NCIS: Sydney Season 3 Episode 1: Gut Instinct

If you want our actual thoughts about the hour, then definitely check out our NCIS: Sydney Season 3 Episode 1 Review. But outside of that, let’s get into the scene-by-scene recap of the episode!

A fishing boat is in the path of a naval boat on the seas, sending people into a tailspin trying to figure it out. The navy boards the boat and finds what may appear to be some immigrant civilians, but also US Navy Flyboys, which throws everyone off.

We open to Mackey in her therapist’s office. She’s undergoing more testing to see if she’s fit to go back to work. She hasn’t been cleared yet after Darwin. Mackey is giving the therapist some pushback, and he gets under her skin.

He tells her that if she keeps going on without dealing with something long enough, the past will still haunt her. She tries to be dismissive of everything because she’s a Marine and can handle it.

But she’s having flashbacks to losing Entienne and other things, so it’s visibly affecting her still.

At the station, Evie has issues with the guy who is there to improve their security. Doc is also having issues with Trigger, helping them with security. They don’t like him because he’s not Blue, and we learn that Blue has resigned.

Evie is also perturbed because JD is now on the same dating app as her. He claims he’s trying to get back out there, but DeShawn makes fun of how dated his profile looks and that he’s clearly lost his touch.

The team gets the call, and JD and Mackey go to speak with the Navy sailors they found on the boat. JD and Mackey have an awkward conversation where he pushes to see how her therapy is going, and she commends him for the dating app stuff.

They speak to the Fly team members, and they talk about how they were basically ambushed and kidnapped, but their entire experience is a blur. They don’t remember anything, so the people who ambushed them clearly drugged them.

Mackey gets a call that there was a missing plane that went off the path, and JD thinks that the Fly team must be connected to that. But Mackey says that their plane went missing five or six years ago! Their presumed timeline went from six weeks ago to six years ago.

Mackey’s boss wants to make heroes out of these men, but she still thinks things are way off about their sudden reappearance all this time later.

Rosie evaluates the soldiers. He tries to give some advice to the one who seems to be struggling.

Mackey is frustrated because Blue’s temp replacement has a skillset she can’t use and a blacked-out file.

Rosie talks about how their memories haven’t returned, but the one soldier’s physical scars are evidence that he’s been through hell. Mackey is still skeptical about these soldiers being the ones who went missing so long ago.

They have fresh buzz cuts; it seems like they kept up with some of their appearance. They still had their kits, and then Evie figured out that the freighter boat was tracking the fisher boat. And it seemed like more than a coincidence that the freighter and fishing boat crossed paths.

When Mackey and JD interview the one soldier, the one who keeps claiming he has a pregnant wife, but he cannot remember her.

JD tries to go easy on Paul, the soldier. Because he doesn’t want to traumatize him too much. But Mackey throws him in the deep end. She gives him a phone that allows video calls to his wife.

He’s excited to see her and curious about their baby, and his wife slowly brings his five-year-old daughter into frame. It’s a lot for Paul to process — that he’s been away for six years. Just when it seems like it’s become too much for him, Paul seems to behave like he’s been activated; he checks out, shakes Mackey’s hand repeatedly, and keeps thanking her and saying it’s been an honor.

It’s creepy how he keeps doing it, like he’s no longer himself, as he smiles and repeats the same gesture over and over again.

JD pulls Mackey outside, and they argue. He doesn’t feel like Mackey made the right call with having the wife tell Paul about the six-year time jump. JD calls her out for being reckless and saying that a doctor should’ve handled that.

Mackey believes her experience as a Marine gives her a deeper understanding of the situation, yet she still suspects Paul is withholding information.

She stands firm on this and says that she has to go with her gut, but JD throws up in her face that her gut didn’t get her very far in Darwin. The admission clearly is jarring for both of them, but Doc interrupts them, so they head back inside.

Doc tells them that there’s something hinky about the fever Paul has and the infection. It’s bigger than what he can deal with.

Back in his office, Doc watches the video from Blue where she resigns. He misses her. Paul overhears and wonders if that’s his kid, and Doc says, “More or less.”

JD gives Paul a hamburger and talks with him. He jokes about this guy’s wife sleeping with tons of guys in that time. But it gets Paul to laugh. But JD really tries to reassure him. Paul doesn’t seem to remember the freakout he had.

JD tells the others that Paul just displayed prospective amnesia, not just retroactive, since he didn’t recall the freakout. And Evie and DeShawn get a new lead on a frieghter that may be the terrorists behind all of this.

JD and Mackey board the freighter with DeShawn and Evie. They search for dog tags, signs of inhabitation for a while, and things to make a bomb.

Mackey and JD end up in a shootout with people on the freighter, and DeShawn warns them about the explosion just as it explodes, knocking Mackey back.

There were Filipino extremists, suicide bombers. The belief is that they came because the American ambassador wants to make Paul and the other soldier show ponies.

But they find another toothbrush on the freighter, indicating that there is at least one terrorist still on the loose.

Mackey and Doc clash because Doc still wants to send Paul to a medical facility for his fever, since he cannot keep it down.

But Mackey knows that once he gets to the hospital, they’ll just treat his symptoms, not try to figure out what’s really wrong with him, and he’ll become a showdog for the military and America without having ever known what happened to him and why, and she feels he deserves better than that.

Trigger finds out that the explosives have the signature of Harry Salazar, a violent Filipino terrorist who has a history of kidnapping Western civilians. Salazar entered the country last nigh,t and they have a lead on him.

The team heads to where his cab was taking him. It’s an apartment building, and his apartment has more signs of wrongdoing even though he’s not there.

Trigger/Travis tries to befriend Doc, but Doc isn’t thrilled with his presence. But Travis figures out that certain frequencies can trigger reactions, and when he was checking for bugs, that’s likely what caused Paul’s freakout.

Doc has to send Paul to the hospital. Paul has a bomb inside of him that’s causing his infection and fever.

Mackey also pieces together from her boss that it’s the ambassador who is the target because of her last posting in Manila.

And they figure out that the other soldier, Daniel, likely has a bomb inside of him, too, that’ll be set to go off at the public event for the soldier.

Doc and Travis decide to remove the bomb despite the risks.

No one listens to Mackey about trying to shut things down because they are too focused on “the show must go on.” So they have to figure out how to do it themselves and locate Salazar.

The anthem and other frequencies trigger Daniel as he’s shaking the ambassador’s hand, and JD has to get to him onstage and shut things down. Meanwhile, Mackey locates Salazar in the crowd, and after some hesitation and at JD’s urging, she finally shoots him before he can detonate the bomb.

Doc and Travis successfully get the bomb out of Paul, and his family shows up there in time to reunite with him.

Mackey and JD apologize to each other: he for doubting her gut instinct, and she for still doubting hers, as she wasn’t completely right about everything.

Evie and DeShawn are making fun of JD’s profile. Mackey finally takes a look, and it’s apparently as bad as they say. She asks if she can tweak it and does. She tells him that he’s a catch. When she’s done, he finally starts getting more alerts, so what she did was effective.

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