Sign in or 
Share this
1.02 - Hung Out to Dry
| ◄ Previous Episode | Season #: 1 | Episode #: 02 | Air Date: September 30, 2003 | Next Episode ► |
Hung Out To Dry
| Synopsis: |
| During a training exercise, a Marine's parachute fails to open and he crashes into a parked car where two teenagers were making out. The NCIS team heads to the scene and have to determine whether the Marine's death was accidental or a murder. |
| Episode Recap: |
| The scene begins in a parked car; two teenagers are making out enthusiastically. Or rather, not so enthusiastically - the girl reaches the end of her tether and starts telling her young man to stop; he starts to make it pretty clear that he's not going to stop. She threatens to scream. With a crash, a human body slams through the roof of the vehicle, splattering both teens with blood. The young lady does, indeed, scream. Opening credits. Gibbs is working on his boat when Tony enters the basement, fills Gibbs in on the particulars of what we have already seen: the man who fell through the car roof was a Marine on a night-training jump with a parachute that failed. He looks around, sees Gibbs' cell phone in a jar of paint thinner and the land-line ripped out of the wall. He comments that he tried to call; Gibbs simply says, "Don't ask." Cut to: the scene of the accident. The Marines who jumped are all in custody. The girl from the SUV is flipping out. Turns out, it's her father's SUV. MSgt Shaefer is on duty and unaware that his daughter took his car. Gibbs interviews her; they are interrupted several times by the big-mouthed young man, who behaves boorishly and obviously irritates Gibbs. She expresses the belief that the victim was alive after impacting the car. Gibbs and DiNozzo approach the car; Ducky is already there on a ladder. DiNozzo goes after more equipment as Gibbs and Ducky discuss the unfortunate incident. Gibbs notes that a number of the parachute's shroud lines failed; he explains that this could lead to the chute "tootsie rolling" (refusing to open in the air, taking on the shape of a Tootsie Roll). Gibbs says the lines look worn, as though they simply broke. DiNozzo returns to the scene, trailed by Kate in a tweed suit and heels, who was having trouble getting past the M.P.s due to lack of photo I.D. She gets her first look at the body and is shocked. "My God! Is this for real?" There is some banter, and Gibbs produces a box, holding it out to Kate and welcoming her to NCIS. The box contains combat boots, because heels are inappropriate for crime scene work. Kate expresses amusement - "How did you know my size?" Kate goes away to put her new boots on and Gibbs goes away. While working, Tony asks Ducky about the phones in Gibbs' house. We learn that today is the anniversary of Gibbs' third marriage; his ex-wife gets drunk every year about this time and calls him repeatedly (as this will eventually turn out to be Stephanie in Season 5, obviously her character underwent some serious changes in 5 years). Cut to: an airplane hangar. The rest of the paratroop unit are being sequestered here pending the investigation. Gibbs is confronted by an angry CO who demands that his men be released so that they can tell their families they are all right. He also indicates that the men have another training jump tonight. Gibbs refuses, and grounds the unit. When the CO indicates that he may defy Gibbs and release the men anyway, Gibbs fakes a call to Commandant May of the Marine Corps to enforce his requirements. Here we learn that the dead man's name is Sergeant Fuentes. Tony goes to investigate the airplane and Kate and Gibbs begin the interrogations. They begin with the members of Fuentes' "stick" (the group he jumped with). These are Corporals Dafelmair, Brinkman, and Ramsey. We learn here that Sgt. Fuentes' nickname was "Thumper" because he was extremely lucky - a walking rabbit's foot. Dafelmair says that a week prior to the incident, Fuentes was hit by a car while riding a new bike and was thrown through a plate glass window, surviving with only a "dinged" collarbone. We also learn that Dafelmair was the first to reach Fuentes after the accident. Gibbs releases the men, requiring them to prepare a written statement, and also confiscates their gear. Kate and Gibbs discuss the interrogation, and begin to believe that Fuentes' reaction time may have been slowed by painkillers he was taking for his injured collarbone. In Autopsy, Ducky lists the various injuries Fuentes sustains and also confirms that Fuentes had a fractured left