Stakeout (NCIS)

Infobox Television episode
Title = Stakeout
Colour =
Series = NCIS
Season = 5
Episode = 12


Airdate = 8 April 2008
Production = 106
Writer = George Schenck Frank Cardea
Director = Tony Wharmby
Guests = Susan Kelechi Watson - NCIS Intel Analyst Nikki Jardin
Jerry Kernion - Scott Rowe, Adria Dawn - Sandra Frasier Amy Lyndon - Goldilocks Philip Lenkowsky - Squeegee Man Abigail Mavity - Jordyn Wright Cyd Strittmatter - Joanne Wright Ned Vaughn - Navy Capt. Dean Pullman Kevin Rankin - Dennis Moran Reggie Lee - Jonathan Chow, Gretchen Egolf - Det. Andrea Sparr
Episode list = Episode chronology
Prev = Tribes
Next = Dog Tags"Stakeout" is an episode of the drama television series "NCIS".

ummary

When a high-tech naval radar goes missing, the NCIS team stakes out a warehouse to catch a suspected thief - but witnesses a murder instead. Meanwhile Ducky keeps a secret from the team

Plot Summary

McGee and DiNozzo are on a stakeout, watching a warehouse to find a stolen navy radar system. McGee, walking back after picking up breakfast for the two of them, sees what he assumes to be a drug deal going on. He tells Tony over his headset that as a federal agent he thinks it's his duty to stop the deal from happening. Tony reminds McGee that doing so would blow their stakeout cover and that he would slap McGee silly if he did that. Via his headset, McGee says to Tony, "Oh you're gonna slap me?" as a hooker walks out, overhears him and says "If that's what you want honey." Watching in binoculars, Tony says, "Go for it McFreaky, Goldilocks is just your type." McGee replies with "Bite me" and Goldilocks tells him that will be extra. McGee steps into the road and just misses getting hit by a car. Tony watches and laughs.

We see the computer screen being used to watch the radar system begin to fritz. Tony smacks the computer and the screen goes back to normal. When McGee shows up in the room and brings Tony breakfast, Tony proudly tells him that the computer began to fritz and he fixed it. Tony sees the breakfast and complains he wanted scrambled eggs, not sunny-side up so McGee walks over, grabs the container and shakes it. When he puts it down he says they are scrambled and goes back to the window to watch the warehouse. Tony throws McGee's burrito at his head and frustrated, McGee goes for Tony.

Ziva and Gibbs are doing surveillance and Ziva wants to know if prostitutes get bored doing the same thing every day. Gibbs tells her to watch the warehouse. Gibbs contacts Abby inquiring about whether or not she was able to get information about who rented the storage locker. As Abby is filling him in, Ziva notices a van pulling into the warehouse but it turns out to be nothing. Tony shows up and uses the binoculars. Gibbs comes out of the bathroom and asks where McGee is. Tony turns around and Gibbs notices he has two black rings under his eyes. He looks at Ziva, who looks away innocently (she pranked him by putting paint or marker on the binoculars so it would rub off on his face). Tony whines about working with McGee but Gibbs just gives him a look to silence him.

McGee arrives and fills Gibbs in on his inability to track down the anonymous source of the tip. They realize that whoever tipped them off about the warehouse is going to great lengths to remain anonymous. McGee mentions to Gibbs that the same BMW has been around dealing, with the same buyer. Gibbs tells him to record it and turn it over the the local police while he and Ziva leave. Tony hands the binoculars over to McGee while he mans the computer and the webcam brings his profile up on screen. He notices the "raccoon" look on his face and blames McGee. McGee tells him it was Ziva then notices an argument going on outside with the drug dealer and buyer. The dealer and buyer walk down an alley, out of sight as McGee turns the video camera and captures the face of the dealer as well as the BMW's license plate.

Gibbs and Ziva are leaving the building when someone comes running out of the alley calling for help. Gibbs and Ziva find the BMW driver dead in the alley. The local police are called and the dead man is identified as Scott Matthew Rowe. Gibbs tells Detective Sparr that NCIS has video of Rowe going into the alley with a Caucasian male. She starts to ask why NCIS is there and he tells her he'll send her the video. Tony walks up and crosses the police line. Detective Sparr tries to stop him and realizes he is with Gibbs. Tony turns on the charm as he introduces himself but when she nods her head for him to move, he goes back to the other side of the police tape. He remarks about the crime scene and gets Sparr's take on it. She asks what he thinks and he says that a man driving a $90,000 car in a bad neighborhood wouldn't turn off the car, let alone leave it. As Gibbs walks away, Tony says he worked Baltimore PD Narcotics for 2 years and Sparr says she had 3 years before transferring to Homicide. He remarks that the pipe used for a murder weapon is an odd choice for a drug dealer. He walks away but not before checking out Sparr's butt as she walks away.

