Directed by Alrick Riley
Written by Scott J Jarrett & Matthew R Jarrett
The death of a Petty Officer in Spain sparks an investigation into a retired veteran (played by Drew Carey, who also served in the military) who supposedly sent him a care package with cyanide-laced cookies. Along the way, Sloane must help the vet open up about his past as a P.O.W while she opens up about her own experiences.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Cain and Abel: One of the murderers turned out to be the victim's own brother.
- Commonality Connection: Sloane and Ross both served in the military, both were POW's, and both have major PTSD issues as a result. At the end of the episode, Ross admits that Sloane was the first person he could talk to about what had happened to him since she also knew what being a Prisoner of War was like.
- Everyone Has Standards: Whit Dexter's sponsors have tolerated a bunch of the lies, fake news, and insane conspiracy theories he spread around. However, when Ross is proved innocent of the petty officer's murder and the true culprits are caught, most of the advertisers immediately stop funding Dexter's podcast because they're disgusted that he helped almost ruin an innocent person's life.
- Frame-Up: The brother and the wife killed a sailor and tried to have Ross take the fall for it, because they wanted to get together with each other and wanted to impress Whit Dexter, who had a known vendetta against Ross.
- Friendship Moment: In a lovely example of this, Vance gets to be a shoulder for Sloane to cry on when the case brings her own Survivor Guilt to the surface.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The brother and wife of the victim tried to pin the blame for the murder on Ross by revealing how the victim died in a post on one of the computers in Legion Hall in order to spread the rumor onto the internet. That same computer had a security camera on it, which played a vital role in them getting busted once Team Gibbs found out where the original post came from.
- Jerkass: Whit Dexter, the shock-jock who claims that Ross' time as a POW was actually a paid vacation in Hawaii and accuses him of poisoning the petty officer in Rota.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Whit Dexter wasn't involved in the petty officer's murder, and didn't even know the wife and brother who killed him, but he still took advantage of the Frame-Up against Ross to try to destroy his credibility. When Ross is proved innocent and the real murderers get busted, Dexter loses his credibility and several of his sponsors stop funding him out of disgust over his actions.
- The motive behind the brother and the wife of the petty officer murdering him was for both of them to get together permanently and impress Whit Dexter (the brother's hero) by having Ross be blamed for the death. When they get caught, they're both obviously going to be separated when they get sent to prison due to them being different genders. Also, once their scheme is exposed to the public, it costs Dexter most of his sponsors and his credibility, which is the opposite of what they wanted to happen.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Ross decides to tell the post office woman that he's her biological father.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: After Torres and Reeves talk to Dexter for the first time in the studio, he makes a podcast claiming that Ross killed the petty officer with poisoned cookies, which captures mainstream attention. Considering how Torres and Reeves never mentioned Ross or how the petty officer died, and the fact that Dexter had a clear vendetta against Ross, this makes him an immediate suspect for the murder and he gets arrested.
- Papa Wolf: The only redeeming quality of Whit Dexter is the love he has for his daughter. Gibbs mentioning how humiliating it must be for her to have a lying jerk like Dexter for a father, especially at school, is enough for Dexter to get genuinely angry.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: The victim's Jerkass uncle shows up drunk at the wake, telling Team Gibbs that the petty officer's wife was only interested in him because of the inheritance he got after his parents died in a car crash, so NCIS should consider her a suspect. Most of this rant is out of jealousy because he didn't get any of the inheritance money. It turns out that the wife was involved in the petty officer's death, but her motive had nothing to do with the inheritance.
- Stepford Smiler: Sloane hints that her sunny attitude is hiding a lot more darkness than she wants to let on.Sloane: [viciously] Oh yeah. I've gotten real good at looking pretty and pretending to be put together all the time, huh?
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Cookies with cyanide.