collarbone. He also confirms that Fuentes was alive - briefly - after impact. He further states that although Fuentes would have died of massive trauma, the technical cause of death was bleed out from the severing of his femoral artery. In Abby's lab, Abby is changing her paintings and discussing them with Tony. She has hung a new one, a rendering of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the abdomen, and intends to call it "Blast From the Future." Gibbs comes in, looking for his toxicology results. It turns out that Fuentes was on Percocet and Vicodin when he jumped. Abby believes he took them right before jumping. Gibbs says the Marines in his string probably knew. Abby confirms that his reserve chute was fine. Further, she states that the shroud lines on the main chute exhibited fiber disintegration, but not from textile fatigue; rather they seem to have had some sort of acid-containing cleansing agent applied to them. Gibbs assigns Kate to assist Abby in determining what the substance is. Tony and Gibbs return to the para loft, where Gibbs questions Cpl. Dafelmair, who (it turns out) is a rigger - someone who inspects and prepares the parachutes before jumps. It seems that Dafelmair packed the chute that Fuentes jumped with. There is discussion of the packing - the chutes are packed, then handed out randomly at jump-time. Between those events, they are kept in the para loft under lock and key. Ramsey and Brinkman are also riggers; Fuentes was senior rigger. The only people with keys to the para loft were Fuentes and their CO, Captain Faul. We also learn here that Dafelmair was a drug dealer before joining the Corps; he got the service-or-prison-time choice from the judge, and chose the Marines. Cut to: Abby's lab. She and Kate are examining the substance on the shroud lines. They identify it as sulphuric acid. Kate asks Abby how she got interested in forensics; Abby reveals that when she was young, she lived next to a junkyard where the aftermath of car accidents was brought, and she used to sneak in at night and take pictures, trying to learn how things happened and the physics of each situation. Kate reveals that she spent a year in law school before deciding she hated it and going into law enforcement instead. There is banter; we feel that Kate and Abby will be good friends. And Kate still has a great smile. Cut back to the base: Tony and Gibbs are caught up to by a Marine who brings Gibbs a new cell phone, sent by Ducky. They get a call, and Gibbs says he will be there in twenty. We find ourselves back in Abby's lab; in the darkness of her second room, she is standing amid the stretched-out shroud lines of a second parachute, illuminating them under a black-light. They glow strangely with a substance she identifies as sulphuric acid - the same cleaning solution that was on Fuentes' chute. Kate confirms that nine of the sixteen chutes to be used in the jump were tampered with. Four of them were packed by Dafelmair; the rest by Brinkman and Fuentes. We learn here that Cpl. Ramsey has been on a two-week rigging suspension because Fuentes wrote him up for shoddy work. Abby has found DNA traces on all nine of the tampered parachutes, but it is unidentifiable because they do not have access to Cpl. Ramsey's DNA. Kate suggests using the Armed Forces DNA registry; Gibbs says they can't, because it is only for identifying bodies. Kate maintains that there must be a way around that. Gibbs compliments her devious thinking. In interrogation, Gibbs lays out his case for JAG Lieutenant Bud Roberts. Roberts agrees that the evidence is good; however, he refuses to lawyer them past the Registry restriction, despite Gibbs' attempts at intimidation. He does, however, agree to sign off on some search authorizations to keep Gibbs happy. Returning to the squad room, Kate and Gibbs discuss his tactics. He compares what he did to horse trading. Tony confirms the reason for Ramsey's rigging suspension and further states that scuttlebutt says Ramsey took a swing at Fuentes over the suspension. Gibbs gets a cell phone call with the caller ID blocked; Tony puts his foot in his mouth about Gibbs' marriage. Gibbs goes to Sgt. Fuentes' house for reasons unknown. He has a chat with Sgt. Fuentes' young son, Billy, and his widow. He and Billy discuss the unfinished state of the tree house that Sgt. Fuentes was building and Billy's lack of a password for the tree house. Billy expresses his desire to make his father proud and not cry in front of the Marines at the funeral. Gibbs