Skeletons (NCIS)

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“Skeletons”

NCIS episode

Episode no.

Season 4
Episode 17

Written by

Jesse Stern

Directed by

James Whitmore Jr.

Guest stars

Brian Dietzen as Jimmy Palmer
Susanna Thompson as Army Lieutenant Colonel Hollis Mann
Corin Nemec as Len Grady
Alexandra Lydon as Natalie Dalton

Production no.

4x17

Original airdate

February 27, 2007

Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Dead Man Walking"	"Iceman"

Episode chronology

"Skeletons" is the 87^th episode of the drama television series NCIS. Tying up a previous plot thread, it is revealed in this episode that Lt. Sanders, whose fate was left unclear in Dead Man Walking did in fact die.

[edit] Plot

When the employees of a military cemetery open up a family crypt, they are quite surprised to find it explode, throwing them to the ground. When NCIS arrives, the bomb squad tells them, that there is no trace of explosives or any other source for the explosion which leaves the team puzzled until Ducky explains that human bodies who are not embalmed can explode due to the micro-biotic processes and the high pressure in the crypt. He also explains, that such explosions are only likely within few weeks after storing the bodies thus leading the team to believe that a killer dumped his victims there.

Back at NCIS Ducky and Jimmy Palmer are reconstructing the bodies from the cemetery and are surprised to find that there are more victims than they anticipated, bringing the total body count up to five. Tony, Ziva and McGee in the mean time try to figure out how the killer had access to the crypts, making them think that it was a "inside job". Ducky tells them about the five bodies but Abby can't tell them much more. McGee and Tony think Abby is acting weird (weirder than normal that is) and Tony tries to talk to her about it, but she cuts off his attempts. McGee and Ziva talk to one of the victim's relatives but they are unable to help. Tony talks to Natalie Dalton, the granddaughter of one of the buried soldiers but is unable to convince her to allow them access to the tombs. NCIS thus needs a federal warrant to open the crypt which gets the attention of the CID and Lieutenant Colonel Mann, with whom Gibbs had a romantic relationship before (Sandblast, Sharif Returns). They fight verbally about who forgot to call whom after their last date with the rest of the team outside wondering about them. Despite their rabbling they find more bodies in the crypt.

Ducky tells them back at NCIS that the victims have no common traits, when the director calls Gibbs and Mann to her office. The rest of the team find out who the victims were and about one suspect, a certain Len Grady. The director in the mean time tells them that the CID has allowed Mann to help NCIS on the case and when Gibbs leaves, she offers Mann a position at NCIS when her service for the Army is over. Ziva visits Abby at the same time, who is confusing her by talking about her shoes but tells her about the high levels of chlorine she found, further pointing to Grady as the killer who works as a pool boy. They decide to bring him in therefore and discover several weapons and human meat and confronting him with the killings. They follow the leads and discover a butcher shop which must have been his partner's workspace. Gibbs in the same time "talks" to Abby about her mood: Apparently a guy dumped her because she was too tall which she tells Gibbs and then concludes that she has to accept it, with Gibbs standing there and not saying a word.

The team sets out to the only butcher shop they think suitable for the killer and are surprised to find that it is owned by Natalie Dalton, who DiNozzo questioned earlier. She tells them that Grady is her boyfriend but claims to know nothing about his killings and is apparently shocked to find out. When they confront her with it and let Grady watch, he admits that he did it all alone. Thus they let Ms. Dalton go and are out to find Grady's van where they suspect his last victim. When they discover the van they are surprised that Natalie Dalton was the murderer all along and is butchering the final victim when they find it.

[edit] Notes

The man who dumped Abby for being too tall because he felt that it would never work out was Marty Pearson, who was seen in "Once A Hero" and "Smoked." He was not seen in this episode because the actor who portrayed him, Michael Gilden, committed suicide a week after "Smoked" aired. All you see in this episode are photos of him on Abby's computer.