- Jackson visits Leroy for a special reason. Meanwhile, a couple, out in a park in freezing weather, finds the body of a Marine first lieutenant, barefoot and thinly clothed. Gibbs and company figure it out and elicit a confession.
- Jackson arrives at Leroy's house at Christmas with a triple-barrel surprise. Meanwhile, a young couple in freezing weather finds the body of 1Lt. Tom Ellis, a third-generation Marine, in a park; Gibbs and company investigate. Tom's father, George, a retired colonel, is an ordained minister. The gang finds Tom, barefoot and thinly clothed, with a compass, facing east, kneeling on an Islamic prayer rug; they learn that eight months ago he converted from the Christian faith to Islam. Ziva meets a bunch of what she calls "redthroats"; Jackson runs into trouble at Leroy's house. Tony tracks down a payment by the colonel, and Ducky offers insight about Jack; a Navy Muslim chaplain receives a significant note; Abby and the others consider a distinct possibility, which leads to a confrontation, which produces a confession. Leroy finds out why Jackson visits him, so they talk about it. Tony makes an old buzzard smile, and McSanta grants a special Christmas wish.—DocRushing
- A couple goes Griswold, trekking into the woods in the snow to chop down their own tree. Then, amid the snowflakes, they see a man in shirt-sleeves slumped against a tree. He doesn't answer them -- probably because of the blood running down his head.
Papa Gibbs shows up at Jethro's door -- a few hours early. They get their prickliness out of the way and papa decides he'll manage as long as the remote works. Gibbs finally admits he's surprised his dad came. But glad.
The victim is Marine 1st Lt. Thomas Ellis. His dad is a retired colonel, now a minister, George.
Thomas is barefoot and had water and soap on him, evidence of a bath. He's facing east and is on an Islamic prayer rug.
Back at the office they find Ellis changed his religion from Christian to Muslim eight months ago.
Gibbs calls Tony to meet him at Colonel Ellis' house. Tom's wife of two years is there, too. George says he became a reverend when his wife died.
Thomas' wife Tina says he changed after he found the Koran. His dad wonders if Tom's Muslim beliefs were to spite him. They're interrupted by Tom's younger brother Patrick who comes home in uniform and gets the news.
In the morgue, Duckie is waiting for the cleric before he officially begins, but he can see deep lacerations to Ellis' head and neck. Whatever he was hit with was cylindrical. They found paint and metal thread in the wounds.
Ellis has cuts on his feet, too, but they were washed, which means he turned his back on his killer and trusted him.
At the office, Papa Gibbs plies the team with homemade candy.
Tony finds that Ellis' widow had an affair with a banker while her husband was overseas.
The Muslim chaplain (Corey Reynolds) drops by. He says Thomas was serious about his conversion and called it a "devout epiphany" and stuck with it despite grief from fellow Marines. He even changed his name.
Thomas asked the chaplain to speak to a 1st Sgt. Tibbons, who had a problem with him.
Gibbs takes his dad home to get him out of the way. He shows him model planes and ships in the basement. He's building toys for Christmas for kid's at the children's hospital. Gibbs leaves his dad to whittle, promising they'll talk when he gets back.
Tony and Ziva look for Tibbons in a red neck bar. They find him. He isn't upset to hear Ellis is dead and says he was hunting when Ellis was killed. He doesn't want to go with them and propositions Ziva instead. So she flips him over her shoulder and an all-out hee haw brawl breaks out. It ends with Ziva handcuffing Tibbons.
Back in the interview room, Tibbons says people overseas thought a white Muslim was mocking them, which put them all in danger. He says someone offered them money to get Ellis to quit. He says he doesn't know who, they got wired the money and used a P.O Box.
Abby decorates a skeleton in her lab with a friend from college named Carol Wilson, a lab tech at the VA. McGee tries for funny and fails.
Carol tells McGee that her nephew Fisher wants to see his mom for Christmas - she's on a destroyer in the Indian Ocean. Abby sets McGee up to make it happen.
Tony has found two Marines, including Tibbons, who took the bribe to harass Ellis.
Gibbs gets a call from his dad that makes him angry and causes him to rush home. He finds fire fighters in his house and a singed fire place. His dad tried to light a fire. He also sent all Gibbs' mom's Christmas stuff from home and bought a tree. He gets worked up asking Gibbs to store his gun in another room, then announces he's going for a walk.
Tony calls Gibbs to tell him George Ellis was paying Thomas' unit mates to pressure him.
At the house, Thomas' wife and brother don't believe Gibbs and Tony, so Tony throws her affair in her face. George joins them and says he just wanted "this Muslim non-sense" to end. He says he thought if Thomas realized he was putting his men in danger he'd stop.
Tony get a call from his Secret Santa, grinchy Delores in HR. She wants him to meet her at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
In her lab, Abby says she found aluminum and titanium in Ellis' wound, probably from a well-swung baseball bat.
Ziva finds Ellis' wife Tina at his murder site. She says Thomas knew about her affair. Tina played softball, but denies having anything to do with her husband's murder.
Gibbs comes home to find his dad and Duckie chuckling about old times over bourbon. Gibbs asks Duckie out of the room for his diagnosis. Duckie says there's definitely something wrong, but he doesn't think it's dementia. He thinks Papa Gibbs is suffering from an emotional trauma.
Duckie suggests Gibbs call his dad's hometown.
McGee tries to get Carol's sister on satellite, as the direction of "Admiral Nicholas Whitebeard."
They confirm George Ellis' alibi. The Muslim chaplain stops by with a threatening letter he just got in the mail.
He says Thomas once asked him to speak to his brother's prep school class, and he says it's amazing how different two siblings can be.
In the lab, Abby says whoever did it has agility, speed and power on their side. Patrick Ellis played lacrosse. Abby runs the scenario with a lacrosse stick -- which is made of the same metals found in the wound. They think Patrick did it.
Tony and Gibbs visits the Ellises. In front of his dad, they ask Patrick where his stick is. Patrick tells his dad he did this for him.
His dad slaps him, saying Thomas just wanted to find the good in people. Yes, he humiliated his dad, but he was still his son.
Patrick says Thomas ruined the family's honor and turned his back on them. George says maybe they turned their backs on him.
Back at Gibbs', they're ready to talk. Gibbs got his dad's police report. Papa Gibbs describes a man trying to rob his store. He tried to get him to take the money, but he turned on two customers in the store. He used his Winchester. It's not the first person he killed, but it's the first time he saw their face.
He says he can't stop thinking about it. He asks Jethro how he does it, and he tells his dad it's not supposed to be easy.
Back in the morgue, George salutes his son's body as it's wheeled away.
Ziva steers Tony toward dour Delores in HR. He presents a huge box. He looked in her personnel file and says that when she was eight all the girls in her neighborhood got a doll and she didn't. She opens the box and sees the doll and grins ear to ear, choked up. (Thorough personnel files they've got there.)
McGee takes young Fisher into MTAC, telling him Santa told McGee to bring him there. Fisher makes a Christmas wish to see his mom.
They put her up on the screen and they have a Merry Christmas.
The Gibbs men bring their whittled toys out of the basement to the kids. "I'll go warm up the sleigh," says Papa.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content