Abby is in Ducky's lab, spinning around on a chair. When Ducky asks what she's doing, she says she is trying to change her spacial orientation to get a new perspective. He asks how it's working but of course when she gets up, she's dizzy. He tells her when she regains her equilibrium, he has a John Doe and wants her to run a "CBC with Platelets, a complete chem screen and CK." As she's leaving, Abby notices the John Doe doesn't have a case number. Ducky says he's working on it and will give it to her later so she leaves.

Jonathan Chow, Captain Pullman and Gibbs are meeting. Chow is unhappy that NCIS hasn't recovered the radar yet as he was supposed to be installing it into a "Zumwalt class destroyer" (stealth destroyer). He claims his company had spent 10 years working on it and demanded it to be released to him immediately. Gibbs wanted the radar system to be left in the storage locker so they could figure out who had stolen it. Captain Pullman tells Gibbs the destroyer is due to have sea trials the following month. Gibbs is aware if it gets delayed, he'll be in trouble with SecNav.

Ducky is doing research in his lab when Tony comes in and startles him. After some small chit-chat about his stakeout assignments, Tony asks Ducky how well he knows the local police department's ME. Ducky admits he sees the guy on Tuesday nights to play bridge. Tony asks Ducky to get him the autopsy report on Rowe. When Ducky asks why he's not going through normal channels, Tony admits he and Starr didn't see "eye to eye." Ducky asks if Gibbs knows Tony wants the report and Tony shakes his heads no.

Gibbs and Ziva are on surveillance duty at the warehouse again. Ziva is crawling around on the floor looking for any booby-traps Tony might have set. McGee walks in and Gibbs sends him to the warehouse to replace the batteries in the camera. McGee goes over the storage locker and when he walks in, he hesitates. He asks Gibbs what he's seeing and Gibbs replies that they see the radar system. When McGee asks if they see him, Gibbs says no. The camera pans into the storage locker, which is empty, as McGee tells Gibbs they have a problem.

The NCIS team is processing the storage locker when McGee says the camera is fine and working properly. Gibbs slams a ladder and tells McGee to figure it out. Ziva tells Tony they are a team and puts out her hands and says "no more practical jokes". After a brief hesitation, Tony shakes her hand and they agree. Ziva mentions they need warrants to search the other storage lockers so Tony leaves to put some pressure on the Warehouse manager to allow them in.

Gibbs waits at MTAC to communicate with Captain Pullman. Pullman finally arrives on screen and says that SecNav isn't happy and they want to speak with Director Shepard but she's out of the country. Gibbs says this is true when questioned. Pullman explains SecNav is concerned that the radar system is in the wrong hands and Chow is unhappy as it'll take his company 9 months to remanfacture the radar system. Gibbs asks if the sea trials have been postponed and Pullman says they haven't because SecNav isn't ready to go public yet, especially if the radar system has been compromised.

Ducky brings Tony the autopsy report on Rowe and admits he had to agree to be the ME's bridge partner at an upcoming weekend tournament. In a nutshell Ducky says the man died of blunt force trauma; he'd had a quadruple bypass before the age of 40 and ate all the wrong foods. There was no trace of drugs in Roe's system. Tony thanks Ducky and says he owes him. Ducky said, "Don't worry dear boy, one day I shall collect." Tony heads out and asks Ziva to cover for him.

Gibbs comes down from MTAC so Ducky "exits stage left." Gibbs asks where Tony is and Ziva hems and haws and finally says he had an errand to run. Gibbs smirks and tells Ziva to never cover for him. McGee says he was finally able to trace the anonymous tip they got about the radar system to a cell phone. He admits he got the serial number and was waiting for the service provider to get back to him with who it belonged to.

Tony tracks down Sparr at the murder scene. After they exchange some barbs about her butt (see quotes below), he tells her about the autopsy report. She is upset with him at first, but he asks her to trust him as he has a gut feeling about the murder. Tony says he feels responsible as he could've stopped Rowe from getting murdered, but thought it was just a drug deal. Sparr agrees as long as Tony doesn't do anything without telling her first. She tells him there were no prints on the murder weapon but NCIS' video gave them a good print of the dealer's face. They were able to ID the dealer as Dennis Moran; multiple drug arrests, twice convicted. Rowe was a stockbroker, lost his license and had several shady deals with a history of financial ups and downs. Tony's phone rings so he answers it and walks away from Sparr to talk. As he's chatting on the phone, she checks out his butt.

