In the opening scene, a father and son discover a man in a petty officer's uniform dead in a lake while fishing. Back at the NCIS squad room, Tony, McGee, and Ziva are sifting through a box of old undercover gear that is being thrown out to make more room for supplies. They reminisce about past cases, including one involving Ziva having to wear a prosthetic pregnant belly. The team is called to the scene at the lake and quickly learns that the victim is not Navy personnel. Rather, he is a "government paparazzo" named Tyler Wilkes, a disgraced reporter who had lost credibility after distributing digitally altered photographs in the previous year. It is also found that, at the time of his death, Wilkes had been undercover working a story on alleged drug use in the Navy. The team narrows down four suspects who all confess to the murder, evidently believing that doing so will confuse the investigators and, in turn, clear them. Instead, Gibbs arrests each of them and puts them in separate holding cells. Ducky, on examining the body, realizes that the death was most likely an accident as the deceased had
mono and died from internal bleeding due to a split in his liver. However, the perpetrator still attempted to hide the killing. At the end of the day, Ziva leaves to find her father Eli is waiting for her at her car in the parking lot. He insists that he is in town to make amends with his daughter and that his intentions are honorable. Despite being suspicious, she cautiously accepts his efforts, though also informs Gibbs immediately, who tells Vance. The latter notes that Eli may be nearing retirement but fears that the presence of Iranian ambassador Arash Kazmi, with whom he had a possibly volatile history, will complicate the situation. Ziva and Eli begin to repair their relationship, spending time together at a coffee shop and looking through photographs. Eli expresses particular interest in a picture of a "pregnant" Ziva, which had accidentally been mixed into the photo stack, asking if it was a boy or a girl. She at first deflects, reminding him that she was only undercover, but quickly admits that she would tell people that the baby was a girl when asked. Eli proceeds to discuss the possibility of retiring in the near future and asks that his visit "be the first step to [his] redemption." Gibbs and Vance's fears of trouble with Kazmi and Eli are abated when they learn that the two are in fact negotiating a peace agreement. They arrange a meeting to explain that Kazmi and Eli had lived on opposite sides of the same stretch of the
Green Line between Israel and Palestine, and that he and Eli had grown up knowing each other through the olive harvest. They request Vance's help with proceeding, who arranges for Eli and Ziva to come to his house for dinner. Soon after, Ziva discovers that her father had accidentally killed Wilkes when the latter took pictures of him arriving at the airport. Eli had struggled with the reporter over the camera, causing his enlarged liver to burst. She confronts Eli shortly afterwards, who admits that he had covered Wilkes' death to prevent word from getting out that he was in Washington D.C., which would ruin the peace arrangements. Ziva is nonetheless furious and disheartened by this, but agrees to sit across from her father at the dinner table one last time. Vance's wife Jackie prepares a Shabbat meal, and Eli tries to lighten the tension by saying the blessing and expressing thanks for "life, freedom, and family". However, Ziva is unable to continue and goes outside to call Gibbs and reveal the truth that Eli killed Wilkes. Then, an unknown assailant shoots up Vance's house. Ziva pursues the shooter, wounding him, and is joined by Gibbs, who rushes to the scene after hearing the gunshots. The shooter is cornered but commits suicide before he can talk with a
cyanide cigarette. Tony and McGee hurry to the site of the shootout and tend to the victims. However, Ziva returns to the house to find that Eli has been killed and breaks down sobbing, cradling his head and praying in Hebrew. Jackie is critically wounded and rushed to the hospital. After several hours in surgery, Vance emerges from the operating room and quietly states that his wife is dead, which has Gibbs devastated. ==Production==