- Ellie Bishop: At least a dozen people copied the information onto Twitter, Facebook, and multiple other sites.
- Timothy McGee: From there, it spread like wildfire.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Wait. Who wrote the first thing?
- Timothy McGee: Well, it was a dummy account. Like most Web handles, it didn't connect to any name, address, or bank account.
- Ellie Bishop: But we were able to trace the subnet of the IP address.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: I have no idea what that means.
- John Ross: Hey, Tom, where's your box going to?
- Tom Moore: It's going to my wife's sister's youngest son.
- John Ross: Uh, what's your special touch today?
- Tom Moore: My wife made banana bread.
- John Ross: Nice. Did you get your new pictures yet?
- Tom Moore: [holding up said pictures] Yeah, sure did. Check it out.
- John Ross: It's too bad they couldn't edit all the ugly out of these, huh?
- Tom Moore: Hey, man, what you talking about? I look like Denzel Washington and Wesley Snipes rolled up in one.
- Bob Sweeney: You guys the cops?
- Ellie Bishop: Uh, yep. NCIS.
- Bob Sweeney: Well, if you want my advice, I'd look into her.
- Clayton Reeves: Why would we do that?
- Bob Sweeney: You see this place? You think a petty officer's salary paid for it? No. James' parents, my brother and his wife, they had money.
- Emma Sweeney: Get out of my house.
- Bob Sweeney: They died in a car crash six years ago, and they left everything they had to their boys. She never had any interest at all in James until they were dead.
- Clyde Sweeney: Get the hell out of here, Uncle Bob.
- Bob Sweeney: Calm down, Clyde. You don't have to cover for her anymore. Your baby brother's dead.
- Clyde Sweeney: Are you kidding me? You disrespect a dead man in his own home?
- Bob Sweeney: I'm not disrespecting him.
- [pointing to Emma]
- Bob Sweeney: I'm disrespecting her.
- Timothy McGee: You know, Delilah's cousin had a thing with the IRS. It's actually a pretty funny story.
- Nick Torres: Was it, uh, terrible and he lost a ton of money after months of paperwork?
- Timothy McGee: Yeah, I guess it's not that funny of a story.
- Timothy McGee: Do you know this man?
- Molly Guinn: John? Yeah. He comes in here every day to send out those packages of his.
- Timothy McGee: You ever talk to him?
- Molly Guinn: [awkward laugh] Yeah.
- Nick Torres: What does that mean?
- Molly Guinn: Well, if I'm being completely honest, I think he's got a bit of a crush on me.
- Nick Torres: Really. And why do you say that?
- Molly Guinn: He thinks I don't notice, but John always lets people budge him in line until my station's free.
- Timothy McGee: What do you and John talk about?
- Molly Guinn: Stuff. Uh, mainly my husband and kids. He'll bring in leftover cookies from his care packages for them.
- Nick Torres: I'd hold off on eating the last batch.
- Molly Guinn: The scan code you gave me is for a package that got picked up by a mailman at a blue dropbox not far from here.
- Timothy McGee: That unusual?
- Molly Guinn: Yeah, actually.
- Navy Petty Officer Third Class Albert Dale: John Ross? Yeah, I-I know him.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: How?
- Navy Petty Officer Third Class Albert Dale: The guy's basically Santa Claus for sailors. I mean, ev-everyone knows who he is.
- Leon Vance: Did Petty Officer Sweeney ever mention that he talked to Ross before he received the care package?
- Navy Petty Officer Third Class Albert Dale: I don't think so. I heard a rumor we aren't gonna be getting boxes anymore.
- Leon Vance: We're working on it.
- Navy Petty Officer Third Class Albert Dale: It's just that morale's been pretty low ever since Sweeney died. We could all use a little something from home.
- Timothy McGee: Care package sent to Sweeney was dropped in a blue mailbox less than a mile from John Ross' house in Franconia.
- Leon Vance: But?
- Timothy McGee: But the woman at the post office says that John Ross always dropped off packages in person.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Box was full of poison. Ross didn't want to be seen with it.
- Timothy McGee: Yeah, I checked Ross' timeline. Mailman picked up the package on February 16, while Ross was in Chicago at a Marine Corps reunion.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Then he couldn't have sent the package.
- Leon Vance: Well, someone sure wanted it to look like he did.
- John Ross: You know, I had a, uh, great-great-grandfather, I-I don't know how many "greats", but he was named after George Washington at the request of George Washington himself.
