'NCIS' recap by Donna Kauffman: Gibbs gets a smartphone ... oh, wait

I've been looking forward to this episode all week. Now that we've nabbed this season's Big Bad, what's next on the Big Storyline Horizon for our team of super agents? Let's not waste any time finding out.

We open on a dark night, a man steering his car via GPS through a row of warehouses. He's on the phone with someone, questioning the directions, apparently not expecting to end up in a warehouse park. As he relays that he doesn't see a house, two bullets rip through the windshield and into his chest, causing him to crash. The helpful GPS notes that he's reached his final destination. Indeed. Cue awesome opening theme song and credits!

Our episode title: Blast From the Past. We've had a number of them this season, with Ducky's being the most memorable, or at least the most fun. Who's getting blasted this week?

Tony and Bishop enter the Super Special Agent Bullpen of Orangey Goodness, with Tony expressing shock that Bishop didn't cry while taking her maiden voyage viewing of Top Gun. She responds "de nada," which starts a string of Spanish responses as McGee joins in the conversation. Gibbs enters, wants to know why they're speaking bad Spanish, as McGee tells him that he's almost got Gibbs' new smartphone ready to go. Ruh roh. Gibbs? With new technology? No more flip phone? I'm going to miss that little piece of plastic ancientness. My guess? So will Gibbs.

Gibbs corrals his crew toward the elevator so they can go deal with the dead warehouse civilian, unsure why they've been called in. McGee wants to ride with Gibbs so he can give him a phone tutorial. "It's not going to be in Spanish, is it?" Heh.

We cut to a hood-angle view of the two gaping bullet holes in the windshield, then cut to the two gaping bullet holes in the dead guy, and I suddenly keep my focus on my computer screen for a bit. Augh, with the bloody details, Show. We believe you. He's dead. Really, really dead. (And yes, I'm a complete gore wimp. I can't watch CSI at all anymore. My imagination is just fine, thanks, don't need the graphic gore to help it out.)

Tony asks the attending police lieutenant why NCIS was called in. Apparently Dead Warehouse Guy's ID was flagged way back when NCIS was just NIS, over 20 years prior, with instructions to be contacted immediately if the guy was arrested, immobilized or deceased. They don't know why, or who the guy is. As they are looking over the vehicle, Gibbs and McGee finally arrive. McGee was teaching Gibbs how to use the phone's navigation system. "Didn't work out?" Bishop asks. Gibbs shows her the shattered screen of his brand new smartphone. "Ya think?" HA! Welcome back, Flippy!

No shell casings are found, and Gibbs doesn't think there will be. "Trained shooter," he says. He wants to know who the dead guy is, and is told it's Leland Robert Spears, which prompts a look of surprise from Gibbs. He recites a birthdate, asks if it's correct. It is. Tony asks if he knows the guy. Gibbs orders them to tell the locals it's their case now and to call in Ducky, then tells Tony that yeah, "Leland Robert Spears is me." Fade to black and white. Whoa. Nice open!

Back in the bullpen, Gibbs explains that back in the day, the director at that time formed an undercover unit and through that Gibbs was issued a back-stop identity, which was Leland Spears. Nice photo on that fake ID license, Gibbs! Back then the cover was untraceable, but McGee reminds him that in current times, hackers can get to most anything, and given any physical files would have long since been destroyed, there was really no other way Fake Leland could have gained access to the identity. Gibbs sends Bishop and McGee to Fake Leland's apartment. Tony goes to see if Abby has found anything on the car. He finds her in old NIS duds, which she explains belonged to Doc Ward, who is of legendary status and the reason she applied for NCIS. Since it was an old case, she trotted it out, along with Ward's Mr. Magoo thick glasses. Both she and Tony take a turn gandering through them … and almost going blind themselves while trying. She tells Tony that Fake Leland was on a burner phone when he was shot, as was whoever he was talking to, so no help there. However, she did find a government-only issued tracking device planted under the hood.

