Recap / NCISS 04 E 06

Witch Hunt

A marine's daughter is kidnapped on Halloween. The few clues lead the team on a twisting, zigzagging whodunit that keeps them guessing til the very end.

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• A Bloody Mess: Staff Sergeant Niles stumbles into his neighbor's house, dressed as George Custer, riddled with arrows and covered in fake blood. Then she looks closer and sees he is holding a very real wound in his neck.
• Brits Love Tea: As do Israelis, as shown when Ducky and Ziva take advantage of a lull in the case to share a pot in Autopsy.
• The Comically Serious: Ziva forgets that she is wearing McGee's costume hat when Gibbs walks into the squad room and tells them to gear up. He just stares deadpan at her until she remembers.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Even after getting over their initial shock, Tony and McGee both need a Dope Slap from Gibbs to tear their attention off Abby's costume.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In-Universe. Seeing Sarah Niles go trick 'r treating around the cubicles in the squadroom, Gibbs has a Flash Back to happier times, when he took his own daughter trick 'r treating, wearing an almost identical costume.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: Laurie Niles's "sister" Rebecca, who has been glued to her side the entire night, is revealed to be a member of the kidnapping gang, planted to keep an eye on her. As soon as she hears that her daughter is safe, Laurie decks her "sister" with one punch and starts kicking the crap out of her.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Let's just say the boys are very interested in Abby's Marilyn costume.
• First-Name Basis: Dr. Burke, Sgt. Niles's next-door neighbor, asks Tony to call her "Leslie" while he is interviewing her.
• Halloween Episode: The first of several in the series. Party deconstructed by Tony and Ziva's conversation; she thought that, as a confirmed Manchild, Tony would love Halloween, and he retorts that he did, until he became a cop, and learns that something weird always happens on Halloween. Sure enough, Tony lampshades it at the end of the episode, when Laurie's "sister" turns out to be one of the kidnappers and Ziva enters the room to see Laurie beating the crap out of her.
• It Makes Sense in Context: Ducky's priceless line:
  Oh, please. It's not that impressive. It's not as if they were real ninjas.
• Mama Bear: Laurie Niles has to be restrained from beating one of the kidnappers to death as soon as she hears that her daughter is safe.
  • Deconstructed by Ziva and Ducky's conversation about Laurie's possible motives for giving the team the slip, and Ziva's reference to Tony making her watch Grizzly Man.
    Ducky: What does Gibbs think?
    Ziva: Hard to say. He's currently not talking to me.
    Ducky: Well, chin up, dear. It could be worse.
    Ziva: How?
    Ducky: He could be a bear.
    [They both laugh.]
• Neck Snap: Sgt. Niles uses this technique to kill one of the kidnappers before being shot by another.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Once Sarah is safe, Laurie starts beating up Rebecca, revealing that she's not her sister and was one of the kidnappers.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The ME van arrives at the crime scene splattered with eggs. Tony asks Ducky if he got a good look at the culprits. Ducky says they did better: the culprits are released from the back of the van, handed Windex and paper towels and ordered to clean it off.
• Open Heart Dentistry: Dr. Burke, Sgt. Niles's next-door neighbor, is a pediatrician, but knows enough about trauma care to treat Niles's wounds and stabilize him enough for the ride to the hospital. Tony says she probably saved his life.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Staff Sergeant Niles killed at least one of the men trying to kidnap his daughter before being shot.
  • Finding Sarah Niles's princess costume in the trunk of the suspected kidnapper's car, Gibbs drops it and stalks towards the house, making clear that anything and anyone in his way had better get out of it.
• Pummeling the Corpse: At their latest crime scene, Ducky cautions Palmer never to jump to the obvious conclusion, recalling one case where a man who died of a heart attack had a knife plunged into his body a full four hours after he was dead (his wife had found out she wasn't in his will).
• Punctuated Pounding:
  Laurie Niles: SHE'S NOT MY SISTER! (punch) SHE'S ONE OF THEM! (kick)
• Red Herring: The kidnappers deliberately plant clues to make it seem as if Laurie's ex-boyfriend, who claims to be Sarah's real father, is responsible.
• Shout-Out: To Grizzly Man, which Tony made Ziva sit through.
• Stab the Salad: The opening shot of the Cold Open is a close-up of a kitchen knife being plunged down, while a woman screams... then the shot widens to show a woman in a Cleopatra costume, carving a pumpkin with a horror movie playing on the television.
• Suspect Is Hatless: Zig-Zagged. A kid witness identifies the kidnappers' car to Ziva as a "Karuma." Gibbs informs her that "karuma" is the Japanese word for "car". Tony lampshades the trope, then McGee pipes up that the "Karuma" is a specific make of car from Grand Theft Auto III, whose real-life analogue is the Chrysler Sebring.