The Bone Yard (NCIS)

Infobox Television episode | Title = The Bone Yard
Colour =
Series = NCIS
Season = 2
Episode = 5


Airdate = October 26, 2004
Production = 02x05
Writer =
Director =
Guests =
Episode list = Episode chronology
Prev = Lt. Jane Doe
Next = Terminal Leave

"The Bone Yard" is the 5th episode of the second season of the television show NCIS.

Plot

A man awakens, hands bound, in a junked car, side by side with a skeletal figure burned beyond recognition. Realizing he’s in a military testing ground, he frantically makes a run for the edge. He doesn’t quite make it before a 500 pound bomb hits a little too close.

Interrupting Gibbs' version of “close combat training”, the team gets called in to the Marine bombing range in Quantico to investigate. They arrive at the scene to find Gunny Sergeant Deluca, CID, already investigating – with a swarm of military personnel on site as well as EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) teams trying to clear the site. Gibbs is naturally upset at Deluca’s handling of a crime scene; however Deluca believes this to be accidental death – a civilian scavenger in the wrong place at the wrong time. It doesn’t take long for Tony to discover a clue that this was no “scavenger” ($500 dollar shoes), and for Gibbs to trace the dead man’s tracks back to the car containing the burned skeletal figure. The Marine bombing range appears to be a “bone yard” - a serial killer’s dumping ground.

Back at headquarters, Abby comes up with a match in the database for the first body’s fingerprints – only to have her computer expertly hacked. As Tim and Abby try in vain to stop the attack, Gibbs applies a little common sense and saves the day - by unplugging the computer. Abby sets a trap for the hacker and completes a backtrace, discovering the hacker in question is…the FBI. Shortly afterward the FBI shows up, with Fornell wanting to know why NCIS was asking questions about an undercover FBI agent. When he is presented with the dead agent’s body, Fornell first turns down a joint investigation, then asks to speak to Gibbs privately. While in Gibb’s “personal conference room”, Fornell asks for Gibb’s help and reveals that the dead agent was undercover with a mafia boss’s organization – a man Fornell had been trying to bring down for years. The mafia boss, Napalitano, always seemed to know whenever the FBI was trying to infiltrate his organization. The FBI thinks one of their agents is a mole, feeding information to Napalitano…and they think Fornell is that mole. Gibb’s agrees to help, but has to watch helplessly as Fornell is arrested. Shortly thereafter damaging evidence shows up (some sent anonymously) and Fornell, to everyone’s shock, hangs himself in his cell.

Gibbs arrests the mafia boss's son for manslaughter (the team had matched his blood with that found on the dead FBI agent) to pressure Napalitano into revealing the mole. He offers the boss a deal – if Napalitano gives up the mole, Little Ricky won’t “hang himself” in prison – he won’t even go to prison, as the evidence against him will get “lost”. Agent Charles, one of Fornell’s FBI agents, objects, both to letting the FBI agent’s murderer go free, and because he doesn’t believe Napalitano will keep his end of the bargain. Gibbs sets up a meet anyway, and takes Agent Charles as his one allowed “backup” because Charles can confirm whether the person handed over as the mole is FBI or Justice. In a standoff with the mafia boss (Gibb’s having arranged primacord around Little Ricky’s neck, hooked up to a dead-man switch), Agent Charles reveals himself as the mole just before Jimmy Napalitano gives him up. Agent Charles begins to plan out how everyone else is going to die in a primacord explosion; however Napalitano’s hidden backup sniper kills Charles before he has a chance to arrange it. With nothing more to trade, and primacord hanging around his son’s neck, Jimmy Napalitano reluctantly leaves his son with Gibbs to face manslaughter charges.

Back in the office, the rest of the team is stunned when Gibbs walks in the next day… with a very much alive Fornell keeping him company.

References