'NCIS' Season 12 Spoilers and Recap: Episode 10 'House Rules' Details
On Tuesday's episode of "NCIS," the team consults with three cyber-terrorists they imprisoned after a citywide Internet shutdown the week before Christmas, while McGee reflects on the case and Gibbs' infamous rules as he writes a heartfelt letter to his sick father.
"House Rules" begins McGee writing a letter to his father using his trusty typewriter. He has a strained relationship with his father, who is undergoing treatment for cancer. He decides to write about a case from last week because it reminded him of their relationship and Gibbs' rules.
The scene jumps back to the previous week with a cyber-attack that shuts down the city's Internet. All the team members were called in, but no one knows how to deal with the crisis, except for McGee. In order to find the agenda behind the attack, the team consults with three cyber-terrorists they imprisoned. Kevin Hussein, Heidi Partridge and Anjay Khan were all needed so a few calls were placed and the three are released into NCIS custody.
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It turns out that the three know about Krampus, the signature attached to the attack. The team finds it odd that the city itself and everyday citizens' computers were affected, but government offices remained operational. The three refuse to help without a computer or MTAC access. Then Tony gets a call from Gibbs and he says that the Internet is back on. McGee runs a test and finds out that the server is still under attack. He refers to Gibbs' rule number 36: "If you feel like you're being played, you probably are", and number 40 "If you think someone is out to get you, they are."
Krampus is targeting Congressional emails, which amuses the three convicts. While McGee doesn't want them near a computer, Gibbs invokes rule #5, "Don't waste good."
Later, McGee gets a text that a body was found at the server farm and that it's being brought in. McGee confides to Abby that surgery is his father's only option and he has it scheduled for this week.
The team finds out that Heidi got Krampus in touch with some of her web contacts, and that his real name is Douglas VonDorothy. The team meets with the hackers again and shows them VonDorothy's file. Kevin is upset because VonDorothy has a history of hacking young girls' phones and getting embarrassing photos which he uses to blackmail them. They arrest VonDorothy after Heidi gives them the information where to find him.
In his letter, McGee tells his father that he learned a lot from Gibbs' rules, and that the rules are there to prevent problems but also to protect you because other people on the team will be there to save you. There's a touching montage of clips from the past, including one of Tony freeing Gibbs from a submerged car.
Gibbs tells McGee to go see his father. At the end of the episode, McGee is reading the letter, and sitting in the room with his father's casket. McGee tucks the letter into the casket and thanks his father.
"NCIS" will be back with new episodes in January 2015 on CBS.
