Finally after a long summer of watching reruns while waiting on fall to bring back Gibbs’ rules and more infamous head slaps, NCIS has arrived with its 12th season. The Jag spinoff has had extensive success and now has two spinoffs of its own. The season premiere has everything a classic NCIS premiere should have, giving us plenty of story lines that will run throughout the season.
Warning: Full Spoiler follow-
The premiere begins with two men meeting in a small restaurant in Moscow to discuss the actions of the man that was Ari Haswari’s, the man who killed Kate Todd and Ziva Davids’ half-brother, friend and apparent handler. Ari’s boss has been following a NCIS agent that is in Moscow with the intention of getting to Gibbs for revenge of the death of Ari. The other man who is an official of the Russian government warns Ari’s boss not to go after NCIS to which the other man assures him it will remain personal.
Meanwhile, back at NCIS headquarters, Director Vance informs Agent Gibbs of a systems administrator named Kevin Hussein that is in Moscow who feels like he has been watched. The Russians have assured Vance that it is not them following Hussein who has now taken refuge in the American Embassy in Moscow. Vance notifies Gibbs that the Secretary of The Navy has requested Gibbs personally to retrieve Hussein from Moscow and escort him home. Gibbs relays this information to his team who then fight over which of them is to aide Gibbs in the mission. After much back and forth between Agent DiNozzo and Agent McGee they play rock-paper-scissors which McGee wins and travels with Gibbs.
Once arriving in Moscow, Gibbs and McGee meet up with the Hussein in the Embassy who is in shock and awe that Agent Gibbs himself has been sent to retrieve him, referring to Gibbs as the “A-Team”. During the helicopter ride out of Russia the helicopter is targeted by a surface to air missile that strikes the plane causing them it to crash. Back home Agent DiNozzo and Agent Bishop are with Director Vance listening to a recording of the incident. The members of the helicopter flight are stranded on the ground and start to pull themselves together. The co-pilot of the helicopter is injured while two of the flight crew is left dead. DiNozzo and Vance make contact with Mr. Pavlenko a Russian Counselor and one of the men from the meeting in the opening scene. He assures them that Russia is doing all it can to find the missing flight and tells Vance and DiNozzo to “sit tight”.
Abby is shown in her lab fretting over the recording of the incident trying to find any clue she can that will aide in the rescue of Gibbs and McGee. Director Vance asks Dr. Mallard to inform Hussein’s family that he has gone missing. Back at the crash the other man from the meeting in the first scene is shown questioning the wounded pilot about the whereabouts of the NCIS team that was on the flight. DiNozzo and Bishop go down to Abby’s lab to check on her and DiNozzo comforts Abby who reveals she has identified the style of missile that hit the helicopter. Several of the same type of missiles was stolen from a Libyan stockpile just two years prior by a group of Russian mercenaries.
At the helicopter crash site the man from meeting and a group of mercenaries are searching the plane and one reveals in conversation to the wounded pilot that they are searching the plane for something specific. Gibbs comes from behind the mercenary killing him with a knife and then turning to question Hussein what exactly he has on him that makes him a target. Dr. Mallard enters Director Vance’s office and informs him that Hussein was in Russia on false pretense. Hussein was supposedly in Russia to visit a sick uncle who passed during his visit, and Hussein sent the body back to the United States. Dr. Mallard, or ducky as he is referred to, tells Vance that Hussein’s uncle is in remission according to information gathered by his sister. There was however a body sent back to the United States and Palmer was meeting the transport in Dulles to bring it back for examination.
Once the body arrives at Ducky’s lab it is revealed that the man is indeed the uncle of Hussein. However, his death was the result of two gunshot wounds to the chest instead of lung cancer. Vance orders Ducky to get answers which Ducky in turn vowels to do if the dead uncle is wiling. Gibbs and his team are shown next to a inline and Gibbs is making a makeshift compass to help find their way. After Gibbs completes his task McGee reveals that he had a compass. At the lab Palmer and Ducky inform the director that they have discovered a micro SD card inside of the dead uncle’s body which they send to Abby for analysis. Hussein has now run out of water and breaks down to Gibbs that he has been working for a man named Sergei developing a virus to attack the United States defense systems network. Sergei then murdered his uncle when Hussein refused to go through with it and Hussein hid the SD card inside his uncles body shipped back to the United States.
Hussein informs the team that if the SD card is opened on a computer the whole network would be in danger and he is the only person capable of stopping it. Before the team can get to higher ground with signal for a sat phone, Abby enters the SD card in a computer she believed was secure and opens the SD card launching the attack on NCIS systems. Moments later McGee is able to get a call through to NCIS and finds out their warning was too late, before Hussein can try to inform Abby how to stop it a sniper bullet hits Hussein in the leg. Hussein drops the sat phone breaking it and causing the team to flee after Gibbs takes out the sniper in classic Gibbs sniper action. While Abby tries to contain the virus attacking NCIS systems McGee and Gibbs flee with Hussein through the mountains and Gibbs sends Hussein and McGee towards the border of Finland while staying behind to slow down the pursuers. Gibbs takes down two of Sergei’s mercenaries before ending up in a one on one showdown with Sergei himself.
The showdown is interrupted by two armored vehicles pulling up and DiNozzo hopping out of one to rescue Gibbs. Sergei draws on Gibbs and he puts two rounds in Sergei before leaving with DiNozzo who has McGee and Hussein in the armored car as well. The next scene jumps to Gibbs basement where Vance enters with news of Sergei, he informs Gibbs that Sergei survived and is after revenge for the death of Ari. With this knowledge Gibbs vows to find him before he finds the team.
