Hello.
Several blocks, still.
I'd say maybe ten minutes.
Mateen?
Is he safe?
Thank you, Bill.
Inshallah.
Yes, I understand you're upset,
but this is not up for discussion.
I... No, I'm being perfectly reasonable.
And...
Sweetheart, I can tell those are fake tears
even though I can't see you.
All right, we're gonna talk about this later tonight.
Just know that I love you and y...
Hi.
What was that?
That was the never-ending pushback of a preteen.
It's exhausting.
But Victoria's the sweetest kid I know.
Oh, sure, whenever you're around.
As soon as you leave, she morphs into some devil spawn hell-bent
on questioning every word that comes out of my mouth.
The wonders of adolescence. Hmm.
So what are we not discussing?
Yeah, she wants to go out this weekend
with her friends to a movie.
With boys.
Her first group date?
That's adorable.
Okay, first off, no.
It's not. Secondly,
we don't use that word "date."
Oh.
I know that look. What look?
You purse your lips like that
whenever I order pineapple on pizza.
Well, if you want to eat soggy pizza,
you might as well just dip it in water.
Jess, you're biting your tongue. Come on, just spill it. What?
I just don't see what the big deal is
about Vic going out on her first group...
hang.
The big deal is, it's unchaperoned.
The bigger deal is Austin.
The city? No, it's a boy.
I don't know who he is.
Vic talks about him nonstop.
Austin.
You know, you never forget your first crush.
Elliot Spencer had the cutest dimples.
Okay, well, she is not gonna remember Austin because
this thing's not happening, not unless I get to tag along.
Oh.
You're doing the pineapple lips again.
I just don't know if you want to be that dad.
How does this make me that dad?
I mean, she is way too young for this, right?
I wonder if it's more about whether
Vic is mature enough to handle this?
Oh, certainly she is, but the boys are not.
I used to be one of those boys, okay?
I know what hormones can do.
And...
Maybe just... sit with it.
You don't want to let a knee-jerk reaction
cause a rift between you and your daughter.
I'm getting pretty sick of hearing myself say
"Over my dead body" about this.
That's good.
That's bad.
Speaking of bodies, we have a body
waiting for us in Norfolk.
Austin.
My first crush was Emily Tisdale.
Oh, man, I had it bad for her.
How'd you meet?
Middle school.
We were, uh, rivals. Mathletes.
She could recite pi to a thousand digits. It was so hot.
What about you, Nick?
Yeah, bet you had your choice
of, uh, girls crushing on you.
Actually, pequeño Nico was a,
uh, late bloomer. What?
I always figured you were the boy parents were terrified
to have their daughters around.
Well, believe it or not, this handsome face was terrified
of those daughters until high school.
So who brought you around?
Oh, my Sofia.
She was my first date.
I was so nervous that I went to the wrong restaurant.
That's what Jimmy doesn't get.
Victoria deserves a future walk down memory lane about...
Austin.
Wow, that is a lot of blood.
Yeah, courtesy of what appears to be a kitchen knife.
My guess is, it severed the carotid artery.
And then he lost consciousness.
And his heart kept pumping. Who is he?
He is Marine Private William Huxley.
Neighbor walking the dog noticed the garage door open.
Dog did the rest.
Led him right in here to this body.
Time of death?
Given lividity, I would say he bled out
somewhere around 12 hours ago.
Look at all this flour, sugar, oil.
Enough ingredients to feed an entire platoon.
Yeah, I wonder who he was cooking for.
Not his family.
According to Huxley's service record,
he was single, no kids.
Ooh, that reminds me.
I got to pick up chocolate chips
for the twins' bake sale cookies.
Hey, McGee.
It's too bad these are evidence.
'Cause you could have...
Unfortunately, Delilah insists
upon at least 70% dark chocolate
'cause it's healthier.
As a doctor, I can attest to that.
More importantly, way more delish, right?
How about we finish grocery shopping later and...
figure out what happened here?
Looks like the killer jumped him as he unloaded the car?
Guys, is it me, or does, uh,
Huxley have a lot of gray hair for a Marine private?
He does look kind of elder for a grunt.
Yeah, you're right. His license says Huxley was 46.
Corps's oldest-serving private.
There's got to be a story there.
There is, and it's a whopper.
According to his former C.O.,
Huxley was a gunnery sergeant who used
to lead a Marine Force Recon team.
Force Recon?
