The fifth season of the police procedural drama NCIS premiered on September 25, 2007, and marks the end of Donald P. Bellisario's involvement as show runner.

It concludes the La Grenouille storyline which ended with a cliffhanger in season four's finale, "Angel of Death".

Ducky is angered when one of his research cadavers is revealed to have been a murder victim and was mistakenly tagged as a "John Doe" and donated to science.

They discover the man's murderer, an elusive individual known simply as "the Eraser", has ties with major terrorists organizations around Africa, Europe, and the U.S. With no face to ID "the Eraser", NCIS and the FBI join forces to find the suspect and Tony goes undercover with one of Fornell's rookie agents.

While unconscious, Gibbs has a vision that he is visited by his dead wife and daughter and is reassured that everything is fine.