- Jack Sloane: That is impressive.
- John Ross: My family's been fighting for this country since it was founded. Where'd you serve?
- Jack Sloane: Who said I served?
- John Ross: You called your coffee "battery acid", so...
- Jack Sloane: Ah. Dead giveaway, huh? Afghanistan.
- John Ross: Oh. That's a... that's a tough part of the world for a woman.
- Jack Sloane: Tough part for anybody.
- Whit Dexter: So, a government organization known as NCIS just paid me a visit. These scumbags are trying to frame me for the murder of a sailor named James Sweeney. Now, I've learned that this sailor was about to go on record, exposing our old friend John Ross. But now that sailor's dead. How did he die? From poisoned cookies in care packages sent by John Ross.
- Clayton Reeves: We never said a word to him about Ross.
- Nick Torres: Or anything about poison.
- Timothy McGee: Dexter shouldn't know how Sweeney died.
- Leon Vance: Unless he had something to do with it.
- Timothy McGee: How did you know about the poison?
- Whit Dexter: You got any real questions?
- [nodding to Gibbs in the corner]
- Whit Dexter: Gary Cooper over there got anything to say?
- Timothy McGee: [standing to leave] You know what? Been a real pleasure, Whit.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Got to be exhausting, keeping your lies straight, pretending you care.
- Whit Dexter: I could say the same to you.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: How do you even look in the mirror in the morning?
- Whit Dexter: Usually with my eyes.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: What's Layla think about this?
- Whit Dexter: Don't talk about my daughter.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Do you ever think what school must be like for her? She's got a dad like you. Hell of a burden to carry.
- Whit Dexter: Don't talk about her, pal. A man's family is a line you do not cross.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Well, you've crossed that plenty. What's life gonna be for her when she hears her father is a murderer?
- Leon Vance: Six years ago, an up-and-coming shock jock accused me of running a money laundering ring out of the Navy Yard.
- Nick Torres: Dexter reminds you of him?
- Leon Vance: Dexter is him. His claims about me were so outrageous, they never caught any mainstream attention. But over the years, he's learned.
- Jack Sloane: I see a lot of anger hiding behind that happy face of yours. Bottling up what happened to you is dangerous. You get that?
- John Ross: And how would you know?
- Jack Sloane: 'Cause it happened to me, too, okay? Nine months. They wanted Army intel. I never said a word. Screamed a bit.
- John Ross: I'm... I'm so sorry.
- Jack Sloane: I don't know if you had this, but it was like... they kept moving me around. So I-I didn't know how long I'd been there or where I was.
- John Ross: My problem isn't what happened to me over there. I've... come to terms with that. It's the life they took away from me over here.
- Jack Sloane: What... what do you mean by that?
- John Ross: I had a girlfriend when I got sent to Iran. She was more than a girlfriend. She was... she was really special.
- Jack Sloane: What was her name?
- John Ross: Clara. A few weeks into the mission, before we left base, I got a letter from her saying she was pregnant with our child. And, uh... I was thrilled. My life was all lined up. And I was gonna ask her to marry me the second I set foot back on American soil. But then... everything changed.
- John Ross: You know, they held me for five years. And after two rescue attempts went south and my captors cut off all communications... uh, everybody thought I was dead.
- Jack Sloane: So she moved on.
- John Ross: When I got back, she had a new husband, and my daughter had a father that she believed to be her own. I made her mother promise to never tell her. I mean, I-I just... I was in no shape to be a dad. They... they had to move on. I was a... I was a broken man for quite a while. You know, in a lot of ways, I still am. I th... thought I was better at hiding it.
- Navy Petty Officer Second Class James Sweeney: [hitting a target at a firing range] Whoo! I win again.
- Navy Petty Officer Third Class Albert Dale: No way. Sweeney, you're a sandbagging son of a... I'm not paying.
- Navy Petty Officer Third Class Gordon Cooper: Yeah, are we even sure it hit the target?
- Navy Petty Officer Second Class James Sweeney: Oh, it hit the target, Cooper. Pay up.
- Navy Petty Officer Third Class Albert Dale: Ah, you must've messed with our sights, man.
- Navy Petty Officer Second Class James Sweeney: Sure, the sights. Yeah, that's the problem.
- Navy Petty Officer Third Class Gordon Cooper: Hey, how about double or nothing?
- Navy Petty Officer Second Class James Sweeney: You want to give me all your money, that's fine.
