*
My dad used to say,
"Wherever you go, there you are."
I guess he was right.
No matter how hard you try--
or in my case,
how far you go...
...you can't ever leave it all behind.
There is no such thing
as a clean slate.
They're always there.
They're always with you.
The stories you've told.
Hell, even worse--
the ones you never could.
This is a story I don't tell.
*
♪ All the bills go by and initiatives are taken up ♪
♪ By the middle
♪ There ain't gonna be any middle anymore ♪
♪ And the cross I'm bearing home ain't indicative of my place ♪
♪ Left the porch, left the porch ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh
♪ Oh
♪ Hear my name, take a good look ♪
♪ This could be the day
♪ Hold my hand...
Gibbs.
Heard you had another rough night at Daly's.
They call you in to press charges?
No.
Reporting to work.
What the hell, man?
Okay.
There he is,
the newly minted Special Agent Gibbs.
I'm on your squad. I'm Bernard Randolf,
but folks call me Randy.
Good to meet you, Randy.
I'm trying to quit.
You ready to catch some bad guys?
♪ Hey, Saint Peter, give me cloud number nine ♪
♪ And tell my daddy that Junior's on the line ♪
♪ Oh, sweet Lord, someday I'll be talking to you ♪
♪ Yeah, I wanna speak man-to-man ♪
♪ With the man that used to moan the blues ♪
MAN I miss you, too.
Mind if I cut in, fella? Huh?
I got me an urgent call to make.
Promise it won't take but a minute.
Sorry, baby. Some jagoff's breathing down my neck.
What, are you gonna fight me over a pay phone?
No, I'm gonna fight you 'cause I don't like you.
Phone's a bonus.
You some kind of cop?
Pretend you didn't see that.
Hey, baby, I got to call you back, okay?
Thank you kindly, pal.
Yeah, it's Franks.
Here we are.
That's JJ. That's Roger, Artie, Carl.
Leroy Gibbs. How you doing?
Good. Hey, you guys still think
I'm the number-one looker around here, right?
They like you already.
Evidence locker is down and to the left.
Custodian is Kowalski.
Hey, how'd you like FLETC? Better than boot camp.
And how long did you...? Darn it.
Here's the kitchen.
They spray for roaches.
Eat at your own risk.
You see them Nets last night?
Coleman-- he's a beast, man.
How long you put in?
Huh? Marines.
Uh, in at 18, out right before this.
Scout sniper? Mm.
Wow. Remind me not to piss you off.
Um, locker room's downstairs. Oh, we have a gym down there.
Well, by gym, I mean a bench press
and a VCR with a couple of those Jane Fonda tapes.
I think those are your tapes, aren't they, Agent Strickland?
Oh, bite me, Randy. Love you, too, Vera.
Rec room.
Looking like Pelé over here.
And here we have the infamous Mary Jo Hayes.
If you want to know where the bodies are buried
around here, she's the gal to ask.
Head secretary in charge.
Welcome to the nuthouse, sweetie.
SAC's office-- it's right up there. Wheeler.
He's top dog around here. Honestly, he's fine
as long as you don't have to talk to him.
And here we are. This is home sweet home.
This is you right here.
That bad boy just arrived last week.
IBM PC 3340,
12-inch color display.
Hey, I basically peed myself my first day.
Not even basically.
There was just a little bit running down my leg.
So, if you need anything, I'm here.
You want me to get you a copy of the manual?
I'm sure it's easy enough. I'll figure it out.
Damn thing will probably be in the trash in a month.
At ease, Marine. You ain't in the muck no more.
I ain't your commanding officer. I'm just your boss.
Yes, sir... boss.
I didn't say "sit."
Got a burned-up body out in Fallbrook waiting for us.
Dominguez ain't in? Where is she?
Where she always is, I guessing.
Already at the scene. I just got the call
15 minutes ago, so who the hell's calling her?
Gear up, damn it!
Uh...
Where's my gear?
Sir? Boss?
*
Damn, Pete,
you bring the whole county?
Minute we I.D.'d the girl
as military spouse, I pulled my guys out.
Nice it didn't have to come to blows this time.
Couple of hikers saw the smoke a little
after 7:00 this morning, called it in.
You figure what started it?
