NCIS Season 7 Episode 5 "Code of Conduct"

The old adage is true-no one likes a comedian. It's especially true on this week's Halloween, when the murder victim is a notorious prankster. A bunch of kids in masks who are up to no good and starting to make trouble in the neighborhood on "Mischief Night" (All Hallows Eve's Eve) discover the body in the Marine's driveway a hose attached to the car's exhaust pipe, the body stiff as a board. Marine Lance Corporal James Korby has just returned from his third stay in Afghanistan, but a gallery of suspects includes the Scrooge of a neighbor who doesn't like Halloween, the Marine's superior officer, and Agen DiNozzo's personal favorite, the wife.

The cause of death is some freaky-deaky stuff: liquid nitrogen (someone call expert gastronomist Richard Blaze, stat!) was filled into the car, freezing the body from the inside out. That is NOT the way I'd want to go, that's for sure. However, that's not the only possible Cause of Death, as Ducky discovers during the autopsy that there were traces of paint thinner in the dead Marine's stomach. Someone was trying to poison him before someone actually killed him!

As usual, Agent DiNozzo suspects the wife-and he is unrelenting in his pursuit, even when it seems that there is no evidence whatsoever to substantiate that theory. Late in the episode, it appears that DiNozzo could actually be correct when a near-affair is exposed between the wife and another Marine in her late husband's unit, DiNozzo's theory could come around. DiNozzo gleefully goes after the muscular Hulk of a soldier in interrogation (their tete-a-tete foreshadowed in earlier scenes), but the wife admits she never went through with the affair. It can't be that easy, Tony, there's always a twist.

Mr. Rogers from the neighborhood didn't like that Korby was such a practical joker, as did his entire unit serving in Afghanistan. They thought he was a danger because of his penchant for not taking things seriously in a dangerous environment. They give him a "Code Red" to teach him a lesson, which went silently condoned by their squad leader Sergeant Barnes (sadly no A Few Good Men reference from DiNozzo even though this scene was just beginning for another of those awesome Nicholson impersonations). Unfortunately, the lack of authoritarian leadership stemming from this incident led to the unit falling apart and Barnes lost his promotion. He poisoned the guy with a drop of paint thinner to get him back home, but not to kill him. AHA-!-motive and a pattern of previous criminal intent. However, he wasn't the one who did it, as it turns out he has an alibi.

No, the killer, as it usually turns out with police procedurals is the one least likely-the wife's step daughter from a previous marriage. She was adopted by Lance Corporal Korby's third husband, but didn't like their home life. She wanted the money she was owed from her trust as a result of her biological father's death and like Veruca Salt, she wanted it now!

NCIS returns to its stand-alone procedural episodes after ending its first major story arch of the season, but NCIS fans are treated to plenty of the trademark character touches that make the show so entertaining. After four weeks of "Is she or is she not on the team" consternation, Ziva David's troubles are over and she is an official NCIS agent. Ziva's newfound "Probie" status gets touched on multiple times in this episode. It takes Ziva only about half an episode to get upset at DiNozzo calling her the "P" word. This leads to a defense of her seniority from outside of the men's bathroom (this time she does not follow Tony inside) for her and McGee, only for Gibbs to walk out and call her "Probie" anyway. No use fighting it Ziva, this is going to continue for quite some time.

Lest the newer viewers think Agent Tony DiNozzo is too much of a jerk, we also see his more sensitive and human side. Michael Weatherly nails the scene where DiNozzo learns that the wife's second husband died serving in Afghanistan. He expresses sadness and dismay in his body language. While DiNozzo acts like a jerk early on when gloating about his chances of winning the Baltimore PD's annual Halloween "Larceny Lottery" (think "guess how many beans in the can" except replace "beans" with "misdemeanors"), when he actually wins the game, we learn that he gave all of the money way to a Youth League charity.

This is the first episode of the new season with any major screen time for Jimmy Palmer, wonderfully resuming his penchant for ill-timing jokes around Ducky and Gibbs, but also providing some key help for Abby in exploring evidence.

Mark Harmon as Special Agent Gibbs also steals the whole show with his present to his crew-giving them all coffee cups. But ah, since its Halloween, there isn't coffee inside but rather delicious hot apple cider. Team Gibbs is somewhat taken aback and yet pleasantly surprised at the "treat" from their boss, but the trick is they get all of about two seconds to enjoy it before Gibbs declares "break over" and wants them back on the case. Later on, Gibbs gets in perhaps the best use of an oxymoron ever when McGee is waiting for information and he tells him to "wait faster". Ah, impatient Gibbs, how true to form.

Gibbs also plays the straight-man (as he usually does) with Abby in the lab. This time he is surrounded by dozens of motion activated animated Halloween props-what the dead Marine loved to work on in his garage (not as creepy or strange as say, a boat in a basement that somehow manages to disappear at will). This of course, leads to an episode-ending punch line, as Abby (likely using the bag of tricks from the dead guy) rigs McGee's keyboard to bubble up in rising foam.

The last phoof though, is one worthy of treasuring forever, as Ziva gets her "revenge" on DiNozzo for his constant "Probie" needling, spiking Tony's coffee and putting quite the "blue streak" on his teeth. It reminded me of that one episode of Nickelodeon's Salute Your Shorts series when the kids turned Counselor "Ugh" Lee's face blue. "My face is blue! TIOLET BOWL BLUE!"

DiNozzo would feel his pain.