Continuing this week is the fourth season of the hit
drama series following a team of special agents

who investigate Navy and Marine Corps-related
crimes. In this episode, an explosion at a military
mausoleum uncovers a crypt full of body parts.
Meanwhile, the other members of the team worry
about Abby, who is not her normal self.
As the funeral of a 22-year-old veteran is taking
place at a military cemetery, the air is suddenly
rocked by a huge explosion in the mausoleum.
Two employees are sent to hospital with
concussion and shrapnel wounds, and the NCIS
team arrives on scene to find out what happened.
The agents enter the mausoleum to be greeted
with a spectacularly unpleasant sight: skulls and
decomposing body parts are everywhere. There
is no trace of any kind of bomb, but Ducky thinks
he knows what caused the blast – gases given off
by the decaying bodies in a confined space. “The
bodies were the bomb,” says Gibbs.
Back in the autopsy room, Ducky and Palmer
are faced with the grisly task of piecing together
the fragmented corpses. Initially assuming that
the two pelvises they find mean that two bodies
were involved, the duo are forced to reasess when
they discover three right hands: “We’re going to
need a bigger table,” they say in unison.
Using one of the few intact fingerprints, Tony
manages to identify one of the bodies: Marilyn
Torrance, a 58-year-old woman whose relatives
had not reported her missing. While the team
waits for her family to come in, Ducky has a grim
announcement for Gibbs: not only were these
bodies dismembered, but there are pieces
missing. Further investigation also reveals that the
remains that are present were drained of blood
and wrapped in paper – and that they come from
at least five people. It seems that Gibbs and his
team are dealing with the work of a serial killer.
While Ziva begins informing the various next of
kin, Tony talks to a woman whose grandfather is
buried at the mausoleum – believing that there
might be more body parts concealed in his crypt.
The woman, Natalie Dalton, is not keen on letting
the agents disturb her grandfather’s resting place,
so Tony informs her that they will get a warrant to
do so. Is Natalie hiding something, or is she merely
anxious to let her grandfather rest in peace?
The team must now find out what – or who –
connects the victims. Ducky informs them that the
cause of death was different in each case, but what
happened next was the same: the bodies were
hung up, drained of blood and butchered. “The
only thing that brought these people together,”
says Tony, “is how they were taken apart.”
However, a connection between the victims
emerges in the form of a man who recently visited
the mausoleum. Not only is Len Grady’s mother,
Gloria, one of the victims, he also worked for
another of them: Marilyn Torrance. But when the
team heads over to Grady’s house to bring him in
for questioning, they discover that somebody
else is involved...
Also this week, the other team members are
concerned to notice that Abby has been acting
very strangely – arguing about insignificant
things, swapping her trademark platform boots
for boring flat shoes and snapping at anyone
unwise enough to approach her. Can Gibbs get
to the bottom of what is bothering her?