tells him about JFK, Jr. saluting the coffin at JFK's funeral. "You salute your dad today. Nobody will notice tears." He also assures Mrs. Fuentes that he will see justice done. Back at base, we find Tony practising to jump out of an airplane. This is done by jumping off a raised platform into a sand pit. He tells Gibbs he is doing research for Abby. The three go to execute their search warrant on the riggers' lockers, which were all sealed immediately after Fuentes's death. In Cpl. Ramsey's locker, Kate finds a can of brass stripper solvent which contains sulphuric acid. Ramsey claims it is not his, and is taken into custody. In interrogation, a key to the para loft is found on Ramsey's key chain. Gibbs offers Ramsey a chance to prove his innocence by providing a DNA sample. Back in the squad room, there is a discussion. The DNA sample will take 24 hours to run; Gibbs does not want to wait that long for answers. If Ramsey is innocent, Faul, Dafelmair or Brinkman may be guilty. He and Kate go to interrogate Capt. Faul. He has a good alibi for the time when the chutes were tampered with. Kate and Gibbs return to the squad room. Tony has more information. Ramsey participated in handing out the chutes despite his suspension. Fuentes supervised from the truck. Kate comments that Ramsey could have given Fuentes a dirty chute. Gibbs twigs on the words and heads back down to Abby's lab, Kate and Tony in tow. He wants Fuentes' reserve chute, but Abby has something more interesting: on the sabotaged shroud lines are traces of cocaine. Gibbs looks at the reserve in question: it is too clean to have been involved in a bloody fall like the one Fuentes took. They go to examine Brinkman, Dafelmair and Ramsey's chutes, and they find one - number 13 - which is dirty. He examines it and discovers that the reserve is unusable - the cone has been soldered in place. Gibbs orders Kate to call Capt. Faul and tell him that jump ops can resume, but not to identify the killer (who is clearly not Ramsey). Then he tells DiNozzo that they are going to be jumping. He wants the killer to confess. That night, Gibbs and DiNozzo join the paratroopers on their training jump. There is a conversation on the plane which leads to Tony switching reserve chutes with Dafelmair. When their stick is called, Gibbs confronts Dafelmair about his drug dealing activities. He advises Dafelmair that a confession and the name of his supplier will get him a deal. He cuts Dafelmair's shroud lines - Dafelmair knows the reserve is bad. Dafelmair asks how good of a deal he can get. Brinkman attacks him, screaming "He doesn't deserve a deal!" In the resulting scuffle, Tony is pushed out of the plane. Back in the squad room, Tony watches news coverage of the arrest. He and Gibbs chat for a moment; he leaves, limping (this is what happens when parachute strapping pulls tight on a sensitive area of the male anatomy). Gibbs watches him leave with some amusement. Gibbs remains behind, doing paperwork. Gibbs' cell phone rings. The caller ID reads "Caller ID Withheld." Gibbs puts the phone in his drawer and leaves. The next morning, the door to the Fuentes' house opens and young Billy comes out in his pajamas to the sound of hammering. Heart-warmingly, Gibbs is up in the tree, finishing Billy's tree house. Billy wants to come up. Gibbs asks him if he has a password yet. Billy says, "Yes, sir! Semper Fi!" Gibbs admits that it is a good password. Billy comes up, and Gibbs lets the little boy help him finish the work. End credits. |
| New Character Development / Insights: |
|
| Funny Moments: |
|
| Trivia: |
|
| Recurring Cast: | |
|
|
| Written By: | Directed By: |
|
|
| Links to add other episode information: |
| Season 1 Quotes Page |
| Season 1 Music Page |
| More Season 1 Photos |
| Episode Screen Captures |
| Add Episode Photos Below: (No blurry or duplicate photos please) |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
| ◄ Previous Episode | ■ Back to: NCIS Season 1 ■ | Next Episode ► |
Sorgiña |
Latest page update: made by Sorgiña
, Oct 8 2009, 7:03 PM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by Sorgiña
18 words added view changes - complete history) |
|
Keyword tags:
episode
episode 1.02
Hung Out To Dry
NCIS
season 1
More Info: links to this page
|
| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruby~Tears | WOW | 0 | Nov 8 2007, 7:44 PM EST by Ruby~Tears | ||
|
Thread started: Nov 8 2007, 7:44 PM EST
Watch
I have REALYYYY got to see that episode!!!!!!!
|
||||
Showing 1 of 1 threads for this page
