A woman shows up at a cracked hotel room door and looks in. She sees a portable DVD player playing a video and music. She aims a gun into the room, walks in and says “Your under arrest you bad bad boys.” She’s a stripper posing as a cop. She sees one man lying dead on the floor in vomit, another on the bed with a backpack over his head and a third with his head in the toilet. She screams.

In the squadroom, DiNozzo walks in and says good morning to Fillmore, Ziva’s replacement. He teases her about her Army Greens but tells her they investigate crimes in the Navy. “Good thing I have a strong ego or I’d think you didn’t like me,” DiNozzo says. Fillmore ignores him. DiNozzo walks over to McGee and asks if he’s heard from Ziva, McGee says he hasn’t. DiNozzo says he tried to talk to her on the plane but, then hears Fillmore stop typing. He turns around and says, “These details are classified. Thank you.” McGee says they really aren’t and DiNozzo says they should be. DiNozzo wants to know what’s going on as someone asked him for his autograph. McGee says Janice in psych services asked him out for drinks. DiNozzo describes Janice as “man hands and pretty eyes.“ McGee tells him Ziva will call when she’s ready. Tony replies, “Last time you said that I ended up tied to a chair in North Africa.” They wonder how long it will be before Ziva’s desk will be empty with McGee giving it a month. Fillmore comes over and tells them she hates to disappoint them, hands McGee a rather lengthy document and tells them it’s her letter of resignation. When McGee comments on how long it is she says “I had a hard time choosing the right adjectives. I couldn’t decide between childish, juvenile and just plain old annoying. “ She looks at McGee and says, “And you. You know better. Your just so busy playing the faithful sidekick, you go along for the ride.” She tells them to make sure Gibbs gets her resignation and leaves.

Ziva walks down into Gibbs basement (no boat) and apologizes for being late. She thanks him for his help and hands him a gift. Gibbs opens it to find a chisel. Ziva tells Gibbs he’s probably thinking she rigged it to explode but Gibbs replies, “No, I’m thinking this is a really nice chisel.” Ziva tells him she felt betrayed when he left her in Israel but she has had time to think. She forgot who she could trust, they were a team once and she’d like that again. She came to his house for Gibbs blessing. Gibbs tells her she has to talk to the Director. His phone rings and DiNozzo calls to tell him of a triple homicide. Ziva tries to talk to Gibbs but he tells her she has to talk to Vance. As he heads up the basement stairs, he tells her Vance isn’t the only one she has to talk to.

While the team is processing the crime scene, Gibbs arrives. They tell Gibbs that Jeff Ross booked the room for a bachelor party. The stripper found him and she’s in the bedroom with her manager, Hector Stuckey. Gibbs and McGee go into the bedroom and Stuckey introduces himself. He hands them his business card, which McGee takes with a pair of tweezers. Stuckey tells them he’s a business man and the stripper, Scorpio Sinn, works for him as an entertainer. He pulls out some cologne and sprays McGee with it. Gibbs asks the stripper her story. She tells him she was hired to come in and surprise the men for a bachelor party. She says she showed up as a surprise and when she walked into the room, she found the men dead. Scorpio tells Gibbs the man on the floor (Ross) is the one she met with except he had hair when they met. The team looks at Ross, then DiNozzo pulls the backpack off the man’s head to reveal he is bald as well. Ducky pulls the third victims head out of the toilet and they discover he is also bald. After looking at the man’s head, Ducky informs Gibbs they were shaved after they were murdered.

Back in the squadroom, they ID the three men: Alan Sandrich (the groom), Naval Petty Officer, Jeff Ross and business man, Eric Jurell. Gibbs sends McGee and DiNozzo out to Jurell’s business to ask questions.

McGee grabs his coat and tells Tony to come on. Tony tells him to not let the sidekick stuff go to his head. He jokes with McGee about how the sidekick is always shorter but McGee stands toe to toe with him and points out they are the same height. The elevator bells rings and Ziva steps out, telling them she finds McGee to be the more handsome. Tony asks why she is there and Vance steps forward and tells Ziva she’s right on time.

