Directed by Leslie Libman
Written by Scott Williams
McGee discovers that his and Deliah's apartment has been torn apart by a robber trying to locate an item of great value hidden somewhere by the convicted criminal who previously owned the unit. Also, Congresswoman Flemming (Mary Stuart Masterson) tries to persuade Director Vance to pursue a career in politics.
Tropes:
- Ashes to Crashes: Averted. Quinn and Torres are disturbed to learn that McGee keeps the box with his father's ashes under his bed, but nothing happens to them. In fact, a few minutes later Quinn admits that discovering a whole body under the floorboards of the bedroom makes the ashes seem quite normal.
- Book Ends: The episode starts with McGee coming home after a long day of work and discovering two robbers tearing apart the walls and floors of the apartment. The episode ends with McGee coming home after a long day of work and discovering Gibbs reparing his walls and floors.
- Brick Joke: When McGee is relucant to tell Delilah about the robbery and him having to kill one of the guys in self-defense, he says she's going to be burning sage in the apartment if she finds out about it. After McGee comes clean to Delilah about everything (except about him knowing about the triple homicide before the break-in occured) he tells his coworkers that she took the news surprisingly well, but she was going to be burning a lot of sage in the apartment when she gets back from Dubai.
- Call-Back:
- McGee and Deliah now live in Tony's old apartment, who got it back in "Home of the Brave". Ellie and Nick also bring up how they were also in the running to get the apartment.
- The gruesome triple homicide that took place in the apartment fifteen years ago (and the reason why the place is so cheap in the first place) is a major plot point into why the apartment was broken into.
- Delilah's "Rosebud" hard-drive was hidden in a hollowed-out copy of McGee's "Deep Six" book.
- During this episode, Delilah is in Dubai on a D.O.D assignment. She spent the last few episodes of Season 11 and half of Season 12 on a six-month assignment there.
- Fridge Horror: Tim's pretty freaked out to realize that he and Delilah have been sleeping and, ahem, not sleeping over a frigging corpse, but no one seems to realize that Tony, the previous occupant, has been too, and for even longer!
- Fur and Loathing: The guy who committed the triple homicide was a licensed furrier who used his business as a front for a smuggling ring; he mostly smuggled rare animals but also got involved in smuggling diamonds. All four of his murder victims were smugglers he worked with.
- Hypocritical Humor: Torres gets severely freaked out by the discovery of the body and immediately reverses his earlier advice to McGee to be completely honest with Delilah.Torres: He knew about a triple homicide before he moved in. This, he didn't know about.
Quinn: And now that he knows, why shouldn't Delilah know?
Torres: Hell, nobody should know! I wish I didn't know! - It's Personal: Since the robbers attacked McGee, everybody takes it personally.
- Killing in Self-Defense: McGee kills one of the robbers when they begin to shoot at him with a well-placed bullet to the heart, although he admits that it was a lucky shot.
- Locked Out of the Loop:
- Deliah doesn't know about the triple homicide that took place 15 years ago, and the entire team spends the episode debating on whether or not she should know, especially after they find a dead body with the safe key underneath the floorboards. McGee finally does tell her at the end of the episode, especially since the case made international news due to Team Gibbs finding a huge stash of stolen diamonds. However, McGee does claim that he did not know about the triple homicide before the break-in occured.
- Quinn also didn't know about the triple homicide until the first act of this episode.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Not a scream precisely, but Torres's voice jumps at least two octaves when he wishes aloud that he didn't know about the dead body under McGee and Delilah's bed.
- Shout-Out:
- Deliah's personal hard drive, that was stolen from the apartment until McGee and Torres found the second robber, is called "Rosebud" after the sled in Citizen Kane
- A body stashed by the previous owner underneath the floorboards. "Tell-Tale Heart", anyone?
- When Quinn opens the safety deposit box, she cautions Torres not to get overexcited, since "Al Capone's vault had a whole lot of nothing inside."
- Written-In Absence: Delilah is in Dubai on a D.O.D. assignment during this episode.
