In NCIS: Sydney episode 4, "Ghosted," the team is on the hunt for a killer after US Petty Officer Baker fell through a glass window and onto fence stakes at a haunted site in Sydney. He also had gunshots in his chest. Let's dive into how the NCIS team solved this with our episode 4 recap.
Missing fingerprints
When Dr. Penrose (William McInnes) got the body on his table, he found the bottom of his feet were green from grass stains. Meanwhile, Gleeson (Mavournee Hazel) examined the gun shell casings and found they had fingerprints on them from Petty Officer Frank Doherty (Linal Haft). However, he hasn't been seen since 1971 and was deemed a deserter. Without any leads on Doherty, the team focused on the victim.
Mackey (Olivia Swann) and Dempsey (Todd Lasance) headed to the HMAS Watson Naval Base to check out his living quarters. A business card from Armen Standish (Josh McConville), a curator at the Navy Heritage Museum, led them there. Standish recognized Baker and said he had come to the research facility a few times for medal authentication. He was also able to identify that an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) was written on the back of the business card. They looked it up and found it was a newspaper article on Doherty from July 1971 about how he was a Vietnam hero who earned the Navy Cross for bravery in battle and how he jumped ship. That could explain the Navy Cross Mackey and Dempsey found in the victim's room. The working theory was Baker was trading medals. But did Doherty kill Baker?
A 50-year hideout
Jackson (Sean Sagar) tracked down Doherty's file from 1971 and found photos and a love letter signed by "M." One of the articles in his file showed Doherty with a woman, so Gleeson aged her photo, put it through facial recognition and discovered she is Mei Koo (Meme Thorne) and lives in Sydney.
Jackson and Cooper (Tuuli Narkler) arrived at her house and told her they were investigating Baker's murder, then asked about her photo with Doherty. She said Doherty skipped town with her heart and she hadn't seen him since 1971. Jackson called Koo out for acting strange when he brought up the officer's death. She said she heard about it on the news and it caught her attention because "something about Eddie Baker reminded me of Frank." The thing was Baker's name hadn't been released to the public yet, so Jackson and Cooper drew their weapons and demanded Koo step aside. They quickly moved into the house and found Doherty in a bedroom closet gripping a hammer.
Back at the NCIS headquarters, Mackey and Dempsey told Doherty they found his fingerprints at the scene and believed he killed Baker. In not so many words, Doherty admitted it. He didn't want to get into details, but said he was robbing Baker for cash, then there was a struggle and Baker got shot. It would be wild odds for Doherty to just so happen to rob the person who had his Navy Cross in his drawer, though. Doherty admitted Baker threatened to expose him for going AWOL if he didn't pay him. It was supposed to be a one-time thing, but Baker kept asking for more, so Doherty shot him. However, gunshot residue results came back negative. Plus, he had shaky hands just trying to lift a cup of coffee to his mouth.
Extortion from a mystery man
Dr. Penrose provided more insight into Baker's final hours, as he found that his last meal was turkey pot pie and stout. He was able to narrow down the exact type of beer, which only one pub in the area serves, as well as turkey pot pie, and it's close to the crime scene. An employee recognized Baker and a patreon also saw him, saying he was with an older American man. He confirmed a picture of Doherty, saying he saw the two eating and drinking together. The night of the murder, he saw Doherty and a different man walk into the building where the crime happened.
Based on Doherty's bank records, they showed he was consistently taking out $5,000, assumed to be what he was paying Baker. However, there still wasn't evidence confirming he was the shooter, aside from his word. Another medal found in Baker's room belonged to Gulf War hero named Schwartz. Phone records proved Baker had contacted Schwartz's brother saying he found the medal and wanted to return it at no cost. So Baker wasn't trading medals, he was repatriating them.
Back at Koo and Doherty's home, Jackson told her the kind of grass on the bottom of Baker's feet matched the kind on her lawn. Was the guy mowing their lawn also extorting money from them? No. Baker bought Doherty's medal online and was trying to get it back to him. Doherty didn't want it back, though, as it reminded him of his old life, but Koo said Baker kept visiting because he had lost his dad to war and he probably had a sense of comfort near Doherty. Koo said Doherty never told her who was really extorting them.
A traumatic bond
Doherty refused to say who was extorting him and Koo because the person was threatening a lot worse than extortion. Dempsey strategically left Mackey alone in the interrogation room with Doherty, as they had both served. She turned off the intercom so the other agents couldn't hear and she was able to connect with Doherty about her own traumatic experiences in war. He confided in her he went AWOL because killing people in Vietnam changed him, but Koo brought him back to life.
Continuing on, Doherty detailed what really happened the night of Baker's murder. When he and Baker were out for a drink, Baker noticed something was off and asked what was wrong. Doherty "foolishly" told him about the extortion, so Baker wanted to help. Doherty tried to leave him in the bar, but Baker followed. Although Doherty had the man who was extorting him right in front of him, he couldn't pull the trigger, so the extorter grabbed for the pistol and they struggled for it. That's when Baker came in and tried to take the gun, but the extorter killed him.
Now for the number one question: who killed Baker? Doherty still refused to tell in an effort to protect Koo.
A murderer revealed
Mackey brought Doherty in to see Baker's body to say goodbye. She asked why he let him mow his lawn barefoot, as it's dangerous. Doherty broke down in tears and said he hadn't been able to feel grass under his toes in months, due to his position. It came out that Doherty had thrown away his bravery medal, because he couldn't stand the guilt, but Koo took it out of the trash without him knowing and bequeathed it to the Navy Heritage Museum, where Mackey and Dempsey had gone to at the beginning of the episode. It was clear now: the extorter and Baker's killer was the museum’s curator, Armen Standish.
The team stormed the museum, but Standish wasn't there. Meanwhile, Gleeson got a ping on Koo's financials; she just made another cash withdrawal for $40,000. The agents headed to the scene of Baker's death, where they believed the final handoff was happening. They walked in on Koo holding Standish at gunpoint. They were able to convince her to put the gun down.
Thanks to Jackson's research, a loophole would allow Doherty and Koo to finally get married, something they weren't able to do for 50 years because it could expose him. In some cases, marriage can be considered an extenuating circumstance when it comes to extradition. The two got married and had a small reception, where Doherty saluted Mackey.
New episodes of NCIS: Sydney air live on Tuesdays on CBS and stream on Paramount Plus.
