Directed by Terrence O'Hara
Written by Christopher J Waild & David J North
Gibbs finds himself with a few problems to solve: the morale of the team following Clay’s murder and Abby's resignation, finding a replacement forensic tech, and solving the murder of a friend who, it turns out, has been hiding out from his assassin in a fallout shelter underneath his house.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Brain Bleach: Antonia is very disturbed by the doctored pictures of her with Phil Brooks.
- Call-Back: Sloane is a fan of McGee's (or, rather, Thom E. Gemcity's) Deep Six novels.
- Faking the Dead: Phil Brooks does this by accident; he escaped someone trying to kill him on his boat and hid out in his bomb shelter, and sent Gibbs a message to meet up with him. Unfortunately, the message was picked up by Reeves, who died before he could pass it on. As such, Gibbs doesn't find out about any of this until he goes to attend Phil's funeral and accidently stumbles upon his hiding place.
- Oh, Crap!: Antonia smashes a headlight on Gibbs' car, thinking he's a creepy investor here to harass her, and then he shows her his badge.Antonia: Oh, damn.
- Say My Name: Gibbs, when he discovers that his deceased friend is actually Faking the Dead and hiding in a bomb shelter. (His voice even goes up a couple octaves in surprise.)Gibbs: PHIL! What the hell?
- Un-person: Ellie is pissed that MI6 has removed everything of Clay's from NCIS, essentially making him this.
- Wrong-Name Outburst:
- McGee congratulates Kasey's work by saying "Good work, Abbs" before catching himself and apologizing.
- Almost happens again when Palmer says that he needs to run some evidence up to...Kasey.