We shift to Ducky's Digs as Gibbs enters. No hit on the fingerprints, so they'll have to rely on DNA. Ducky asks Gibbs if he ever misses his undercover days, the thrill, the danger. Gibbs says the only danger was losing focus from staying under too long. Ducky recalls one such case where Gibbs was forced to run off to Prague with a lovely redhead, prompting a smile from Gibbs. (Oh, Jenny Shepard, you are still missed.) Ducky smiles, too, saying Gibbs had to go above and beyond on that case. Heh. We shift to Bishop and McGee going through Fake Leland's apartment as Bishop opines that she doesn't think she could do undercover work. McGee tells her about the time Tony went under as Tony DiNardo and fell in love, got intimate, the whole shebang. Emphasis on — never mind. They find sports memorabilia, video games and tattoo magazines, prompting McGee to say it was like a teenager living in a fiftysomething-year-old man's body. "Tom Hanks in Big," says Bishop. Tony would be so proud, except Bishop comments she only saw half of it. Bored again. McGee finds a security access card with only the bar code and Fake Leland's photo on it. A noise in the hall interrupts them. McGee opens the door, gun drawn, but it's just the neighbor across the hall, a younger guy who looks like he might be more at home in Fake Leland's place than a guy Fake Leland's age.

Tweaky Neighbor tells them he's a day trader, so works at home (mmm'kay) so he knows that Fake Leland has been home a lot of late, and doesn't think FL was working. FL had his video game up quite loud the night before, and there had been a string of "bunnies" coming in and out over the past week or so, along with a lot of loud pop music, the thought of which makes our day trader a bit more tweaky.

We shift back to Abby Lab. She's telling Gibbs she can't trace the bullets to any known weapon, but that the GPS tracker has been on FL's car for a week. He's been to two basketball games, a number of strip clubs and a burger joint. The only aberration was a trip 30 miles away to a remote forested area. Gibbs looks at it on satellite and realizes there is a cabin there. He goes to use his phone to tell McGee and Bishop to check it out, realizes the shattered screen makes it useless, and tosses it on Abby's lab table, opting for a landline phone instead. Then he has to ask Abby what McGee's cell number is. Heh.

Next up, we're in said remote forested area with Bishop and McGee. Bishop wonders if Gibbs would put a married agent — namely her — deep undercover, then goes on to ponder what would happen if the target hits on her. McGee thinks she's borrowing trouble given Gibbs has never asked her to go undercover. She switches to a different scenario as they approach the cabin … only to have it go up in a ball of flames, sending them both diving backward. Fade to black and white.

We return to the entire team looking over what is left of the cabin. Gibbs finds a sports page from 2013, prompting Tony to wonder if maybe the cabin was FL's man cave. Bishop is all, "In the middle of the woods?" Prompting the team to look at Gibbs, who, you know, has a man cave cabin, in the middle of the woods. Bishop recovers by telling them that FL's apartment is already a man cave. They find the melted remains of a computer, which appeared to have been shoved between the sofa cushions before the cabin blew. Gibbs finds the bomb trigger.

We shift to Gibbs' diner. Tom Morrow (the former director who put Gibbs undercover back in the day) enters late, quoting Oscar Wilde about the "thief of time." To which Gibbs replies, "Waste your time, not mine. Jackson Gibbs said that." Ha! Nice shout-out to Papa Gibbs. The two reminisce briefly about the good ol' days then Gibbs asks him what's going on. Morrow doesn't know, but he's pooling Homeland's resources to find out. What he does know is that someone went to a great deal of trouble to unearth that identity. Gibbs says he thought the director had created the ID then burned it after their last mission. Morrow tells him he's half right. He did burn the ID, but he didn't create it. It was given to him. "By who?" Gibbs wants to know. "Michelle Stark," Morrow tells him. Back in the day she was known as The Architect, because for decades she built intricate, untraceable false identities. Oooh, so could this be our new Big Storyline. If so, I like it. So far. Architect Michelle retired a few years ago, and Morrow tells Gibbs he'll text him her current information. As Gibbs gets up to leave, Morrow notes Gibbs' flip phone and smiles, wanting to make sure he can actually get texts. Heh. Also, is it just me, or does Gibbs look more refreshed in this episode? Is it because Big Bad is dead, so now he gets better lighting and makeup so we know he's recovering from Diane's death and BB's other victims as well? I don't know what it is, but it's nice seeing him look less anguished all the time. Well, for now, anyway.

