'NCIS' recap- 'Neverland'

Last night’s season finale of NCIS left us with a huge cliffhanger to take us into season 13. When the episode opened, Joanna Teague, the CIA officer who is also Ned’s mother, is torturing Sadiq Samar in an effort to find out where Luke is. When he gives the boy’s location, she makes a phone call to Gibbs to tell him she knows where the boy has been taken.

The episode brings us back hours earlier as Joanna is in Vance’s office with both the director and Gibbs. She wants to be read in on their case so she can help find the people who killed her son. They tell her Ned always wanted to be seen as being a capable agent in his own right and no one besides the two of them knew about his family lineage. Joanna talks about her son and begins to tear up slightly before composing herself. After telling Gibbs Ned always talked about his rules, he brings up number 10, which is never to be personally involved in a case. Despite this, she still does not back down.

Down in the bullpen, Tony and Tim are watching the director’s office before they discuss the case with Ellie. They know Sadiq and Rousseau are the face of The Calling and they need to find out who ranks on the next level. We learn that Sadiq handled the bomb that was found in Egypt and Matthew Rousseau had admitted the involvement. After Tim talks, Tony pats his back and tells him they are glad he is back with them.

Joanna comes down to meet the team. Ellie gives her condolences and when Tim speaks, his guilt is evidenced as he tells her he shouldn’t have left her son. Joanna dismisses this, telling him they all did their jobs they had to do. She meets Tony, who is surprised when he finds out that Ned thought highly of his relationship with his father. Gibbs comes down and receives a call from Ducky. He tells Joanna, who steels herself.

Down in the morgue, Joanna prepares herself to see her son’s body, which is still in the body bag. Ducky opens it and Joanna says goodbye to her son. While they are down there, Gibbs also hears Mike’s ghost, asking how many more agents will die.

She asks about seeing the bomb fragments that are in his body and Gibbs tells Ducky it’s fine, even though he wants to do the autopsy first. Jimmy is also there and he gives Joanna his condolences. Ducky pulls a Titanium ball bearing from Ned’s neck. Joanna thinks they might be able to track down the ball bearings. Gibbs has someone he can contact.

The team tells Gibbs a blond man was seen at the hotel during the time of the bombing. There was also security camera footage of Sadiq at that same hotel a month prior. They also have evidence showing he came to Virginia, which was when Janine Wilt was killed. Gibbs’ contact, Pavlenko, had discovered the ball bearings came from an aerospace facility that was purchased by a dummy corporation. The facility, Bianca Aviation, had the ball bearings and Roger Dietz signed for it.

Gibbs meets up with Luke, who is wearing headphones as Paula sits nearby. Luke appears to be feeling guilty that people are dead because of him. He doesn’t appear to say much as Gibbs tries to console him. Luke tells Gibbs he might know how to show him who shot his parents.

In Abby’s lab, she has a stuffed giraffe known as Safari Sandy that came from Luke’s room. It has a nanny cam inside it and caught the entire murder of Luke’s parents. Gibbs watches the video.

In the interview room, Joanna is looking at a photo of herself and Ned. She cries softly before Luke comes in with Paula, having forgotten his homework. When he realizes her son is the agent who was killed, Luke says everything is his fault. Joanna asks if he can help her catch who did it, Luke goes quiet before leaving.

Tony and Ellie go to talk to Roger Dietz, who denies knowing anything about selling his ball bearings to Sadiq. However, they have evidence that shows the transaction. Dietz appears nervous and tries to say their inventory is accounted for and that they wont find anything. Tony begs to differ.

Gibbs interrogates Matthew Rousseau about the ball bearings and the dummy corporation. However, Rousseau is not helpful. Gibbs asks why they are recruiting children and Rousseau comments that they can be shown the way to rise up. Mike’s ghost tells Gibbs to “break” Rousseau. Then Rousseau cryptically asks about the time in Arizona. Gibbs gets a call from Tim to inform him there was a bombing in the Grand Canyon.

In the bullpen, the team is gathering information about the bombing. Tony tells them there was one fatality and a few injuries. Two busses full of tourists were just minutes away from being at the spot where the bombing occurred. Ellie finds confirmation that Dietz had records indicating he was in contact with Sadiq. They determined the phone was left near a college campus. Gibbs tells Tony and Ellie to go find Sadiq. Tim finds information that Ned had been unable to finish working on when he died. It is loud music that is apparently being used by The Calling to give to the recruits.

Tony and Ellie are looking around trying to see if anyone knows Sadiq. They see one boy listening to music and stop him to talk. He looks like he is younger than a college student and when they show a picture of Sadiq, he runs away.

Joanna, Gibbs, and Luke are out for breakfast. Mike’s ghost is still present, reminding Gibbs to be careful since Luke is not a good kid anymore. Luke is not very responsive as he listens to music on his headphones. Joanna tries to ask if she can hear his music, but he ignores her. He asks to go back to Gibbs’ house and as he walks off, Joanna stops Gibbs to tell him that Luke is “playing him.” Mike’s ghost also tells Gibbs that she didn’t forget rule 36, which is about feeling like you are being played.

