Trama

Gibbs meets Paloma, the head of the Reynosa drug cartel in Mexico; he gets a ride to Washington, where he talks with Vance in code. Tony and Ziva arrest a bad guy, who then dies. Ziva attends a ceremony. Paloma meets Jackson. [Continued.]

Gibbs has interesting chats with Paloma Reynosa, the head of the Reynosa drug cartel in Mexico, and with others; Tony and Ziva fly to Mexico to return the body of Hernandez and to pick up the bodies of Col. Bell and others and haul them back to Washington, DC; they also meet Gibbs and take him back home. Vance talks with Gibbs, Ducky talks with MAllison, and Gibbs talks with Abby; then Tony, McGee, and Ziva meet an aircraft and arrest a bad guy, who promptly dies in a gunfight. Vance and Gibbs talk in code. Ziva attends an important ceremony, along with the rest of the gang, all except Gibbs and Tony; instead MAllison delays Gibbs, and Tony, on the orders of Vance, goes back to observe and report in Mexico, where he runs into Franks, who says that he can pull a trigger with his right thumb. Gibbs experiences flashbacks and fantasies, and he drafts rule 51. Paloma meets Jackson Gibbs in Stillwater, Pennsylvania. [To be continued next season.]—DocRushing

(Previously, Abby reminds Gibbs that her report says Gibbs killed Pedro Hernandez 20 years ago. Gibbs thinks Col. Murton Bell the mercenary is out to get him. He goes down to Mexico and finds that Bell has been killed by one of his own men.)

Gibbs has had an unpleasant encounter with J.P. Dean and is taken to the residence of Paloma Reynosa, the leader of the drug cartel. As they are sitting outside on the terrace of her expansive home, Paloma tells Gibbs that Pedro Hernandez was her father.

Back at the office, Ziva revels in passing her citizenship test. As the team tries to reassure themselves that there's no reason to worry about Gibbs, who, they have learned has gone to Mexico, Vance walks up and asks them if they shouldn't be doing something (i.e. following up on Gibbs).

Vance then tells McGee to meet with him in MTAC where they discuss Alejandro Rivera. Vance is trying to control the Gibbs situation by asking the Federales to look for Bell in Mexico. He wants Allison Hart out of the loop, so all communications between Rivera are to be directed through McGee.

When Vance and McGee conference with Rivera, he tells them they found a dismembered body that might be Bell. It was near the home of Mike Franks. Vance asks permission to send Naval personnel down to get evidence as other members of Bell's team were also found murdered.

At the Reynosa compound, Paloma calls Bell a "means to an end". She tells him he has value as a federal agent. She doesn't want his death, she wants his life.

He thinks she's trying to blackmail him into working with her by exposing her father's murder. She says she might not kill him, but she will kill everyone close to him, starting with his mentor Mike Franks, then his ex-mother in law, his coworkers and his father. J.P. Dean, the disgraced Army ranger believed to be working for Bell, lays a severed finger on the table.

Vance tells Ziva and Tony he is sending them to Mexico for a body transport. McGee tells Vance the Federales think they know were Gibbs is. Vance pretends to be surprised McGee mentioned Gibbs to Rivera. Then Vance tells Ziva and Tony they have only two hours before their transport will leave Mexico, implying that they wouldn't have time to find Gibbs. After Vance walks away, Tony tells Ziva, that Gibbs and Vance have a "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" way of communicating. Tony continues telling Ziva that he thinks he saw Vance wink and takes that to mean they're supposed to look for Gibbs during the two hours the plane is on the ground.

In Mexico, Rivera and the Federales break down Paloma's door. Rivera asks Gibbs if he wishes to press charges. Gibbs says there were no threats made against him directly and goes with Rivera.