In Vance’s office, Ziva and Vance talk. Vance asks her what her father thinks of her wanting to return to NCIS. Vance asks Ziva how her father feels and she asks what her father’s feelings have to do with it. When Vance reminds her she wasn’t an NCIS Agent but a Mossad Officer, she tells him she hasn’t spoken to her father in months. Vance tells her she is damaged and he has concerns. He tells her she has to pass a psych eval and battery and then they’ll talk. As she goes to walk out, Vance tells her he’s not making any promises.

McGee and DiNozzo go to Jurrell Auctioneers, where there’s a very boring lecture being given by Jay Danorth. Danorth tells them he’s not surprised that Eric Jurrell is dead, everyone wanted him dead. Tony asks him, “Did you wake up this morning wanting to be the prime suspect in a murder investigation?” Danorth tells them to talk to Elaina. She finishes a phone call but is crying. When DiNozzo asks her if she was involved with Jurrell, she says no but there were sparks. She felt people misunderstood Jurrell but that deep down he was a good man. Elaina tells them she did overhear a phone conversation and Jurrell said he felt someone was following him.

In autopsy, Palmer says he’s never been to a bachelor party before. Ducky is about to start on one of his stories when Gibbs walks in. Ross was killed by drinking too much; Sandrich was suffocated by putting the backpack over his head and Jurrell was drowned in the toilet. Ducky finds a discrepancy in an accident report filed for Ross. The report said he was injured in a hydraulic accident but Ducky finds a gunshot wound on his arm.

In the squadroom, Tim is faux swiping the TV screen (reminiscent of his NCIS: Los Angeles trip). Gibbs walks up behind him and wants an update. Then DiNozzo walks in and tells them he met Sandrich’s fiancée and she’s engaged again. He makes a crack about fast engagements and Gibbs asks him how long he’s going to use that line to which DiNozzo replies, “Last time Boss.“ McGee makes a comment about how Sandrich wasn’t dead 24 hours yet and the fiancée was already engaged. Tony tells them the bachelor party was fake, the real one had taken place 5 months prior. He pops in the bachelor party tape that had taken place 5 months prior. After the fiancée saw it, she broke off the engagement. Gibbs tells DiNozzo to turn off the tape. They want to know what the 2nd bachelor party was covering up for.

DiNozzo and McGee are trying to figure out how they can find out who was tailing Jurrell. Ziva walks up behind them and tells them to track Jurrell’s cell phone GPS and they can use the GPS of a repeat cell phone that followed him to find out who the tracker was. Ziva and Tony just stare at each other but say nothing. McGee realizes this and excuses himself saying he’s going to get a nutter butter. Tony asks Ziva if she’s taking the tour. Ziva says she is on her way for her first psych eval. Tony says he always loved them and Ziva replies, “It’s because you always get to talk about yourself all the time.” Tony’s phone rings and he hands it to Ziva. Abby demands that Ziva get down to her lab immediately. Tony tells Ziva to be careful she doesn’t get her own 21 gun salute. Ziva tells him she’ll see him later and he’s says he’ll be there.

Ziva walks into Abby’s lab, where as always, there is loud music blaring. Abby sees Ziva and gives her an evil look. Abby yells, “What the hell is wrong with you. How could you have doubted Tony?” Abby reads Ziva the riot act about how Ziva wasn’t thinking, telling Gibbs she couldn’t trust Tony. She babbles about Michael’s murder and tells Ziva that after everything Tony did for her, he even risked his life to save her. Abby ends by saying “Tony 1, Ziva zilch!” Abby walks up to Ziva and hugs her. She picks up a remote and we hear a pop and a sign comes down from the ceiling along with confetti. The sign reads “Welcome Home Ziva.”


Gibbs heads up to MTAC and talks with Marine Colonel Dick Jestern. Gibbs asks him how Ross got injured as Jestern filed the report. Jestern says that Ross was injured in a hydraulic accident but when Gibbs tells him what Ducky found, Jestern fesses up. He admits he falsified the report because Ross has gone on 2 days leave. When he returned, he had a gunshot to the arm. Ross claims he was with a woman and was shot by the husband. Jestern gave him a verbal reprimand and filed the report. He will complete a corrected report and send it to Gibbs.

