The bloody discovery of a murder victim in a water holding tank is the first clue in an intricate puzzle that Gibbs and the team must solve in this Halloween-week episode of "NCIS."

In the victim's mouth is a canister containing a parchment note bearing a website address: primitus-victor.com, Latin for "first victim". The URL leads to CYBERVID, an online video site, and a video of the victim's murder interspersed with flashes of seemingly random images -- a bear statue, a baseball player swinging a bat, and one of Salvador Dali's melting clocks.

During autopsy, Ducky discovers that the victim's brain had been removed, mummy-style, while the victim was still alive -- and that the body had been frozen.

Gibbs and DiNozzo go to the victim's last known address, where they interrupt a garage band in rehearsal. The semi-talented lead singer, Rose, has an instant crush on Gibbs (but don't we all?). The visit yields a clue: the bear statue appears in a photo of the band.

The team investigates the location, where they discover a second victim and confirm that the flashing images in the video - the bear, the bat, and the clock - are clues to the location of the body, the murder weapon, and the time of death. This victim, too, has a canister containing a URL, as well as a personal note to Gibbs. The URL leads to another CYBERVID video in the same style as the first, depicting this victim's death and providing more clues.

The media gets wind of the news and labels it as the work of "The CYBERVID Killer". Rose, the singer, tips off the team (well, Gibbs, actually) that the video is similar in style to her band's music video.

DiNozzo and Ziva investigate the video producer, a man named Sam Loomis, who admits that the images came from a public source that thousands of people had used.

Meanwhile, the killer calls Gibbs and taunts him, using voice masking technology and voice over IP technology to make the call almost impossible to trace. The killer promises Gibbs "something special" -- and you know it won't be good.

Abby alerts gives to a new video upload, which turns out to be live streaming video ... from the hallway outside Abby's lab.

Ducky puts his psychology background to work, theorizing that the killer has a narcissistic personal disorder, believing himself to the hero of his own story and casting Gibbs and the victim.

The team follows the clues in the latest video and fingerprints on the hidden camera back to Loomis, the video producer. But Loomis dies in the interrogation room, in exactly the way -- and at exactly the time -- as the clues had indicated.

Abby discovers a fourth video, which includes video of Loomis' death in the interrogation room, with images of snow and a personal threat to Gibbs. Together Abby and McGee sleuth out the source, finds a link to a live feed of yet another victim -- still alive -- and Gibbs deciphers the image clues.

But Gibbs is older and wiser, and in the end Gibbs denies the CYBERVID Killer the ultimate payoff – there will be no 15 minutes of fame.

Kudos to the writers for maintaining an excellent level of suspense throughout this episode. They weave an excellent web of clues in this complex puzzle, maintaining misdirection to the very end. This episode is so completely jam-packed with mystery and suspense that there is little time for character subplots. Gibbs is the primary character in this episode, and in it we see his passion for justice, and his preference for staying out of the spotlight.

Sure, we’ve seen Abby in danger before, and we’ve seen Gibbs face personal threats more than once in the past, but this episode is tightly written, suspenseful, and well-acted.

This episode is also an excellent example of another thing "NCIS" does consistently well. The writers weave explanations of everything from complex technical and medical terms to historical tidbits to pop culture trivia into the script, and it almost always sounds like natural, casual conversation between characters.

(Tony's movie references in this episode include “Psycho”, “Thunderball”, “Scream”, “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Swamp Thing”, and “Seven”.  Did I miss any? Feel free to let me know in the comments. — A.S.)