5.05 Leap Of FaithThis is a featured page

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Leap of Faith
Synopsis:
The NCIS team is called in to stop a naval officer from committing suicide by jumping off a rooftop, but when the suicide attempt turns into a murder, the NCIS team will have to find out who did it.

Episode Recap:
Couple in a hotel spot a potential jumper on a roof. He is a sailor, so Gibbs has to try to talk him down. He is uncooperative and won't give his name, so McGee suggests sending a photo to Abby so she can search database. Gibbs tells him to take the photo: McGee fears heights, so he cannot. Gibbs does it, then gives the phone to McGee and goes out onto the ledge to talk the sailor down. McGee feeds info from Abby to Gibbs via an earwig. It includes the news of a young sister: this is the relationship that eventually gets through to the sailor and makes him agree to come down...but he is shot from across the road as soon as it is clear he is not going to jump. Gibbs grabs his hand, but he has already been shot and falls. Ducky has to come to the scene and tries, in his own way, to comfort Gibbs with matter-of-factness. It doesn't work.

(The real plot...As they arrived at that scene, the Giblets had been discussing the latest gossip about Abby: she was seen dining with a headhunter. Tony is the source of the 3rd hand information. He spreads the news very fast. )

The team start looking into the sailor's work and family life. Sailor told Gibbs his marriage had broken down. They interview bosses (Pentagon unhelpful...eventually team learn he is a linguist gathering Al Q Intel). Wife is a blonde who says she was trying to force him to open up to her. Turns out the wife will be rich from the sailor's death: his family is loaded. Tony says "black widow" (refers to the Black Widow film with Deborah Winger and Theresa Russell). The sailor had psych drugs, which leads to a private psychiatrist. McGee suspects the doctor, because he was an antiwar activist. No two Giblets are pursuing the same theory or the same evidence.

THE TONY/McGEE DECLARATION OF LOVE #1
McGee is pursuing the line that a psychiatrist might be their villain as he is antiwar and had access to the sailor. Whilst waiting for the doctor to finish with a patient, Tony and McGee argue about whether McGee shut his eyes like a little girl (so sexist!) when McGee was having vertiginous fear on the rooftop. Tony threatens to post mobile phone video on the web, showing McGee in fear, so McGee tries to wrestle Tony for the phone. McGee is lying on top of Tony on the waiting room sofa when the doctor catches them. He mistakes them for a gay couple who are having problems. McGee is flustered and tries to correct the mistake. Tony acts up to the mistake and pretends to be McGee's gay lover. McGee says "We're special agents". and Tony adds, in a suggestive tone, "Very special agents." Naughty Tony.

THE ABBY/GIBBS BIG MOMENT #1 When all the team are out chasing various leads, Abby enters the squad room to report to Gibbs...who is not there, but his desk lamp is on and his specs are on the table and she sits down, puts on the specs, puts on a deep, angry voice and impersonates him berating the Giblets. And then, picking up the phone, about to pretend to bark at someone on the line, she freezes, and says in her own voice that he is behind her. He is. She starts to stand but he comes around, pushes her back into his chair and perches on the desk, looming over her. She sits with downcast eyes. He asks if she feels secure in her job? (not as much as before..). He asks for reports. Ballistics is no help but the mobile phone yields the last call...from someone at NCIS.

Jen's office. A young agent arrives at the outer office where Jenny is putting down files on Cynthia's desk. She is berating Agent Gibbs' rudeness and keeps on about it as she enters Jen's office, not realising Gibbs is in the shadows in the corner of Jen's office. Jen observes that Gibbs lacks people skills. Jen makes the agent work for Gibbs. She was liaising with the sailor because he believed there was a leak in Intel and they were trying to track the source. The agent, Jardine, is phobic about germs and won't touch anything if she can help it. The team are astonished at her decontaminating her phone...so Tony sneezes on her, just to annoy her.

Abby discovers that Lt. Arnett's blood had the antidepressant drug he had been prescribed, but also a very high dosage of timolol, a drug for the eye disease glaucoma. It had been (or could have been) administered by replacing his contact lens solution. Per Ducky, togother with the antidepressant, the timolol would make him severely depressed, probably suicidal.

There is a multiplicity of theories in the case. Gibbs does not make the Giblets work as a team, and they end up bickering loudly until he intervenes to point out that they need evidence, not theories. Jen notes that he is breaking his own rule 15 "Always work as a team" but a rather despondent Gibbs says he isn't enforcing that rule this time. Jen tries to tell Gibbs that the sailor was dead when he walked on that ledge: Gibbs asks is that what he should tell the sailor's 17 year old sister?