Vance walks into MTAC and tells Gibbs that Ziva passed her first psych eval. Vance gives Gibbs the reinstatement paperwork to sign. Gibbs asks what Eli David thinks. Vance says he has things to work out. Vance senses Gibbs hesitation and reminds Gibbs he is the one who said he wanted Ziva back and asks if that is how Gibbs still feels. Gibbs says, “We need Ziva.”

Gibbs walks into the squadroom and asks Tony to look into where Ross went on his leave. Tony finds out that Ross went to an airstrip and they believe there was a package on the plane that is the key to the murders. McGee finds an unregistered cell phone number showed up several times, tailing Jurrell. They aren’t able to find out who the owner is but McGee tells them he can locate him. The team ends up at a house - Tony takes the front door and Gibbs and McGee go around back. Tony enters and finds a copy there, gun drawn. He claims they got a call about a shot fired and there were two suspects. Gibbs and McGee come in, quick introductions are made. Shelley is excited to learn Tony has his back. Each man takes a room to check out. The door to the room Shelley enters closes and glass hit’s the floor. The team enters the room and hears a car start up and take off, no Shelley. Gibbs picks up the framed photo that had fallen on the floor and they realize it was Shelley’s house, Shelly was the man tailing Jurrell. As they poke around Shelley’s house, they find what they believe to be an apology/suicide note on Shelley’s computer. DiNozzo finds a photo of the 3 deceased men at an airport under Shelley’s bed. Gibbs says Shelley wasn’t tailing them but targeting them. DiNozzo follows up with the Baltimore PD to get information on Shelley.

McGee is at the park getting a cup of coffee. He sees Ziva sitting alone on a bench and joins her. Ziva thanks McGee. He wants to know if she came to the Navy yard to say thanks. She tells him she’s getting ready for her next psych eval. McGee asks about the psychiatrist she’s seeing, Ziva describes her as “man hands and pretty eyes.” When she asks why, McGee says no reason. He asks how she is doing. Ziva admits the past 3 months were a challenge but it was in the past and the past is the past. He asks why she’s avoiding Tony.

Back at the squadroom, McGee is surprised to walk in and see Gibbs. He asks when Gibbs got back as he took a coffee break. McGee brings Gibbs up to speed, telling him the 3 deceased men went to the same high school and they were known for bullying. The men’s biggest target for bullying was Officer Shelley. DiNozzo runs in and needs to run to the head but Gibbs stops him. DiNozzo tells Gibbs what he found out from the Baltimore PD. He tells them Shelley pulled Ross over and gave him a ticket but when he realized who he was, he gave him 3 tickets. McGee shows a video on the web of Shelley being bullied by Sandrich, Jurrell and Ross in high school. They realize that each of the men died the same way in which they tormented Shelley. McGee goes off to get information while DiNozzo is doing a little dance. Gibbs tells him to “go shake it” and DiNozzo runs to the head.

Tony is in the bathroom singing and Ziva is standing there. She tells him she was there long enough to see how he was well hydrated after his time in the desert. Ziva says when he shot Michael she almost killed him where he stood. She tells him, Lying down, no backup, completely violating protocol and he reminds her he was also double-parked. Ziva says, “You had my back. You have always had my back. And I was wrong to question your motives.” He wants to know why she did. She tells him, “I trusted my brother Ari, I trusted Michael. I could not afford to trust you.” He responds, “I thought you weren’t sure what to say.” She replies, “I guess I had a long time to think about things.” Tony apologizes to Ziva but she says she is the one who is sorry. She leans in and kisses him on the cheek. She tells him, “Your instincts were right. You were a cop and I should have never faulted you for thinking…” He interrupts her and says he’s a cop, think like a cop. He grabs Ziva’s face as he says it then heads out of the room.

