Na vyšetřování případu loupeže v bance je přidělen ke Gibbsovu týmu nováček Dwayne Wilson, a to přímo z rozkazu Leona Vance. Gibbs s tímto rozhodnutím samozřejmě zásadně nesouhlasí, ale není mu to nic platné.

When a child runs into a bank guard and smears ice cream on his shirt, the guard goes to the bathroom to clean up. On returning to the banking chamber, he finds everyone face-down on the floor and masked men doing a hold-up. He is shot at near point blank range and the villains escape.

In the bullpen, Tony is hitting on a rookie agent, to Ziva and McGee's disgust. The rookies are gathered and are on a placement, soon to go back to FLETC for more training. The team ponders why their own team has not been assigned a rookie. Gibbs arrives and says they have a crime scene at Quantico (which is a marine base surrounding the FBI compound).

At the crime scene, they get conflicting information from witnesses (but the accurate witness is a marine). The team ponders who would rob a bank in FBI territory. The getaway car is found near a gate, burning. Video of crime scene is digitally destroyed. The villains were professional.

The team investigate the bank robbery, and regard the death of the bank guard as collateral damage.
Director Vance requires Gibbs to accept a rookie on his team: Dwayne Wilson. He is required to assess Dwayne's suitability for NCIS.
Gibbs tries to transfer the assessment task to Ducky as psych specialist, but Ducky is surprised that Gibbs doesn't just trust his gut instinct.

The rookie is keen, honest and has joined because his dad was cleared of a crime by a persistent NIS officer. Rookie wants to make a difference.
Tony, who was grilling rookie on motives whilst they searched FBI records, is impressed. Claims that Tony's own motive for joining NCIS was for the guns and babes.

The team beavers away at discovering clues but are puzzled by the modus operandi and that they only stole 27k. If they waited three days, they would have hit the bank on a big money day (marines were getting holidays and would want cash). Therefore, the holdup was a smokescreen for the real crime. The real crime was the killing of the guard. But it could not look like murder, even though it was clearly a hit. Ziva ponders why they didn't just go up to his front door and shoot him when he opened it, which is the easy way to do it. McGee looks at her as if she is an assassin. (oh yeah, she is). Gibbs is just mildly amused at how serious Ziva is and how unaware she is of how she sounds to others.

Vance is on Gibbs' case about assessing the rookies. He also calls in Agent Lee for legal advice about what it takes to offload Director Shepard's rookies in favour of his own. Lee is bemused. And uncomfortable. Gibbs stares at her.

Tony has trouble opening a drawer: it is jammed with Agent Langer's old ID card from his FBI days, which prompts flashbacks in Gibbs and makes him ponder whether he was right to think that he was previously wrong about Langer (contorted but this is Gibbs' mind and that is the way it works).

Abby spots a clue. She notices the tatt on someone on the floor in the bank. She realizes it is the same tatt she has seen elsewhere, the tattooed man is a baddie and he is a hit man. They find his cronies. They find that cronies did time in prison with the bank guard's son. They realize the son will go to the funeral. They learn that the son was in a diamond heist and that the son is the next target of the villains who want their diamonds back.

Meanwhile, Tony has interrogated the man who set up the security system at the bank, which conveniently failed just when it was needed to the benefit of the villains. Security system man is in debt. Tony grills him in his own offbeat style (which involves itchy ears...yeah, it is weird but amusing and effective). But the guy has a financial plan to survive the credit crunch: he is going to marry a rich but ugly heiress (honest to goodness, they made her look ugly, right down to the big glasses and the frizzball hairdo). Hmmm. Tony realizes that the man must be serious about getting money from the woman because no one would marry her voluntarily (which is really, really shallow, Tony!).

So back to the villains.... they will know where the son is when the funeral is on, because it is Italian family and they always go to funerals. And they have crowds. When is the funeral, Ziva? Now Gibbs! Ok, let's go. So, they go. And rookie Dwayne tags along.

Tony makes Dwayne stay with the car, as he has no gun. Dwayne is disappointed.
Team goes trawling amongst the black-clad guests of the funeral where all the men look like mafiosi, we guess. They spot someone being dragged into a big black SUV (are all SUV drivers villains? Ecological ones perhaps, but these are gun-toting ones). The SUV is pulling away. But a car pulls up blocking the exit. The frustrated man in black says move! But the man (our rookie hero, Dwayne) goes over to help his "grandma" into the car. (The poor woman in lavender who was quietly laying flowers at a tombstone nearby is puzzled indeed). Dwayne distracts the villains with his ruse which enables a firefight. Rookie bravely shields old lady from the firefight that he has instigated. So the rest of the villains emerge from SUV and lay on the ground, and the old lady looks up and says "you are not my grandson", to which Dwayne has no reply. But he is happy to see that Gibbs has noticed him and probably even given a mild smile.

Back at HQ, the team are giving Dwayne a fond farewell at the candy machine, where Tony has stolen a candy bar for him. (oh, the moral turpitude!). So Dwayne leaves as someone they like and respect. (well done, son).
Gibbs goes to Vance's office and proffers Dwayne's file: nothing written in there. Gibbs tells Vance to write "recommended".
Gibbs now trusts his gut (but only after Ducky gave him a talking to... and pointing out that after Langer, Gibbs feels vulnerable but he should trust his gut). To elaborate, Gibbs had come down with Dwayne's file to the autopsy and had requested Ducky's help. The good doctor on knowing that the agent is alive surmised that he needed only to give his psychological evaluation. When Gibbs came back later again, Ducky says that the agent is extremely diligent, but not necessarily brainy, persuasive but skillless in the matter of technology, has profound ability to understand a situation and could be a excellent investigator...but. Gibbs has to ask what is the negative part ... to which Ducky says he has been married 4 times and divorced thrice. It becomes obvious to our dear Jethro that Ducky is talking about him and he also understands the point he was trying to make. Ducky does follow up by saying that a wrong decision he may have made in the case of Langer does not make his ability to judge other people totally vanish.

Gibbs passes Dwayne on the stairs and says "good luck" which is a high honour and Dwayne realizes it.
Gibbs spots Lee and he STARES. (A really really hard Gibbs stare. Hard enough that it taps Lee on the shoulder and makes her look around, then follows her into the lift and makes her flashback and we see her kill Langer. Pow. Thud. Bad girl).

Gibbs on his own enters a bar, orders bourbon. When barman observes that Gibbs is "alone tonight", Gibbs says "no" and goes over to the wall of honor for the fallen NCIS agents (and we see Cassidy!) and puts up Langer's FBI ID picture. Gibbs now trusts his gut.