Friday 18th May
21.0022.00Continuing this evening is the third season of the hit drama series following a team of special agents who investigate Navy and Marine Corps-related crimes. In tonights instalment, the discovery of the body of a missing navy sergeant leads to a run-in with a notorious Latin American street gang. When two boys playing on a frozen pond make the grisly discovery of a body under the ice, the NCIS team is given a lead in a long-running case. The dead man is Ryan Downing a navy first sergeant who went missing some months ago while on leave from service in Iraq. He has been dead for up to four months, but Ducky is unable to provide an exact time of death until the body has thawed. As the agents survey the scene, they find that Downings is not the only body buried in the icy grave three more dead men are dragged from the water. Rather than drowning, however, it emerges that the men were shot in a random fashion. I believe the phrase is turkey shoot, suggests Ducky. More like massacre, responds Gibbs, gravely.Tattoos on the bodies of the three other men identify them as high-ranking members of La Vida Mala a notorious gang with 30,000 members worldwide and a reputation for dealing drugs and carrying out hits. A year ago, it is believed that the gang was responsible for the accidental shooting of a marine belonging to Downings company, though no convictions were upheld. Ziva nonchalantly concludes that Downing must have been on a revenge mission, but Gibbs vehemently denies the allegation: First sergeants dont go on revenge missions, he spits.As Abby begins her analysis of the bullets recovered from the scene, Zivas revenge theory begins to look like a real possibility. While the shots that killed Downing came from unidentified weapons, each of the gang members were killed by single shots from a rifle registered to the sergeant. Abby envisages a fatal gunfight in which Downing fought to defend himself: Looks like he went down fighting for his life, she reflects. Or committed triple homicide, responds the ever-cynical Ziva. As news of the case spreads, NCIS director Jenny Shepard meets with Gibbs to discuss a plan of action. Downings company is soon to return from Iraq, and Shepard is worried that the marines may seek revenge on the killers of their sergeant. The company will therefore be held in Iraq until Gibbs completes his investigation. With the pressure now on Gibbs to bring the case to a close, he and his team head out onto the streets to meet members of La Vida Mala. Thanks to an impressive show of nerve by McGee, the agents are soon ushered into a building to meet the head of the gang. Initially arrogant, the gangster becomes more cooperative when Ziva threatens to pin terrorism charges on the gang, but it emerges that this man is not in charge. The agents coolly leave a business card, should the real leader want to get in touch, then walk away,vowing to place the gang under surveillance.
Back at HQ, more discoveries have been made. The dead gangsters weapons have been found near the bodies, but Abby proves that none of them fired the shot that killed Downing. Meanwhile, examination of the cell phone records of the gang members show that the real leader, Miguel Sosa, had been in regular contact with another member of the gang, Cesar Bernal.
Bernal is brought in for questioning but refuses to reveal the location of Sosa, claiming to be just a messenger. With Downings company still stuck in Iraq, the case seems to be grinding to a halt, until McGee makes a startling discovery: the messages sent from Miguel Sosa to Cesar Bernal were in fact sent from Bernals own computer he has been posing as the gang leader. Could Bernal have killed the other gangsters in an attempt to take control of La Vida Mala?
Where is the real Miguel Sosa? And if sergeant Downing was not responsible for the shootings, what was he doing at the scene?
Executive Producers Mark Horowitz, John C Kelley Writer Dana Coen Director Dennis Smith A Belisarius Production in association with Paramount Network Television
Tagged in NCIS