"Some people are born knowing how to hide things away. I had a rule about secrets. [...] I think a lot about that rule now. Rule number four. I hung on to a lot of secrets for a lot of years. It kept me busy. So busy, sometimes I didn't notice that the guy next to me... he was doing the exact same thing.
I think a lot about that rule now, how to keep a secret. If I could go back, I wouldn't have held on to so many secrets and I wouldn't have kept them for so long. If I could go back, I'd spend less time hiding. I'd spend less time burying things that should have been said... because some secrets don't fall under any rule. Some secrets aren't meant to be kept."
—Older L.J. Gibbs
Sick As Our Secrets is the 8th episode of NCIS: Origins.
Gibbs and the team investigate the case of a Navy priest who was killed in the confessional booth and may have been targeted by mistake while Randy shows Gibbs the ropes of working a protective detail despite struggling with a personal situation.
Trivia
The episode title, "Sick as our Secrets" (You're Only as Sick as Your Secrets), is based on a mantra well-known by members of Alcoholics Anonymous, working the 12-step program. It basically means that a secret kept in the dark grows and becomes more harmful, but once it is exposed to light or released, it's power is lost.
It's revealed that Randy was originally supposed to be protective detail to escort Shannon & Kelly to the safehouse, but ducked out when his newborn son have colicky and later agent Kurt Mitchell was be assigned off and killed alongside Shannon & Kelly and Gibbs didn't know about it yet. But in NCIS episode "Personal Day" Gibbs said (who been told by Mike Franks) to Kurt Mitchell' son Luis "Mitch" Mitchell that original agent who was supposed to protect his family asked off of the detail because it was getting too dangerous and he had little kids.
Also revealed that Gibbs writed letter to Kurt Mitchell's family after hearing about him few months ago, but not mailed yet. In end of episode he go to Mitchell's house and mailed letter, so presumably this how he been in contact with his son Mitch 2 decade later.
On TV who watched by Father Bob and Randy Estelle Getty, who plays Sophia in The Golden Girls, said "I Sophia Petrillo, being of sound mind and body, do hereby leave my daughter Dorothy Zbornak... Nothing!" The episode shown was entitled “From Here to the Pharmacy”, and the original broadcast date would put the events of this episode around December 7, 1991 (usually on a Saturday Night somewhere between 8 PM -10 PM).
The confidentiality of the confessional is not only a sacredly protected right in churches, it is a legally protected one as well. In the eyes of the law priest/penitent confidentiality is just as protected as doctor/patient confidentiality and attorney/client privilege. Law enforcement can't compel a priest to share information given in a confession nor can a priest be compelled to testify about a confession in court; except under very rare and specific circumstances if a judge finds compelling evidence the priest was acting in an unofficial capacity at the time of the "confession". If Father Bobby had given them the name of the killer, it would have been useless when it came to prosecuting the killer since it couldn't be used as evidence; and if Father Bobby's statement was the only evidence that led to the killer's identity the entire case, and any evidence obtained after getting his name, would be thrown out of court as it would be considered fruit of the poisonous tree. Father Bobby identifies the killer having previously heard his confession and therefore knowing he was guilty. In reality, breaking the Seal of Confession like this would not only have meant the end of Bobby's ministry, but also excommunicated him from the Catholic Church entirely.
Father Bobby states he was participating in a clinical trial for a nicotine patch. Clinical trials for the nicotine patch began in 1989, Father Bobby states he was participating in one of those clinical trials, which would explain why he has the patch before it was released. Additionally the nicotine patch received FDA approval in 1991 and first became available by prescription in 1992.
