Directed by Peter Ellis
Written by Don Mc Gill & Gil Grant
A Marine recruiter is killed in his office by a sniper. The team initially suspects someone with a grudge against the recruiter, until a second recruiter is killed, leading them to guess that they are tracking a Serial Killer.
Tropes for the episode:
- Admiring the Abomination: After the sniper is caught and killed, Kate reports that he was turned down by the Marine Corps for sociopathic personality disorder. Gibbs remarks that in a way, the Corps lost out, because "you've gotta admit, he was one hell of a marksman."
- Bulletproof Vest: When Gibbs and Kate go undercover at the recruiting station, Tony gripes that Gibbs seems to want the sniper to take a shot at him:Tony: (over radio) Just tell me he's wearing his vest.
(Kate glances at Gibbs's vest, shoved out of sight into a corner.)
Kate: ...He said it was visible under his shirt.
Tony: I knew it! If the sniper doesn't kill him, I will! - Call-Forward: Tony mentions to Abby that he dated his high school music teacher. Said teacher finally appears in Season Nine, and it is revealed that they were engaged to be married.
- Distracted by the Sexy: While Tony and Kate are searching the toy warehouse, Tony asks the foreman a question, but the young man needs a moment to snap out of a trance caused by the fact that Kate is on all fours.
- Double Entendre: Invoked but averted:Tony: I'm gonna need you on your knees over here, Kate. It's time to get dirty.
Kate: What?
Tony: We have to sweep the floor for marks. [The bullet] may have lost velocity and dropped.
Kate: ...Right. I-I knew that. - Exact Words: Gunnery Sergeant Alvarez's recruits might complain, but he would argue that they all got what he promised them... just not in the way they envisioned:Tony: This one guy, he wanted to be a paramedic. Sgt. Alvarez promised him the Marine Corps would "train him to save lives."
Kate: What's wrong with that?
Gibbs: The Marine Corps doesn't have medical personnel.
Tony: They're all Navy.
Gibbs: Well, technically it is correct, Marines do save lives - mostly through the use of superior firepower.
- Recruiters Always Lie: After his death, it's revealed that Sgt. Alvarez played a little fast and loose with the facts to get recruits to enlist in the Marine Corps, so much that the team initially suspects one of his disgruntled recruits came back for revenge. Privately, Kate wonders if something similar happened to Gibbs, who is notoriously close-mouthed about his reasons for enlisting:Kate: You think his recruiter told him a fast one?
Tony: I doubt it.
Kate: Why?
Tony: Can you imagine someone lying to Gibbs and getting away with it? - Sedgwick Speech: The two teens that Gunnery Sergeant Alvarez is recruiting are worried about being deployed to Iraq; Alvarez reassures them that in all his time in the Marine Corps, "the closest I've ever come to a bullet is-" (BANG!)
- You Watch Too Much X: Carl, the toy warehouse foreman, is a big forensics buff.Carl: That's not how they do it on CSI.
Kate: You really need to get off that couch, Carl.