Back in Abby Lab: Impound Lot, she's explaining to McGee that the bomb trigger was actually an antique piece used as a taxi timer. Able to be set for up to an hour, and attachable to a key chain, its function was to remind its owner when to put money in the meter. They went out of style in the '70s when Northern Ireland bombers started using them as trigger devices. She walks through a re-creation of the bombed-out remains of the cabin, meticulously reassembled and placed as they were in the woods. She knows the bomb was a black powder pipe bomb, and that it was placed three feet inside the front door. She also found kerosene as an accelerant. She feels like she's channeling Doc Ward, the original owner of her NIS jumpsuit. He was the bomb specialist back then. McGee hopes she can channel her way to finding out who did this.

We shift to Gibbs and Bishop meeting up with Architect Michelle who is now the crazy cat lady, with oversized cat gym equipment in her backyard. One cat is persistently winding in and out of Gibbs' legs. Heh. She's actually still sharp and fine, spent 30 years with the CIA, sacrificed much, loved every minute, and is now enjoying her feline-oriented retirement. She never had a personal life, and warns Bishop not to make the same mistake. Bishop flashes her wedding band, prompting a smile from AM. Gibbs asks her about the Leland Spears identity, and she realizes he looked familiar to her. She remembers the blue eyes (don't we all, cat lady, don't we all) and says she tried to keep her fake personas as close to the agent who would play them as she could. She recalls details from Gibbs' fake ID, wowing Bishop with her memory. They're her creations, like an artist, she tells Bishop, so of course she remembers. Gibbs asks her what happens when an ID is no longer being used. She tells him it's burned, removed from everywhere except the CIA's secure network. She says it shouldn't be able to be retrieved, period.

Back at the bullpen, Tony is on the phone with ATF girlfriend Special Agent Zoe, and he begs off from some engagement, saying he's got to pull a few late nights. McGee and Abby overhear the end of that and are confused, as they don't think they have to work late. Tony explains that her folks are in town and want to have dinner, which he's unsurprisingly avoiding. McGee and Abs want to know what he's afraid of, and he's not sure. He's just never done it before, except for that time when he was undercover, which doesn't count since he wasn't himself. "It's just dinner, Tony." This from Abby. Tony tosses back that it's not like Abby has had dinner with Ranger Burt's parents, "so put down the gavel, take off the robes and stop judging." Classic Tony. Shifting back to the case, McGee tells him that he got into Fake Leland's hard drive and discovered he was gathering intel on a semiconductor used in aerospace, with radar and missile applications, coveted by military units worldwide. The kind of thing you wouldn't want in the wrong hands ... and possibly already is.

Back from commercial, Gibbs and Morrow are at HQ trying to learn more about the semiconductor connection between FL and the stolen ID. Bishop starts to explain about the compound, known as GAM for short, only to have Gibbs break in and explain its originally intended uses, including plasma TVs, and the like, understandably stunning everyone with the tech-savvy info. He continues the mind blowing with information on how it had military applications via radar, antiradar, missile applications. Tony is beaming at him like a proud papa as Morrow looks on. Turns out, Gibbs knows about it because it was part of something he investigated back when he was Leland Spears. So that is the connection, because if his cover ID was deep enough, even this many years later, "Leland Spears" might have easier access to information about GAM. Morrow leaves to go talk to SecNav as Tony and Bishop question Gibbs on just how deep his cover went. Was he a black-market dealer? A hit man? "IT guy," he responds. HA! Bishop and Tony have fun with this, though Gibbs corrects "computer nerd" to "computer technician" but eventually ends with Gibbs losing patience and heading down to see Abby himself.

Love the whole techno-Gibb understory to this ep. It's about time! Down in Abby Lab, Abby and McGee have also discovered Gibbs' IT undercover ID, leading Abby to wonder if maybe his techno-aversion has all been a big scam, if he was really some kind of computer whiz all along. McGee dismisses that out of hand. Abby reminds him Gibbs had to know about computers back then to pull off the ID, which is when Gibbs enters and adds that he didn't blow his cover. McGee assures him he's certain Gibbs made a great computer nerd. "Computer technician," he corrects, much to Abby's delight.

