NCIS recap: Who’s the ghost in Jimmy’s lab?

Torres gets a blast from the past on NCIS Season 16, Episode 6. Meanwhile, Jimmy had to deal with a ghost in his lab.

After an introduction of Halloween’s origins, Samhain (pronounced incorrectly by Jimmy, oh dear!), we get straight into the case of the week on NCIS Season 16, Episode 6. It’s a mysterious case with a murder that leaves no footprints. Is it possible there’s a ghost?

That’s the least of Jimmy’s worries. He’s sure there’s something supernatural going on in autopsy with items moving when he’s not there.

Torres gets a blast from the past

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When they get IDs on the vics, Torres realizes that one of the vics, Anderson Kohl, was a friend of his from training. Kohl failed out and the two haven’t talked in a while, but it clearly his Torres hard. It’s also clear that Kohl did well for himself after failing out fo training and Torres knew very little about him. There’s even a secret door that his landlady didn’t know about.

Sure enough, the secret door has fake passports, fake licenses, and much more. Bishop’s question is the same as mine, “who was this guy?” Torres is sure he’s smuggling something, but his personal feelings don’t help. He’s clearly jealous at the money Kohl had, even if he was a criminal.

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Piecing together the clues

Poor Kasie has a challenging situation. She has to work with the truck stop bathroom to try to get some DNA. It’s going to be impossible, especially with all the personal belongings she also has to go through.

Eventually, she does figure out that there was an old, out-of-use ventilation shaft in the bathroom. That explains how the killer got in and out. At the same time, she also cracked the cellphone password but it doesn’t give her much info. She gets just a list of birthdays of people who are victims of unsolved murdered around the world.

Gibbs figures out the next clue. All those unsolved murders are linked to trips Kohl take. And the dates were death dates rather than birth dates. Kohl was a hitman.

With that knowledge, CIA is called in. CIA is more interested in Kohl’s handler, which could help to solve the murder. And I’ll say right away that I don’t trust the guy (and I’m writing this part before I’ve seen the end of the episode!).

NCIS decide to head out to chase up Kohl’s victims’ relatives. They think they’ve found a guy who could have killed Kohl, but he medically couldn’t have done it.

Getting the name of the hitman

The case gets even more interesting. Kasie manages to trace Kohl’s purchases and there was a huge spike of guns and ammo a month before his death. When they get the guy who sold it all, the guy says “they got him.” It’s clear he knows something and now he thinks he’s in danger, too.

NCIS learn Kohl refused to kill someone and that’s why he was killed. The plot thickens. This isn’t a job you just walk out of.

Gibbs and the team figure out that if they can solve one of Kohl’s murder, they could figure out who the handler is. Meanwhile, the CIA guy wants to run for a pattern on the kills to see if they could figure out who the handler is and turns to Jack for that. Of course, she figures out that this guy is up to something.

NCIS decide to turn to the only witness in one of the murders, who keeps playing that she has lost her memory. Gibbs knows she’s pretending and the witness admits she’s scared she’ll be killed by the hitmen. The witness shares that the vic was arguing with her boyfriend’s son, who then paid the witness a visit.

Sure enough, the team realizes the pawn shop the vic’s boyfriend owns a pawn shop where the son works. This pawn shop launders money. With the threat of the boyfriend getting pulled in, the son tells Torres everything, including hiring the hitman. Torres now gets the number and name, leading the team back to Kohl’s landlady.

Saving the intended victim

Kohl’s downfall was his refusal to kill a person in the military. Torres and McGee are forced to kill her (she picks up a gun and they won’t take a chance) before they can find out who the person in the military was supposed to be the target. Was it the second victim in the bathroom (the one Jimmy and Gibbs believed was in the wrong place at the wrong time) or is it someone in NCIS?

Her death leads to getting a new hit list for a new hitman. That leads to NCIS figuring out who the military man who was next on the list. It’s a race to save the guy from the new hitman. They manage to stop it all, thanks to a dive Torres is able to take.

There’s still something about the CIA guy, who I was sure had something to do with it. Fortunately, both Jack and Vance are onto him.

Is there a ghost?

Jimmy continues to figure out who the ghost is in the lab. Well, he wants to figure out who is moving his stuff. This storyline builds up to Jimmy swearing he heard someone whispering his name from one of the autopsy closets so he hires “two men with guns” to check it out.

Deciding he’s losing his mind, Jimmy requests some personal leave. It turns out that McGee was the one doing it all. Of course, he’d be able to doctor all the security footage tapes. It was all Ducky’s idea and it turns out that Jimmy knew about it all along and left a treat for McGee in his desk.

To wrap it all up, Gibbs has some excellent advice for Torres. He is nothing like Kohl because he chose to fight the bad guys. The feeling he’s got now is totally normal and understandable. It’s an adorable ending and just what Torres needed.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Did you love that Jimmy knew all about McGee’s tricks? Were you expecting the hitman storyline? Share your thoughts in the coments below.

NCIS airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on CBS.