Your Agent Dominguez located the ignition point
ten minutes after she got here.
Girl got herself a drive, doesn't she?
And when exactly did she get here?
The hell did she do now?
It's not her.
Look,
what's in that house--
it ain't godly.
Reminds me of when I was little.
There was this garter snake in the ditch by our house.
Our mom said, "Snakes are cursed."
She said, "Stay away from it."
Of course, then I was adamant I was gonna catch the thing.
I would try grabbing it,
but it would slip through my hands every time.
Then one day, I go out,
and it's lying there dead.
Coyote just ripped the skin clean off.
And the bones.
They were smiling at me like a row of teeth.
All I could think was...
...that snake wasn't cursed.
It was just a pile of bones
trying to get by like the rest of us.
You got any thoughts on that?
The snake?
These bones?
What the hell they're doing here?
Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
Lala.
So, you're on my squad, then?
Nope. You're on mine.
Just watch your step, Marine.
Scene's already been contaminated enough.
*
Melanie Hewitt, 33.
Husband was Sergeant Lance Hewitt,
KIA in Kuwait nine months ago.
Fire started in the stove.
You don't say?
You know, good thing you got here so early
to figure that out.
It wasn't an accident.
I thought I caught a whiff of acetone,
so I did a little digging,
and I found this.
It's from a big-ass bottle of nail polish remover.
Must have made for quite the accelerant.
Doc Tango wants us to get her clear.
Rando.
Okay.
On three. One, two, three.
You okay, man?
Good start.
Seeing a body like that,
don't matter what you saw in war.
That's war.
I don't know why, but it's different seeing it at home.
You're doing fine, probie.
What is this?
Hell if I know.
Must have been dozens of them things in her house,
all shapes and sizes.
Any idea what this, uh, Melanie Hewitt was into?
I think it's safe to say it wasn't church on Sundays.
You're thinking satanic?
I'm thinking somebody wanted her dead.
Hell, maybe the devil told 'em to go buy a boatload
of accelerant to burn her up.
That's your theory?
That's what we got till we got more.
Not so fast, Mike.
How'd your boy do out there?
Who, Gibbs?
Did great. Duck on a pond.
He and Randy are headed to talk
to the vic's grandma right now.
If he is not up to snuff,
I want your word you're gonna cut him loose.
Sure thing. But you ain't got to worry about Gibbs.
He's capable. He's crazy.
Oh, stop. He ain't...
He failed his psych eval.
That is the definition of crazy.
And if my wife and daughter were murdered,
I would be crazy, too.
We've been over this, Cliff.
The new version of that test is
about as dependable as a two-dollar watch.
Standards were raised for a reason.
Benny was licking the damn bodies.
Mike, you've got us both out on a limb here.
And for what?
Why'd you make it your business to bring this guy in?
If Agent Gibbs tongue-bathes even one corpse,
we'll give him his walking papers.
You got my word.
*
Whole family's got a dark side, huh?
Pentagram.
That ain't no pentagram out there.
And I ain't no devil worshipper.
And neither was my granddaughter.
I'm sorry, ma'am.
I misspoke.
Truth is, when I saw those things for the first time,
I thought about splashing them with holy water myself.
What exactly are they?
Art, stupid.
Might not be your cup of tea,
but that was my baby's passion, and...
I was so proud of her.
She read a book on some ancient Asians
that built those totems for protection.
And she brought a few here to me.
She said, "Grandma, they'll keep you safe."
Lot of good they did her.
What'd you do?
Get into a fight?
Should take off that ring.
The swelling, it'll cut off your circulation.
It's fine. I'm okay.
I used to be an RN.
Trust me, take it off while you still can.
Your wife, she'll understand.
Those are all of M-Melanie?
Yeah. My Mellie.
She loved working with her hands.
I raised her since she was a baby.
Yeah.
That was Mother's Day.
I still remember her
bursting through that door to give it to me.
After her husband died,
she lost her way.
Smiley face.
No, Kelly, don't you do it.
Don't you dare.
Then some lowlife got her hooked
into that, uh, methamphetamine.
You want to know who burned down
my baby's house?
You find that son of a bitch.
Can you give us his name?
I heard folks call him Bugs.
All right, boys, look alive.