Wow, those guys are badasses. They go toe to toe with SEALs.
He must have really screwed up to get busted down to private.
He pulled multiple tours in Afghanistan,
then he went missing from his unit after the U.S. withdrawal
and, uh...
was declared a deserter.
Where'd he go?
Back to Afghanistan.
Apparently, Huxley returned to Kabul
to sneak out more families and allies
who missed the airlift.
He really held on to the Marine code of "leave no man behind."
Even at the risk of his own career.
Sounded like a hero to me.
Yeah, well,
clearly someone disagrees.
All right, Doc, what do we got? Stop.
No food while a body's on the table.
There's a trash can in the hallway there.
Well, the only way that I'm disposing
of this, uh, deep-fried,
perfectly pistachio-ed treat
is in my belly. Yeah, what kind of pastry is it?
I don't know, but it's the third one I've had today.
It's like baklava, but...
I've never tasted anything like this before.
Huh, where'd you get it?
I was interviewing, uh, one of Huxley's neighbors
and she offered them, said
he baked treats for everyone on the block all the time.
Must be why he had all those baking supplies in his SUV.
The guy on your table was a damn gastronomic genius.
He was serving out the rest of his tour
as a Marine food service specialist.
He was demoted to a cook?
A chef.
A chef that we will avenge.
Well, what do we know about our Private Huxley here?
Well, as I suspected, cause of death was
penetrating trauma due to the knife wound.
The murder weapon was a paring knife
that severed the external carotid artery.
Exsanguination took one, maybe two minutes.
Huxley was Special Ops-trained.
It's hard to imagine anyone would get the drop on him
for a close-range kill.
He must have known his attacker. Allowed 'em to get close enough,
catch him off guard.
I heard, uh...
your daughter caught you off guard this morning.
Something about the, uh...
big first date?
We don't use that word "date."
No, and there is none.
At least not yet.
You're thinking about letting her go?
Jess says that I should "sit with it"
so I don't make any decisions clouded
by parental emotions.
You ever think about doing a little, uh,
light background check on the kid?
Nothing creepy. Just, you know, maybe
peruse his social media accounts.
That's not creepy?
Checking his likes and dislikes
to make sure he's no juvenile delinquent
like I was? No, no, not at all.
Oh, I-I guess kids do put it all out
on social media for anyone to see.
What could it hurt?
Yeah.
A paring knife is
a chef's favorite.
Small but mighty, this bad boy can cut,
chop, slice, and dice with ninja precision.
Any prints on it? No.
And given that the killer left it in our victim's neck,
they were likely smart enough to use gloves.
Any way to find out where the knife came from?
Well, it is a standard four-inch stainless-steel blade,
so not likely.
Any chef who knows their way around the kitchen
has access to one, but...
holster those frowny faces because
I found you a bread crumb to nibble on.
That paring knife is covered
in asafetida, a popular spice primarily grown
in Afghanistan and Iran.
Parker did say that Huxley did multiple tours in Afghanistan.
Asafetida is a delicacy there,
known as the "food of the gods."
Whoa.
What he said.
That pungent aroma may be divisive to some,
but once heated, it releases a delicious flavor,
similar to, uh, onions or leeks.
So if our murder weapon is covered in asa...
...fetida,
it most likely came
from a kitchen well-versed
in Central Asian cooking.
What if Huxley's killer was a rival chef?
Look at this, just pulled up his doorbell cam footage.
Look what I found.
Get out here, Bill!
I am done playing games. If you steal
one more of my catering clients, I swear I will kill you!
She makes a really good Karen.
As it turns out,
her name actually is Karen.
Karen Graham.
Hey, names are fate.
Fun fact, as a Parker
I always find good parking.
Well, this Karen is the neighborhood busybody.
She lives a few blocks over from Huxley,
and while she has no arrest record...
At least not yet.
...well, she does have a long record of calling
the police to get others arrested on H.O.A. violations.
I've seen this type before. Entitled. Volatile.
It's just a matter of time before they explode.
No offense...
Yet I am sensing a coming offense.
...but what colorblind moron chose
the palette of these offices?
Not a fan of the, uh, strong earth tones?
Walking these hallways seared my retinas.
I'm happy to offer up
my services to redecorate.
Well, maybe your services can be used
to brighten up the drab palettes
over at the Virginia Correctional Center.
Because that's where you're headed for the murder
of William Huxley.
Uh...
Bill's dead?
Yeah, he was killed last night in his garage.
