A man left a gym stumbling, sweating and with a bloody nose, was chased by two other men before he collapsed on a bus, dying of a cocaine overdose. Since he was wearing a USS Pascal jacket, NCIS team got the case in NCIS: Sydney episode 6.
Cooper's past resurfaces
The USS Pascal had recently made port, but they had no record of the victim. Blue (Mavournee Hazel) discovered he overdosed on cocaine through his skin. His jacket had been impregnated with cocaine and when it got wet with warm, salty water (his sweat), it went through his skin.
At her desk, Cooper (Tuuli Narkler) slipped a man's wallet into her drawer and locked it. As Jackson (Sean Sagar) reviewed footage from the bus, Cooper seemed uneasy, said she didn't feel well and went home. That's when Jackson saw the footage of Cooper slipping the wallet out of the victim's pocket.
At her home, Cooper walked out of her bathroom to be greeted with a gun to her head and the same men seen on the bus video. With the victim dead, they wanted to know if Cooper still "cooked," knowing her from when she was undercover with the Drug Squad. Jackson pulled up to Cooper's place to bring her chicken soup, but saw Cooper being taken away by the men. Jackson recognized one of them from the bus footage and followed them.
Meanwhile, Blue cracked John Doe's phone and found almost nothing on it, like it was scrubbed. She did, however, find a photo taken six minutes before he died. There was a barrel of chemicals in the front and two men blurred in the background.
The two men brought Cooper to the gym to meet their boss. Jackson walked in acting like he was looking to join the gym. The guys got annoyed with his inquiries and were about to pull a gun when Cooper punched Jackson in the face, to protect him. Jackson got out of there and the boss pulled up. Cooper was given a list of ingredients to acquire to cook the cocaine.
Identifying the John Doe
Back at headquarters, Jackson kept quiet about what he saw but broke into Cooper's drawer where he found John Doe's license, identifying him as Dylan Brooks. Meanwhile, Mackey (Olivia Swann) and Dempsey (Todd Lasance) worked on finding how the victim got a USS Pascal jacket. Boxes were missing from a merchandise shipment, meaning they were filled with drugs just like the victim's jacket. Dr. Penrose (William McInnes) tracked a rod in the victim's femur and found out his name — different from the one Jackson saw on his ID. So Jackson told them what he knew.
Cooper was picking up supplies when Dempsey, Mackey and Jackson secretly pulled her aside and demanded to know what was going on. She explained the guys were part of the cartel and their chemist, El Maestro, was due to arrive. She was the victim's replacement and she couldn't walk away or someone else would die.
Detective Sergeant Daniel Skelton (Matt Nable), who was with the Drug Squad Cooper had previously been part of, greeted the team back at the headquarters. The victim was undercover for the Drug Squad, which is why his ID didn't match his real name.
Blue found the truck that removed the merchandise boxes from the USS Pascal and that one of its stops was at an out of business building. When the team checked it out, they discovered the guy who had smuggled in the jackets was dead. Dr. Penrose found a long hair on him.
Another undercover cop
Cooper soon found out one of the other cartel members, Mason (Dustin Clare), was actually undercover, too. He and Cooper have a romantic past, and an almost kiss showed it might not be totally over.
Meanwhile, Blue figured out the picture on the victim's phone wasn't about the two men in the background, but the barrel filled with chemicals. Similar chemical-filled barrels were used to torch other buildings that could be linked to the cartel. Hot on the trail, Blue also got a DNA match on the hair found on the victim in the warehouse. It belonged to Mason. It appeared he killed the warehouse victim.
Meeting El Maestro
Cooper, getting ready to cook in the lab, discreetly texted her team her location and they headed her way. Since El Maestro's identity was super secret, they had no idea what he looked like. So Dempsey walked into the lab pretending to be him.
Blue called Jackson and Mackey and told them the barrel in the photo had been taken into police evidence six months prior, meaning a police officer must have signed it out. Jackson and Mackey headed inside the lab. The cartel boss started to get suspicious of Dempsey's identity and pulled a gun on him. Cooper knocked out the boss and Demsey and Mason both pulled their weapons. Jackson came into the lab and declared Mason was dirty and killed the warehouse victim. Mason denied it.
Meanwhile, Mackey found Skelton, the Drug Squad detective who had shown up at the NCIS headquarters earlier. He claimed he had people on the inside for this case and pointed out the hallway had barrels of chemicals that could torch the place. He encouraged Mackey to get out. Just then, Blue called and found that it was Skelton who signed out the barrels.
Mackey and Skelton agreed pulling the trigger on their weapons would result in the whole place blowing up from the chemical-filled barrels. As they put their guns down, Skelton swung at Mackey, but she dodged it. The two fought, both landing punches and kicks against one another. Skelton pulled out a knife, but Mackey gained control and whipped leaking chemical fluid in his face.
Copper was caught in the middle of believing Jackson and believing Mason. But Mackey ran into the lab to tell her team that Skelton had doused the place and it could blow from a single spark. All parties put down their guns and began running out, but another member of the cartel pulled his gun out to stop them. Skelton ran to stop him from pulling the trigger, but was too late. The gun went off and a fiery scene followed the team and Mason down the hallway. With a dramatic jump to safety, the NCIS team and Mason were safe, but the whole building went up in flames.
The real El Maestro pulled up to the lab and was caught.
New episodes of NCIS: Sydney air live on Tuesdays on CBS and stream on Paramount Plus.