Rivera takes Gibbs from Paloma's residence and her thugs. In the car, Rivera asks Gibbs about Abby's report, and says he hasn't seen it. Rivera asks Gibbs if someone stopped the report. Gibbs answers by telling Rivera that he wouldn't allow it. Rivera reacts with surprise when Gibbs tells him the report was sent to the task force. Rivera's car pulls to a stop. Dean opens the door for Gibbs. They're back at Paloma's house -- Rivera is her brother.

At NCIS, Abby joins Ziva and Tony in the elevator, telling them Gibbs invoked Rule 40 (if you think someone's out to get you, they probably are). "If the 40's are in play, something unspeakably bad is going down," Tony says.

In Mexico, Gibbs doesn't see a way out. Paloma says his first assignment will be to transport a small package. Gibbs calmly replies that he isn't going to be her mule. Gibbs provokes Rivera into drawing on him by mentioning his own father. Paloma cautions her brother not to let Gibbs make him into a killer. Gibbs tries to goad Rivera into pulling the trigger and finding out what it feels like to mete out justice.

Tony and Ziva land in Mexico and resolve not to leave without Gibbs. As the transport door opens, Gibbs is walking towards them. (Rivera knew the transport plane would pick up the bodies found on the beach, so he conveniently sends Gibbs back via the transport.) Locating Gibbs couldn't have been easier.

On the plane, Gibbs says Mike Franks left the day before the hit came, and says that he's going to clean up the mess he left.

At MTAC in NCIS HQ, Rivera tells Vance that he had to run Gibbs out of the country.

In the morgue, Ducky is examining one of the bodies from Mexico. Palmer's opening crates with a reversible drill is driving Ducky to distraction. Ducky makes the realization that he "can't think". Palmer tries to prompt Ducky's memory with story cues. With the second cue, Ducky has an "Ah-ha" moment and relates a story about playing golf in Scotland - the moral of the story being one of respecting the tools you have at hand, and tells Palmer to go back to work - quietly.

When Gibbs returns home, he calls his dad and asks him to stay with a friend.

In the lab, Abby finds that the bullets found in Bell were from Gibbs' gun, and Ducky realizes Gibbs is being framed.

Before leaving his home, Gibbs reloads his pistol.

Over Bell's headless, handless corpse, Ducky explains that he found the same serrated knife pattern on Bell's body that he found on Macy. They realize one of Bell's men turned on him and is working with the cartel, but how did he get Gibbs' gun? Based on the evidence from Macy's autopsy and Merton Bell's autopsy, Ducky knows it's the same killer and comments that the only way a pistol would be taken from Gibbs would be by prying it "out of his cold, dead hand".

Ziva and Tony sift through the electronic trail. Bell's plane has checked out of the hanger and his cell phone has been used since the time Bell supposedly died. If Bell is dead, then someone else has taken over for Bell.

When Gibbs arrives, Tony tells him Vance wants to see him. As they see Bell's phone being used to make a call, Gibbs' phone rings.

Vance uses the parallel of Rick and Louis in "Casablanca" to describe their working relationship. Vance tells Gibbs he's tired of having to look the other way while Gibbs sneaks around on his own. "My job, my life does not revolve around you, you ego-centric son of a bitch," Vance says as he benches Gibbs. Gibbs then tosses a cell phone on Vance's desk, and Vance takes a chip from his cell phone.

McGee interrupts to say Bell's jet is on its way to Virginia, and Rivera is on the next plane.

In the lab, Abby has an armed guard. She confirms to Gibbs that the severed finger does belong to Mike Franks and he was alive when it was shot off. She asks if they have Mike. Gibbs shrugs and hugs her.

(When Abby gets her chance to talk to Gibbs, she does it by locking down her lab. She asks him again what to do about her forensics report, and Gibbs tells her to send it. Gibbs refuses to tell her anything else beyond that. Thereafter, Ducky tells Gibbs he made the connection with Pedro Hernandez and asks Gibbs who is out to get him. Gibbs refuses to answer, getting on the elevator and leaving while Ducky is trying to talk to him. Gibbs avoids talking to the two people who are his closest friends.)

