NCIS

Season 2

See No Evil

1. This is Sean Murray's first episode as a series regular cast member.
2. This is the episode where Timothy McGee gets promoted to being a full time NCIS Field Agent reporting to Gibbs.
3. The scene of the agents pulling in to the abandoned train yard is the same exact shot from season 1 episode 17 reused.
4. If you look at the Webcam on top of the Captain's monitor you'll see the "Logitech" logo is backwards (it's a mirrored image).
5. A young Abigail Breslin is a stand out in this episode as the musically talented young blind girl in this episode.
6. At the end of the episode, Kate and Tony comment on having kids someday and Tony says he couldn't handle it. Later in the series, before Michael Weatherly's departure, Tony has a daughter with Ziva, still yet to be introduced in the series.

Vanished

1. The commander of the Marine unit identifies it as HMLA-167 which is a real unit stationed at Air Station New River, North Carolina and they fly the AH-1W SuperCobra and UH-1N Huey.
2. This is the third episode of NCIS to include dialogue with a reference to the Stockholm syndrome, which is the psychological tendency of a hostage to bond, identify, empathize, or sympathize with a captor, as in this story.
3. Don Swayze is another cast member from NCIS (2003) that later appears in an episode of Hawaii Five-0 (2010) along with Terry O'Quinn and Keith David.
4. The script mentions BOLs (balls of light): Ball Lightning is a real and unexplained (as of 2019) phenomenon which may produce the observed effects.

The Bone Yard

1. Gibbs mentions his father is dead - but he's saying that to a known terrorist who has just threatened to kill everyone Gibbs loves. Gibbs' response is to show that any target is already dead or he no longer cares if they die (i.e. his ex-wives).
2. The AFIP ME, Chas. Floyd Johnson, is one of the show's executive producers.
3. Gibbs mentions that his father has passed on, but his father (played by Ralph Waite) makes his first appearance in season 6 in the episode Heartland.
4. This was the first time that McGee & Abby both typed on the same keyboard, side by side, to fight off a cyberattack. This is something that they do several times throughout the series.

Call of Silence

1. Charles Durning's character portrays a Medal Of Honor recipient. In real life, Durning was awarded one Purple Heart in WWII for injuries received. In addition to the Purple Heart, Durning was awarded the Silver and Bronze Stars for valor and the World War II Victory Medal. In 2008, the French consul presented him with the National Order of the Legion of Honor.
2. Charles Durning was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Ernie Yost, a retiree who was a WWII Marine Corporal and medal of honor recipient surrendering himself to NCIS for a murder he claims to have committed in WWII.
3. In the scene when Ernie Yost is about to be arrested by the two marines and they are shown the Medal of Honor he's wearing, they snap to attention and salute. It is a US military regulation that all Medal of Honor recipients are saluted first, no matter their rank.
4. Charles Durning, who plays WWII Vet Ernie Yost, was an actual WWII veteran, specifically an Army private first class who was part of the Normandy invasion, survived the Malmedy massacre, and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.
5. This is the second time Charles Durning and Mark Harmon worked together. Although not appearing on-screen at the same time, they both previously appeared in The Last Supper (1995) alongside Courtney B. Vance and Cameron Diaz.
6. Alicia Coppola previously played the role of Cmdr. Faith Coleman on JAG (1995). She will also play a different character, FBI Agent Lisa Rand on NCIS: Los Angeles (2009), which is part of the same universe as this series and JAG.

Heart Break

1. The ring-tone on Kate's cellphone is the NCIS theme song.
2. The song playing during the hotel room party is "Word Up" (originally performed by Cameo, but by Korn here). Gibbs inadvertently anticipates the song's lyrics ("Wave your hands in the air like you don't care") when he yells "Get your hands up! Get your hands in the air!"

Forced Entry

1. Gibbs' rule no. 23: Never mess with a Marine's coffee if you want to live.
2. The scene where Gibbs throws the football to the kids on the street is most likely an inside joke about Mark Harmon's time as the award winning quarterback for the UCLA Bruins.
3. This is the first time that Abby goes into the field. Her alias is Ms. Gibbs.
4. When originally aired, Gibbs tosses a long pass to the kids who are playing football. Harmon played college ball in real life. On 3/23/15, on the USA network, this had been edited to cut Mark Harmon's football pass.
5. The syndicated version, in addition to cutting out Gibbs' perfect spiral to the kid (as mentioned elsewhere in Trivia) also cuts out a scene in Laura Rowan's kitchen. After McGee leaves, she asks Gibbs, "Is he even old enough to be an agent?" Gibbs replies, "I ask myself that, *every* day." These scenes (and others deleted for syndication) are intact in streaming versions.

Chained

Black Water

1. While Gibbs and McGee are entering McAllister's home McGee remarks that the last time he did something like this Tony threw a rock through a window and Kate climbed in a second story window. These events occurred in the episodes, NCIS: Sub Rosa (2003) and NCIS: See No Evil (2004)
2. McGee mentions he writes and has based his main character on Gibbs. In later seasons, he publishes books starring LJ Tibbs

Caught on Tape

1. Abby identifies the wood in the victim as Northern White Ash, commonly used in baseball bats,with maple being the other common wood. She then says "Someone pulled a Barry Bonds on this guy." Barry Bonds was a famous MLB player who conspicuously used maple bats at a time when ash was very common.
2. When discussing a medical examiner colleague in Los Angeles, Ducky comments "they're very strange in Los Angeles". NCIS is filmed primary in Los Angeles County
3. McGee doesn't recognize poison ivy, though he later is said to be an accomplished scout leader.
4. The license plate that Abby identifies "107 TIK" is the same plate number as the getaway car Jeffrey and Tony used in "Chained".

