While processing a crime scene, Dr. Mallard (aka "Ducky") is stabbed in the hand with the murder weapon by an unknown female assailant.  She's wearing a hijab, but she leaves it behind as she flees.

A bystander captured the attack on video. Her words are translated from an Afghani dialect as "Bringer of death! You killed my brother!"

As Ducky undergoes surgery to repair his hand, Gibbs surreptitiously acquires and examines Ducky's personnel file. He served with the Royal Army Medical Corps and later volunteered for duty at a refugee camp on the Pakistani-Afghan border in the 1980s. Gibbs calls in a favor with a CIA operative to get more information.

Meanwhile, Tony and Ziva meet with the Afghan ambassador. The assailant is under their protection. He says that she told them Ducky had committed war crimes (specifically, violence against non-combatants) at the refugee camp almost 30 years. ago.

The operative turns up a file on Mallard that includes CIA footage of a interrogation, filmed in  taken in the camp. Although Ducky did not perform the interrogation, he had befriended the man who did -- a man who could not feel pain, and had no reserve about inflicting it.

Ducky turns himself into the Afghan embassy. Gibbs tries to intervene, at the risk of creating an international incidence. Ducky stands firm that he doesn't need legal counsel, and is ready to surrender.

Gibbs arranges to bring Ducky face to face with his old friend, known as Mr. Pain. The conversation that ensures -- and the revelations that it brings -- are startling.

This compelling episode delves deeply into the background of one of the most charming characters on television, Dr. Donald Mallard, "Ducky", played by David McCallum. We learn that Ducky has a dark side, and that knowledge changes how we think of him, as well as how he thinks of himself.

The metaphor of the broken bird is elegantly handled. A starling flies into Ducky's living room -- an omen of death, we are told. The bird is attacked by Ducky's dogs, and he places its body in a shoebox for burial. But as he steps into the sunlight with box in hand, the bird bursts forth and flies free.

Is the Broken Bird of the episode the woman who attacked Ducky in revenge for her brother's death? The starling, which was attacked and stunned, but was not killed? Or is it Ducky himself? Is he only stunned? Or will he step into the light and fly free once more?