Abby tells him that they found the Spears ID on Fake Leland's hard drive, and that using that identity, FL had taken a tech support job with a company that just happens to use GAM. Abby says he was stealing data. Gibbs wants to find out what and for who, so Abby comes up with a plan to use FL's work ID to go in after hours and find out what FL's been up to. She's scanned the work ID into her computer, but instead of pasting McGee's face on it, she puts Gibbs' face. She said it would take too long to completely reconstruct the ID to fit McGee's stats, so it's Gibbs who will be going in. I especially love the glasses she puts on him. She assures him that although technology has gotten smaller, it's remarkably the same in many ways. He takes his ID and asks, "Semicolon, slash-back still apply?" HA! Cut to Gibbs in suit and glasses, the latter of which has a camera so McGee can remotely instruct Gibbs on what to do. I'm going to pause for a moment and enjoy Gibbs in a suit. Carry on without me for a few. OK, OK. Gibbs is stopped by the night guard, but gets past him with the "IT guy, have to go up to my office" bit. Only FL's work ID doesn't let Gibbs into the elevator, prompting the guard to come back over. McGee is spouting a lot of techno babble for Gibbs to tell the guard, only Gibbs just says he doesn't know why he's there, that his boss e-mails him in the middle of the night, he shuts up and shows up. Heh. When asked to look at said e-mail, McGee panics, but Gibbs pulls out the shattered phone and tells the guard he's welcome to anything on it — love it — smiling as he reminds the guy that his boss woke him up. Guard laughs, too, commiserates, and gets Gibbs on the elevator. The ID works at the office door, and it's time to sign on to a computer.

Love seeing a seated, bespectacled Gibbs at the computer. McGee instructs him to log on, and Gibbs is all, "OK. How?" Oh boy. McGee is worried they won't get it done, but Abby is confident. It's daylight when Gibbs finally leaves, has a chuckle with the guard about how he hates computers, and we're done. Back at HQ, Tony and Bishop have come in for their workday and McGee tells them it took all night, but the files Gibbs got provided proof that FL did steal data on GAM. He also transferred several documents to a secure third party, which McGee digs to find and — we shift to the team banging through the front door of a house, guns drawn. They spread through the house, and it's clear. And clean. Too clean to be lived in. Safe house? Well, not so much, as Gibbs finds a dead body in the kitchen. Junk mail says the inhabitant is Edgar Braun. Turns out, that was an undercover ID for none other than Mike Franks. Oooh, good and getting better! Fade to black and white.

Back in the bullpen, Bishop tells Gibbs that they get nothing on fingerprints or facial recognition on Fake Edgar. Fake Leland was sending Fake Edgar information on GAM, prompting Gibbs to wonder if they were spies. McGee points out that Fake Edgar was in a house that was so clean it looked staged, whereas Fake Leland's place looked like a frat house. Gibbs has them pause on the photo of the tattoo magazine. He realizes that while Fake Leland had a bunch of magazines and books on the topic, he didn't have any tattoos himself. He instructs Bishop to get her blue light kit, then tells McGee to find everything he can on Miranda Fleming. They ask who she is, and he tells them to just do it, as he takes Bishop's kit and heads out of the room.

He arrives down in Ducky's Digs and uses the blue light to reveal an ultraviolet tat of a fairy on Fake Leland's arm, which explains the black light in his apartment. On his other arm is a skull and crossbones tattoo with words in Serbian meaning king and fatherland, freedom or death. We shift to the conference room with Gibbs, Morrow and Architect Michelle, who asks what Franks' role was in the original mission. He was a bartender trying to identify suspects they thought were selling intel to the Serbians, leading Morrow to comment that that can't be a coincidence. Uh, yeah, no, probably not. Gibbs says it was smoke then, that they couldn't find anything, so they closed the mission down. Now someone has reopened it. AM reminds them that Fake Leland and Edgar have real identities, that they need to find out what they are.

McGee comes in with information on Miranda Fleming. That was Jenny Shepard's ID on the same mission. Gibbs asks AM if she remembers that name. She smiles, nods, says she does. McGee found out that Miranda's ID was being used again, by someone who'd booked a flight to Buenos Aires. Morrow says they can get her at the airport. No need, says Gibbs, then shows the photo of the current Fake Miranda. It's Architect Michelle.

