Under Covers

Infobox Television episode
Title = Under Covers
Colour =
Series = NCIS
Season = 3
Episode = 8


Airdate = November 8, 2005
Production = 054
Writer = Lee David Zlotoff
Director = Aaron Lipstadt
Guests = Lauren Holly as Jenny Shepard;
Brian Dietzen as Jimmy Palmer; Joe Spano as FBI Agent Fornell; Matthew Kaminsky as Henry Spivey; Michelle Krusiec as Maya; Phillip Rhys as Yussif; Eric Steinberg as Marcos Siazon; Michael Bellisario as Charles Sterling
Episode list = Episode chronology
Prev = Honor Code
Next = Frame-Up"Under Covers" is the eighth episode of the third season of the drama television series, "NCIS". It was originally aired on November 8, 2005. The episode was written by Lee David Zlotoff and directed by Aaron Lipstadt.

ummary

When married assassins Jean-Paul Ranier and Sophie Ranier, who were fatally injured in a car crash, are discovered to have been planning to stay at the same hotel where the United States Marine Corps Birthday Ball is to be held, NCIS fears that one of the attendees may be their target. Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs sends Officer Ziva David and Special Agent Tony DiNozzo to pose as the married assassins in order to find out who the couple had planned to assassinate and who had hired them.

While Ziva and Tony settle in at the hotel (and have sex to make their cover "realistic"), forensic scientist Abby Sciuto and medical examiner Ducky Mallard examine the bodies of the dead assassins and the evidence retrieved from them. As Special Agent Timothy McGee discreetly sweeps for bugs in their room, Ziva and Tony are contacted by the assassins' hirer, who sets up a meeting at the hotel's restaurant and tells them to use the cell phone hidden in the drawer of their bedside table. Meanwhile, they are being spied on by two unidentified agents.

The two unidentified agents follow Tony and Ziva to the hotel's restaurant, where the hirer contacts Ziva via the cell phone she retrieved. The caller hints that their target is inside the restaurant. Abby traces the number to a pay phone located inside the restaurant but Tony and McGee fail to reach the caller, who had already left. Gibbs order Tony and Ziva to continue their undercover mission while Director Jenny Shepard contemplates notifying the FBI of the potential assassination.

Ziva uses her custom-made sunglasses, which can detect different light spectra, to locate the people spying on them. While Ziva and Tony create a diversion, Gibbs and McGee confront the two unidentified agents spying on them, who turn out to be from the FBI. Gibbs and FBI Agent Fornell agree to a joint operation. Ziva and Tony receive another call from the hirer to meet at the hotel's lobby while Abby discovers that the hirer is Marcos Siazon, a contract assassin. Abby and her assistant, Charles, then find out that the couple had hidden all the information on their clients in a computer chip which was implanted in one of Sophie Ranier's eye. Knowing that the couple was expecting a baby, Gibbs figures out that they were planning to retire, which meant that the assassination plot was probably a set-up and that the married assassins were the real targets. Everyone waits for Tony and Ziva to exit the hotel but they don't show.

Gibbs is unable to contact Tony and Ziva as they are forced off the hotel elevators and into another hotel room by Siazon and two other armed men. Siazon begins to torture Tony and Ziva for the location of a disc (the computer chip hidden in Sophie Ranier's eye). Ziva leads Siazon to their original hotel room where Gibbs knocks him unconscious before they rush back to help Tony. The team retires for the night as Ducky escorts Jenny to the United States Marine Corps Birthday Ball. As she is leaving, Abbey wishes Gibbs a happy birthday, implying that the Marine Corps birthday and Gibbs' birthday are one and the same.

Reception

On its original airdate, "Under Covers" attracted 17.79 million viewers, which allowed "NCIS" to finish first in total viewers and in the 18 to 49 years old demographic in its Tuesday 8:00 pm timeslot. It was also the most-watched program for the night. [Berman, Marc, " [http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001477499 The Programming Insider] ", "Mediaweek.com", November 10, 2005. Retrieved on September 29, 2007.]

References

External links

* [http://www.tv.com/ncis/under-covers/episode/525806/summary.html Under Covers] - TV.com
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0658036/ Under Covers] - IMDb.com