The Admiral's Daughter
DiNozzo is sent to Marseille to retrieve an Admiral's daughter travelling around Europe and then finds himself on the run when a corrupt French cop frames him for murder.
Tropes for this episode:
- Arms Dealer: One of the "international trust fund brats" that Amanda is regularly seen hanging out with is the daughter of a prominent Russian arms dealer.
- Big Damn Heroes: Gibbs gets in contact with Interpol to get Dinozzo some much needed backup.Tony: I don't know how, but this has "Leroy Jethro Gibbs" written all over it.
- Chekhov's Gun: "Sigilese"; the hit mobile game where you send cryptic images to other players and they try and guess what you mean, with Palmer being an avid fan. Later while on the run and without his phone, Tony notices that one of the partygoes on the party bus is a player and "challenges" Palmer with a [cartoon dead body] + [gremlin] = "Autopsy Gremlin", then they both send each other coded messages in this format. At the end, Palmer is stumped by Breena's puzzle, only for Tony to tell him it's "bun in the oven".
- Dirty Cop: Inspector Isabelle Chablis, who's part of the episode's evil scheme and frames Tony for murder. Tony even warns his team on the "Sigilese" game of her with a "dirty cop" clue.
- Fiery Redhead: Amanda Kendall, who is actually an undercover NSA agent.
- Fixing the Game: When McGee tells Tony that he and Bishop flipped a coin to decide who had to climb into a septic tank to pull out a dead body, Tony guesses that McGee used a trick coin belonging to Tony. McGee doesn't deny it, explaining I Did What I Had to Do.
- Funny Background Event: McGee is speaking with Tony over the phone, complaining that while Tony is jet-setting to Marseille, the rest of the team is dealing with a dead body in... a septic tank. Since they can't risk damaging the tank and losing evidence, someone has to climb in and pull the body out. As McGee elaborates that the team "flipped a coin", the camera pans to show Bishop behind him, zipping up a Hazmat Suit. The camera zooms in on her "I hate this job" expression before she pulls on a gas mask.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: What Amanda appears to be. It turns out this is her cover as an N.S.A. agent.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: McGee admits to Tony in a whisper that he used a trick coin to get out of having to climb into a septic tank to retrieve a dead body, forcing Bishop to do it. Then Gibbs slaps a hazmat suit into his arms, and tells them they both have to get in the tank. It's unclear whether Gibbs knew about the trick coin or not.
- Late to the Realization: It takes Palmer a while to work out the meaning of the message his wife sent him. Turns out she's pregnant.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Amanda's insistence on returning to Marseille, despite Dinozzo's frustration, is because she won't leave one of her informants at the Iranian embassy to face their wrath if his cover is blown.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: Inspector Chablis tries some mild flirting with Tony; when he proves resistant, she pulls out his gun and shoots her junior officer dead, to frame him for the shooting.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: While trying to figure out Tony's "Sigilese" clues, the team guess from [bus] + [road] = "Bus to Rota" through a contrived deduction, which has Palmer realise why Tony sent him just a picture of Spain afterwards.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Most of Dinozzo and Amanda's interaction.
- So Proud of You: Amanda's father's reaction to discovering his daughter has made something more of herself than a party girl.
- This Is Gonna Suck: When Tony says they need some way of getting to Rota, Spain:Amanda: I have an idea...
Tony: Will I like it?