- [as he raises his rifle, his vision blurs; as he collapses, his rifle fires and misses the target]
- Navy Petty Officer Third Class Albert Dale: Well, well, well. Looks like you're not such a hotshot after all, huh, Sweeney.
- [seeing him on the ground]
- Navy Petty Officer Third Class Albert Dale: Sweeney. Sweeney!
- Ellie Bishop: How did I never know this?
- Timothy McGee: I'm telling you, the elevator close-door button is a placebo. Same with crosswalks.
- Ellie Bishop: Wha... so we've just been pushing it all these years for no reason?
- Timothy McGee: Yeah, it's crazy, especially when recent studies show that levels of bacteria on elevator buttons can be forty times higher than on public toilet seats.
- Timothy McGee: [hearing Nick yell in frustration] Everything all right?
- Nick Torres: No!
- Ellie Bishop: You want to talk about it?
- Nick Torres: I got a letter from the IRS. They want my leave and earning statements from when I was undercover in South America. I mean, who keeps an LES from five years ago?
- Timothy McGee, Ellie Bishop: I do.
- Clayton Reeves: I once had a friend at MI6 whose taxes get messed up when he was undercover in Borneo. Took him years to pay off.
- Timothy McGee: How'd that happen?
- Clayton Reeves: He tried to write off a helicopter as his company car.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Palmer finished the body that came in last night. I'll be down in Autopsy.
- Ellie Bishop: Well, I thought Spain said he had heart failure.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: They did.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Palmer.
- [Jimmy nods to something behind him; turning around, he sees...]
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Duck. Well, good morning.
- Donald Mallard: Good morning, Jethro. No doubt you're wondering why I'm here.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Well, I don't know. Maybe you missed us?
- Donald Mallard: Well, true as that sentiment may be, the university is on spring break, and I'm here in town to handle the second of life's two certainties.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: What do you got, Jimmy?
- Jimmy Palmer: Well, Petty Officer Sweeney definitely died of a cardiac arrest.
- Donald Mallard: But the real question is why.
- Jimmy Palmer: 23 year old, active-duty sailor. He just had a physical last December, Gibbs. He passed with flying colors.
- Donald Mallard: Not exactly the ideal candidate for heart failure.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Maybe he had help.
- Abby Sciuto: So, I found cyanide in Petty Officer Sweeney's blood.
- Timothy McGee: How do you think it got in his system?
- Abby Sciuto: That's a good question, and the answer is "tragically". Death by cookies.
- Timothy McGee: Cookies?
- Abby Sciuto: Yeah, frosted almond cookies with little almond bits and some poison mixed in.
- Timothy McGee: Where did he get poisoned cookies?
- Abby Sciuto: I called Spain, and they said there is nothing close to a frosted almond cookie on their whole base.
- Timothy McGee: Maybe something from his personal effects?
- Abby Sciuto: And we are on the same page.
- Abby Sciuto: This is a care package that was sent from Franconia, Virginia. And I wouldn't eat these if I were you.
- Timothy McGee: Well, is there anything here that we can work with?
- Abby Sciuto: Other than James Sweeney's own fingerprints? There was no hair, no DNA, no forensics.
- Timothy McGee: [noticing a pair of pictures] Hey, what are these?
- Abby Sciuto: Those... are the kicker.
- Timothy McGee: Hmm.
- Abby Sciuto: He sent the package.
- John Ross: Have a seat anywhere you want. The boxes are right over there.
- Nick Torres: Oh, we're with NCIS. Uh, we have a few questions for you.
- John Ross: Oh, wow. Uh, yeah, ask away.
- [McGee glances around the room]
- John Ross: Hey, anything you got to ask me, you can ask me in front of them.
- Timothy McGee: Well, I'm afraid we can't. We're gonna need you to come in.
- John Ross: What's this all about?
- Nick Torres: One of your care packages killed a sailor.
- Ellie Bishop: Petty Officer Second Class James Sweeney.
- Timothy McGee: 23 years old, married, no kids.
- Nick Torres: He owns a home in Virginia with his wife Emma.
- Timothy McGee: Parents were killed in a car crash when he was sixteen years old.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Record?
- Ellie Bishop: Spotless.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: What about our suspect?
- Nick Torres: Retired Marine Sergeant John Ross.
- Ellie Bishop: He sends out care packages every day from his Legion Hall in Franconia, Virginia.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Every day?
- Timothy McGee: Got him set up in interrogation whenever you're ready.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: We sure that Sweeney's care package was sent by Ross?
