Trama

Two teenagers find the battered body of a Marine Corps Reserve sergeant in his own backyard; Gibbs and company investigate. The team find evidence of sad stories. Gibbs pursues a bruise and figures it out, then the gang bust the bad guy.

A dog leads two teenagers to the battered body of Travis, a Marine Corps Reserve sergeant in his own backyard in Springfield, Virginia, in the burbs of Washington, DC; Gibbs and company investigate. Travis's wife, a Marine gunny sergeant, and their 6-year-old son, are missing; Tony and Ziva learn of Travis's problems with both his wife and his girlfriend. Ducky and Palmer find disturbing evidence; Gibbs, Tony, McGee, and Ziva find clues and deduce a regrettable history. Predictably, Abby provides much help. At the suggestion of the Duck, Gibbs arranges for Ziva to connect with the widow, but she produces nothing. Another suspect comes back under scrutiny, but that fizzles. Gibbs turns to a bruise and pursues it; he figures out what left it. The gang bust the bad guy.—DocRushing

A young dog walker brings some dogs home and finds a neighbor's dog roaming free with blood on him. He pulls a "Timmy fell down the well!" and leads her back to his house, where his owner is lying beaten in the back yard.

At the office, McGee finds a box on his desk. He opens it and a full-sized inflatable hula doll pops up. Tony is amused, but denies responsibility.

The receipt has McGee's credit card info on it.

Gibbs arrives to announce the body of the week.

At the crime scene, Marine Sgt. Travis Wooten was a married 34 year old active reservist with a young son. His wife Georgia is also a reservist.

Wooten was beaten to death around 1 a.m. He put up a fight.

There are plates of food at the table, a bath tub full of water and blood in the bedroom. They're worried about his family.

Back at the office, Tony reports Travis and Georgia were high school sweethearts and enlisted together. Travis was an unremarkable marine stationed in Afghanistan. His wife outranked him and received awards.

Travis recently lost his job at an auto parts plant and has been hanging out at a pool hall, as recently as an hour before he died last night.

At Feeney's Billiards, Tony brags about his pool prowess. They meet Len Feeney, the owner. He remembers Travis was there the night before.

Feeney says he served in the Gulf war.

Feeney says he thought Travis was divorced but had a girlfriend, Jancy Gilroy. She was there last night, chewing him out.

McGee talks to her. She says they were going to get married. She thought Travis was divorced. She has scratches on her hands.

In the morgue, Duckie finds a plant named after William Penn on the victim. It emits an oil that wipes away anything near it.

He tells Gibbs there were 11 blows to his head and more to his back and chest. The attack lasted a while. They found a big splinter in his palm that could have been from the weapon used on him.

Duckie shows Gibbs a weird shaped bruise on Wooten's neck.

Wooten also has old scabs on his hand.

In the office, they've located Georgia Wooten and her son, leaving the state.

She coolly asks Gibbs to see her husband's body.

Down in the morgue, she wants Duckie to completely remove the sheet from his body. Then she tells them to take him. "I can't pay for a funeral right now," she says as she leaves.

Upstairs in the conference room, she tells Gibbs she and her son left for an amusement park at 11 pm last night. She got a hotel room. She says she told her CO, but Gibbs says the CO says she didn't request leave.

Gibbs asks about his girlfriend. She says Travis told her it was over. She can't believe her husband is gone. "I can't believe I get to raise my son alone," she says. Gibbs notices the "get to."

She takes her son and leaves.

Gibbs wants her emails and phone records.

McGee finds that his credit card and social security number have been stolen. There are $10,000 in charges.

In Abby's lab, she shows Gibbs three fake heads she's experimenting with weapons. A broom handle is close, but the weapon is smaller, like a nightstick. It was covered in a rare stain or varnish.

She thinks a neck wound was made by a metal chain or something. Gibbs thinks the killer had a lot of rage.

In the office, they report that Georgia's CO filed paperwork about her being gone without authorization. McGee found that Georgia led Marine Corp martial arts training programs.

They watch a video of her and notice she's bruised in it.

On the base, someone tells Tony and Ziva that Georgia Wooten got "overly aggressive" with a trainee, but it was no big deal. He says Georgia wasn't the same after her last tour in Afghanistan. He says she's been bothered lately, but it wasn't work related.

Back at the office, they have photos of Wooten from various hospitals over the years with bruises all over her body. She insisted her injuries were the result of boxing training at an off-base gym.

Down in the morgue, Gibbs tells Duckie the bruises on Wooten's knuckles were apparently from beating his wife. Duckie suggests Ziva talk with Georgia to try to get her to open up.

Ziva visits Georgia and tells her she knows what it feels like to be under the control of a man, and feeling that the way to survive is to just shut down. When she says she knows what it's like to want to seek revenge, Georgia denies she killed her husband shuts the door in Ziva's face.

In the office, they don't show any hotel charges on Georgia's card, but she made a lot of calls, including one to Travis and one to Len Feeney. She called him several times over the past few weeks.

Ziva and Tony go talk to Feeney again. He says her voice was shaking when she called. He knew about the abuse, but Georgia didn't want him to report Travis. She said she'd never kill the father of her child.

Feeney says Travis's girlfriend had no problem going after him.

In the office, Duckie reports they found finger nail polish that traced back to the nail salon where Travis's girlfriend works, but she hasn't shown up for two days and her bank accounts have been drained.

They find her and bring her in. She thinks they had something special, but he dumped her. She says she's pregnant and told him that night.

He told her about his wife and kid. She took a cab and left.

McGee confirms the cab later. Abby comes up to report the weird mark on Wooten's neck was from a vintage 1959 gold-plated watch.

Down in the morgue, Gibbs looks over the body. He calls McGee and asks him to pull up Georgia's training video. He watches it and sees her holding up a gold-plated watch.

Back on the base, Gibbs and Ziva go pick up Georgia.

In interrogation, Gibbs reads through all her ER records with photos. She insists she's not a victim. She says she could take the beatings, so Travis looked for new ways to hurt her. She says that night he found it when he threatened to take their kid.

She says she took their son and ran. She insists she didn't kill her husband.

McGee freaks out to Tony that he might have been a victim of a Russian identity theft ring. He reads through the charges, including comic book shops and erotica. Tony thinks the identity thief is a 14 year old kid.

In the lab, Abby announces she traced the varnish chip to a company in Ireland that is only used for pool cues.

Gibbs and Tony go back to Feeney's club.

They bring Georgia in. Feeney tells her he went to her house after he heard how upset she was. Travis attacked him, so he fought back, but couldn't stop. He tells Georgia he'd do anything for her.

Back in the office, Tony brings in a 12 year old: Tim McGee. McGee recognizes him as his landlady's kid, with access to her keys and his apartment.

When McGee tells the kid how much he cost him, the kid tells him, dude, relax, it's fraud and he's only liable for $50 of it. He tells McGee he's stuck in a rut and even eats the same take out every night.

The kid asks Tony if they can go to the arcade now. Tony invites McGee, who caves under the pressure.

McGee tells the kid he owes him $50. "Talk to my mom, bro," the kid says.