René Benoit

René Benoit (code name: La Grenouille) was a French firearms dealer and the rival of NCIS Director Jennifer Shepard. He was also a valuable asset to the CIA, which for a long time made him very difficult to get close to. 
He was the ex-husband of Helen Berkley, father of Dr. Jeanne Benoit and two unnamed children, and also the father-in-law of David Woods.
==Biography==
===Pre-Series===
===NCIS Season 4===
He was an especially elusive international arms dealer and the team attempted to arrest him many times. He was the main antagonist and nemesis of the team especially Director of NCIS Jennifer Shepard, who believed he killed her father many years ago, even if the evidence showed it was suicide. He says he did not kill him and that the accusation about her father taking a bribe from him was true. The Director does not believe this. He is first shown in the episode Blowback (episode) but was mentioned by his codename/nickname many times before that. 
In the last episode Angel of Death (episode) he wants to turn himself in to NCIS Director Shepard and retire. He claims he trusts her and that is why he will only turn himself in to her. Shepard however refuses and threatens him with her gun and if the gun wasn't empty it was suggested that she would have shot him. He says goodbye to Shepard and Gibbs and says that she has signed his death warrant since she decided not to help him. Director Shepard gives him her gun that Benoit had emptied of bullets and says that since he has the bullets, he can take the gun and protect himself. 
In the last scene in the season finale, his body is shown floating in the water after the team ransacked his boat without finding him. 
===NCIS Season 5===
He was found dead in season 5 and in episode 14 Internal Affairs (episode) the whole team is interrogated as Director Shepard is the FBI and CIA's prime suspect. At first, his death seemed to be a suicide, but when examining the evidence Dr. Mallard and Ziva, figured out that someone made it look like a suicide. Benoit had a bruise on his hand the Mossad calls a "thumb tap", where you find a pressure point on someone's hand that makes it impossible for them to move, and therefore someone can shoot them in the head without resistance, making it look like a suicide. This bruise was also on the hand of Director Shepard's father Jasper Shepard suggesting he did not kill himself after all. Officially it was shown to be CIA officer Trent Kort who shot and assassinated him so that he could take over Benoit's place as the head of the organization so that the CIA still could have control of the operation. 
It is revealed that the murder weapon is the Glock 9, which Director Shepard gave him ironically to protect himself. In the last scene of the episode it is revealed that it was the Director who killed him, as Benoit never carried a gun so left the gun on her table and did not take it with her like she said he did. It is also suggested that Gibbs knows that she is the real killer. 
==Personality==
==Physical Appearance==
Category:French in NCIS
Category:Recurring Characters in NCIS
Category:Deceased
Category:People on the NCIS Most Wanted List in NCIS