Tonight's episode of NCIS, "Swan Song," continued the hunt for the Port-to-Port killer. Mike Franks and Trent Kort returned, but the agency lost one of their own. Whom did they have to say goodbye to?
Standing in the rain
Gibbs stands by as Palmer and Ducky prepare a body for transport. Tony tells him he found shell casings. McGee gets in a car with Vance, as Mike tells Gibbs to catch him up as he stares at a body being loaded into the ME van. In autopsy, Gibbs says he doesn't understand, and Mike tells him to start at the beginning.
Yesterday
Gibbs' team follows EJ's when word came of a dead NCIS agent. (Mike wasn't really there because this is Gibbs telling him what happened.) The NCIS agent is Stark, on annual leave from Norfolk. While the others join EJ's team at the crime scene, Gibbs tells Mike about EJ. EJ tells Tony that P2P's evolving and the last victim, Jericho, is still alive because someone intervened and lost his eye.
The present
In autopsy, Ducky says he's thinking about "a mute swan." He says some animals know when the end is near. Mike tells Gibbs that's true. Ducky's going to give Gibbs all the time he needs with the body. Is it Mike Franks? It seems likely.
The owner of the eye revealed in "Swan Song"
Vance says that Stark died 20 days ago, but he accessed HQ since then. EJ may be leading the investigation, but Vance is going to have him "support."
EJ and his team try to figure out why P2P killed Stark since he's not Navy, and Levin suggests he used him to gain access to NCIS.
Mike has Gibbs skip past his team reading EJ's report about Jericho. There is no record of the name his rescuer gave and he left the hospital without being discharged. Down in evidence, Gibbs looks through Balfour's box. Tony, McGee, and Ziva join him down there, and Tony has figured out who the rescuer is. Tony and Gibbs find Kort with an eye patch getting coffee.
Kort was in Hawaii tracking P2P. Tony asks why his eye opens up MTAC, and he says the CIA knew they were on the case. Kort tells them P2P's identity: Navy Lieutenant Jonas Cobb. He asks why EJ's leading the case, and Gibbs says it started in her area. Kort asks if he ever read the file on Vance. Mike asks Gibbs if Kort's the reason he called, and it turns out that he did call him to DC to bring him something.
EJ's team shows Gibbs video of Cobb killing Stark and entering NCIS. Gibbs realizes he was there studying them. He brings EJ up to Vance's, but the Director can't believe Kort helped anyone. They joke a bit about his eye, and Tony interrupts saying CIA won't release what they have on Cobb because it's classified.
Mike shows up at Gibbs' and says he was going to leave him Decker's insurance policy when he "went away." He says it kept him in Vance's good standing. Mike doesn't seem to be in the best health, and since he is as Gibbs talks to him in these flashbacks, it's looking more and more like he's in that body bag.
In autopsy
Gibbs says, "You already know what comes next, Mike," and he appears behind him.
Today
Abby greets Mike when he and Gibbs get to HQ. She catches him up on Cobb. The others are just as happy to see him. They have an anonymous female tipster who refuses to come out of hiding. Gibbs brings Mike up to MTAC with him, where Vance, Kort, and EJ are. Kort's not so keen on Mike staying, which is why Vance is all for it. He hands him the classified file, and Mike says, "I'll take this to my grave." (More foreshadowing?) Kort tells them about training that Cobb went through which "borders on the inhumane." They were training assassins, and Cobb was the prototype. The only question was if he could kill, and he proved he could, then went off the radar. The CIA has been trying to clean up their mess.
McGee traced tipster emails and found the tipster's address. EJ leaves with her team to pick her up.
Gibbs reads up on the files in his basement, and Mike knows that things aren't right between him and Vance. He says that Gibbs hears ghosts, and Gibbs says he sees them, too. (Even more foreshadowing for Mike being the one dead.) They toast to "more good memories," and Mike heads upstairs.
Back in autopsy
Gibbs unzips the body bag, as Mike asks if he said to have a nice walk.
Death
Gibbs finds a casing in a file as Mike heads down the street and it begins to rain. Mike spots Cobb in the bushes and he says he has "one more fight left in" him. Cobb takes out a scalpel, and Mike pulls out his gun when he runs for him. Gibbs hears the gunshots, but he's too late, and Cobb stabs Mike. When Gibbs gets outside, Cobb is gone (and took Mike's gun), and Mike Franks is dead.
Saying goodbye
Gibbs opens the body bag and stares down at Franks' body: "Bye, Mike."
Tony and Ziva join Gibbs, Ducky, and Palmer in autopsy. Cobb's fingerprints were on the scalpel, and Mike's gun is missing. Cobb was hit at least once (Mike's swan song), but he's still out there and armed.
In the elevator, Ziva says that they just make targets of themselves with criminal after criminal. She says she can't take anymore, but Tony says they're going to get P2P. When the elevator door opens, McGee and Abby are hugging, and they join the others for a group hug.
Ducky develops a new psychological profile on Cobb with what they know of his history and his kills. He says that his focus changed and he had to study his predators. Things changed, and he wasn't in Gibbs' neighborhood hunting - he was researching.
Gibbs joins Vance in his office and says he studies him because he doesn't understand some of his decisions. Gibbs says he should've been on the case from the beginning (and he's right). Vance knows he figured that he would bend at seeing Mike and denies him having anything on him. What's in that box? Vance reveals that it wasn't his decision to put EJ on the case, and Gibbs realizes that Cobb hates promotions. Cobb feels a "kinship" with Gibbs because EJ got the case and the "tipster" is really a trap.
At the tipster's address, Cade and Levin find a wall of photos of their team. Levin and Cade are shot at, and EJ fires back. She goes after Cobb against Vance's advice. She spots a toy on the floor, and Cobb bursts through the wall. He tackles her to the floor, and the episode ends with him holding his gun under her chin.
What did you think of tonight's NCIS? Were you surprised that Mike Franks died?
Photo Source: TV.com
© Meredith Jacobs 2011
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Comments: 2
Liked seeing Kort back in the game again. What I like about the character is no one knows his motivations behind things- not Vance and sometimes not Gibbs. He ALWAYS has an alternative motive to what he does and I'm wondering what his is on this one. Obviously one is cleaning up the CIA's mess, but there has to be something else.