Not long
after you showed up there
threatening to kill him.
See where we're going with this?
Well, I am sorry... to hear about Bill.
Really, I am.
But I couldn't have killed him last night.
I was enjoying some...
companionship with my friend Javier.
Hmm. Hmm.
He's 22.
Good to know.
We will, uh, be sure to follow up with Javier.
So we're done then?
Not even close.
How was a Marine cook
stealing catering clients from you?
Karen's Confectionary
supplies goodies to every neighborhood gathering.
At least it did until Bill got back from overseas
and started a side hustle out of his own kitchen.
Oh, we heard
he was a talented baker.
Oh, I would say he was...
adequate.
But he had that sob story pitch about donating his profits
to some local Afghan group he worked with.
Afghan, huh? Oh, the neighbors--
they ate up his woeful tale of the displaced refugees
fleeing their war-torn homes.
And then they ate up all his goodies
instead of mine.
What did Huxley do with this Afghan group?
They had some community center.
Bill said he would cook meals for them
that would remind them of home.
Seems like a waste of time to me.
Promises Honored is a lifeline
for these poor people.
Can you imagine having to start
from scratch in a new country?
Yeah, I can.
Oh.
Well, I hope you had a community that welcomed you.
That's the whole point of Promises Honored.
It's to keep the promise we made to our Afghan allies
who aided us overseas.
By doing what exactly?
Uh, we help the families find homes,
we assist with their job training,
and we teach them the skills they need
to get by here in America.
Well, it's great that they have the space
to come together like this.
So many had to leave family
and friends behind.
Spending time here
reminds them that...
they're not alone.
Oh, here.
This is our director,
Pastor Eddie Watkins.
Hello there.
And you would be...?
Special Agent Torres
and Special Agent Knight from NCIS.
They have some questions about Bill.
Oh. Uh, Bill is our favorite volunteer.
Is he okay?
He was supposed to bake cookies
with the kids today and he never showed up.
That's not like him.
Unfortunately, Private Huxley
was found murdered earlier today.
What? I-I'm sorry.
Murdered?
Oh, my God.
Bill-Bill was beloved by us.
He spent every spare minute he had here.
His devotion
to the Afghan people he worked alongside was endless.
Bill felt he owed a debt to the families
he couldn't get out of Afghanistan.
I understand that Bill used to cook a lot for the refugees?
That was Bill's specialty.
All the Afghans were impressed
with his mastery of their cuisine.
We are gonna need to see the kitchen.
Yeah.
You smell that?
How could you not?
Asafetida? Yes, oh, yes.
It stinks to high heaven, but the flavor's divine.
All his knives are here. All except the paring knife.
Handle matches the murder weapon.
Who has access to this kitchen?
Um, this is a community kitchen.
Everyone can just walk right in.
Anybody had a problem with Huxley?
No.
Everyone loved Bill.
Everyone? Mateen.
Who is Mateen?
Mateen Jamaah.
He's a young refugee we work with.
He and Bill had a...
strained relationship.
Why? The Taliban executed Mateen's parents
before Bill and his unit could get them out.
Oh, my God.
I saw Mateen and Bill arguing here
yesterday at-at the center.
What about? Well, I couldn't hear.
But it looked heated.
Mateen left and I went over to Bill.
He said it was nothing.
Mateen was supposed to help us sort
through clothing donations last night, but he never showed up.
Guess he had other plans.
Mateen Jamaah arrived on a flight from Kabul
August 20 of 2021.
Promises Honored helped him settle into an apartment,
which we searched, but came up empty.
I've been trying to ping his cell, but it's turned off.
What about his work? He stocked shelves at a grocery store.
Manual labor?
His file says that he was a mechanical engineer
who helped our forces defend against IEDs.
Now he's stocking shelves?
Must have fallen into the credentials gap trap.
A lot of refugees' degrees
aren't recognized here in the States.
What was Mateen's connection to Private Huxley?
Mateen's father worked alongside Huxley for years
as an interpreter.
And, according to Mateen,
the two men practically became brothers.
Huxley helped Mateen flee,
but he didn't get Mateen's parents out
before the Taliban caught them.
And he never forgave him.
His family's gone.
Career's gone.
You don't think he blames Huxley for everything?
Well, we can ask him ourselves.
Mateen's boss says he just came in to work. Go. Take McGee.
Must be tough going from engineer to grocery bagger.
Yeah, I mean, I...