Pop Life

1. The title refrence "Pop Life" is a song by Prince and The Revolution, released in 1985.
2. The sister/singer of the club is Mya the pop singer.
3. Steven Brand and Conrad Roberts both previously appeared in The Scorpion King (2002).
4. Mya is the singer who performs, "Miracles Happen," which was the theme song for one of the Port Charles (1997) 'arcs' when they went to a novella format in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Kiko Ellsworth, the bartender Mya's character slept with in this episode, played Jamal on Port Charles.

Conspiracy Theory

1. Someone has trouble with the alphabet. In fact FUBAR stands for F---ed Up Beyond All Recognition.
2. FUBAR is a military acronym meaning "F**ked Up Beyond Repair". SNAFU, while also having a real definition, is military slang for "Situation Normal, All F**ked Up".

Hometown Hero

1. Donald P. Bellisario make two cameos, both in season two. First, in NCIS: Hometown Hero (2005) he is seen outside Abby's lab, tying his shoe. The second appearance is in NCIS: SWAK (2005), where he is seen in the hospital when Gibbs is interviewing the "rape" victim. In both cases, Gibbs gives Bellasario a quizzical look.
2. In "Hometown Hero" the video seen at the end of DiNozzos' car being crashed into the back of a semi truck, is actual footage from a police chase that took place in Buckeye, AZ.
3. All the pill bottles in Emmy Poole's medicine cabinet with readable labels are for vicodin and prescribed by Yuzo, DDS spanning several years.
4. Alicia Coppola reprises her role as Cmdr. Faith Coleman from JAG (1995). She will go on to play a different character, FBI Agent Lisa Rand on NCIS: Los Angeles (2009), which is part of the same universe as this series, JAG, and NCIS: Los Angeles (2009).

SWAK

1. Donald P. Bellisario has a cameo as a neurologist in this episode.
2. The character portrayed by Tamara Taylor, NCIS Special Agent Cassie Yates, is named after actress Cassie Yates, who guest-starred on two episodes of Magnum, P.I. (1980). Donald P. Bellisario, the co-creator of both NCIS (2003) and Magnum, has admitted he has a penchant for naming the characters in his television shows after people he knows.
3. Tony mentions the embarrassing spring break photo of Kate and she mentions how he kissed a guy. These events occurred in NCIS: Bikini Wax (2005) and NCIS: Dead Man Talking (2004)
4. Hanna Lowell, upon realizing that her attack has infected someone, mutters, "I Hope it was Westmoreland." Referring, most likely to William Westmoreland, a General who commanded U.S. forces in Vietnam. Ironically, General Westmoreland died in July 2005, just 2 months after this originally aired in May 2005.
5. In this episode Mark Harmon passes a bearded man in the hall. It's Donald P. Bellisario, creator of the series, who also created Magnum, P.I. (1980), and who was glimpsed briefly in the previous episode.
6. The episode title, SWAK, is an acronym for Sealed with a Kiss, a reference to the lip prints on the envelope
7. DiNozzo makes a reference to Jamie Lee Curtis in A Fish Called Wanda (1988). Jaime Lee Curtis would later play Dr. Samantha Ryan on NCIS (2003) in the second half of season 9.
8. In the United Kingdom the acronym is S.W.A.L.K - Sealed With A Loving Kiss.

Twilight

1. In Abby's Lab when the team is going over the schematics for the drone, Abby mentions to Kate about her nightmare and Kate says it's just Bete Noir. NCIS: Bête Noire (2004) was the name of the episode where Ari was introduced.
2. During Ari and Gibbs' coffee shop meeting, the sweep of the camera back and forth shows McMurphy's Tavern. The bar that was the place setting for several shots from JAG (1995) series as well as the final "closing" scene for JAG.
3. In this episode there is a death threat on Gibbs' life and he is forced to have a security detail headed by Kate who used to be secret service and protected the President of the United States. In the third season of The West Wing (1999), Mark Harmon who plays Gibbs also played a secret service agent who previously defended the President of the United States and was tasked with defending one of the President's staff when she received death threats.
4. The personal connection between Gibbs and Fornell is revealed when Gibbs states Fornell's first big mistake was marrying Gibb's second wife. This would be Gibb's first ex-wife Diane.
5. According to Michael Weatherly, while he was aware Sasha Alexander was leaving the series after this episode, he didn't know how she would exit until he saw a special effects worker attach an explosive blood pack to the back of Sasha's head. He also says if you watch closely, he flinches before the pack goes off.
6. Kate states in a different world she can see herself married to Tony. In NCIS: Life Before His Eyes (2012) Gibbs gets shot and has flash backs and fantasies. One of the fantasies is Kate still alive and her and Tony married and her giving birth to Tony's baby.