Corporal Punishment (NCIS)

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Corporal Punishment
NCIS episode

Gibbs trying to convince Corp. Worth to give up.
Episode no. Season 5
Episode 10
Written by Jesse Stern
Directed by Arvin Brown
Guest stars Paul Telfer as Marine Corporal Damon Worth
Jose Zuniga as Navy Capt. Dr. Adrian De La Casa
Amy Carlson as Karen Sutherland
Patrick Fabian as Ray Vincent
Marcius W. Harris as Chris Jenkins
Production no. 104
Original airdate November 27, 2007
Episode chronology
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Episode chronology

"Corporal Punishment" is the 104th episode of the drama television series NCIS and the tenth episode of its fifth season.
The episode title, "Corporal Punishment", is the nickname given to the episode's main guest character, Corporal Worth, by his former team mates because he endured corporal punishment in Iraq but still managed to save them.

[edit] Summary

The episode begins with Navy Dr. Adrian De La Casa trying to get into his car when his window is smashed and a man forces himself into the car and then forces him to drive him. Gibbs and his team are called to the Bethesda Navy Hospital because the man in the car was a Marine called Corporal Worth who was being treated for PTSD after having returned from Iraq two weeks earlier. They learn from the male nurse that Worth was not talking much or responding to the treatments. A man called Ray Vincent, who is working for a Senator, urges Gibbs and his team to find Worth as soon as possible because the Senator wants to use the ceremony in which Worth is to be given a Silver Star as a PR-stunt.

They manage to track De La Casa's mobile phone and find him locked in his car's trunk but no sign of Worth. However, they find out about three other patients who were saved by Worth in Iraq. With only one of them in the USA, they go to a rehabilitation center where PFC Stone trains with a new leg prosthesis together with Dr. Karen Sutherland, who works for a private contractor. And they were right because Worth appears on scene shortly afterwards, still believing to be in Iraq and having to rescue Stone. Stone manages to convince Worth that Gibbs is one of the good guys and he lowers his gun but when McGee tries to handcuff him, he feels attacked again and defends himself. He manages to hurt McGee, Tony and Ziva before they can bring him down together. They transfer him to NCIS but not without consequences. McGee has a dislodged shoulder, Tony a broken nose. Ziva, who fought him as an equal, only has a swelling on her forehead. McGee and Tony think that Ziva has feelings for Worth because he is as powerful as she is.

Gibbs interrogates Worth as a Marine, i.e. by shouting and feeling for him and manages to get a blood and urine sample from him for Abby to examine. She manages, encouraged by Ducky, to find traces of anabolic and high levels of testosterone, thus concluding that he might have been subject to a super-soldier experiment, which leads them back to Dr. Sutherland. They find out that she was indeed using company technology outside the government's control but only to help children in Africa. She supplies information about the companies super-soldier plans but none of their chemicals used match those in Worth's blood.

Worth has been transferred back the Bethesda in the mean time, on order of the SECNAV. They go to visit him despite Vincent's attempts to stop them. De La Casa shows them into his room and Ziva asks him who gave him the steroids but he has a shock and attacks them and breaks down when he has Ziva locked at the door. De La Casa explains that someone changed the dosage on the machines from the amount he prescribed. He also explains that he does not fulfill the orders himself and so they suspect Jenkins, the orderly. He admits that he sometimes stole medicaments but says he never did manipulate Worth. It turns out that Worth administered the steroids to himself to be able to join the Marines. Thus he does not receive a silver star but Gibbs takes his Silver Star that he received (and never wanted) and places it at Worth's bed.

[edit] Reception

On its original air date it was the most watched show in its time slot with around 29.8 million viewers.[citation needed]

[edit] External links