I get why Mateen is bitter, but s-still...
Yeah, and don't take it out on the Marine who helped you out.
Oh, hello.
I am Special Agent Torres.
This is Special Agent McGee from NCIS.
We're looking for Mateen Jamaah.
He'll be back any moment from his break.
Is Mateen in trouble?
No, we just-we just want to talk.
Are, uh, are most of the workers here Afghan refugees?
We were all lucky enough to get out
in the final days before Kabul fell.
And Promises Honored connected you all with the jobs here?
Most of us.
Pastor Eddie knows the family that owns the store.
How are you, uh, finding America so far?
My family and I have our lives.
We're immensely grateful for that.
Well, it doesn't make starting over any easier.
No.
It does not.
Oh, hey, McGee,
you said you need to get those, uh, chocolate chips.
Oh, no, at least 70% dark chocolate.
70% dark. Uh, I got to go grab those. You...
Aisle three. Baking goods.
Thank you. Mm-hmm.
I wasn't a refugee.
But I remember looking over my shoulder,
afraid that someone was coming to send me back.
Where was home for you?
Panama.
And then Colombia,
uh, with my sister and my mom.
My mom worked as a housekeeper
for a man that she found out was evil,
and she saw some
really bad stuff.
I understand.
We left with
whatever we had on our back, and we came to United States.
How old were you? I was 11.
The only English I knew was, uh,
from watching, uh, reruns of American, uh, television.
Ayy!
You... Okay.
So, no Happy Days in Afghanistan.
When did life feel normal again?
Some days, still doesn't.
But this is our home.
Ah, Mateen. There you are.
Hey, Mateen, uh, Special Agent Torres.
Hey, Mateen!
McGee, we got a runner!
You're only making this worse!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, where'd he go? You okay?
I'm fine. Go get him, go get him.
Mateen's gone.
Nick!
Nick, Nick.
Get him on his back, now.
First aid's on aisle five.
Bring me gauze pads, rubbing alcohol and shears.
Medical tape's out of stock, so get me duct tape, aisle seven.
Your friend might be concussed
and is losing blood. I need to stop it then stabilize him.
You're a doctor. A surgeon
back in Afghanistan. Okay.
You will be okay, Agent Torres.
Any update on Nick?
Uh, yes, McGee is with him at the hospital now
and he should be fine,
thanks to the fast work of that doctor in the grocery store.
BOLO's out on Mateen Jamaah.
No hits yet.
I've been running facial recognition
against every camera feed I could find for blocks.
No sign of him.
Well, we have agents sitting in front
of his house in case he comes home.
I had the contents of Mateen's work locker
sent here so we could look for clues
that might help us find him. What are all the stains?
Mass spec's running it now. I should know soon.
Okay, great, uh, let me know when you find out.
Does that say...
Austin Marsden?
Jimmy,
are you cyberstalking the boy who's crushing on Victoria?
No. No.
I was just perusing, and then I needed
Kasie's second opinion on what I...
perused. Uh-huh.
Yeah, and my opinion is
Jimmy's gone mental. Mm.
Okay, I make no apologies.
Austin Marsden is exhibiting some early
serial killer tendencies.
This boy's barely hit puberty.
It's all in the details here.
Uh, take a look at some of these foodie pics that he's posted.
Nothing but rare burgers and steaks.
I mean, that is a scary sign.
A sign that his growing body
is in desperate need of protein?
What? No. Like, no... The-These are basically
mutilated animals. This is how Dahmer and Bundy
and Gacy all got their first tastes.
You are reaching, Jimmy.
Okay, that may be,
but... uh, just to be safe,
I think it's time that Austin and I had a little chat
before the kids meet up.
A little chat?
Yeah, here, at NCIS.
I'll give his whole family a tour. That way,
Austin can see what a capable doctor I am.
And also see all the sharp knives I work with.
Ooh. He has cannonballed into the overprotective deep end.
Neither of you is the father to a daughter.
You can't understand it.
Um...
Just got the results
from Mateen's jacket.
The stains are motor oil.
But Mateen doesn't even own a car.
Maybe he works on them? It's not just oil he's working with.
There were also trace amounts of pentaerythritol tetranitrate,
which is a highly explosive organic compound.
Motor oil and explosives.
In the hands of a mechanical engineer who worked with IEDs.
I don't even want to say what I'm thinking.
It sounds like he's trying to build a car bomb.
Jimmy just gonna say it for you.