The boy from earlier, Elan, knocks on a door and Sadiq answers. He tells Sadiq that people are looking for him. They talk about getting Luke so they can leave for Iraq.

In Abby’s lab, Tim walks in to see her listening to the music on her headphones. She tells him the music is horrible and that when she broke up the layers on the track, she found a particular beat that sounded like it was in Morse Code.

The team decodes a song found on Brad Simek’s computer and the message has the phrase “Prove what you can do,” which is what was sent to him before he blew himself up. Vance asks Gibbs where Luke is, who informs him security and child services has him. He tells Tim they need to go to MTAC.

In MTAC, they speak with Commissioner Girard from France, who Ned had helped to rescue before his death. She tells Joanna about her son’s bravey and we learn that they know each other. She tells them that kids are now being sent video games that have a message once you win the crown at the end. Ned was going to be asked to play it, but she tells them he had said Tim was good at video games and calls him “Elf Lord.” Tim makes a comment about his mother saying he’d never get paid to play video games and agrees to try out the game.

Elan shows up at Gibbs’ house and knocks on the door. Paula answers, but doesn’t want to let him in, and is confused about how he found the house. Luke watches from the stairs.

Gibbs and Joanna talk in the elevator as Mike’s ghost appears once again. Joanna is lamenting on how they are chasing so many people and it’s hard to know who they are trying to catch anymore. The elevator stops and Ellie is standing there when it opens. She tells them something happened at Gibbs’ house.

Gibbs and Ellie go to his house, where Paula is on the couch with a head injury. Luke is gone and Ellie describes the kid she saw with Tony. They realize the kid has him. Gibbs leaves and tells Joanna to “say it” but she is quiet as her phone beeps.

In Vance’s office, we learn that Joanna is doing undercover work for the CIA against The Calling. Vance is worried her work with NCIS could disrupt her cover, but she still wants to remain on the case to catch Sadiq. She is sure she can handle it, but tells him he is welcome to call her boss. But she also makes it clear if he does, then they could lose Sadiq and Luke. When she leaves, he picks up his phone.

Gibbs is standing in the morgue staring at Ned’s body. Mike’s ghost comes back to him and Gibbs asks why he has shown up. Mike remarks he is so busy trying to save other people and questions who will save Gibbs.

The next scene takes viewers back to what happened at the beginning of the episode after Joanna called Gibbs. There is a knock on the door and Gibbs is standing there, looking less than thrilled to see Sadiq tortured. Gibbs talks to Joanna in the small space, not happy she used her CIA intel for herself. Joanna points out that he killed people and Gibbs tells her he cares more about his agent he lost. They ask why Luke was taken and Sadiq reveals because they had him “in custody.” Joanna and Gibbs realize that Luke could possibly give them information on the team members since they had been around him. Joanna tells Gibbs Luke is in Zakho.

Gibbs calls Tim and asks him to look for Daniel Budd, who is the leader of The Calling. Tim asks his boss where he is and is stunned to find out he has Sadiq in custody. The team finds out Daniel Budd had once been a DJ, which is likely where the music had come from, before he got into terrorism. An informant of Ellie sends her a test that they identified Luke in Zakho, so Joanna, Gibbs, and Tony all head down there.

In Zakho, Joanna tells them a group of kids from Western countries were found in the area and taken to different locations. Gibbs splits up from Tony and Joanna when he sees a suspicious young girl. Back at NCIS, Vance interrogates Sadiq, who appears to know Vance is a great interrogator. He shows Sadiq photos of his victims, but gets no reaction. Vance asks about targets and Sadiq makes a cryptic comment about older people sitting on their benches. He tells Vance age is the enemy.

In Zakho, they are still trying to track the girl when Gibbs suggests they split up.

Tim is trying to finish the game as Ellie and Abby look on. Eventually, he wins the crown and images of different targets appear on the screen. Ellie realizes they have kids on the inside and Luke could still be with The Calling. Vance rushes in and asks where all the Supreme Court justices are. They are apparently on their way to a retreat and Vance orders them to put security measures in place.

Gibbs goes up to the girl he followed and tells her she shouldn’t be there alone. She looks at him with an evil glint as she tells him her new friends told her to walk around. Nearby, Tony gets a call on his phone. It is Daniel Budd and Tony looks around, trying to see where he could be. Joanna gets stuck when people end up crowding her. As Budd taunts Tony, Gibbs sees Elan and turns to see Luke standing there with a gun. Tony listens to Daniel tell him that Luke is only a kid just as Luke pulls the trigger before Gibbs can pull his weapon. Tony can only watch in stunned horror as Luke shoots Gibbs twice, once in the leg and once in the chest. Gibbs collapses as Luke walks past him.

To be continued next season.

Image via INFphoto.com

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