Its the second Christmas episode in a row where we get a lump-in-the-throat look at his familys past.
After unwisely accepting bottled water from the driver, he ends up dead in a trash-strewn vacant lot.
NCIS learns that Green was under investigation for selling classified information overseas.
Credit: Sonja Flemming/CBS
I mean, do you have a rule that says never trust a man who doesnt trust his women?
Then she quirks a brow and drops Rule 51: Sometimes youre wrong.
I could not love Quinn more.
Young Ducky, clad in a spiffy turtleneck, has brought a date to his mothers house.
Although the new owners are out of town, the gardener, Mr. Rin, is there.
He worked for the Mallards, then stayed on when the house sold.
It also shows Mr. Rin bolting as soon as McGee and Quinn leave the property.
Duckys visiting Angus Clarke, his childhood frenemy-turned-hotel magnate/magnificent ponytailhaver.
Is he just standing there mutely, staring into the middle distance?
And is this alarming to the good people of NCIS?)
Hooray for being consistent!
Angus sweeps Victoria away to sample liquor elsewhere in his hotel while Ducky threatens Balthazar over the dessert course.
Balthazar fesses up but tells Ducky that its different this time.
Victoria was a mark at first, but he fell in love.
In the present, the teams located the man who drove Green to the old Mallard house.
Hes a private investigator Green hired to look into Balthazar, although the PI doesnt know why.
He found a personal ad that Victoria took out six years ago, looking for her long-lost love.
It led them to the house, which was a dead end.
(And also to compliment Ducky on his skin care regimen.)
Even thieves fall in love, he says.
It wasnt our decision to make.
Final flashback: Victoria melts down over Balthazars abandonment.
For the first time in my life, I was truly happy.
And I know he was, too, she weeps.
Guilty, Ducky asks her to move to America and live with him.
Where they mix bacon with syrup?
Have you lost your mind?
But in the end, of course, she moved with him.
And Duckys about to learn another piece of her past.
Bubbles made me swear to never ever say anything to Donnie, he says.
I wouldve done anything for her, Mr. Rin says.
Never trust a man with a goatee that bushy!
The fake non-Uber/Lyft driver was the buyer, and he killed Green when he started to investigate.
Except for Ducky, who spends the next day poring over his mothers diary.
Its the best Christmas present I could possibly have.
And then Mr. Rin himself enters the morgue and asks Ducky to call him Takumi.
Yet again, Adam Campbell kills it as young Ducky.
Thats … a weird Christmas trend.
Before we bid farewell toNCISfor its long winter nap, lets check in on one Tobias Fornell.
Hes still living on Gibbs couch, and Emily is fed up.
But Fornells in no hurry to leave, so she appeals to Gibbs.
Gibbs says hes tried to get his unwanted guest out of his house to no avail.
Emily asks for permission to do whatever it takes to evict him, and Gibbs gives his blessing.
So what ultimately works?
When Gibbs basement boat is infested with termites, and his house has to be tented.
But what ho, whos that ringing the doorbell?
Its Gibbs, whos temporarily homeless thanks to some creepy crawlies chewing on his wood.
Summer camps back on, boys!
Stray shots
