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Recap / NCISS 06 E 15

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Deliverance

Directed by Dennis Smith

Written by Dan E. Fesman & Reed Steiner

Original air date: February 10, 2009

A Marine is shot on a rooftop in one of D.C.'s toughest neighborhoods, the team finds Gibbs's Marine Corps service number written in blood at the crime scene.

  • Analogy Backfire: Maggie explains that her father worked for the Department Of Defense during the Cold War, and the weapons she was helping the PCs to steal were supposed to be the street-level equivalent of nuclear weapons - they would discourage attacks on the gang without ever needing to actually be used. Her "reasoning" leaves Gibbs and Franks equally speechless.
  • Big Secret: Staff Sergeant Medina turns out to be lying about his alibi on the night PFC Salazar was killed. It turns out he was visiting his illegitimate son, whom his wife doesn't know about. Likewise, his frequent phone calls to the PCs in his old neighborhood turn out to be him trying to convince his old friends to quit the gang and join the Marines.
  • Chekhov's Gun: In the Cold Open, an arms dealer is showing off various weapons to a gang member, promising that any one of them is a ticket to "instant respect." This turns out to be the motivation behind Maggie's plans to give the PCs assault rifles, to discourage their rivals from attacking them.
  • Child by Rape: What Tomas Tomayo turns out to have been. It's left ambiguous whether Gibbs revealed this to him.
  • Couldn't Find a Pen: Tomayo wrote Gibbs's service number in blood on the rooftop where PFC Salazar was killed.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Clues that the case is linked to Gibbs's time as a Marine prompts Vance to request his sealed service record.
  • Did Not Think This Through: Maggie's plan for stopping the gang violence in the Projects was to help one gang, the PCs, to acquire military assault rifles, reasoning that, like nuclear weapons, just having them would be enough to discourage rival gangs from attacking. She failed to consider: 1) assault rifles are much easier to fire than nukes, and the PCs would be hard-pressed to resist using them (assuming they'd even bother to try); and 2) just like nukes, their rivals would be motivated to get their own assault weapons, either by stealing the PCs', or acquiring their own through similarly violent means.
  • Disappointing Heritage Reveal: Played With. Tomas Tomayo always believed Gibbs was his father, but Vance asks Gibbs whether he told Tomayo the truth: that his real father was the drug cartel enforcer that Gibbs killed.
  • The Dog Was the Mastermind: Maggie, the social worker assisting neighborhood youths in the gang's area, was the mastermind behind the PCs' attempts to acquire assault rifles from Quantico.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: The PC gang members that Tony and Ziva confront whimsically name Ziva La Bonita ("the beauty"). Tony warns them that "La Bonita will kick your ass", and oh, does she ever.
    • Tony defends his mistranslation of the PCs' name as "Capital Fish" by saying that several badass gangs (and rock bands) are named after fish.
  • Heel Realization: Staff Sergeant Medina's prior history with the PCs is not a secret, and he admits that he got a big thrill out of being a "shot-caller" for the gang - until he woke up one day and realized that all his friends were going to jail or getting killed before they turned 17.
  • Karma Houdini: Played With. Tomayo avoids punishment for stealing assault rifles from Quantico, since he was under duress, and is instead transferred to combat duty in Iraq.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Teased and ultimately averted. Tomas Tomayo (and by extension, the audience) always believed Gibbs was his father, but Gibbs admits that when Tomayo's mother Rosa saved his life, she was already pregnant with Tomas.
  • My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Tony's mistranslation of the PCs full name, Pecados Capitales.
    Tony: "Capital Fish"?
    Ziva: "Deadly Sins", you idiot. "Fish" is pescado.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: When Carmado takes off running, Tony chases him, leaving Ziva to deal with Chuy and Rico. After Tony tackles Carmado and drags him back in handcuffs, Ziva appears, casually readjusting her sleeves and asking Tony, "what took you so long?" Tony glances to his right and sees Chuy and Rico crawling on all fours, moaning in pain.
  • Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: In-Universe. Abby excitedly draws the parallels between Gibbs and Batman - that writing his service number is the equivalent of lighting up the Bat-Signal - then remarks on Franks's presence and that it is like having Ra's al Ghul and Qui-Gon Jinn showing up alongside Batman and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Gibbs and Franks both stare at her in silence, neither of them having a clue what she's talking about.
  • Trading Bars for Stripes: PFCs Tomayo and Salazar, and Staff Sergeant Medina, were all former members of the PCs. Medina says joining the Marines made such a difference to his life that he tried to encourage other former gang members to make the same choice.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Maggie, who is so heartbroken that the young kids she is mentoring are growing up to join gangs and be killed before they even reach adulthood, comes up with the plan of putting a lid on the violence by helping one of the gangs acquire military assault rifles.
  • You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Bells go off in Gibbs's head when someone at the crime scene writes his military service number in blood.
  • You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Maggie explains that her plan - helping a D.C. street gang to acquire military assault weaponry - was intended to stop the violence in their neighborhood, reasoning that if one gang had superior firepower, their rivals would be too scared to attack them, and the guns would never need to be used at all! Gibbs and Franks just stare at her, then each other, then back at her.

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