NCIS: Los Angeles

Your product, gentlemen.

I'll test it. Give me a minute, boss.

You're the expert.

I can use the time to count the money.

Two million.

In full.

It's real.

So is this.

Binetex. Small mass,

very big bang.

We are done here.

It was supposed to be 50 pounds.

Where's the rest of it?

You can keep the car.

It's in the trunk.

Let's go!

Put the case down.

Let me guess,

your man checked the car.

Put the money down

and be thankful we're letting you

walk away.

Cover me!

== sync, corrected by elderman == @elder_man

You enjoying that?

Oh, you mean my smoothie?

Funny you should mention it, 'cause I really feel

like I'm missing something.

He's just upset because I finished his protein powder.

You put it on your ice cream. You left it

at my house. I didn't think you'd mind.

I wrote my name on the lid. Who writes their name

on things they then leave at their girlfriend's house?

Do you still write your name on your underwear?

I need to mark my territory.

Poor choice of words.

Yeah. The bottom line is

you're just really bad with personal boundaries.

Oh.

Something funny?

You two having a discussion

about boundaries?

Isn't that a little ironic?

Iron... Explain that. Most people

bring their work lives home.

You guys bring your home lives to work.

Boundaries

get blurry. Deeks and I

keep our work lives and personal lives very separate.

I have a rule about that. Really?

Yeah. What about that little...

display of affection last week

on Lincoln at the stop light? Ha!

Didn't know you guys were behind us.

And...

the fight over who gets the side of the bed

- that's closest to the bathroom. - Oh,

or Deeks telling us how Kensi likes to hang-dry

her underwea# in the living room.

Deeks, you hang-dry your underwear.

Yeah. In the bathroom,

where things are supposed to hang-dry.

And there it is.

Boundaries obliterated.

More stuff I can never un-hear.

Granger and Hetty... Request

our presence up in Ops, perhaps?

Uh, actually, want to talk to Sam.

Alone.

What's going on?

Take a look, Agent Hanna.

ATF retrieved this

surveillance video from last night.

All good.

That's Mark. Yes,

it is.

Mark Ruiz was working

as an undercover asset for ATF.

He infiltrated a militia group

started by Gary Madison. Madison was trying

to buy a large amount of a new experimental explosive

called Binetex.

Ruiz mounted the camera

inside the grill of the car to record the buy.

ATF said that case contains the money.

$2 million. Did ATF

I.D. the sellers?

The leader is a man named Ramon Santos,

but they can't find any background on him.

And here's the rest of the video we recovered.

Looks like the deal

went south.

There's the sellers leaving.

Now watch this.

Can you think of any reason

why your ex-partner would want to kill

Madison and his men?

No, but that doesn't mean there isn't one.

The trouble is Ruiz

hasn't checked in with his ATF handlers in weeks.

ATF has asked for our help in finding him.

Given he is

a former NCIS agent.

His behavior

is erratic, at best.

Criminal, at worst.

You think Mark is dirty?

I know you've personally invested a lot in him, Sam.

But when he left NCIS, it was

because of his drug problem.

Mark has been clean going on ten years.

Have you seen him

recently?

Not in a while but I know the man.

Yes, well, we all thought

we knew the man.

You want to be involved? Or are you too close to this?

I'll bring the team up to speed.

Whoa. Wasn't expecting that.

Do we know who this guy is?

Man on the screen is a freelance

ATF asset. His name is

Mark Ruiz.

He was my first partner

before I met Callen.

We worked together for a year.

I'm sorry. Rewind for a second.

You had a partner at NCIS before Callen?

I did a lot of things before I met Callen.

Ruiz was working deep cover

for a group trying to buy Binetex.

Military-grade explosives.

Supposed to be under lock and key.

None turned up missing,

which means someone must have figured out the recipe.

Why did Ruiz leave NCIS?

Personal reasons.

You think he detonated the bomb?

ATF thinks he may have turned,

maybe for his own financial gain.

Maybe he lost his edge, got frustrated,

killed the militia guys.

ATF got it wrong.

My former partner is not dirty, and he's not a murderer.

I'm just saying people change, Sam,

especially when they're in deep cover.

- Deeks... - If we're gonna

work this case,

we need to understand what's going on.

The debris from the blast didn't damage all of the footage.

I found more.

Looks like Ruiz went back into the building.

Yeah. And that's

the buyer's case.

Last man standing

walks away with the money.

You good? I'm fine.

Want to tell me why you're sending Kensi and Deeks

to the crime scene when you are the explosives expert?

Kensi's learned a lot. She pays attention.

She asks good questions. She's got this.

You want to tell me where we're going?

It's complicated.

“Mathlete trigonometry” complicated

or “let's not tell my partner” complicated?

You getting in the car?

Why didn't you tell the team

the whole story back there?

Because a lot of baggage comes with the word “addict.”

And you don't think there's any chance

he could've relapsed again?

Hey.

If Ruiz is dirty,

you gonna be able to put the cuffs on him?

What do you think?

Yikes.

Looks like a war zone.

This is the blast crater.

Detonation happened right here.

Look at how this wall buckled.

It would have to be a super high detonation velocity

to cause this kind

of damage. Very high brisance.

Yeah, well, I usually like my brisance

with a little bit of jelly in a café with Pepé Le Pew.

Oh, you mean the other kind of brisance?

The shattering capability of a high explosive.

Like Binetex.

Exactly like Binetex, actually.

What's going on with you?

I just don't understand why Sam would protect some guy

that may have killed three people.

I don't. I do.

Because they were partners. And to be

completely honest, I would do the same thing for you.

Not if I murdered someone.

I mean, if you did it for the right reasons, yeah.

Yeah, I think I would.

Boundaries.

Right. We're-we're... I'll be...