Gibbs walks into the observation room off interrogation and McGee says the anonymous tip came from Jordyn Wright's cell phone. Gibbs assumes McGee is talking about the mother but McGee says Jordyn is the young girl. Jordyn denies sending a message to NCIS and asks them to return her phone. Gibbs asks her if she was at Dupont Circle the previous Thursday at 7:30pm. The mother, Joanne insists Jordyn was home but Jordyn admits she was at a local Java joint and admits she let some guy use her phone for $10 as he couldn't get a signal. Gibbs asks if she would recognize him if she saw him again and she says "I guess."

Tony and Ziva are staring at Rowe's driver's license on the big screen in the office. Ziva asks Tony about whether or not the local P.D. knows what he's up to and Tony says he and Sparr have an arrangement. Ziva says Sparr must be hot and Tony replies she is, but not at the moment as he's working. Gibbs, McGee, Jordyn and Joanne walk through the office area while McGee tells Jordyn she's going to love Abby (who will be doing a computer generated drawing of the man Jordyn saw). Jordyn asks Gibbs if it's some kind of tests, then points to the big screen (Rowe's picture) and says he is the man who gave her $10 to use her cell phone.

Ziva is checking under her desk when McGee crawls under with her. She admits Tony hasn't gotten her back yet for the binoculars. She gets to her feet and tells him Sparr is on her way up with Tony. Gibbs walks in, sees McGee on his knees and says, "say one for me while your down there McGee." Gibbs and Tony bring Sparr up to speed as far as the case goes, but they leave as much as possible "classified" about the stolen radar system. Ziva introduces herself to Sparr and puts her hand out, but Sparr ignores her. They all watch as Nikki Jardine walks down the stairs wearing a hospital mask because four people in her department have come down with the flu. Sparr asks Ziva what her name was again but Ziva ignores her.

Gibbs and Jardin meet with Captain Pullman and Jonathan Chow again. Gibbs lets them know that Rowe was the individual behind the anonymous email but doesn't let them know anything further than Rowe is dead. Chow stresses out about the time it will take to remanucfature the radar system and the possibility of the company losing the contract. Pullman remains calm and asks Jardin if she was able to pull up Intel. Gibbs tells him he'll let him know while Chow leaves the room.

Abby joins McGee in the basement. He shows her the model of the warehouse and says he made it to show Gibbs so his eyes won't glaze over while explaining technology. Abby makes a comment about Gibbs then panics when she thinks he's there. They turn around but don't see anyone. McGee does a run through of how the theft of the radar system occurred when the thieves tapped into their camera signal using a scanner. The thieves provided a "loop" of the feed so the team remained unaware of the radar system leaving the locker. Abby said it was so simple even Gibbs would understand it. Gibbs responds from the open elevator that he did, but McGee is still not off the hook until the radar system is found.

Ducky is reviewing some x-rays when Palmer returns. He immediately removes them and puts them in an envelope. Palmer inquires what he was working on and Ducky says it was an old case. Palmer offers to file the x-rays but Ducky says he'll take care of it. As Palmer observes, Ducky puts the x-rays in his middle desk drawer and locks it.

Jardine approaches Gibbs at his desk and tells him the silence on the "channels" suggest that the missing radar was more than likely a "domestic" job. Gibbs receives a call and leave the room. Jardin approaches Ziva and tells her that she saw Tony putting something under her car earlier in the day. Ziva goes flying out to check as Jardine admits to McGee that Tony put her up to it.

Abby shows Gibbs and Sparr that a partial print she lifted off the storage rental agreement belonged to Rowe. Sparr gets a call and announces the Dennis Moran was spotted so they all head out to find him. When they arrive "Goldilocks" asks if there is a reward and Tony says "yeah him" and points to McGee. They are able to corner Dennis as he is coming down the fire escape but he pulls a gun. He says he didn't kill Rowe but ran because he didn't want to go back to prison. As Tony tries to talk him down, Dennis lifts his gun and Gibbs grabs him from behind, causing Dennis to drop the gun.

Gibbs interrogates Dennis while Sparr and Tony watch from observation. Dennis admits some man paid him a couple bills to watch the warehouse and call him when the feds arrived. He is unable or unwilling to tell Gibbs what the man looked like. Gibbs walks into the observation room and Sparr wants to take Dennis to Metro P.D. to charge him but Gibbs won't allow her to.