DiNozzo walks into the squadroom, calling McGee “McSidekick.” He reminds them that Shelley would have a second cell phone. As the first one is unregistered, McGee believes Shelley won’t have a registered phone. DiNozzo tells them how sometimes the evidence from a bust ends up in cop’s pockets. Turns out Shelley made a huge bust with 53 cell phones and he logged in all of their numbers. When McGee finds the second cell phone number, he notices it’s in use. Just then, Gibbs phone rings. Gibbs answers his phone, putting it on speaker phone. It’s Shelley and he wants to talk to DiNozzo. He tells DiNozzo he knows it looks bad, but it’s not how it looks. He says he was set up, he knew a deal was going down and he wanted to steal the men’s “pot of gold.” He asks DiNozzo if he knows where he is yet and McGee nods yes. Shelley gives DiNozzo an address to a phone booth where he can meet him.

DiNozzo shows up at the phone booth and there is a homeless man sleeping inside the booth. He wakes the man and tells him he has a phone call to make. He looks up and sees the phone is broken, so does the homeless man so he turns to go back to sleep. Gibbs sees Shelley’s car approaching, driving erratically. The SUB heads towards the phone booth so Tony grabs the homeless man and pulls him out of harm’s way. The SUV crashes and Gibbs and McGee run up to it. Gibbs checks Shelley’s pulse and discovers he’s dead with a gunshot wound to the back.

In autopsy, Ducky tells Gibbs the shooter was at point blank range so Shelley must have known his attacker, someone who knew his past. DiNozzo and McGee walk into autopsy and McGee sneezes as he reaches the corpse. Ducky tells them the body has cologne on it. McGee and Gibbs stare at each other, then they all run out, realizing the cologne is the key.

The team brings in Scorpio’s manager, Hector Stuckey, who has a black eye. Gibbs asks him how he got the shiner and Stuckey replies, “I cut myself shaving.” Gibbs points out Stuckey’s DNA is under Shelley’s fingernails. Stuckey finally admits he had nothing to do with killing the 3 men. Shelley showed up at his doorstep that morning and they got into a fight. He says that Jurrell approached Stuckey with a deal. When Gibbs mentions the package on the plane, Stuckey says the plane WAS the package. It was a military cargo plane scheduled for decommissioning. Ross approached him to sell it and the bachelor party was a ruse. Stuckey tells them he didn’t kill anyone as he has 50 people who can testify he was at the Club Pubis.

McGee and DiNozzo verify Stuckey’s alibi. Abby comes running into the squadroom and tells Gibbs that a new bullet fired from a 19th Century Tower Pistol was the murder weapon. The team leaves and heads to the Auctioneer house. When they arrive, they see Danorth, standing at the trunk of a car, placing the murder weapon into a case. He claims he noticed it was missing and had been looking for it. They inform him it was used as a murder weapon. He claims he has no knowledge of that and the car doesn’t belong to him. Gibbs says they know and asks where Elaine Marcus is. Danorth tells them he found the gun in her trunk and called her outside to ask about it. Just then Elaina comes outside, sees the NCIS team and attempts to run. She tells them they have no evidence but they tell her they were able to trace the fake suicide note on Shelley’s computer back to hers. She had learned of the cargo plane and partnered with Shelley to get the payout but ended up setting Shelley up for murder.

Gibbs returns home and Ziva is waiting in his basement. She tells him they need to talk. She says she sensed his hesitation when she asked to come back and she still feels it. There is tension between them as Ziva tries to work things out with Gibbs. Gibbs tells her he wants the truth, she had orders to kill Ari and earn his trust. Ziva admits she did, she volunteered for the mission to protect Ari. Gibbs tells her she killed her own brother and she lied to him. Ziva replies, “I would have lied to you, he was my brother. You were nothing. You were right about Ari. He is gone. Eli is dead to me and the closest thing I have to a father is accusing me….” Gibbs says, “Okay.”

Vance is walking across the squadroom talking on his cell phone to his wife. He reaches the elevator door as it opens, DiNozzo and McGee step out. Vance hesitates then says, “I love you too.” McGee and DiNozzo just stare at him, then Vance passes and enters the elevator. DiNozzo says “Okay, moving on” and they both walk into the squadroom. McGee begins to tell Tony that his date, Janice, is conducting Ziva’s psych eval but then sees Ziva’s stuff on her desk. Both men look up and McGee says “Ziva’s back.” Ziva walks into the room with a plant in her hands, puts it down on her desk and sits. McGee and DiNozzo both sit at their desks, pretending to work but staring at Ziva. All 3 go to work, smiling.