Brothers In Arms (NCIS)

Infobox Television episode
Title = Brothers In Arms
Colour =
Series = NCIS
Season = 4
Episode = 21


Airdate = April 24, 2007
Production = 4x21
Writer = Steven D. Binder
Director = Martha Mitchell
Guests = Joe Spano as FBI Senior Agent T. C. Fornell Scottie Thompson as Jeanne Benoit David Dayan Fisher as Trent Kort
Episode list = Episode chronology
Prev = Cover Story
Next = In The Dark"Brothers In Arms" is the 91^st episode of the drama television series "NCIS". This episode ties the side story lines from previous season 4 episodes, concerning Tony's special work for the director, together with the main story line, making La Grenouille the main adversary for this season. It is also revealed, although not explicitly, that Jenny Shepard has a history with La Grenouille, explaining her eagerness to capture him at all cost. She herself compares it to Gibbs' quest to capture Ari Haswari.

Plot

Director Shepard meets with Elroy Webster, an informant, who claims he has information on La Grenouille's (the arms dealer she is trying to capture since the beginning of the season) next shipment to the USA. Unfortunately for her, a black van drives up on them and Webster is shot by a gunman in that van, killing him before he could tell her anything.

Gibbs' team arrives on the scene afterwards, with Gibbs furious that Shepard did not tell him about this meeting and asking for his help. Jenny defends herself and does not want to discuss it any further. She gives the team instructions to investigate the incident and report directly to her, ignoring Gibbs' authority. Ducky finds out that Webster had a tumor in his brain, which had decreased his life span to mere six weeks but for some reason his medical records do not show it. Gibbs thought his short life expectancy might have led Webster to contact Shepard but this theory is not working anymore given the new information. Abby discovers a lead to the driver of the van, allowing the team to find him. When they arrive at his apartment though, he is already dead.

With the driver dead, Shepard contacts the CIA to reveal an undercover agent to her, because they "owe us a favor" (she did not order the capture of La Grenouille in "Blowback" when they had a chance to do so because of a CIA operation at the same time). The CIA send over FBI agent T. C. Fornell, who worked with Gibbs and NCIS before as the FBI contact. Working as an operative for Homeland Security, Fornell manages to arrange a meeting with Trent Kort, an agent working within La Grenouille's organization. Kort, as well as Ducky before him (when he told Shepard about his psychological profile of La Grenouille), tells Shepard, that a hit on a traitor is not La Grenouille's style but Shepard dismisses these objections as wrong and Kort reveals the name of La Grenouille's American arms trader, Andre Jones, who is the only one the arms dealer would have sent.

The team tries to capture Jones, but he grabs hold of a gun and is killed in the ensuing gunfight. Back at NCIS, Abby figures out that the next shipment will arrive shortly and the team manages to find out about the whereabouts of the shipment by questioning a forger working for La Grenouille. When they arrive on the docks and open up the containers, they only find squirt guns and a bottle of Cognac, along with a letter from La Grenouille, wishing Webster well. Shepard realizes she has been tricked all along and her anger is increased by this failure.

In the side story line, Tony takes his relationship with Jeanne Benoit to a new level by meeting with her and her mother for dinner, something he has never done before with previous relationships. Which ends up being a very difficult one, as it seems Jeanne has told her mother quite a bit about Tony, including his multiple relations previous to her, and becomes very awkward. It seems as if this downfall causes Agent DiNozzo to rethink his "love" (although he originally was undercover to catch "the frog" and had to be with her to find his where abouts ect. it seems he has grown rather fond of her) with her, based upon the way he reacts to her mother, and the dinner in general, it seems he is second guessing a true relationship with her.