After taking a week off, NCIS returns with a complicated case involving a missing mother and her young daughter, who just might hold the answers the team needs to crack the case. We also revisit the McGee and Mateo storyline as McGee works to keep his newly discovered son out of prison as he faces up to a decade behind bars.
The episode opens with a young girl in a market alone as she overhears a pair of men speaking in another language. She surprises the men, who call for the store owner to come out and take care of the customer. The store owner gives the young girl the popcorn she selected and quickly sends her outside, where her mother is waiting for a man named Sullivan. It turns out Sully hasn’t come, so the girl’s mom heads out. It’s then we pan back into the store to see a man being tortured by the two men from the store.
Cutting to the NCIS headquarters, McGee is working on his speech to try to prevent Mateo from being sent away to jail for a decade of his life and stressing over perfecting it. McGee asks the rest of the team about it, but none have read it as they head out. On the scene, Torres, Knight, and Parker chat about the letter, which they fear is too formal, too sappy, and too much.
Their conversation is interrupted when McGee approaches them and informs them the victim is a man named Michael Sullivan, the same man we saw being waterboarded. The team realizes that it’s clear the killers wanted to send a message by placing his body out in the open. They find a voicemail from a woman named Monica encouraging him to be careful and meet up.
Parker obtains her information and heads out to her apartment with Knight to meet with Monica, chatting about their concerns with McGee’s speech as they come to the door. Inside the apartment, they hear noise and burst through the door, fearing someone inside might be fleeing.
They do a sweep, and everything comes back clear, which is when Parker tries calling Monica’s phone and they hear a ringing from under the sink. Hiding is Monica’s daughter, Chloe, the same young girl we saw at the beginning of the episode outside the store. Chloe informs Knight and Parker that her mom has been gone since last night as Knight coaxes her into coming out from her hiding spot, assuring her they’ll find her mom.
Knight and Parker get a break in the case when they uncover a surprising piece of information about Chloe
Returning to NCIS headquarters, Parker brings the team up to speed about how Monica and her mom were supposed to meet Sullivan at the store. Sometime in the middle of the night, Monica gave Chloe her phone and told her to call 911 if she didn’t return. Chloe mentions buying snacks from the clown store, and McGee and Torres work to try to track down the shop.
Kasie informs Knight no one can come to pick up Chloe from Children’s Services anytime soon as Jimmy drops in to try to help get Chloe to finally open up. She quickly shuts him down, though, informing him that she doesn’t talk to strangers.
McGee and Torres head out to try to find the store, with McGee pressing Torres for his thoughts on the letter, which is really weighing on him. Before Torres can give a response, he spots the clown store, and they head in via an open door and begin searching. Inside, Torres finds a piece of rope with blood on it, and they notice the scent of bleach in the store. While no one is there, they do find a surveillance camera, which provides them with footage to scan through.
At HQ, they look through the footage and find the victim on the screen. They then spot the moment from the opening in which Chloe spotted the two men in the store and the store owner, Troy. While they suspect Troy could be involved, that changes when they pull him into the back room forcefully.
Parker and Knight show Chloe the footage and try to get her help in answering questions about what she saw. At first, it seems like they might not be able to help, but then they uncover a shocking piece of information: Chloe speaks Mandarin and understood every word.
Chloe identifies one of Sully's killers, who happens to be a former cop
Chloe informs Knight that her late father taught her Mandarin as Parker asks about the two men. She informs them that she had a bad dream about the men and what they said, and it was after Chloe told her mom about the dream that her mom left. The men said something about how if the military man didn’t talk, he’d die. As Chloe tells her mom, Knight pieces together that these seem to be Chinese gangs.
Parker and Knight step away to chat as Kasie suggests they could show Chloe pictures from the database to see if she might be able to recognize them. Knight’s not so sure about putting Chloe through more trauma, which is when Chloe interjects that she’s happy to help. Knight takes Chloe up to Tony’s office to get her some popcorn, and the photos come through. They begin looking through the pictures as Knight tries to find out some information about Chloe’s mom and Sully, but the conversation goes nowhere when she hears the popcorn popping from the machine.
