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"Switch" is the 5 episode in the 3 season of the drama television series NCIS.

Plot

Petty Officer Jerry Smith is driving down a highway, talking to his wife on his cell phone. She is asking him about plans for their 6-month anniversary, which he does not seem to care very much about. Suddenly, Smith is shot through the neck, and his car veers off the road and down a hill.

Back at the NCIS office, McGee is worried over some unauthorized purchases made under his name, and he wonders if his identity has been stolen. Ziva walks in late because she took the wrong bus, which does not please Gibbs. In the elevator, Gibbs sternly tells Ziva that she answers to him, not the director.

At the scene, McGee and DiNozzo cautiously make their way down the hill to Smith's crashed car. Jimmy Palmer is not so cautious and tumbles down the hill, spraining his ankle. Ziva is assigned to interview Smith's wife, Wendy, even though Ziva says she is not good with women. Wendy is upset that the last thing she did was call her husband a bastard, which she cannot take back. She cries on Ziva's shoulder, and Ziva awkwardly pats her on the back.

Gibbs visits Smith's workplace and speaks with his commanding officer, Commander Robert Morris. Morris says that Smith cannot possibly be dead because he is currently there at work. The team first thinks that the man who died in the crash must have been an imposter, but after checking fingerprints, they find that the dead officer is indeed P.O. Jerry Smith, and the man working with Morris is P.O. John Kirby, some of whose past assignments coincided with Smith's.

Upon questioning, Kirby admits that he and Smith switched places because Smith slept with a high-ranked officer's wife. This would not have been a problem, but Smith's upcoming assignment was under that officer, who happens to be Commander Morris. While this seems like motive for murder, Morris says that he was at work at the time of Smith's shooting, and security video confirms his alibi.

Meanwhile, Abby finds strange emails in Kirby's account. Ziva recognizes the simple messages of a location and time as being indicative of a drop of some sort. McGee disguises himself as Kirby and goes to the meeting spot specified for that day's drop. A woman approaches him with a suitcase and further instructions, but when the real Kirby shows up, Kirby and the woman take off running. The woman gets away, but Kirby is arrested, and McGee is able to hold onto the suitcase. Kirby says that he does not know what is in the suitcases - he just does this delivery job for the money and has been told to never open the suitcases. The team considers the possibility that Smith's murder is connected to Kirby's shady delivery job.

However, it is discovered that Wendy Smith was not actually in her home when she was talking to her husband over the phone during the shooting - her home calls had been transferred to her cell phone. When she is confronted with this information, she confesses and says angrily that her husband even cheated on her on their wedding day.

• NCIS episodes