Ziva walks in and grabs a bag with lunch from McGee's desk (he's eating his burger). She opens her burger but before she bites it, she asks who she owes and McGee says "Tony." Ziva tossed the burger in the trash and Jardine asks if Tony would really do something to her food. Gibbs walks in and says "Oh yeah." McGee tells Gibbs about Rowe's stock market reports and bank statements which showed that Rowe had sold 50,000 shares of Jonathan Chow's company. Pullman walks in so Gibbs heads up to MTAC with him for a conference. McGee remarks that anyone could have pulled off the theft, including Pullman.

In autopsy, Palmer and Ducky begin going over requisitions. Abby comes in with the blood test results from the John Doe. She tells Ducky that the white blood cells were normal but there was a high enzyme level of creatine kinase. Ducky looks upset, thanks Abby, grabs his coat and hat and leaves. Abby and Palmer talk after Ducky leaves and Palmer says they don't have any John Doe's in autopsy.

Ziva asks Tony if he slept through his alarm as he walks in late with Sparr. He and Sparr admit they did background check on Rowe and discovered information about the sale of Chow's company stock from the stockbroker. McGee did a check on Rowe's credit cards and discovered a bill from a bar, 5 weeks prior on his statement. He cross referenced them against Chow's and found a similar bill from the same bar, same date/time and both were waited on by the same server. Gibbs has them bring Moran in.

Chow shows up at a bar and goes up to Moran. Chow asks if Moran is the guy who called him. Moran says that he saw Chow hit Rowe with a pipe and he'd better sit done because Chow probably doesn't want him talking to loudly. Chow first claims he doesn't know what Moran is talking about but then asks what he wants. Moran says he wants $50,000 and Chow wants to know how he can be sure Moran won't double cross him like Rowe did. Chow says it'll take him time to come up with the money and Moran gives him until the next day. Chow goes to leave but gets surrounded by the NCIS team and Sparr. Gibbs says "you got a lot of 'splainin to do" while McGee holds up a video camera and says Chow couldn't block that transmission. Starr takes Chow into custody and reads him his rights. Moran asks Gibbs if it'll help him with the judge and Gibbs tells Moran he did great.

In MTAC, Gibbs and the team brief Pullman on what went down. McGee explains the radar system didn't work as there was a glitch which would have taken months to fix. They found the system in the back of truck in long-term parking at Reagan International Airport. As they head back down to their desks, McGee says that Rowe would have made more money off the sale of the stock than what Chow was paying him. Ziva says "if I never go on a stakeout again, it'll be too soon." She sits down at her chair and falls over. Tony and McGee both pretend they are busy as Ziva peeks over her desk to see who pranked her.

Palmer and Ducky are in autopsy when Gibbs comes down. Gibbs sends Palmer on the pretense that Abby is looking for him. Palmer says he just left her but after Gibbs gives him a look, Palmer leaves. Ducky asks what is wrong and Gibbs says he didn't think they kept secrets from each other. Ducky realizes Abby went to Gibbs with the blood tests results. Gibbs says Abby cares and she's worried. Ducky says he is in excellent health and if Abby had looked further, she would have seen it wasn't Ducky's blood type. Gibbs asks who as Ducky goes to leave. Ducky replies that Gibbs is putting him into a very difficult position. Gibbs said "I can't think of anybody you'd stick your neck out like that for except Director Shepard." When Ducky remains silent, Gibbs asks if it's Jenny. [5.12 Stakeout - NCIS" [http://cbsncis.wetpaint.com/page/5.12+Stakeout] ", " [cbsncis.wetpaint.com] ". Retrieved on May 29, 2008.]

Quotes

Ziva: The jack she is with is gross.

Tony: You mean John.

Ziva: You know him?

Tony: Oh my God...

Notes

Lauren Holly (Director Jenny Shepard) does not appear in this episode, even though she's featured in the opening credits.

References

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name = NCIS television
state =
title = "NCIS"
group1 = Characters
list1 = Leroy Jethro Gibbs • nowrap| Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo • nowrap| Ziva David • nowrap| Timothy McGee • nowrap| Abby Sciuto • nowrap| Ducky Mallard • nowrap| Leon Vance • nowrap| Jenny Shepard • nowrap| Caitlin "Kate" Todd
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list4 = nowrap| Naval Criminal Investigative Service