Outside, as Parker waits for a drink for Chloe, McGee and Torres bring him up to speed on their latest findings. It seems that Chloe’s dad was killed in an accident involving Chinese gang members while Sully had been working to take down gangs. Parker heads inside, and Knight informs him that their search through the photos didn’t yield any results.
Chloe sneaks off and ends up stumbling upon a photo of an officer who she swears is one of the men from the store. Parker isn’t so certain as the man she identifies is a veteran cop, but he doesn't have the cleanest record. Things had gotten so bad for him in his final months that he was facing dismissal from the force and took an early retirement. Unfortunately, as McGee and Parker are reviewing his record, Torres gets a call informing him that the officer’s body was just found.
Jimmy offers McGee advice on how to best help Mateo
The officer is brought into NCIS, and Jimmy begins examining his body. Jimmy informs them that the wound that killed him seems to have come from a military-issued knife, suggesting Monica was behind his death. They also spot a dragon tattoo, which translates to ghost dragons. Knight suggests that it looks really new, and Jimmy confirms her suspicions, hinting that the officer only just recently got involved with the gang.
As Knight heads out to track down a lead, Jimmy asks McGee if he’s ready for Mateo’s hearing and finally gives McGee the feedback he needs. McGee admits he can’t seem to find the right words to say what he wants to say as Jimmy encourages him to just keep it simple and approach it less as a writer and more as a dad.
Elsewhere, Torres and Parker head down to Baltimore and begin looking into answers about their murdered officer; they approach a man who quickly picks a fight with Torres. Torres pulls him away, and they drive off as we learn the whole exchange was an act, as the man, Kenny, is an undercover cop looking to bring down the ghost dragons.
Back at NCIS, Knight apologizes for not being honest about McGee’s speech, and he understands where she was coming from. Their conversation is interrupted when Kasie comes up looking for Chloe, who slipped away when Kasie was working on the evidence. When Kasie mentions Chloe’s mom’s phone being missing, Knight gets an idea for where she is and finds Chloe up in Tony’s office in a makeshift tent.
The phone rings, and it’s Monica, who asks Knight to keep her daughter safe until she’s able to finish what she started and to send agents to Choi’s place, aka the clown store. Knight and McGee head out to the store and find the store owner tied up as he informs them he’s not sure where Monica has gone, but wherever it is, it’s not good.
McGee's speech helps convince the judge to go easy on Mateo as Chloe is reunited with her mom
The store owner informs Parker that he and his cop buddy had come up with a scheme to pretend to be a Chinese mob in order to shake down local businesses to make money. The officer’s cousin, Fred, was released from jail and inserted himself into their scheme, with the store owner suggesting that it was Fred who took things too far. He reveals that it was Fred who killed his cousin, not Monica, as he tries to strike a deal in exchange for answers.
Torres received a call from Kenny, who has informed him the ghost dragons are sending members down to the area to shake down Fred and send a clear message. This means that Monica could be about to walk right into a trap and get stuck in the middle of a gang war.
As Parker and the team head out to the address, Monica arrives and forces them to take action. Fred takes Monica at gunpoint as Parker and Knight inform the men that the real ghost dragons are on their way and they’re not happy, which is when most of Fred’s new recruits flee. Monica is able to free herself as a shootout begins between NCIS and Fred’s remaining recruits. She then helps Knight capture Fred as police arrive and prevent a gang war from beginning.
At HQ, Jimmy and McGee return, and Jimmy informs the team that McGee threw his speech out and spoke from the heart. McGee spoke from his heart about people in his life who overcame bad circumstances when given a second chance. The judge overcame a pretty rough childhood of her own and offered Mateo an alternative option to jail: enlist in the Navy. Monica thanks Knight for all her help before Monica is finally reunited with Chloe, giving this story a happy ending.
NCIS airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on CBS.
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