NCIS - One Book, Two Covers - Review: “Undercover”

NCIS - One Book, Two Covers - Review: “Undercover”

14.21 - “One Book, Two Covers”
Directed by Terrence O’Hara
Written by David J. North
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount

“One Book, Two Covers” opens with a moving truck pulling off to the side of the road. Someone frantically opens up the back gate and lets a motorcycle driver ride into the truck. He gets back into the truck just in time to duck from the police. He opens up the back window and tells the motorcycle driver, “Cutting it a little close, bro! Are you trying to get us busted?” To which the motorcycle driver replies with a gunshot to the head and another in the driver’s chest.

Back at HQ, Bishop is giving Torres a hard time about not responding to Bishop’s evite to her painting party. Torres isn’t interested unless, “someone is posing nude.”

Gibbs interrupts and tells them to, “Gear up, we have a dead Marine in Maryland.” Also, Gibbs doesn’t know what an evite is, ha ha!

Quinn and McGee are already at the crime scene. Quinn reports that the Marine Campbell is stationed out of Norfolk, VA.

Campbell’s body was found in the mud, not the moving van. Jimmy deduces that the body was dragged from the side of the road to the grass the body was found in.

Torres found two sets of tracks, one belonging to a dirt bike and the other to a small truck. Gibbs nails it and tells the team that the bike was loaded on to the truck. Bishop adds that there was a bank robbery nearby that was committed yesterday. The thief got away on a dirt bike. Torres says he needs to look at the footage, he has a hunch.

The robber “knows the system” and avoided bills with dye packs. He escaped on a yellow dirt bike. Uh oh! That isn’t just any dirt bike! Torres points out that the thief is riding HIS dirt bike!

Back at HQ, Torres has a picture of him and the “Rosewood Boys,” a dirt bike, bank robbing crew. Torres was undercover for over a year. He shares that that the crew brought in a lot military men to do their dirty work. Torres got one of the riders, Royce Layton, to rat out Monroe, the crew’s leader. Royce is in witness protection and could be tricky to talk to, but Gibbs doesn’t care. He wants to talk to Royce and the sooner the better!

Gibbs and Bishop head to prison to visit Monroe. Gibbs wants Torres to get a lead on his old bike.

Jimmy has found something on Campbell’s body. Ducky takes a look at a sample, which looks like mud, under the microscope. He deduces that they need to bring it to the lab. I have a feeling Abby is going to figure out what that substance is and help solve the case, what you about?

Over in prison, Bishop and Gibbs talk to Monroe, who acts surprised that the Rosewood Boys are back up and running. Monroe says that he didn’t kill his crew. Bishop and Gibbs press him harder, until he admits that he heard rumors about the crew getting back together. Monroe ends the conversation with a threat to Torres. Uh oh!

Torres goes to see Vance. He tells him about the case and says, “He should not be forced to sit on the sidelines.” Vance tells him too bad so sad. He is to follow Gibbs’ orders and deal with it. He tells Torres a nice story about a basketball player who sat on the bench and the major impact he made on his team. Torres isn’t having it. He has notes from his time under deep cover. He’s going home to get his notes.

Quinn visits Campbell’s superior. She admits that she had to write him up a few times over the past few months. She says that lately he seemed withdrawn and she was suspicious that he was on drugs, but never caught him with any. She adds that he had a girlfriend, maybe she knows what Campbell was acting differently.

Torres heads home. Uh oh. The yellow dirt bike is in his garage! YIKES!

Torres pulls his gun and heads into his garage. OH NO! There’s an explosion and Torres is thrown to the ground. Looks like the crew is on to him!

Torres and Abby are in the lab and looking at his bike. The dirt bike was packed with gun powder. Abby tells Torres that the explosion was set off by a cell phone. Abby wants Torres to be careful. He tells her that if the crew wanted him dead, he would be dead. They want him alive and he needs to find out why A.S.A.P.!

Torres is showing Bishop his notes. He hasn’t found anything yet.

Bishop is trying to find the connection between Campbell and the Rosewood Boys. Gibbs says the connection is Torres.

Quinn reports that she tracked down Campbell’s girlfriend. She’s coming in to talk to them about her deceased boyfriend. Reagan, Campbell’s girlfriend, says that the Kyle “she chooses to remember” was a really good guy. But, six months ago, “he started to change.” Per his girlfriend, “He became obsessed with fantasy baseball, gambled, and went into debt “really bad.” She says that Kyle wouldn’t tell her where he got the money, but she knew it had something to do with his new friends, “the Rosewood Boys.” Kyle told her he wanted to pay off his debts and then he’d be done, but he never stopped gambling. Reagan tells Gibbs and Bishop that the crew gave him a second cell phone and that they were really careful about exposing their identities to others. Reagan admits that she “put a GPS tracker on his car.” She thought he was cheating on her. Reagan says that she found out he was going to “Miller’s Motocross” which is a popular racetrack for dirt bikes.

Gibbs, McGee, and Quinn head to the motocross track. McGee is nervous. Quinn loves it! Gibbs spots the gang because of a painted rose with thorns on one of the bikes. They ask them about Campbell’s death. One of the Rosewood Boys is acting up, the crew’s leader isn’t having it. Gibbs grabs a picture with the leader.