You sure you don't need a few days, Agent Torres?
I'm good.
Good, 'cause we need all hands on deck
if we could be facing an imminent attack.
My phone's been ringing off the hook from agencies across town
wondering if a Taliban sympathizer
may have slipped through the cracks on our airlift.
We doubt that Mateen is aligned with the Taliban,
given what happened to his mother and father.
He could be trying to strike back at a country
he feels abandoned him.
A revenge attack
because his parents never made it out.
Then why kill Private Huxley?
If Mateen is building a bomb
and Private Huxley found out about it,
maybe that's why Mateen killed him.
Find Mateen. Now.
Hey. Dr. Rajab.
What are you doing here?
Please, it's Veeda.
And what kind of doctor would I be
if I didn't do a follow-up with my patient?
Right. May I?
Sure.
Whoever stitched you up did an okay job, but...
I could have done better.
Well, maybe you should have escorted me
to the emergency room.
Veeda is the one who came to Nick's aid.
I'm getting that.
Sorry to intrude, but I heard about Bill Huxley.
He was a good man.
Do you really think Mateen did this?
It's just hard to believe that he could do
something so horrible.
He's kind and polite to everyone.
Working two jobs just to make ends meet.
Mateen has a second job?
Back in Kabul, he'd help repair your military vehicles.
So he isn't just a mechanical engineer, he's also a mechanic?
Yes. Doing the same here.
Paid-- what do Americans say--
under the table.
Auto repair shop
would have metalworking tools. And tools
that Mateen would need if he was in fact making...
...something.
We need to find Mateen.
Do you know where he was fixing cars?
I don't. I'm sorry.
And Mateen ditched his phone.
But if he made any previous calls
from an auto shop, would have bounced off the nearest tower.
I'll pull his call logs, see which tower
is near a repair place.
Federal agents!
Drop the drill.
Back away from the bomb.
Put your hands slowly behind your head.
I'm sorry I ran before.
But please just let me explain before they get here.
Who's they?
Gun!
There it is!
What are you doing?!
Shooting at the guys that are shooting at us!
Don't shoot towards the bomb!
Well, if it goes off, it'll kill them.
And us, too.
What the hell's going on?
Who were you building that bomb for?
You must believe me when I say I have no idea.
My only contact
with them was through texts.
But you did what they said. Why?
My fiancée, Asal.
She is in danger.
She is my everything.
The only family I have left.
Is she being held by the men who took the bomb? No.
Asal and I were separated during the airlift.
She's been stuck at a camp in Turkey.
How do you know she's in danger?
I got a text from an unknown number weeks ago.
Photos of Asal at the camp.
She looked so scared.
Whoever sent the photos said I had to build them a bomb
or they would kill her.
How many innocent people will be killed
when they use that bomb?
No one will.
The bomb is harmless. It was filled
with explosive materials found on your jacket.
Yes, but I built it with a fail-safe.
The remote detonator mechanism I inserted doesn't work.
It's a dud?
I would never give them something
that could actually hurt people.
I fled my homeland because of vile men like that.
What were you and Private Huxley
arguing about
before he was murdered?
When the explosives showed up at my apartment,
I went to Bill for help.
After what happened to my parents, he said he owed me.
Promised to reunite me with Asal.
Private Huxley was trying to find out who was behind this
for you?
He told me to stall making the bomb to give him time,
but then the deadline was moved up.
I went to him upset, begged him to hurry.
Then I heard he was killed.
I know his blood is on my hands.
But we were trying to save Asal.
Please,
you have to help her before they discover
the bomb doesn't work.
Mateen didn't kill Huxley.
His alibi checks out. He was working an extra shift
that night at the grocery store.
He's also telling the truth about those unknown texts.
We traced them to a burner phone.
Yeah. A burner that sent him these.
This has got to be his fiancée, Asal.
Metadata on the photos
confirms that they were taken in Turkey.
So Mateen was forced to build that bomb,
but we don't know by who.
Or what they want to use it for.
The people behind this have a long reach to Asal in that camp.
Maybe we can find the connection?
Except they're good at covering their tracks.
I couldn't pull a single print off any of the shell casings
collected at the auto shop.
And no hits yet on the getaway van they were driving.
Wait, what if one of the men that attacked you
at the auto shop killed Huxley
'cause they were getting too close?
If they did, they had access
to Promises Honored.
They took the knife from there.
So we start pulling names.