Jamison "Bugs" Boyd.
Narcotics distribution, '88.
B and E, resisting, '89.
Since then, he's been on the milk carton.
Probably off doing charity work somewhere.
Make-A-Wish or something.
Grandma said he got Melanie hooked on meth.
Maybe she OD'd,
dummy panicked and lit up the place.
Last known address?
His mom's house, '82.
What about our CIs?
If we're gonna catch this prick,
we're gonna need some other pricks to help.
Yes.
Already started working our phone log...
I wasn't asking you.
He a mute at the grandma's house, too?
Probie! You know, this job sometimes involves talking.
I know, boss. Good.
Informants. Talk.
Well, these guys put out feelers to all of them.
A couple said that Bugs is still in the area.
One guy, Kenny, thinks he can get us a location.
White Kenny or Black Kenny? Black Kenny.
White Kenny is dead.
He took a header off Coronado Bridge
last Christmas.
I'll try digging up more info on this Bugs guy,
see if I can't find out where he's staying.
That's not the move tonight, probie.
We best do some percolating.
Giddyap.
*
So, we're done?
Oh!
Hey!
Oh, my God!
Double or nothing.
Again? How drunk are you?
Hey, Randy.
Your wife is on the phone.
Smitty, tell Junie to come get his ass
before he loses the rest of Junior's college fund.
Uh-uh. You tell her. She scares me.
Oh, hell no.
Come on. Take one shot with us.
Semper fi, bitches.
Excuse me.
You lost?
Boys club's over there.
I thought "percolating" meant talking about the case.
You can't do this job without taking the edge off.
One thing Franks and I actually agree on.
Bourbon. You like?
Never had it. Hmm.
To percolating.
It's an acquired taste.
Ooh.
So, uh...
...why'd you go all "Iron Mike" on that bouncer last night?
According to the 2B, you just
lost it, started swinging
for no reason, but I bet you had a reason.
You read my incident report, you know more than I do.
You were that wasted?
Well, no wonder Franks loves you so much.
You two are cut from the same cloth.
Well, that and you've been bear-hugging his leg
like a stripper on a pole since you got here, so...
I respect authority.
Means a lot where I come from.
You mean the Corps?
Four years active, current reservist.
You want to explain it to me some more, gunny?
Why'd you give that guy a beatdown?
Why does it matter?
Something you want to say to me?
Bottoms up.
Shots on me, boys.
We get inside,
some days smell worse than others.
You brace yourself, you'll be good.
Morning, Angie.
Yes, Dr. Téngalkat submitted the autopsy report yesterday.
Where the hell's Geronimo?
Off getting drunk at some bingo parlor somewhere?
I heard that.
Hey.
Barn door's open, Ace.
Melanie, uh, Hewitt.
Tox report just came in.
She had 100 milligrams
of methamphetamine in her system.
Her grandma said some bastard
got her hooked on crank.
We got eyes out there looking for him now.
Okay, chief, guess you're gonna make me ask,
where's the head?
Dr. Friedman spent the last 24 hours
completing the reconstruction.
Yes, yes, yes.
193 separate pieces.
That is why you get paid the big bucks, Doc.
That's right.
Incredible.
You were right, Lenora.
Right about what?
Entry and exit wounds.
She was shot to death, Mike.
Now, the degree of damage makes
the details fuzzy, but I think it's a small to medium caliber.
Most likely close range.
We swept her house, didn't find any bullets or casings.
Killer must have policed his brass.
Shoots her in the head,
then torches the place to cover it up.
I'll be a son of a bitch.
Boss, I got something new.
Got a call from a CI, said he saw Bugs less than an hour ago.
Who? Black Kenny? No, Twitchy Tony.
You think we can trust him? He sound sober?
Not at all.
Then we can trust him. Where'd he bump into Bugs?
Give you two guesses.
The tunnels? Mm-hmm.
Damn it, Randolf.
"Penetrated deeper
and deeper into the heart of darkness."
Can we cool it on the Shakespeare?
Rando, you post up out here. No one in or out.
Gotcha, boss. Women and children first.
I'm gonna clear the south access.
Then we meet at the chairs.
At the chairs, señorita.
Yeah, copy.
*
Mike!
Lala, where are you?
The chairs.
Lala?