Allison Hart pays a visit to Ducky in the autopsy suite. The room is mostly dark except for the light over Bell's body. She says she considered him a good man. Ducky asks a few questions to get her to talk about Bell vs. Gibbs. Hart lets some information slip about wanting to know more about Gibbs, then she remembers that Ducky has "some sort of psychology degree" and clams up.

As Vance preps the team for the arrival of Dean on Bell's plane, Gibbs gets a text message asking, "Am I safe?"

At the airfield, the team sets up with Ziva as sniper. The plane lands and Dean deplanes with three other men. The NCIS agents flip on the flood lights, and Dean is told that he's under arrest. He mutters something about a double cross and draws his gun. A shoot out follows.

At NCIS, Gibbs removes the package Paloma gave him from one of the body crates that was transported back from Mexico.

In the morgue, J.P. Dean is on a slab. Dean is tied back to killing Macy and Bell while working with the cartel, and it is mentioned that he might have killed Franks. Then Ducky says he recovered .45 slugs from the shoot out in Mexico, the weapon of choice carried by Mike Franks.

Gibbs sits on a park bench with Rivera, assuming he set Dean up to run into NCIS. He's the perfect fall guy. Gibbs gives Rivera the package, saying Rivera's got all the cards because he's got Franks.

Vance joins them, picking up the package. Rivera says it's candy as Vance picks it up and smells it. Rivera asks about Abby's report, and Vance also tells him she sent it to the task force already. Rivera leaves.

Vance takes a tape recorder out of his pocket and plays Rivera's comments. He gives Gibbs his cell phone battery back and sits down. Gibbs knows the package was a test. They're on the same page. Gibbs says he thinks Franks left the shoot out in Mexico in pieces.

Gibbs realizes that Vance never got Abby's report, and Vance says a decades' old cold case isn't his business. Again, Vance uses the Casablanca parallel, telling Gibbs about Bogart's going to a bar after filming, still dressed from the set. While at the bar, it's decided that Bogart is needed back on the set. A production assistant is sent after Bogart for one final scene. All Bogart had to do was nod to acknowledge his cooperation with the Resistance. Then Vance says if something has to happen with Alejandro, Gibbs doesn't have to say a word. Gibbs nods.

Later, Vance asks Tony for a minute.

The next day, Gibbs is dressed to go to Ziva's naturalization ceremony. When he opens the door to leave, Allison Hart is there. Hart follows Gibbs into the house. She asks him if he believes in right and wrong and asks why he wanted to be a cop. She pulls out a copy of Abby's report and a couple of law books. As Ziva swears her citizenship oath, there are two empty seats behind her, one of which was for Gibbs.

In the meantime, Tony walks casually down a Mexican street, but it is clear that he is following someone.

Gibbs tells Allison he doesn't need her help, he's got his own code. Then she tells him she thinks they could beat the case.

In Mexico, Tony is a few steps behind Alejandro Rivera when he's pulled into an alley by Mike Franks. Tony says his mission is observe and report. Franks says he's got it from there. He can pull the trigger with his thumb.

Alone in his home, Gibbs walks into his bedroom. There are boxes in the room as though he had been packing his personal items. As he stands in the doorway, Gibbs remembers Shannon sitting on the bed, with a box on her lap. She's reading through various slips of paper that are his "rules" (Rule No. 44 -- First things first, hide the women and children). She's tickled he's writing them down. He then sits down in a chair by the bed and looks through the box. He looks at a picture of his wife and daughter as he remembers talking to Franks about being a Marine for life and asking for a job. He thought he'd be a good cop. He looks at Rule No. 13: Never involve a lawyer.

Gibbs turns the piece of paper over and writes, "Rule #51: Sometimes -- You're wrong."

In the final scene, the door to the small store of Jackson Gibbs is opened. He turns around around and asks if he can help the customer who's just entered the store. It's Paloma Reynosa.