, as she is looking through trash. Abby asks if she has any family, to which the girl responds they are dead. She touches a mirror, looking at it for a moment before leaving when Abby keeps asking her questions. Abby picks up the mirror.

Ducky goes to see Gibbs at his house and he talks to him about Turpin. He had no history of heart disease, but possibly had problems with alcoholism. Ducky also informs Gibbs on what will happen to Turpin’s body. If a next of kin does not claim him in thirty days, he will be cremated for burial. He also tells Gibbs autopsies are not usually performed on the homeless. Gibbs wonders if Ducky could look over Turpin’s body, thinking it’s possible Turpin didn’t die of a heart attack.

Abby is in her lab looking at a photo of a girl’s driver’s license when Tim comes down. He asks her who the girl is and Abby tells him that she found the girl’s prints on a mirror and when she ran it, she came up with the name Emma Carter. Tim wonders who she is since he didn’t see her pictures on Roe’s camera. Abby says he wouldn’t have and the girl is a runaway from six years previous. Her parents had even gotten the FBI involved in trying to find her. She isn’t sure what to do when Tim asks if she’s calling the FBI.

Vance and Gibbs are in the autopsy room, where Ducky confirms Turpin’s cause of death. However, he also found something else. Stitches on Turpin’s back reveals his kidneys were missing, which was not mentioned in his medical files. His vital organs were stolen.

Tim tells Gibbs about the black market and Gibbs points out that organs have to be harvested within minutes, yet Doctor Novak didn’t mention it in the medical records. Ellie tells them that Novak is a model citizen so Gibbs decides to go see him. Tony arrives, asking what he missed, and Gibbs tells him he’s coming with him.

Abby goes back to see Dave, and she tells Emma that her parents had been looking for her for years. Even though a video Abby found of Emma’s mom appears to move her, she doesn’t want to talk to them. Abby leaves her with a prepaid phone card to give them a call.

Tony and Gibbs confront Novak, who tells them he only got into the black market because a close friend of his was dying on a liver transplant waiting list, and he wanted to save him. A homeless person had died and his organs saved his friend. Novak claims he never meant to do it again. He had only taken Turpin’s organs because he was being blackmailed. When pressed, he reveals it was Lorin Davis. When Roe had stood near Turpin’s body, he also saw Turpin was being kept on a ventilator. Lorin had told Novak he would take care of him.

The team goes to the clinic, where they have a warrant for the medical files of the facility. Then, they arrest Davis for the murder of Roe and Gibbs tells Davis the FBI has questions for him.

Abby goes back to Emma’s spot, where she sees it is empty. Emma soon walks up to her with Dave, revealing she needs Abby to watch Dave for her. When asked, Emma reveals she is going home to her parents in Nebraska. She knew Blue would have agreed she should go if he had seen the video. She thought she deserved to be homeless, but Abby tells her she’s better than that. Dave barks and Abby pets him.

Gibbs looks through the photos from Roe’s camera of all the homeless individuals, before stopping at a photo of Turpin. Vance arrives and they discuss the case’s end result. Waters’ court-martial is still going to trial, where they will have to present evidence without Roe’s testimony. Ducky comes to inform them that he has made arrangements for Turpin to be buried along side Roe at Arlington with full military honors. Gibbs and Vance are pleased. They all go home and the scene ends on a photo of Blue and Dave.