- Ellie Bishop: Contents are consistent with the packages he sent in the past.
- Nick Torres: And not to mention his pictures.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: [looking closer at Ross' ribbon rack] That's the Prisoner of War Medal.
- Timothy McGee: Yeah, Ross was held captive for five years in Iran after being taken during the raid on the U.S. Embassy. He was on duty as a Marine Security Guard.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Petty Officer Second Class James Sweeney.
- John Ross: I-I never saw him before.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Well, you sent him a box.
- John Ross: I get a list from the Navy every week. I mean, you know, I try, but my memory's not what it used to be.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: You make these?
- John Ross: Listen, can you just tell me what's going on?
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Yes or no?
- John Ross: Yeah, they're my mother's recipe.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: The ones sent to Petty Officer Sweeney were laced with cyanide. It's got your name on the return address on the label. It's got your cookies inside, and two photographs of you.
- John Ross: Nah, this is crazy. I don't know how poison could have gotten into one of my... how could poison get in one of my boxes?
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: You tell me.
- John Ross: I have no idea!
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: How well do you know your friends at the Legion Hall?
- John Ross: They're patriots, every single one of them. They're no way any of 'em could have done something like this.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Anyone who could have put their cookies inside your box?
- John Ross: We all pack our own boxes. They're all personalized.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: I know about you, Sergeant. I know what you've been through. But you got to give me something.
- John Ross: This isn't right! I have to get out of this room! You can't keep me in this room! I have to get out of this room! You hear me? I have to get out of this room!
- Leon Vance: What do you mean Ross seemed off?
- Jack Sloane: Oh. It was sad. He seemed really scared.
- Leon Vance: You think he sent that package?
- Jack Sloane: Not sure.
- Leon Vance: Sounds like there's a "but" in there.
- Jack Sloane: Well, I did some digging. Ross has a checkered past.
- Leon Vance: How so?
- Jack Sloane: He had some violent outbursts after his rescue in Iran; a bar fight in '85, road rage in '87. Fired from several jobs.
- Leon Vance: Sounds familiar.
- Jack Sloane: Well, when he came back, they didn't have the same sort of psychiatric support system they do now. They barely knew what PTSD was back then.
- Leon Vance: So you think he may be unstable?
- Jack Sloane: Uh, I-I don't know. Uh, I-I'd like to meet with him somewhere where he feels safe. Could get a better read.
- Leon Vance: All right, but do it quickly. There's a hold on all care packages to the military 'till this gets sorted out.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Hey. Where are we? Street surveillance on the mailbox?
- Nick Torres: No luck. Small town. No cameras nearby.
- Timothy McGee: We're still gathering a list of veterans who helped pack boxes at Legion Hall.
- Nick Torres: And so far, no connection to the victim.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Gotta connect to somebody somewhere.
- Timothy McGee: About three months ago, a podcast host named Whit Dexter had John Ross on his show.
- Ellie Bishop: An unwitting Ross assumed the interview was about the care packages.
- Timothy McGee: Dexter pushes insane theories he knows are false in order to gain listeners and advertisers.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Yeah. I know who he is.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Is there a connection to the victim?
- Timothy McGee: After Ross leaves, Dexter lays out Ross' history of violence and aggression.
- Ellie Bishop: He promised his listeners something big would soon be revealed to prove that Ross is a government thug.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: What, a box of poisoned cookies?
- John Ross: How do you take your coffee?
- Jack Sloane: Oh, I like my battery acid black. I'll handle my own sugar, though.
- John Ross: So, uh... why'd you ask about Whit Dexter? He killed that sailor, didn't he?
- Jack Sloane: I never said that.
- John Ross: Well, you wouldn't have mentioned it if it wasn't a possibility.
- Jack Sloane: You think he'd do it?
- John Ross: He definitely hates our military. Came after me personally, too.
- Jack Sloane: Listen, there is nothing that man could say to you that would be worse than living in a cage for five years.
- Whit Dexter: Gentlemen, you got three minutes before I'm back from commercial. My secretary says you're with CSI?
- Nick Torres: NCIS.
- Whit Dexter: Whatever. What do you want?
- Clayton Reeves: We're here to ask you a couple of questions.
- Whit Dexter: Is this guy for real? Seriously? Of course you're here to ask me a couple of questions. You guys are cops; you came down here to see me. Out with it.
- Nick Torres: James Sweeney.
