'NCIS: New Orleans' Season 6 Episode 8 sees Sebastian avoid potential international crisis as murder evidence points to Thai citizen
‘The Order of the Mongoose’, the eighth episode of ‘NCIS: New Orleans’ Season 6 was a Sebastian episode and a Sebastian episode means fun. The man-baby and often immature forensic agent Sebastian Lund (Rob Kerkovich) was on security detail.
He was tasked with providing protection to a teenager, the son of a minister in the Thailand government. They were at a nightclub where he and an official bodyguard Kasem (Dan Southworth) were keeping an eye on Tanawat "Tan" Benjawan (Carlin James) because his mother had received credible threats from a Thai extremist group.
Things quickly went south when someone pulled a fire alarm and they lost Tan during the subsequent evacuation. Tan’s mother, Minister Benjawan (Pisay Pao), was both livid and scared. She shouted at Sebastian for losing Tan.
It was only when special agent Dwayne Pride (Scott Bakula) arrived and took charge that she managed to calm down and help them out with information. She told them there was a group back home called “Thailand First” -- a pro-military junta group -- that hated her.
They didn’t want foreign business deals, quite like the one that the minister was trying to execute in New Orleans. It was possible this group abducted Tan to change the minister’s mind -- something the minister was unwilling to do.
While the NCIS team was trying to identify the motive behind a crime like this, agent Tammy Gregorio (Vanessa Ferlito) suggested a different possibility -- what if Tan was not kidnapped? Instead, what if he had escaped on his own accord. It would not be surprising, considering how overprotective his mother was.
When the team checked footage from the nightclub, they found Tammy’s suspicion was solid. Tan had indeed snuck out. He, donning a hoodie, jumped into a car with an unknown woman. When they investigated further, they found the two of them had made their way to a hotel.
Sebastian and a visibly-angry Kasem made their way to the hotel to bring Tan home. But all was not well. When they entered the room, they saw the dead body of a young woman on the bed, covered in blood. They also found the murder weapon -- a knife that was gifted to Tan by Kasem.
Security footage from behind the hotel showed Tan walking out, his hands covered in blood. Tan was now a murder suspect. Everything looked damning. Tan’s DNA was the only one found at the crime scene. Tests showed Tan may have been on a combination of drugs, one that could have led to a violent episode.
DNA testing also revealed the murder victim was a woman named Claire Roberts, someone Tan had met when he was visiting colleges in the U.S. His emails showed they had kept in touch. But Sebastian did not buy it. Even from his brief interactions with the boy, he could tell this was not his doing. There was more than met the eye.
When Sebastian questioned the minister about Tan, she got defensive. But before she could say more, their conversation was interrupted by Lawan Nitaya (Amor Owens), another member of the Thai government who had accompanied the minister.
This made Sebastian suspicious. When Dr. Loretta Wade (C. C. H. Pounder) found evidence the murder was committed by someone wearing lambskin gloves, Sebastian knew this was a setup.
The team soon discovered more fishy business. While investigating "Thailand First", they found links between Kasem and the group -- Kasem spoke to them three days prior to Tan's abduction. When Sebastian tried to take Kasem into custody, he assaulted Sebastian and made a run for it.
But there was still no proof Kasem was behind the murder as well. In the meantime, Pride and Sebastian finally managed to separate the minister from her staff so she could speak freely. After some pressure from the team, she gave in and led them to Tan, who she was hiding.
When the team questioned Tan, he told them Kasem supposedly had a secret relationship. That was why he had helped Tan sneak out with Claire. Kasem's secret partner turned out to be Lawan.
Why were they working together? While Kasem was a zealot who stood against everything the minister believed in, Lawan did it because she felt the minister had stolen her place in the cabinet. When they finally confronted Kasem, who was trying to kill the minister, Sebastian took him down after a heart-racing fistfight. And the day was saved.
The next episode of 'NCIS: New Orleans' will air on Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.