Every employee, volunteer, visitor.
We find out who killed Huxley
and we find the men who took that bomb.
Damn it!
Nick, everything okay?
I'm running out of suspects.
I just cleared another
Promises Honored volunteer.
You need to take a break.
Why? I know this hits close to home.
You know, people come to this country
because they're desperate.
Yeah, makes 'em vulnerable,
which makes 'em an easy target.
My mom was one of 'em.
Must have pissed you off.
Yeah.
Now I'm pissed off for Mateen.
Just got off the phone with DHS.
It turns out the permanent refugee status
of Mateen's fiancée was approved months ago.
Then why hasn't Asal been transferred
from that Turkish camp?
Because the aid organization that was supposed to
relocate her here has been holding things up.
Promises Honored?
Pastor Eddie's office has yet to approve
Asal's assistance package.
Why? I don't know.
But if our boy Eddie
is somehow mixed up in this mess,
then we need to find him, quick.
Let's roll.
McGee just pinged Eddie's cell phone.
He's here.
That's his car.
Looks like he's sitting in it.
NCIS!
Show me your hands, Eddie!
No weapon.
It's not a suicide. Another guy
in Mateen's circle gets murdered.
Can't be a coincidence.
But doesn't get us any closer
to whoever killed them. No.
But this might.
I wouldn't hold my breath for prints.
Or maybe Kasie gets lucky.
Guess I should have held my breath.
You can thank Kasie later.
Partial print that she pulled from that shell
is a 90% probable match for
this charmer.
Robert Whitlock, 55.
Head of a Maryland-based white nationalist militia
known as Last Liberty.
They're flagged as an extremist
organization by the FBI.
Allegedly connected to multiple
hate crime-related homicides.
And recent intel says that the militia
is seeking out explosives to further their cause.
McGEE: Is it possible
that Whitlock teamed up with Pastor Eddie
to find someone to make the bomb?
Maybe that's why the pastor held up
Asal's transfer. Mateen makes
the bomb for them and then Whitlock kills the pastor?
Tying up any loose ends.
His manifesto is filled with violent threats
to purge America of foreigners and nonbelievers.
Well, setting off a bomb made by a foreigner--
that's one way to start that purge.
Mateen says the bomb's a dud.
Yeah, well, let's not take any chances.
We need to stop these guys now.
Gravity! Use gravity to your advantage!
There you go! There you go! That is right!
Use your elbow! Use your elbow!
Let's go, let's go, let's go. On the ground.
That's it. Up, up, up, up, up!
We are not weak!
Federal agents!
Put your weapons down and your hands in the air!
Cops, cops, cops!
Pull back! Pull back!
Fence,
fence, fence, fence!
Pull back!
Got eyes on the bomb. It's in the van.
We can't return fire with that bomb right there.
You're surrounded, Whitlock! There's no way out!
We're not going down without a fight!
No surrender!
Bomb squad's still clearing the area
to make sure there's no other explosives.
What about Whitlock and his men?
Explosion took 'em all out.
Which doesn't make any sense, given that
Mateen said the bomb wasn't functional.
We need Kasie to find out why that bomb exploded.
I think I may know someone who can help.
We're offering you the chance to redeem yourself, Mateen.
Private Huxley deserves justice.
I will do anything to make this right.
Kasie,
this is
Mateen Jamaah. Ah.
And this is your baby after it went boom.
That's impossible.
Well, half a dozen
dead white nationalists would disagree.
I can spend hours sorting through this myself,
or you can quickly tell me why your fail-safe failed.
Here it is.
The remote detonator receiver.
It's been repaired.
I cut these wires,
but they've been reconnected to the circuit board.
The militia must have figured out
the bomb was deactivated and fixed it.
Okay, and then what--
they just accidentally blew themselves up?
Setting off this bomb
would still require a remote trigger.
And no trigger was taken into evidence from that camp.
Okay, so if the bomb wasn't set off by the militia,
then who did?
Who else knew
about the existence of that bomb?
We recovered Whitlock's burner phone from the campsite.
We pulled the SIM card and saw that he traded plenty of calls
with the Promises Honored Community Center. Yeah, with his partner in crime,
Pastor Eddie.
Well, that's what we thought.
But the phone calls began
when Eddie was on an overseas mission trip.
Well, if Whitlock wasn't talking to Eddie,
then Eddie wasn't his partner.
Eddie was an innocent scapegoat.
