Someone on the writing team for the seventh episode of NCIS Sydney must have said something pertaining to the idea of breathlessness, which is why the episode not only has ‘breathlessness’ in the plot quite literally but also has no real resting points to give us a ‘breather’. One of the best episodes of the season so far, it reunited the NCIS Team with one offender that they had not been able to catch previously. The episode begins by showing us a dead body, which is a normal thing for the show to do, but later it does something very unusual, showing us the officers in their party’s best avatars. The girls, Mackey, Evie, and Blue, get to attend an interesting event while DeShawn and Jim go solve the case. But everything is interconnected. It turns out that the boys will have to save the girls, and the girls will have to help them locate where the event is being held. A thrilling ride begins, and Dr. Roy Penrose chips in to help solve the case.
Spoilers Ahead
Where was the team invited?
The location of the event was not known to anyone. Jim, Mackey, DeShawn, and Evie had gotten invitations from a high-tech company known as GaiaMetric. They were doing something revolutionary in the field of satellite-free location, which would render the GPS redundant. NCIS had a special task to be present at the event, as it was important for the Department of Defense. Jim and DeShawn seemed ready, waiting for Evie and Mackey to arrive. Blue was interested in going as well, but only the field agents were invited, and apart from that, there were only four medals. Evie and Mackey arrived looking absolutely stunning, and they were ready to leave when the news of a dead body having been discovered in a hotel room reached them. Roy Penrose was on the scene, and he found out that the body was that of Naval Officer Howie Sutcliffe. The case had to be investigated by NCIS and AFP, but as someone had to be at the GaiaMetric event as well, Mackey ordered DeShawn and Jim to look at the case, while she and Evie took Blue with her as she was excited to go. Now, she had a medal, and there was no problem except that they were walking towards imminent death.
Why were they blindfolded?
GaiaMetric was working in absolute secrecy, it seemed. What they had achieved was monumental, and they were worried that their technology was going to be stolen. They were certain that their invention was faultless, but a jammer was enough to thwart their proceedings. But as they were sure of their technology, they had the audacity to place in a whole play of blindfolding all the guests from the location where they were all picked up. It was all part of the show, as they had a point to prove. Mackey, Evie, and Blue found themselves in a bunker with a timer running, signifying the amount of time they had before the oxygen ran out. The palace was sealed, and Mackey initially didn’t believe that the timer was real, but after seeing GaiaMetric’s trick not working, she got worried. They were using Earth’s magnetic core to operate mobile phones and send signals, which would also help in setting up a new positioning system. There was a receiver kept above the bunker, and as there was no satellite reception down in the bunker, the only way out of the bunker was if the GaiaMetric employee could use the technology to send a signal to the receiver above. She couldn’t, which meant that if help didn’t come down in two hours, everybody would asphyxiate.
How did Mackey contact Jim?
There was no reception below, and the phones were useless. They could only be used to record final messages or wills and testaments. There were 50 people apart from the NCIS team down there, including a pregnant woman named Monica Rowe. Mackey, Evie, and Blue weren’t going to sit idle. They searched everyone, thinking that they’d find someone deliberately sabotaging the event. It was highly unlikely that someone hated GaiaMetric enough to put themselves in harm’s way and die a painful death because of it, but for Mackey, everything was a possibility. Blue told her about a jammer that could have been used to disrupt the signal, and only a person with an escape plan would do that. The trio searched everybody and found that GaiaMetrics’ biggest rival was also present at the event. He had nothing on him. They then looked around the place, which looked like a World War II bunker with flour bags kept in a room. They found one of those old phones that worked using a copper wire, and Mackey had the chance to contact Jim. As she didn’t know where she was exactly, she told her about her journey, sharing every minute detail. Blue added that she had heard the roar of a lion on her way to the place. Meanwhile, Jim and DeShawn figured that Sutcliffe was also to be present at the event, but he was killed, and his invitation medal was stolen. Whoever killed him was at the event with a jammer.
Did Mackey survive?
Only Lauren Fox, GaiaMetrics’ event planner, knew exactly where the event was being held, and even she too had been murdered. Roy Penrose found a strange adhesive that could help solve the case, but he needed time, which he didn’t have. Mackey and the rest were suffocating, and their pulse was dropping. Jim and DeShawn were trying to figure out the location, and depending on what Mackey and Blue told them, they figured it could be a bunker named HMAS Watson. They were mistaken. Given that time was running out, they gained access to a chopper to avoid traffic and reached the only other bunker where Mackey and others were nearing their deaths. They got in and saved the day. But there was the question of the killer. Mackey already knew who she was. Evie told her that everybody’s pulse had dropped, but Mackey, who was constantly taking care of Monica Rowe, noticed that her pulse had not dropped. She had hidden an oxygen cylinder in the toilet and wasn’t even pregnant. She had attached a fake belly to her body, and in it, she had taped the jammer. The adhesive found at Lauren Fox’s place was used to apply wigs, and she was wearing one. Everything about her was fake, and she was wearing a disguise so as to conceal herself from NCIS. Mackey figured she was Xena, aka ‘Monroe’ (MONica ROwE) who was involved in the killing of Officer Flynn (from Episode 1). She had escaped from Mackey’s grip, but finally, NCIS had nabbed her.
