'NCIS': Mike Franks returns with a couple of dead bodies

I love Gibbs-centric episodes of "NCIS," it may be due to my unabashed love of "Summer School" or "The Presidio," but whatever the reason, I love them. Why was this a Gibbs episode? Well, because one of the boats from his basement, the Kelly, showed up with a few dead bodies in it in San Diego harbor.

While Gibbs was unquestionably not responsible for the murders -- he had given the boat to his god-daughter -- the boat showing up with dead bodies still didn't make for an easy night for him. The boat being with his god-daughter, and therefore Mike Franks (Gibbs' old mentor/partner), gave him a pretty good idea of where to start his investigation and a basic theory -- Mike Franks killed the dead guys (both ex-military and part of a PMC.)

It was a good theory made all the better when Franks admitted to the killings as soon as he showed. Of course, Franks admitting it right off the bat meant that he didn't do it. Why then, did Franks make sure that Gibbs caught the case? Did Franks not think that Gibbs was a good enough investigator to figure out the truth? Or did he just think that he would get a fair trial from Gibbs? I have to assume the latter.

Now, while Franks and Gibbs may be cut from similar (but not the same) cloth, Merton Bell (the head of the PMC) was a wholly different sort. I wouldn't call him more of the liquid metal variety, but he was certainly cold. He figured that his guys weren't going to be finding Leyla and Ameera for nice reasons, and certainly didn't seem to care exactly which way they approached their "extraction." I definitely believed Franks when he said the PMCs showed up with guns drawn, even if Franks lied about doing all the shooting himself... or doing the shooting of the guys first.

Leyla firing first -- the story Franks told Shada Shakrji -- definitely had the ring of truth. Plus, Bell sending even more guys to try and finish the abduction certainly aided Franks' case. Too bad for Bell that Ziva and Tony actually knew one of the guys (Damon Werth) Bell sent (he was in an episode back in season five).

I wonder if that'll be the last we'll see of Bell. I know that he got sent down to Mexico to deal with the Federales, but that doesn't mean that he's going to stay gone, and he does seem like a good character.

It was Abby who had the right notion about the whole thing tonight -- yes, the murders were important, but the big question really was the one of how Gibbs gets the boats out of his basement. That's always been one of my huge questions. Abby had to take the boat apart with a chainsaw -- no zipper or dowels and rods. Plus, the idea of some of the wall being removable didn't seem to pan out. Thereby crushing two prominent theories (though I'm sure you will all let me know the hundreds of other theories that have come to the fore).

So, what then was the answer on the boat question? To answer that, let me ask you this -- what do you get when you cross an elephant and a rhino?

Abby came up empty this week, the thread was dropped in its entirety. I can't decide whether I liked that or not. It's nice to have some mystery about Gibbs, but that's one of those things that I think should be revealed eventually. Maybe now is not "eventually," but I really do want to believe that the producers have figured out exactly how the boats get out of the basement. Don't you?

Quick bits of Tony tonight:

• "Dr. Strangelove," yeah, that's the same as the Constitution.
• "I'm a white male between the ages of 18 and 49 with a loud mouth and a gun. I am the American Dream." I think Tony's great, I don't want him to change, but that's not my version of the dream.

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