Now we head to interrogation, with Fake Miranda, Morrow and Gibbs. Morrow asks why she turn on the agency after such a dedicated career. She says she didn't, that they pushed her out, mandatory retirement, and that the private sector didn't have any need for someone with her skill set. She tells them the Serbians approached her, offered her a lot of money for two back-stopped ID's with connections to GAM. She felt it was old stuff, so what could it hurt? Gibbs tells her the two men she back-stopped with those old IDs are dead and wants to know who she dealt with. She dealt only with their handler via encrypted e-mail, but last she heard, they were shutting the operation down. Fake Leland was getting sloppy and it looked like he was going to defect. AM didn't know they were going to kill him. She asks how she can help. Gibbs tells her to contact the handler, tell him or her that Fake Edgar didn't die, that he's on life support at a local area hospital, expected to pull through.

Cue hospital as someone dressed in a white lab coat goes to see the patient, who turns out to be McGee posing as Fake Edgar, and it's Tony posing as the fake doctor. McGee thinks it's a waste of time, and he has to go to the bathroom. Tony leaves saying he'll get a nurse to come and insert a catheter. Heh. Bishop is in scrubs and Gibbs is also in a white coat at a nearby nurses station. Loving all the costume changes this ep! Apparently they've all been at this stakeout for some time, so Gibbs tells Tony he can take a turn being the patient. But before Tony can complain, the fire alarm goes off on the hospital floor. Gibbs and Tony go to check out the alarm, leaving Bishop with McGee. She's looking out the curtain on one side when a guy in scrubs comes in the other side. She turns and asks him what he's doing, and he mumbles something about preparing the patient for evacuation. With a big syringe. They pull guns on him, he runs, but Gibbs body-slams him against the medicine cabinet. It's Fake Leland's tweaky neighbor.

Back to interrogation we go. Morrow joins Tony and McGee behind the glass. They tell Morrow that the guy is the Serbian handler, and he had a syringe filled with potassium chloride, which would have given McGee a heart attack. Tweaky has offered up the information freely, because he claims he has diplomatic immunity. They keep chatting while Tweaky is slowly losing his, uh, cool, in the interrogation room behind them. McGee tells Morrow that Tweaky confessed to planting the tracker, the cabin bomb and killing both men. He said they were scrubbing the mission and he was to return home. Gibbs comes in from his talk with the State Department up in MTAC to tell them that Tweaky might be working for Serbia, but he has no diplomatic ties, so no immunity. Morrow says he'll take it from there.

Back in the bullpen, it's the end of a long day, another case closed, time for our team to head home. But is it over? I think not. Tony and McGee head off to see an old movie. Bishop begs off, says the first half sucks, leaving her there with Gibbs. She takes the moment to give voice to her whole deep undercover concerns, even asks him if his being deep undercover for so long harmed his marriage. He smiles in that eye-rolling kind of way and tells her to go home to her husband. She nods, leaves. And we end on a reflective Gibbs. Fade to black and white.

Hmm. I don't know what to think about this episode. Did we just introduce our new Big Storyline … or not? Seems like it's all tied up, but if so … then it was a little disappointing. Maybe because I was hoping it was leading to something bigger. What say you, super special viewers?

What I say is let's end this recap on a solid, no-questions-left-lingering note and announce the winner of last week's giveaway. I put up a signed copy of Half Moon Harbor, one of my Bachelors of Blueberry Cove novels, along with a matching HMH canvas book tote. Boy, you all like your totes! And I like that about you! The lucky winner is? Come on down, Mary Chafey! Drop me an e-mail to dmkauffman1@gmail.com with an address and your prize will go right out to you!

No new episode next week (BOO! HISS!) but we can amp up the anticipation a little with another fab giveaway. On the giveaway shelf this week? Calling all audiobook fans! Up for grabs this week are the Audible.com audiobook versions of all three of my Blueberry Cove novels. Yep, that's three lucky winners! Want in? Drop an e-mail to dmkauffman1@gmail.com with "Yes, I want to listen to a Blueberry Cove book!" in the subject line, and you're in! If you have a preference to which title of the three you'd like, mention that in the e-mail. Along with any episode dish you'd like to add! Open to everyone, everywhere.

In the meantime, for all the day-to-day fun and frivolity, not to mention more chances to win free stuff, as well as our weekly Mark Harmon Moment, drop on over to my Facebook fan page. Look forward to seeing you there!