Once we were on the real partner's trail,
they got spooked.
Killed Eddie with a bullet that pointed us to Whitlock.
Whitlock and his men were blown to high hell to make
all of this go away.
Scorched earth. Eliminate everyone
so there's nobody left to investigate.
The real partner thought we would believe
the bomb exploding was just an accident.
And thanks to Mateen, now we know it wasn't.
So who was Whitlock talking to at Promises Honored?
NCIS.
It is so kind of you to join us for the remembrance celebration
for Pastor Eddie and Bill.
We can't stay long, Ms. Hipple.
Yeah, and neither can you.
I'm sorry, I don't understand.
Once we started looking for connections
between Promises Honored and the Last Liberty,
didn't take long for us to discover
that you were Robert Whitlock's girlfriend.
Whitlock sent you to this community
to find a fall guy.
And once you found one in Mateen,
you forced him to build that bomb.
I don't know what you're talking about. Case worker
at the Turkish camp where Mateen's fiancée is being held
confessed to being bribed by you to hold up
her transfer. And when Private Huxley
got onto your plan, you murdered him.
It was smart of you to point us toward Mateen as his killer.
Too bad...
we're smarter.
It's you...
and everyone here
that's destroying this once-great nation.
No, it's me and everyone here--
we help make it great.
Here's the deal, Austin.
You're a boy, soon to become a young man,
and with that comes certain responsibilities,
especially regarding
soon-to-become young women.
Ooh.
Okay.
We're done.
That's enough.
How do you feel?
Did you get it all out? Did you-did you just...
Yeah, well, obviously, I'm not gonna do that
with a scalpel in my hand.
Right. But, yeah,
I feel pretty good about it, you know?
Good. Good. Yeah. I think I'm gonna
call Austin's parents
Nope. Okay, no. and set up a tour.
So, listen, uh... You're right.
I will never be the father of a daughter.
So you're not gonna hear it from me.
But I'm hoping you will hear it
from someone who is a father.
Dr. Palmer, let's have a little chat.
Austin and his family will not
be touring NCIS anytime soon.
Director Vance... I talk,
you listen.
From the moment you first cradle your daughter in your arms,
it is your lifelong job to protect her.
Exactly. And that is why I...
Part of that protection
is accepting the natural order of things.
They grow up.
You need to trust
that you have given her all the tools she needs
to start protecting herself.
Yeah.
It's just...
it is scary
trusting that I have actually done my job as a parent.
Director, when it comes to Victoria...
Yeah.
It's understandable. Life has
thrown a whole lot at you these last few years.
But you've been through a lot, too.
I can't imagine
you doing anything this foolish with Kayla.
Oh, every father is tempted.
When, uh, Kayla's prom date came to pick her up,
I debated having him meet me in the kitchen
where I was gonna be cleaning my service pistol.
Well...
Puts my scalpel to shame.
And you know what? All I would have done was embarrass myself.
And I would have embarrassed Kayla
on the night that was supposed to be about her.
Hmm.
We have to let them live their own lives, Doc.
We need to have the kitchen prepped by 12:00
for the children's cooking class. Of course.
We heard that
this place found a new director. Yes,
I was surprised when the Promises Honored board
asked me to fill such an important position.
We're not. It's clear everybody here looks up to you.
You need volunteers? You can put us to work.
We appreciate that.
My, uh, kids baked some cookies to share.
70% dark chocolate chip?
Well, nothing like what Private Huxley
would have whipped up, I'm sure, but I, uh,
I have snuck a few and I can confirm they are very tasty.
I'll be happy to pass them out.
I do have plenty of probation hours to work off.
Thank you for arranging things
so I could serve them with my community.
We're also here to share some news about Asal.
She boarded a plane about an hour ago.
She should be here with you by the morning.
Thank you.
Come. Come with me to visit my friends.
Is your head healing, Agent Torres?
It's Nick.
And, um, it's healing just fine, because of you.
I'm sorry.
For everything you've all suffered.
Thank you.
Especially because you know what it's like
to leave everything behind.
Hardly. Um...
My journey to get here was...
It was different. But you still experienced loss.
You felt pain for those left behind.
It helps to remind myself that those who can't be with us,
they want us to move forward.
Building new lives is how we honor the sacrifice
of everyone who got us here.
Well, I've had to, uh, build many new lives before.
And how is this one going?
Best one yet.
Then cherish those who helped you build it.
You are always welcome in this home...
...Nick.
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