That him?
Nothing to worry about, Bugs.
It's like I said, I just want to talk.
Where's Mike?
Haven't seen him.
Oh, man.
You got me, then?
I'm just gonna come and sit with you, all right, Bugs?
Just for a minute.
No, no.
Hi.
I need to touch you, okay?
Make sure you don't have anything on you
that could get you hurt.
You got to hide me. I'm in the oven.
I know, but you're good.
You're good.
Listen. Bugs?
You know Melanie?
Melanie, she, uh...
She's, uh, uh, I-I don't know.
I don't know.
You heard she's gone, huh?
She passed away?
Sorry, Bugs.
Hey. Let it out.
It's not just you, Bugs.
We all got a great sorrow inside.
All of us.
I'm in... Get off.
...the oven!
Get your hands on your head. Gibbs, stand down.
Get your hands on your head! Stand down.
Stand down!
Stop, stop. Hey.
You're just gonna let him go?
What are you gonna do? Bring him in?
Based on what?
We bring him in when we got the evidence to hold him.
I could've got something if you would've stood down.
You asked for cover. That's what I gave you.
I had him.
He had his hands on you!
I said I had him.
Hey, guy puts his hands on you, Gibbs did it by the book.
The book?
Mike, you never even read the book.
And you went past the chairs when I told you to wait.
That's right, go take some pictures.
Find us some evidence.
I got to get those chairs back up
before all hell breaks loose down here.
If this is an apology...
It's not.
You've got a problem with me. I want to know why.
Could be Melanie was in the tunnels with him at some point
if we can I.D. any of this junk as hers.
I asked you a question. Hey. Hey.
Keep it down.
Those vents are a direct line into Wheeler's office.
I'm not looking to disrespect you, Lala,
but I'm not some kid off the street.
You don't think I know that?
I was on your family's case.
Franks was your front man, yeah,
but I'm on his team, and that was my case, too.
Your wife and daughter...
I know what you've been through.
You don't know anything about me.
I know you failed your psych eval.
Franks didn't tell you?
You want to know my problem with you?
Your head's not ready for this job.
That's my problem.
What?
*
Stop going easy on me.
Whoever it is, they're not here for me.
What?
It's a sniper.
*
I'll be damned.
That's good work, probie.
Unbelievable. How the hell did you...
Did I fail my eval?
What?
My psych eval. Did I fail it?
The hell told you that?
Damn her.
You vouched for me to Wheeler?
Why?
Saddle up.
We're moving out.
*
Impressive investigating.
Thanks.
♪ Yeah
♪ When I get high, I get high on speed ♪
♪ Top fuel funny car's a drug for me ♪
♪ My heart, my heart
♪ Kick-start my heart
♪ Always got the cops
♪ Coming after me
♪ Custom-built bike doing 103
♪ My heart, my heart
♪ Kick-start my heart
♪ Ooh, are you ready, girls?
♪ Ooh, are you ready now?
♪ Whoa, yeah
♪ Kick-start my heart, hope it never stops ♪
♪ Whoa, yeah
♪ Baby.
Woody.
It's from the Hewitt case.
Bullet, along with the house fire?
He started the fire, we think, to cover his tracks.
Sniper. Sniper?
No kidding? From where? Hide was on base.
You know where the bison are, up in Echo area?
I-I heard about them being up there.
Are they a docile creature, or...?
I probably wouldn't try petting them.
If you could, uh, put a rush on ballistics...
Wheeler's losing his mind.
Bad PR, no suspect, you know.
I thought you already had a guy you liked for this.
We did, but it's not him. Dude's a meth head.
The guy who did this made the shot clean
from 1,300 yards away.
He's got some serious skills.
Well, I'll tell you one thing: an angry Wheeler is sure as crap
not a docile creature, am I right?
I'll put a rush on ballistics.
Give you guys a buzz this week.
Anything on the other stuff?
The bones, VHS tapes
from the crime scene?
You mean the stuff she dropped off two days ago?
He's new.
I'm getting that.
You find the right paperwork and fill it out.
With a pen.
Thank you, Woody.
Nice to meet you.
Probie, why don't you, uh, fill this out.
*
The heck were you?
We had a big party come in.
