SWAK (NCIS)

Infobox Television episode
Title = SWAK
Colour =
Series = NCIS
Season = 2
Episode = 21


Airdate = 23 September 2003
Production = 2x21
Writer = Donald P. Bellisario
Director = Dennis Smith
Guests =
Season list = Infobox NCIS season 2 episode list
Episode list = List of "NCIS" episodes
Prev = Hometown Hero
Next = Twilight

"SWAK" is the 45th episode of the television series "NCIS".

Plot

At the start of this episode, Tony DiNozzo opens a letter which releases a "fine white powder" and the room is evacuated under the threat of a biological warfare attack. Agents Jethro Gibbs, Kate Todd, and Timothy McGee, are all forced to shower and get tested for various diseases after the incident. Since DiNozzo was closest to the powder, he is sent in to quarantine, and Todd, because she had a cold, is sent there as well. Gibbs and McGee aren't allowed to leave the autopsy room, but when they discover evidence pertaining to a company that released the letter, Gibbs tries to leave the naval yard to open a case against the woman's daughter. Since, there is a chance they could be infected with "Y. pestis" — the form giving rise to pneumonic plague - they wear hazmat suits.

A letter inside the envelope with the powder. The letter says that the disease has been genetically altered to be impervious to antimicrobials. It also says that the person who sent the letter created a 'magic bullet', which would kill the disease. The only way to get the antidote would be to go public with the true results of a certain case. This case turned out to be a rape case that had been closed unsolved.

DiNozzo is discovered to be the only agent infected with the disease; however, Todd, trying to comfort DiNozzo, falsely says she was infected also, and chooses to stay. When she is finally forced to leave due to DiNozzo's deterioration, she shows strong emotions for her co-worker of a year and a half, and cries. Gibbs, simply not allowing anyone on his team to die, finds a lab worker from the company that produced the Plague powder and holds him at gunpoint demanding a cure. The lab worker says that he had developed a vaccine, not a cure. However, the plague had been modified to suicide after 32 hours. The lab worker confirms that DiNozzo, who was exposed 33 hours prior, is no longer infectious but the infection's death will not reverse the damage done to his body. DiNozzo will have the same chance of survival as persons infected in the past, which is a dismal 15%. Gibbs goes to the hospital and tells a near death DiNozzo that he "will not die", "headslapping" DiNozzo sharply and repeating the order until DiNozzo responds with "I gotcha, Boss". It is revealed by the victim of the rape case (whose mother orchestrated the attack) that she had falsely claimed she had been raped.

In the ending scene, Agent Todd enters the isolation ward of the hospital where DiNozzo is staying and lays in a bed next to him, further establishing an as of yet unseen depth to the bond between the two partners.

Notes

Donald P. Bellisario has a cameo as a neurologist in this episode.fact|date=December 2007