Silver War (NCIS)

Infobox Television episode
Title = Silver War
Colour =
Series = NCIS
Season = 3
Episode = 4


Airdate = October 11, 2005
Production = 03x04

Director = Dennis Smith
Guests = Brian Dietzen as Jimmy Palmer
Episode list = Episode chronology
Prev = Mind Games
Next = Switch

"Silver War" is a season 3 episode of the drama television series "NCIS".

Plot

The episode starts with a Smithsonian scientist opening a Civil War casket. As she points out how amazing the preservation is, one of the cameramen filming the opening for TV points out a cell phone. NCIS is called in after Marine dog tags are found; marine dog tags were not invented in the Civil War, so the body is recent despite being dressed in a Civil War uniform.

After the title screen, Tony walks in dishevelled and hungover, and is surprised by Ziva who has been sitting at Kate's old desk since 0500 hours waiting for Gibbs. McGee walks in and is also surprised to see Ziva. Ziva shows them her orders to be assigned by Mossad as a liaison officer for NCIS. She tells them that Gibbs knows all about it, but when he arrives, he clearly has not been told and he heads straight to MTAC to confront the new Director Jenny Shepard. She tells him that she wants Ziva to learn from the best (Gibbs) as she did herself. A quick flashback shows a moment of intimacy between Gibbs and Shephard in a car in London. Gibbs is concerned because Ziva has no training or background in investigation and she has been trained to torture and kill. However, he finally tells Ziva to stay in an encounter in his 'private office' (the elevator). Before he lets her away, he makes her hand over all of her weapons, including her knife concealed in her belt. He gives this back to her, telling her that he wanted her to know that he knew everything about her. He also tells her that she can't sit at Kate's desk, because it is Kate's desk, echoing the previous episode where Cassidy also had to sit at the Probie desk behind McGee.

The team heads over to the Smithsonian to collect the body and the casket. Ziva is allowed to come along as an observer, and is unimpressed by DiNozzo clowning around with a stuffed bear, McGee taking the photos. However, she has to change her opinion when Gibbs appears and demands reports from the boys. They give concise reports on the work they have done, making it clear that they have been working hard.

While at the Smithsonian, the scientist, Dr Elaine Burns, tells Gibbs that the body has a musket ball in the skull. She also reacts with delight to seeing Ducky, who she says she met at a conference in Hawaii several years before. The implication is clearly that there was something more than professional in the encounter, but Ducky has no memory of her at all. NCIS collects the body, the casket and the cell phone and heads home. Unfortunately for McGee and DiNozzo, Ziva is allowed to drive the truck, and she drives the way that she would in dangerous territory at home. At one point, having been asked about her father, she scares DiNozzo so much that he vomits, and then takes over the driving. Gibbs later refers to this in a conversation with Shepard as Ziva nearly killing his team.

Ducky reveals that the musket ball did not kill the marine, and that he had actually suffocated inside the casket. Realising that he had been alive in the coffin, Abby and McGee get the chip of the cell phone working again; they find that the phone dialed a whole bunch of 911 calls and random numbers and letters, which McGee works out is a final text message from the grave; it appears to be about a safe deposit box. During the whole interaction between McGee and Abby, she is prickly about any mention of Ziva; when the whole team is assembled to hear about the text, she is openly hostile and unAbbyish towards the Mossad agent.

DiNozzo and Ziva are sent to investigate the construction site where the casket was found, and they return covered in dirt. Ziva is particularly dirty because Tony had made her crawl through a dump truck of dirt to check for clues. She is told by Gibbs that she can get a shower when she goes home at night, and that she is to accompany McGee to the bank to investigate the safe deposit box. On the way, McGee helps her get a bit cleaner, and he tells her that he is glad that she has joined the team. Unfortunately, this is because he is no longer the 'new guy'. They enter the bank and find a Civil War-era hand drawn map and a severed hand with an ornate ring on the ring finger in the safe deposit box. They also discover that the dead marine's brother has been trying to get access to the box. However, the marine did not have a brother, so they pull the security tapes.

As they exit the bank, a man walks up and asks for directions. As they walk away, the man tells them that he also needs the map they found. They are forced to give it up after he indicates an M16 sticking out of a van 10 feet away. Ziva later complains to Gibbs about taking her weapons and that this wouldn't have happened if she had had her weapons. Having taken the map, the man pushes the pair backwards into a fountain so that they can't follow. While McGee is distraught, Ziva is cheerful because she is now clean.

When they get back to NCIS headquarters and McGee is explaining, Ziva walks up with a hand drawn copy of the map. She has been trained to have a photographic memory, and the brief glance she had of the map allows her to redraw it. The ring is given to Abby and Dr Burns is brought in to identify the ring and talk about the map. Using the mapping techniques from Mind Games, they are able to work out roughly where the map is referring to. It is agreed that the location is Manassas, while the 'brother' is identified as a Civil War reenactor. His group are in the process of starting a recreation of the Battle of Manassas, so the team heads out; Gibbs lets Ziva have her guns back.

As they arrive at the reenactment site, DiNozzo talks about his childhood experiences with a father that was involved in Civil War reenactment. He reveals that his role was to wander around with a bucket for the reenactors to use as a toilet and that he had been called the Poo Boy. Gibbs, DiNozzo and McGee then head off to find the 'brother' while Ziva, Ducky and Burns head off to locate the cross on the map.

Ziva and the scientists discover that the cross marks the location of an old abandoned cemetery. However, there is the noise of power tools from within and Ziva heads in to investigate, telling Ducky to get Gibbs. She finds two men emptying a casket of Civil War-era weapons, buried at the time for when the South would rise again. She covers them with her pistol and sees that one is the man that took the map from them.

Meanwhile, Gibbs has caught the 'brother' after a chase. However, he is clearly just a henchman and denies all knowledge of any murder, saying that 'she' never said anything about that and that he'd been told that the dead marine had run away. Gibbs realises what has been going on, and the guys race over to the cemetery.

Ziva is concerned that Gibbs hasn't appeared yet, and she shouts on Ducky to ask what is going on. He comes out from the bushes, covered by Burns' gun: she is the mastermind behind the whole thing. She tells Ziva to drop the gun, but Ducky tells her to shoot as Burns will kill them anyway. Ziva leans forward, putting the gun on the ground. The scene cuts to the guys charging to the rescue, but when they arrive hearing a shot, they find Ziva standing over the handcuffed henchmen while Burns lies dead on the ground with Ziva's knife in her ribs.

Back at base, Gibbs turns on Kate's desk lamp, and finds Ziva sitting there again. She tells him that Kate is gone and that it is her desk now. Gibbs says nothing, but his silence is acceptance of the fact. Ziva then gives him Kate's sketch pad that she found in the desk, which has drawings of all her NCIS friends. The episode closes with Gibbs looking through the drawings, leaving the impression that he has finally accepted the loss of Kate and will now move on.

Notes

The hat that Ziva receives from Gibbs in this episode is the same hat that Tony shoots in the episode 'Marine Down'.Fact|date=January 2008