Leap of Faith (NCIS)

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“Leap of Faith”
NCIS episode

Gibbs trying to stop Lt. Arnett from jumping.
Episode no. Season 5
Episode 05
Written by George Schenck
Frank Cardea
Directed by Dennis Smith
Guest stars Brian Dietzen as Jimmy Palmer
Titus Welliver as Navy Capt. Roger Walsh
Robin Thomas as Dr. Neil Fleming
Susan Kelechi Watson as NCIS Intel Analyst Nikki Jardine
Alaina Huffman as Dana Arnett
Production no. 099
Original airdate October 23, 2007
Episode chronology
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"Identity Crisis" "Chimera"
Episode chronology

"Leap of Faith" is the 99th episode of the drama television series NCIS and the fifth episode of its fifth season. The episode was written by George Schenck and Frank Cardea, and directed by Dennis Smith.

Contents

[edit] Summary

The NCIS team is called to a suicide situation, when it turns out that the man threatening to jump down from a building is a member of the US Navy. Unfortunately for Gibbs, who is trying to stop him, they know little else about him. McGee suggests to take a photo and let Abby run it against the Naval Academy's records but he is afraid of heights and thus Gibbs has to do it himself. They manage to identify him as Lt. Michael Arnett, a Navy operative working in the Middle East. Just as Gibbs manages to convince him to trust him, Arnett is hit by a bullet and falls to his death.

Now that the case has turned into a murder investigation, the team tries to get information from Arnett's CO, Cpt. Walsh, about the projects he was working on but it takes some time before they are able to reach him and when they do, he is not really cooperative, citing national security reasons. In his desk they do however find antidepressants which lead them to a private shrink, Dr. Fleming who is unwilling to say more than that Lt. Arnett was indeed depressive.

Abby in the mean time is unable to get any results with the bullet that killed Arnett nor with his laptop but manages to extract the last number he was called from from his mobile phone. It turns out that someone from NCIS called him, a young intel analyst called Nikki Jardine. Director Shepard assigns her to Gibbs' team and she tells them that they suspect a mole in the Navy and that she was working with Arnett in identifying it. Abby and Ducky discover that someone was manipulating Arnett's contact lenses' cleaning solution, causing him to become increasingly depressive and thus suicidal.

After learning that one of Arnett's contacts was killed, Nikki thinks, as Arnett was the only one knowing the identities of his contacts and the only one to have all the intel, that he was the mole. The team has different theories on the identity of the killer: Tony suspects Dana Arnett, Lt. Arnett's widow, who lived separated from him and now, after his death still married to her, will inherit a large sum of money because Lt. Arnett's family is quite rich. McGee suspects Dr. Fleming, who has anti-government leanings and prescribed the anti-depressants while Ziva suspects Arnett's CO, Capt. Welsh, who had access to all his intel. It turns out that Tony was right albeit for the wrong reasons. When Abby checked Dana Arnett's DNA against the INTERPOL database, it turns out that her real name is Najida Mahmoud and she is a Syrian Al Qaeda operative, who was smuggled into the US and given a new identity (most likely by "The Eraser" as seen in Identity Crisis).

The team now knows that Dana was the mole and heads to her hotel's park garage. When she notices them she drives away, causing Tony to fall over the railing and barely managing to grab it. McGee overcomes his fear of heights to rescue him while Ziva and Gibbs manage to stop Dana Arnett. The episode ends with Gibbs' calling Arnett's sister and having to tell her of her brother's death.

[edit] Reception

On the episode's original airdate, NCIS was the most-watched program in its 8:00 pm ET timeslot, attracting approximately 17.1 million viewers in total with 3.7% rating and 10% share in the 18 to 49 years old demographics.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Gough, Paul J., "'House' rules roost; 'Dancing,' 'NCIS' strong", The Hollywood Reporter, October 25, 2007. Retrieved on October 25, 2007.

[edit] External links

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