NCIS recap: Bovine tranquilizer leads to a bigger conspiracy

Anybody have liquid bovine tranquilizer on your NCIS bingo card this season? If so, tonight was your night!

The case of the week is a parking garage "death zone" littered with bodies — but upon closer inspection, everybody's still alive. (I feel like somebody should've checked their pulses way before NCIS arrived.)

Kasie's (Diona Reasonover) tests show that they were gassed with a fast-acting, short-lived aerosolized version of injectable cow sedatives. It's an impressive scientific feat, and it leaves everyone wondering if the injury-free incident was a terrorist test run.

At the hospital, we meet the victims, including the steely Navy Capt. Boggs; an unhoused veteran who's grateful to have three hots and a cot; a mustachioed wife guy; and a young woman named Dorothy (Julianne Collins), who complains about her broken cell phone and offhandedly mentions a white van driving off just before the attack. It's all so studiously casual that she immediately becomes my prime suspect.

But it's a contractor who complains that his cell phone and keys were stolen who provides the first real clue. He's an aquarium and water-feature tech who does in-home service to Richie Riches in the D.C. area, including U.S. Sen. Constance Miller (Brigid Brannagh).

Not terrorism, then! The plan was to knock out the contractor, copy his key to Miller's place, and return it before he noticed it was gone. Instead, the bad guy accidentally gassed everyone in the vicinity.

This knock-out approach matches the M.O. of Philip Legrand, who's wanted for robbing high-end homes across the country. Notable: the victims report sleeping straight through the incidents.

When Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) and Knight (Katrina Law) arrive at the senator's house — there's a fountain, so yay for continuity! — they find the live-in maid sedated on the floor. The thief is still there, and it is, of course, Dorothy.

She's Legrand's daughter and explains that she and her dad, a former high school chemistry teacher who was not at all inspired by Walter White, have been traveling the country in their camper van. But they live by a code and only rob people who can afford the losses and only take enough to fund their life on the road, making sure no one ever gets hurt.

Dorothy came back to the camper the other day to find her dad missing and a demand from the kidnapper: steal a hard drive from the senator's house, or her dad gets served a meal from Los Pollos Hermanos, if you know what I mean.

Sonja Flemming/CBS Katrina Law as NCIS Special Agent Jessica Knight

McGee (Sean Murray) and his repair kit get Dorothy's phone up and running, and her text history confirms her story. Meanwhile, Miller invites the agents into her home to investigate.

At first, she seems as suspicious as Dorothy. For one thing, everyone knows you can't trust a TV senator. And for another thing, Brigid Brannagh is a recognizable actress, which often means "bad guy" in NCIS-land.

Anyway, her hard drive is full of personal photos, none of which seem worth stealing, but she copies the contents for NCIS anyway. Then she gently hits on Parker (Gary Cole), which makes my trust levels increase by 40 percent.

Knight, meanwhile, gets bad news from Japan. Her father, who works for the NCIS Far East Office, had a bike accident. At first, his diagnosis was just a nasty compound fracture, but his condition unexpectedly worsened, and he was rushed into surgery.

Palmer (Brian Dietzen) beelines straight to Jess's side to comfort her as she makes plans to hop a plane to Japan, knowing full well that she might not make it in time.

Her emotions are still high when she and Torres suggest that Dorothy deliver the hard drive so they can nab the kidnapper at the drop-off. When Dorothy asks why they're working to save a pair of thieves, Knight says her father has a code too: help those in need every chance you get.

Knight ultimately decides to cancel the trip to Japan so she can help apprehend the kidnapper. Yeah, I don't know about that. There are three other NCIS agents there to do that work. Go be with your family, Jess.

But she's on hand when Dorothy heads to the abandoned office complex she and her dad use as a safe house to wait for further instructions. She picks up a note on the table and frantically asks the team to join her inside. Instead of making her read the note out loud first, they all come charging in.

First, they notice that the kidnapper stuck a surveillance camera in the ceiling. Then they notice the canisters of gas, and one by one they drop.

Yep, the note said, "Get rid of NCIS," and Dorothy lured them inside while she was safe behind a gas mask. Satisfied, the kidnapper sends her to Rock Creek Park, where she finds her bloody father slumped against a tree.

The kidnapper reveals himself to be the wife guy from the parking garage. He pulls out his gun and prepares to go back on his promise to let the Legrands go, which is such sad social commentary. It's like you can't even trust a criminal to keep his word anymore.

Ah, but Dorothy was a step ahead of him and alerted NCIS about the note, arranging to "gas" them with compressed air. They take wife-guy, whose name is Nate Billings, into custody.

Then along come the Russians. The embassy files extradition papers, and Billings is headed for the State Department, leaving behind the mystery of what he wanted with Miller's hard drive. (Meanwhile, she leaves behind her card in case Parker wants to get pastries with her sometime. Yes, girl. Er, ma'am.)

Kasie more than earns her paycheck again when she spots some familiar faces in Miller's photos: Delilah's former TA Evelyn Shaw, and John and Renee Watts, who were involved in Parker's identity getting stolen.

Yep, all of them were Russian sleeper spies, and all of them were active volunteers on Miller's reelection campaign. Looks like we've got an ongoing mystery to solve.

As for Knight, her dad's out of surgery, and she's waiting for a call to hear how he did.

Palmer gets the news first, having told the hospital in Japan that he's Jess's dad's primary care physician. Toxic dirt spores got into his wound during the accident and caused an infection. It's rare, but he's going to be fine.

I still think Knight oughta get on a plane to Japan, though.

Stray shots

• Exciting to have a running storyline this season! Let's get some The Americans Russian sleeper agent action up in here.

• Gotta love the team going gaga waiting for bald eagle eggs to hatch. And as always, Torres knows what's up: "It's like science. If you stop watching, something bad could happen."

• Show of hands: who's blowing off the takedown and getting on that plane to visit dad? And who's staying to see the case through?

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