- Whit Dexter: What, is he a moron, too? You guys both morons? What the hell is th... is this some sort of prank show? Come on. You guys are wasting my time.
- Clayton Reeves: Do you know who James Sweeney is?
- Whit Dexter: No. Why?
- Nick Torres: He was murdered.
- Whit Dexter: Oh. Sucks for him.
- Nick Torres: Yo. Enough with the attitude.
- Whit Dexter: Have a little bit of respect, mate.
- Whit Dexter: [mimicking his accent] A little bit of respect, mate, for someone I don't even know?
- Nick Torres: For someone who served his country.
- Whit Dexter: Oh, he was military?
- Clayton Reeves: Yeah.
- Whit Dexter: Well, at least he knew what he signed up for.
- Jimmy Palmer: Log on to ZNN.
- Timothy McGee: Okay. What's happened?
- Jimmy Palmer: It's Dexter. He's claiming you harrassed him.
- Nick Torres: Uh, that's not good.
- Whit Dexter: All right, you see this, folks? See this? NCIS chumming it up with John Ross, the real murderer. Yeah, this thug attacks me. Typical tyrannical government. And I have to...
- [Gibbs grabs his phone]
- Whit Dexter: Wh... hey. Whoa, I'm the victim here.
- Timothy McGee: [Gibbs hands the phone to him] Yeah.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: [grabbing Dexter and leading him out] Got something to say? Come on, let's make a statement.
- Whit Dexter: Listen, I'm an entertainer. Most of what I say isn't true. This whole Ross thing, it's all over the Internet. But I didn't put it there.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: You said on air you were gonna expose him.
- Whit Dexter: Yeah, I was gonna make something up.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: You released that information yourself, and you knew your listeners were gonna jump all over Ross.
- Whit Dexter: Oh, no, no, no, no. See, that's the beautiful thing about getting into the minds of these people. They're ravenous. I mean, thousands of them posted it long before I ever knew about it. I just have the biggest voice.
- Donald Mallard: How may I be of assistance?
- Jack Sloane: I was hoping that you could help me with a bit of profiling.
- Donald Mallard: Well, I'm always up to a challenge.
- Jack Sloane: Okay. The subject is retired armed forces with past trauma they refuse to talk about, and their whole life is stil wrapped up in the military.
- Donald Mallard: Unable to move on?
- Jack Sloane: Unwilling, at least.
- Donald Mallard: History of aggression?
- Jack Sloane: Sporadic.
- Donald Mallard: Intelligence?
- Jack Sloane: High.
- Donald Mallard: Has the subject ever sought counseling before?
- Jack Sloane: No.
- Donald Mallard: What about the family?
- Jack Sloane: None.
- Donald Mallard: Huh. And... well, your concern is what?
- Jack Sloane: What happens if the subject continues to internalize what happened?
- Donald Mallard: Almost certainly, they'd be on the road to disaster.
- Jack Sloane: Yeah. That's what I thought.
- Donald Mallard: Well, you... you just have to use all your tricks to get him to open up.
- Nick Torres: Dexter confess yet?
- Leon Vance: Not quite.
- Whit Dexter: You know, everyone in this country is done following the old establishment.
- [Gibbs stands to leave]
- Whit Dexter: And I'm just providing them with something new to follow.
- Nick Torres: Whoa, whoa, where's he going?
- Leon Vance: He's letting Dexter stew. Gibbs has him right where he wants him.
- Nick Torres: Oh, good. 'Cause I want to be here when he breaks him.
- Leon Vance: Me, too.
- Clayton Reeves: He wasn't lying when he said the information about John Ross and the poisoned cookies was all over the Internet before he reported it.
- Ellie Bishop: We've been trying to find the original source, but...
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: There are no "buts", Bishop.
- Timothy McGee: Boss, we've been looking, but it's like searching for a needle in a haystack.
- Clayton Reeves: More like hay mountain.
- Ellie Bishop: We'd need to comb through the entire Internet to find the first post describing the murder that all the others piggybacked on.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: [frustrated] There's a dead sailor. There's a vet being framed. God. Find the source.
- John Ross: I know I shouldn't have gone after that idiot.
- Jack Sloane: Hey, I don't... I don't blame you. I just want to talk about why. Why you did it.
- John Ross: 'Cause some nutbag's out there telling everybody that I killed a sailor.
- Jack Sloane: John, you have a history of aggression.
- John Ross: I am not interested in talking about my feelings.