Ziva demonstrating how she would have dealt with the guy who tried to shoot Jimmy.
Directed by Dennis Smith
Written by Alfonso H Moreno, Reed Steiner, Jesse Stern, Linda Burstyn, & David J North
Jimmy Palmer becomes the target of a killer who only he can recognize.
Tropes in this episode:
- A Day in the Limelight: This is the first Jimmy-Centric episode of NCIS.
- Analogy Backfire: Agonizing over what he could have done if he'd caught up to the suspect, Palmer asks Ziva to show him how to disarm a gunman; she does so, twisting him into a knot, then picks up the mock gun and invites him to disarm her; he tries, and she reflexively twists him into a knot again. She concludes that it is probably best that Palmer didn't catch up with the gunman.
- Berate and Switch: After Palmer rams the suspect's car with his own, Gibbs bellows at Palmer to never pull such a stunt again, then hands him a tissue for his bleeding nose and softly says, "now you've got something to write home about, Palmer."
- BFG: In the first shooting scene, the gunman fires a full-sized Desert Eagle at Jimmy. When the suspect is caught at the end, he threatens Jimmy with a Jericho pistol, made by the same Israeli manufacturer and similar in shape to the Desert Eagle but much smaller. Either the shooter had a different gun, or the episode's makers are emphasizing just how shaky Jimmy's memory was after being shot at.
- Car Fu: Jimmy rams his car into the car of the guy who tried to shoot him, so Gibbs and the rest of the team can catch him.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Scrabble pieces that Ziva and McGee were playing with were used by Jimmy to spell the name of the identity in the passport he saw on the crime scene.
- Continuity Nod: When Palmer asks McGee how he reacted the first time someone shot at him, McGee recalls his less-than-heroic reaction in "Probie" and fudges just a little bit:McGee: Well, I'm a trained federal agent, so it's not really a fair comparison.
- Cowardly Lion:Jimmy: How do you do it?
Gibbs: Hmm?
Jimmy: Block out fear.
Gibbs: [chuckles] You don't. It's what you do with it. - Exact Words:Gibbs: What don't you understand about the word "stay"? Stay! Palmer, you stay in the car!
[A few minutes later, after Jimmy has rammed the suspect's car with his own to stop him escaping.]
Gibbs: What the hell were you thinking?!
Palmer: I did not get out of the car. - The Glasses Come Off: Jimmy takes off his glasses when he tries to chase the guy who tried to shoot him before.
- Noodle Incident: Jimmy is afraid that he mentioned something that happened at Camp Winnamonka during the hypnosis session with Abby and McGee.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Jimmy's footwear fetish is revealed in this episode, as he describes Ziva's and Abby's shoes.
- Not Me This Time: One of the construction workers admits to killing the "Rick Baxter" found at the crime scene in self-defense, but Palmer is quick to see that the worker is not the same man who tried to shoot him.
- Suspect Is Hatless:
- Jimmy congratulates the NCIS sketch artist on perfectly capturing the suspect's eyes, based on Palmer's description. The artist deadpans that a sketch of a man's eyes without the rest of his face is not that much use.
- Jimmy has trouble remembering which country issued the passport he found in the victim's pocket, but it was definitely blue. McGee deadpans that Palmer has narrowed it down to the most popular color used for passports in the world.
- Unreliable Narrator: Palmer's recall of the shooting is hazy at the best of times, something he constantly beats himself up for.