My agents turn into a bunch of animals when they're hungry,
and you know that, Sam.
Where's the egg foo yong at?
I swear to God, this fool and his parties.
Soy sauce?
Food's here. Coming in hot.
Mmm!
They forgot the egg foo yong.
Oh, come on, Mary Jo.
Mary Jo's name ain't on The Bamboo Palace. Thank you.
I ain't got nothing to do with it.
Thank you, Mary Jo.
Mm-hmm.
So, what, I'm supposed to fill up on rice?
Look at this.
Do we like any of these guys?
Mm, all scout snipers.
This Grayson's got the highest
skill level, but he's also a Boy Scout.
Other four, more write-ups,
less talent.
Strap on your tighty-whities.
I think I got us a winner.
Staff Sergeant Kevin Maloney,
1st Battalion, 1st Marines.
Tip-top of his sniper class.
It's not him.
What?
What did I miss? Is he dead or something?
I served with him. He's not capable.
Mm... It says he's in base housing. Mm-hmm.
He's been drawing a lot of ammunition lately.
He's not our guy. Gibbs, he got
a parking ticket outside of base maintenance
on Fallbrook Road two days ago.
It's uncannily close
to our sniper's hide, don't you think?
He's the best suspect we got.
We question him first.
We did two hitches together.
Yeah, I get it. Foxhole bros for life.
I'm warning you... You're warning me?
I'm telling you...
I'm telling you, he's clean.
Damn it, what the hell is the problem here?
Like a couple of bucktooth chinchillas
squawking each other to death.
Sorry. Y-You made me picture it.
Randy, probie, hit up Maloney
first thing in the morning.
Now, get out of here.
Go home, 'cause I will be damned
if I'm gonna fill up on rice.
Franks, let me talk to him alone first.
I owe him that much.
Probie, I don't care what kind of IOUs you got floating where.
We go where the evidence takes us. You hear me?
Do your damn job.
Yes, sir.
♪ I don't know you, but I want to know you... ♪
When the suspect is someone you know,
you got to think of it like clearing the deck.
This one time, we had to question
my wife's lady-parts doctor.
I tell you what, we cleared the deck quick.
He delivered my boy, only charged us half price.
Junior's a big kid, too.
And I'm only five-nine in boots.
Glad he had red hair.
Otherwise I would've been second-guessing
my whole situation.
♪ Floating in paradise...
I'll do the talking again, okay?
Let me be the bad guy.
♪ Paradise
♪ Hey.
Are you boys hungry?
I can put some sandwiches together.
Happy you stopped, gunny. Real happy.
Yeah, I meant to send a card or something
about your family, but...
You know me. I just... Where were you Monday?
I thought...
Thought you were just stopping to say hey.
We're investigating the death of Melanie Hewitt.
That fire in Fallbrook? I-I-I saw it on the news.
What's that got to do with me? Where were you Monday?
Uh, last Monday?
Would've been...
I was visiting my ma down in Chula Vista.
Got a couple days leave, left the night before.
You know, a sandwich actually sounds great, Mrs. Maloney.
You weren't visiting your mom on Monday.
You were on base.
You got a parking ticket
outside base maintenance on Fallbrook Road.
You want to try again, Staff Sergeant?
I took the motorcycle to see my ma.
Jess had my car.
Couple months ago, I caught her with this douchebag.
He works at base maintenance.
She said it was over. Aw, man.
I'm sorry.
Why you been drawing so much ammo?
What? What do you...
Last two months, you've been drawing ammo,
signing in at the ranges, running your shot.
Why?
I was training for re-qual.
Gibbs.
She said it was over with that dude.
She said it was done.
Hey, babe.
Stopped on the way home. Thought I'd save you the trip.
Tish?
*
It's hard not to bring them home with you.
It's hard not to bring them everywhere with you.
The stories go where you go.
Stories that got cut short.
It was our job to tell those stories.
No matter how much they took from us.
Witnesses never saw a shooter.
Said the bullets came from nowhere.
Gibbs,
this is our sniper.
*
It was our job to get to an end we could live with.
To tell an ending of justice,
no matter the cost.
But this one wasn't like the others.
This is a story I don't tell.
This is the story...
...of her.
Captioning sponsored by CBS
and TOYOTA.
Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org