['NCIS' - 'Baltimore']

If you didn't mind the heavy-duty dark brown hair dye on Michael Weatherly's head for tonight's 'NCIS' (and I didn't), then this was the kind of episode that made you smile.

There was a good balance between what was happening now, the port-to-port serial killer case, and what came before. Specifically, what came before was Tony's time as a Baltimore P.D. detective.

This wasn't just a random flashback story, fortunately. The present was very much about the past when the latest victim of the killer was Tony's ex-partner, Danny.

But while all the clues suggested that this was the PTP killer, it wasn't. And just when the team tracked down the most likely suspect who might be a copycat killer, it turned out to be a dead end.

What made the plot even more intriguing was the way they flipped back and forth from today to yesterday, with mysteries in both time periods. A case of money laundering had brought a Navy cop into Tony's life, one Leroy Jethro Gibbs. And not just Gibbs like we know him now, but Gibbs as an undercover operative. Like Tony noted, it was very 'Donnie Brasco.'



It was telling that despite the immediate distaste for each other since they were infringing on one another's turf, Gibbs quickly surmised that DiNozzo had talent. In his Gibbsian way, he didn't see it in Danny because it wasn't there. No, he saw past Tony's 'Beverly Hillbillies' joke, his too-too casual street clothes (including tube socks), and the flippant manner, to peg Tony as 'good.'

Later he'd tell Tony about his rule on the subject, "You don't waste good." Ironically in the same scene, Gibbs said he didn't have a lot of rules. Yeah, right! At last count, there were over a hundred rules in the Gibbs code of life.

In addition to the rules, there was also the introduction of the head slap. It's nice to know that Tony wasn't always such a good sport about Gibbs whacking him on the back of the head. Somewhere between that initial smack and all the rest, it became a sign of affection from Gibbs to DiNozzo. You couldn't really expect Gibbs to kiss Tony on the head like he does Abby, could you?

DiNozzo did a good deal of detecting in both the present and the past, discovering that Danny had been a dirty cop. And when he realized that the copycat killer had to have been someone in law enforcement, it all pointed back to his ex-boss in Baltimore.

Something tells me that Tony will not be looking fondly at the Mighty Mouse stapler in the future. By the way, it was also a clever touch to see how they filmed the Baltimore squad room like a scene out of 'NYPD Blue,' even with a bit of hand held camera work.

As far as the PTP killer goes, 'NCIS' left us hanging. Abby and Ducky found a crucial bit of evidence that pointed to the only possible person in the place who could have wanted them to know they were chasing a copycat -- that is, the real killer.

Who he or she is, however, was left until next week. Judging by the previews, a cataclysmic turn of events in Jethro's life is about to unfold. Can't wait to see what happens ... and hoping that nobody in the team gets killed.

'NCIS' airs Tuesdays at 8PM ET on CBS.