The episode is written by George Schenck and Frank Cardea and directed by Dennis Smith, and was seen by 18.33 million viewers.
Gibbs manages to contact Keith and tells him his plan is doomed to fail, as the carrier has scrambled fighters and its anti-air defenses have locked onto him.
Keith turns the plane away, but since he is holding a dead man switch and has nothing left to live for, remarks that it's too late before he commits suicide by detonating the bomb, destroying the aircraft and killing himself in the process.
Agent Strickland, Mike Franks' last partner, temporarily joins the team while she is waiting to retire in two weeks.
[2] Glasberg wanted the episode to "give people an NCIS that is the reason they tune in and have some fun and some lightness and have a really good prime story and an investigation".
[2] About how the rest of the team are going to react on the empty desk, Glasberg said "We’re really trying to approach this as realistically and organically as possible, and it’s going to take time for our characters to move on".
[2] On August 7, 2013, it was announced that Roma Maffia was cast as NCIS special agent Vera Strickland.
[5] A younger version of Strickland appears as a main character in the 2024 prequel series NCIS: Origins, played by Diany Rodriguez.