The ABBY-GIBBS BIG MOMENT #2.
The Giblets all compete for Abby's help to examine the evidence they have gathered for their favoured theory. And Abby has had enough! She whistles at them to make them stop babbling and arguing over her. "Back off, all of you, OK! I am one person!" She berates them. Gibbs enters, saying "Whoa..easy Abs" and she flies off the handle. "No! It's late, I am tired, I am overworked and I am taken for granted". Gibbs squints at her, turns, starts to walk away, pauses: "Maybe you should accept that job offer?" (Tony's eyes go saucer-size) Abby stops typing, turns away from her computer. Approaches Gibbs and headslaps Tony, hard. "I can't believe you would say that to me, Gibbs. How could you think that I would be leaving? Because I got a little mad? So what?! We're family: that's allowed. I get three or four job offers every year: I have never considered any of them." Tony, puzzled: "Then why did you have dinner with that headhunter?" Abby leans back against her bench: "Have you ever had the Beluga Caviar at the Ritz Carlton?" (Jardine drools at the thought and groans). "Besides, it was nice to feel wanted."
Abby tells them all to leave, but airily, not grumpily: "I've got work to do". Gibbs relaxes and semi-smiles. Giblets and Gibbs march out of lab. On the way, Gibbs headslaps Tony. "OWW! What was that for?"
"Spreading rumours."
They all go to lift but before the doors close, Abby yells "DiNozzo! Get back in here!". Quaking, he is given a hefty shove from McGee, pushing him out of the lift just before the doors close.

The breakthrough in the case: Turns out that Abby found the sailor's wife on Interpol database and she is a terrorist. The sailor's wife set him up and killed him.

Why Tony tells McGee "I love you, McGee" again and this time he means it.
Team pursues the wife who is about to escape from a car park (they arrive in the nick of time! What a coincidence! Oh, we don't believe in coincidence? Maybe it was scripted).
Ziva and Gibbs get the villain, but not before she has made Tony dive out of the way of her car and is hanging from the balustrade of the car park. He yells for Probie...and McGee arrives, hauls him back to safety and Tony says "I love you McGee. I promise never to give you a hard time again". "Yeah, right"

In the squad room, Abby enters with black roses. Ziva queries whether they are for not taking the job offer. No, they are for solving the case. Tony argues that he did it. The Z and McG Giblets establish that it was Abby (she identified the poisoning and checked Interpol when Tony only asked for national felons to be checked). Tony is disgruntled. Abby says "He still loves me." but then she pulls out one black rose and says "But I love you, Tony" and smiles. Then "Back to work". Ziva points out that Abby will always be the favourite. She chuckles at Tony being mollified by a rose from Abby. Tony frowns at her.

Meantime, Jardine has found the phone number that Gibbs asked for. And he says to her "good work" (she walks away, smiling..the pleasure of pleasing a difficult taskmaster). Gibbs settles at the phone, dials and says "Hello, Rachel? We haven't met, but I knew your brother."
Final phumpf of Gibbs on phone doing the phone call he seemed to dread.