They show Torres the picture Gibbs took with the crew’s leader, Marcel Alonzo. Torres doesn’t recognize him. McGee is working on getting a visit with the WITSEC. While the team is planning, Torres grabs his notes and sneaks off before anyone notices.

UH OH! Torres didn’t tell the truth! He DID have Marcel Alonzo in his Rosewood Boy notes. He gets out of his car and knocks on the door of a nondescript house, which appears to be in the middle of nowhere. Interesting! Royce answers the door! The same man who is in witness protection, the same man McGee is struggling to find! How did Torres find him?

Royce states that Torres was supposed to come visit him, but hasn’t seen him for five years. Torres said it was too dangerous. Royce admits his house is his own “cell block.” Royce says that he had to take down family when he turned on the Rosewood Boys and testified against him. He is living a simple life now with a pottery wheel to help pass the time.

Torres tells Royce about Alonzo being the new boss. He asks Royce for help. Ooh! Royce says that he did bad things and ended up in WITSEC, while Torres, who also did bad things still gets to “play cop.” Royce asks Torres what NCIS would do if they found out what he really did! OOH! WHAT DID HE DO? That struck a nerve with Torres.

Gibbs, Bishop, and Quinn visit Abby in the lab. She has a major lead! Abby was able to find the burn phone that was used to explode Gibb’s bike. She also figured out that the phone call that blew the bike was made from Alonzo’s address.

Gibbs, Torres, and Bishop head to Alonzo’s house. They break in through the front door and check the house for Alonzo. Uh oh! They find him, dead in bed with another man, both have been shot to death. Torres gets a call from a blocked number. Someone with a distorted voice tells Torres that Alonzo ordered the hit on Campbell. They tell him he has the killer and now it’s time to stop investigating, or they’ll tell NCIS what Torres has been hiding this whole time. Yikes! What has he been hiding? What will Torres do?

Jimmy and Ducky are in the morgue, looking at all three bodies. All of the men were killed with a “double tap” technique. Alonzo and his friend were killed while they were sleeping or resting in bed. The strange substance that was found on Campbell’s body was also found on Alonzo and his boots. That ties the two cases together, if the substance is the same. Abby hasn’t identified the substance yet.

Gibbs hits the emergency button in the elevator as he and Torres are riding up. Gibbs knows that Torres is hiding something. Torres admits that he planted evidence to get Monroe off the street. He didn’t want any of his other friends to get hurt or killed. Torres said that he “had to do it” and that he “didn’t have a choice.” Gibbs tells Torres, “We have a lot more in common than you think!”

Bishop and Torres head down to the lab. Abby has identified the mud. OH MY GOSH! It’s pottery clay! Bishop asks, “You have any theories, Torres?” but before she can even finish the question, he’s left the lab! Oh my gosh! His friend Royce is the murderer! What is he going to do?

Torres makes a call to Royce. He tells him, “Don’t do something we’re both going to regret! What do you want?”

Torres heads over to Royce’s house. I hope Gibbs and the team is there too, hiding somewhere in the background!

Torres has a black bag in his hand. Royce wants to know if all 200k is there, Torres says that it’s all there. I bet Torres is wearing a wire. Royce believes that the money came from Alonzo’s safe. He says that Alonzo wasn’t happy with the Rosewood Boy’s leadership and that’s why he killed him. Royce admits that he had Campbell killed because his gambling habit was an issue.

Royce wants to check the money. He admits to Torres that he recorded him the night he admitted to planting the evidence on Monroe. He says he’ll give him the money for the audio recording. As Royce is checking the money, Torres says, “There’s something else in there for you.” Ha ha! It’s a pair of handcuffs! Royce threatens to give the feds the audiotape. Torres could care less! Gibbs and the crew are outside. Torres tells Royce, “You’re out of moves.”

Royce isn’t having it. He attacks Torres with a pot and hits him over the head with it. Royce takes off on his dirt bike with Gibbs and Quinn in tow. I bet Gibbs nails him with his car, the same car he pointed out earlier to the Rosewood Boy crew as being more comfortable then a dirt bike.

Oh man! Gibbs and Quinn had to stop due to a fallen tree, but that isn’t stopping Torres, who’s chasing after Royce on another dirt bike! Whoa! They are tearing it up, but it looks like they are mostly riding on trails. Why are those there? Did Royce ride around there regularly? Torres knocks Royce off his bike, holds up the handcuffs, and says, “You forgot these!”

Back at HQ, Gibbs tells Torres that he listened to the tape. He says, “I didn’t understand a word. There was a lot of mumbling.” Gibbs tells Torres that there wasn’t a way to identify his voice in the tape. Torres wants to make sure Abby checked everything. Gibbs says that he’s the only one that listened to the tape. He tells Torres, “You did the wrong thing for the right reasons. Never do that again.” He sends Torres home, with the understanding that he has his back, no matter what and that they are a lot more alike than Torres could have ever imagined!

*******
My Thoughts:

Strong episode with some great action shots!

I really liked digging into Torres’ background. I wonder if Monroe, the Rosewood Boys’ imprisoned leader will come for Torres at some point in the future? What do you think?

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