Heart Break (NCIS)

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Heart Break
NCIS episode
Episode no. Season 2
Episode 8
Written by George Schenck
Frank Cardea
Directed by Dennis Smith
Guest stars Jessica Steen as Special Agent Paula Cassidy
Nathan Wetherington as Ensign Evan Hayes
Stacy Edwards as Commander Janice Byers
Production no. 02x08
Original airdate November 30, 2004
Episode chronology
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"Call of Silence" "Forced Entry"
Episode chronology

Heart Break is the 31st episode in the TV series NCIS.

[edit] Plot

A Navy commander appears to spontaneously combust while staying in the hospital and recovering from a heart surgery. At the scene, the team meets Dr. Byers, who performed the heart surgery. Ducky is immediately smitten by her and later asks her on a date.

The team discovers that the commander was not well-liked and picked on one shipman in particular, Ensign Evan Hayes. Since Hayes was known to have visited the commander before his death, he becomes a suspect. When Gibbs and Kate confront him at his high school swimming pool, the only place where he had ever felt happy, he admits being suicidal and draws his gun on Gibbs. Kate shoots Hayes before he can harm Gibbs, and Hayes dies.

Later, it is found that Hayes had an alibi for the time of the commander's combustion - he was at the home of his former swim coach, talking about his problems. Kate feels immensely guilty for shooting an innocent man, but Gibbs tells her that it was "suicide by cop" and that she should "get over it".

In revisiting the physical evidence, Tony discovers that the explosion was caused by a cigarette placed in a matchbook 12 minutes prior to the explosion. As the cigarette burned, it eventually lit the matches, which ignited an explosion due to an open oxygen line. The only person in the commander's room 12 minutes before the explosion was Dr. Byers. She appears relieved at this finding and confesses that the surgery was not successful and the commander died during recovery. She had failed at a similar surgery before and believed that another failure would cost her her medical license, so she tried to make the commander's death look like an accident and not due to an unsuccessful operation.

[edit] External links