New Character Development / Insights:
  • Gibbs is preoccupied with the effect the sailor's death will have on the 17 year old sister: he thinks about it from the instant he knows of the sister, mentions it to Jenny and makes the phone call at the end. The overwhelming impact of death is something that makes him despondent. For someone who is so bad at opening up and talking, he is super-sensitive to the potential for emotional distress in people who are 'innocent victims' of a situation. His sympathy for the husband kicks in early in "Light Sleeper" (the wife is a reformed North Korean spy, who killed the other spies). Theory: is it this empathic aspect of the acerbic Gibbs that makes us all such softies about him?
  • Abby fears being taken for granted and not being wanted, loved or appreciated. The despondent Gibbs has not been doing team maintenance, and it manifests itself in Abby's reaction to the pressure from the others to do magic loads of work.
  • Gibbs fears Abby leaving: but he confronts it out loud by berating her and asking whether she shouldn't just take that job offer. When she berates him for doubting her fidelity to their family (and says families are allowed to vent), he smiles for the first time in the episode. He doesn't mind her venting, if she is staying. He punishes DiNozzo for spreading rumours...but he must have feared they were true to have reacted so strongly to Abby's rant.
  • McGee is confronted with his fear of being thought gay (in the doctor's office where Tony hams it up) and of being found out to be scared of heights. He redeems himself in the end, when it is necessary to lean over the balustrade to rescue Tony.
  • Ziva won't acknowledge any sentiment about the risk of Abby leaving. She is in "get over it" mode to Tony. She teases him about his fear of commitment, which betrays her preoccupation with the concept.
  • Nikki is obsessive about germs. She of course sees herself as normal. She resents Gibbs' rudeness, but is charmed and pleased by his compliment to her work.
  • Palmer is credulous: he reports to Ducky that Abby has been offered 200 grand, a car and her own caf-pow machine. Ducky just chuckles. He is not fooled by 20th-remove whispers.
  • Jen can read Gibbs: his failure to enforce his own rules is a measure of his despondency over the sailor's demise. She tries to use logic to talk him out of his reaction. She finds the diplomatic way to describe Gibbs' behaviour to Jardine. She gives Gibbs a lot of leeway. Cute moment is when Gibbs is so familiar with her that he grabs her reading glasses to be able to read a text on his phone...he doesn't ask permission (he acts like a husband). She does not protest (but let's face it, what would be the point? - probably prefers to acquiesce than risk getting her specs broken)
    Funny Moments:
    • Abby getting caught by Gibbs when she is impersonating him.
    • Tony and McGee gay couple moment
    • Tony and McGee "love you" moment
    • Look on Jardine's face at thought of the caviar.
    • Tony tormented Nikki by flicking water on her and pretending to sneeze on her. Gibbs in the Director's office with Jen and Nikki, deliberately running his hand over the door handle (covering it with "germs") to torment Nikki. Naughty Boys! Both of them! Like father, like son?
      Trivia:
      • Gibbs cell phone number: +1 (202) 345-6905 (nice departure from the 555-xxxx fake phone numbers), as seen when he received a text message.
      • This is the first episode where the intro's end-of-scene *blip* freezeframe shows after the opening credits (i.e. the opening scene is split in two sections, before and after the credits; previously the credits came after the freezeframe).
      • When Tony "sneezes" on Nikki, the position in which she is holding the phone changes between camera angles.
      • Gibbs rules: rule #15 - Always work as a team.
      • Robin Thomas (Therapist "Dr. Neil Fleming") is an old acquaintance of Mark Harmon. Together, they played 1987 in the movie "Summer School". Robin Thomas played the role of "Vice Principal Phil Gills".
        Recurring Cast:
          Guest Starring:
          • Brian Dietzen (Jimmy Palmer)
          • Titus Welliver (Navy Capt. Roger Walsh)
          • Robin Thomas (Dr. Neil Fleming)
          • Susan Kelechi Watson (NCIS Intel Analyst Nikki Jardine)
          • Adam Huss (Navy Seal Lt. Michael Amett)
          • John Vickery (Interpol Inspector Hugh Benson)
          • Mark Matkevish (Jake)
          • Deanna Russo (Ashley)
          • Edward Conna (Metro Police Sgt. Frank Thompson)
          • Kimberly Atkinson (NCIS Special Agent Roberta Wells)
          • Alaina Kalanj (Dana Arnett)
          Written By: Directed By:
          • George Schrenk
          • Frank Cardea
          • Dennis Smith





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          Keyword tags: Episode 5.05 Leap of Faith Gibbs rules Leap of Faith NCIS episodes NCIS recap NCIS Season 5 Season 5
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          vick53 Abby 1 Jan 17 2008, 6:49 AM EST by sparklingcatseye
          Thread started: Oct 24 2007, 12:37 PM EDT  Watch
          I was beginning to worry that maybe Abby was going to leave the NCIS family. I don't believe anyone could ever replace her! But, what? Me worry? HAH! No need! She sets everyone straight and what she said is most definitely true! When you work with a group of people and have that kind of rapor and respect for each other, you do become a family so getting angry and snipping at each other is all a part of it. Not a worry. (What, again???) She still loves them and ain't leavin! :) YAY!
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          kicki22 Abby's job offer 1 Oct 29 2007, 7:36 AM EDT by Sorgiña
          Thread started: Oct 28 2007, 9:52 PM EDT  Watch
          How many of us have felt like Abby - we just want to complain for a minute about our job - we'd never consider leaving the family we have there. I also liked that we final got another rule in this episode - Rule 15 - always work as a team. Since I don't think any new rules were introduced in Season 4 I was starting to think there would never be another new rule again.
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          vinneyboo Adam Huss 2 Oct 26 2007, 8:57 PM EDT by Sorgiña
          Thread started: Oct 23 2007, 7:37 PM EDT  Watch
          I've seen him in different independent films and he's such an incredible actor! Who is he and why is he not big! I'm excited to see him guest star on this episode! My TIVO is SET!!! Watch out for this guy....he's gonna be blowin up!! Great casting!
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