Directed by Bethany Rooney
Written by Christopher J Waild
Beastmaster
The murder of a Marine in Rock Creek Park leads the team to work with a Park Ranger on the case - and soon discover a link to the black market sale of African bushmeat. Meanwhile, the team has to go through pepper spray certification, which includes getting sprayed.Tropes:
- Animal Lover: The whole team. Even Torres is eventually won over.
- "Ass" in Ambassador: Played With. At first glance, Liberian Ambassador Gabriel Moore appears to fit the trope, dismissing Reeves like a servant and then berating Vance for not keeping him in the loop. Eventually it is revealed that he is genuinely concerned about the smuggling of bushmeat in his country and abroad, and offers to go undercover to help catch the culprits.
- Black Market Produce: This episode focuses on illegal bushmeat being smuggled into the United States.
- Chekhov's Gun: The victim was stationed in Liberia and trained the resident wildlife rangers to deter and arrest poachers by using non-lethal raid tactics, such as smoke bombs, rubber bullets, and flashes, so they wouldn't accidentally hurt the animals they were protecting. When Team Gibbs tracks down the two armed killers at a local street market, Gibbs throws a smoke bomb inside their truck to discombobulate them so they could be arrested without any of the bystanders getting hurt.
- Cut Himself Shaving: A vendor in the African street market has a bandaged ear, which he claims happened when he got careless with his knife juggling act. He's covering.
- Foreign Queasine: The episode is centered around the smuggling of "bushmeat": smoked flesh from bats, monkeys, lions, lizards - if it's protein, it's good for you.Bishop: Sounds like nightmare soup. It's a shame, I used to like soup.
- I Always Wanted to Say That: Quinn says she got a vital clue "straight from the horse's mouth." Off the rest of the team's looks, she responds, "someone had to say it."
- Jerkass Has a Point: Ambassador Moore ruefully says that Liberia's public is not entirely wrong in thinking of their government as corrupt and inefficient, which makes it all the harder when that government is genuinely trying to educate them for their own safety.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Teased. When the latest shipment of bushmeat on its way from Africa is suspected to be tainted with Ebola, Bishop has to rush to inform the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Department of Agriculture. She confides that she held off on informing the Fish and Wildlife Agency, who would take an interest if the meat was being smuggled in shipments of otherwise legal foods, instead of in smugglers' luggage.
- Literal Metaphor: Quinn jokes that she got a vital clue "straight from the horse's mouth." Turns out that Jody, the police horse, bit off an attacker's earring and it was found lodged in his teeth.
- Nice to the Waiter: Liberian Ambassador Gabriel Moore makes a poor first impression on Reeves.Reeves: The man said two things to me: "Hello" and then "get out of the room". I'm pretty sure he thought I was the butler.
- Old Shame: Liberian Ambassador Moore laments that Liberians take great pride in being "a nation of survivors", but it is a great embarrassment to him and his government that their citizens hold on to certain practices such as eating bushmeat even though they no longer need to.
- Sand In My Eyes: Nick ends up crying over a picture of Park Ranger horse that was recently born, that was named after the officer killed earlier in the episode. He tries to pass it off from the pepper spray test he had to take earlier.Reeves: Nick, that was three hours ago!
- This Is Gonna Suck: In the penultimate scene, the entire team are advancing on Tim, with pepper spray bottles raised, and he is backing away, pleading that the bureaucratic screw-up that required all of them to be sprayed was not his fault...
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Abby's friend Phoebe Spitz, who goes undercover at the African street market to track down the bushmeat.
