NCIS

Season 3

Kill Ari (Part I)

1. Shepard tells Gibbs that she wants proof about Ari trying to kill his team, yet he doesn't mention the bomb Ari planted under the coffee shop table to try to kill Gibbs.
2. This is the first episode for Ziva David, Cote de Pablo and Jenny Shepherd, Lauren Holly.
3. Gibbs replies to the NCIS Director that he wasn't old enough for service in Vietnam. Gibbs cites only two combat tours, Panama and Desert Storm. From this we can assume that Gibbs is younger than the actor that portrays him. Not only is Mark Harmon old enough to have served in Vietnam, being born in 1951 he was still subject to the draft under the 1970 draft lottery which pooled its draftee selections from young men born in the year 1951. While the path to military service and deployment to Vietnam was different and less than certain in the period 1971-73, it would have been conceivable for Gibbs (as portrayed by Harmon) to have been written as a Vietnam veteran if they had chosen to do so after Harmon had been cast in the role. The NCIS director concludes that part of their conversation remarking that he thought Gibbs was older.
4. This is the first episode to have a character's name in the title.

Silver War

1. Ziva asks why her ball cap has a 9mm hole in it. It has two. The cap she is wearing is the one Tony shot in NCIS: Marine Down (2003) and then gave to Kate. He actually gave it to Abby, after she said "whoa, cool, where can I get one of these?!" and he told her to have that one.
2. Gibb's rule no. 18: It's better to seek forgiveness than ask permission.
3. Rule #9: "Never go anywhere without a knife."Gibbs allows Ziva to keep her knife. Later demonstrated to be a good rule to follow.
4. Tony lists his areas of homicide expertise: Multiple Homicides; Gang Related; Defenestration. Defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window.
5. The sketches Ziva gives Gibbs at the end of the episode were alluded to in the last season's finale. Kate is seen placing the finishing touches on the sketch of DiNozzo at the beginning of the episode, before McGee notices what she's doing and she quickly hides it.
6. This episode aired approximately one month after the series premier of the TV show Bones (2005). The character Dr. Elaine Burns Barbara Niven is referred to as "Dr. Bones" by Ducky (A.K.A. Dr. Donald Mallard, David McCallum) at one point. She is a forensic anthropologist who works for the Smithsonian.
7. When Ziva and McGee leave the bank, they are approached by a man (actually one of the people involved in the death of the Marine in the episode) who asked them for the location of Kelleher Avenue as a pretext for getting a map from them. The name of the avenue is a nod to actor Tim Kelleher, who played NCIS Special Agent Christopher Pacci on several episodes of the television series.
8. Final appearance of the strange red haired woman Gibbs is occasionally seen with.

Honor Code

1. While in the squad room, Gibbs blows up a latex glove for Zack. Much like his formerSt. Elsewhere (1982) costar, Howie Mandel did when he was touring back in the 80s.
2. When the director complimented Gibbs on his way with children, she then asked if he'd ever considered having one of his own. He smiled and dismissed the question with a joke: " are you offering, Jen?" When, at the end, his memory of Zach blurs over into a memory of his daughter Kelly, who the viewers see for the first time here, viewers are alerted to the fact that he's never told anyone in his life (up to this point of the story) about his family.
3. This is the first time we see Kelly, Gibbs's daughter.

Under Covers

1. The Marine Corps birthday ball is an important annual event for the Corps, to celebrate the establishment of the Corps, which took place on 10 November 1775, and formally established by Marine Corps Order 47, published by Commandant John Lejeune in 1921. Marines religiously observe the birthday each year wherever they may be as if it were their own birthday, even in combat or other austere environments. Even former and retired Marines celebrate the Birthday annually with a measure of fanfare.
2. At the beginning of this episode, Ducky is called in for an autopsy and complains about having to miss the ballet Gisele. One of the guest stars in that episode, Phillip Rhys, is the grandson of Janine Klotza, a Parisian ballet dancer who reportedly performed in all the major ballets except Gisele.
3. The actor, Phillip Rhys, who plays the undercover FBI agent, also plays Proto Zoa on the Disney Channel zombie Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century (1999).
4. In a conversation that Chip and Abby have, Chip is complaining about Tony's attitude. Abby defends Tony but Chip replies ''You don't know DiNozzo like I do''. This is foreshadowing for the next episode "Frame Up".

Frame Up

1. Special Agent David Brant is played by former NCIS special agent David Brant, who also served as NCIS Director 1997-2005. He retired in December 2005, the month after this episode aired.
2. Michael Weatherly says in the commentary for this episode that a filling came out during filming when the impression of his teeth was taken out of his mouth.
3. When Gibbs and Ducky are talking in the autopsy room about the bite mark on the leg, they speak of Ted Bundy. Mark Harmon played Bundy in The Deliberate Stranger (1986).
4. This is the first episode where Lauren Holly is listed in the opening credits as a series regular.
5. Given Agent DiNozzo's affinity for movies, he was channeling a scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) where Gollum talks to himself in the lake water as if there are two separate beings when Tony interviews himself in the jail cell with Agent Gibbs looking on.
6. This was not the first time David McCallum and Don Franklin worked together. David McCallum made a guest appearance in SeaQuest 2032: SeaWest (1993), where he played the villain that had taken control of an undersea mining facility. Don Franklin played the Commander of the SeaQuest and was taken hostage by David McCallum's character.
7. This is the first episode of the series to show the office of the director of NCIS
8. At about 9:34 into the episode, when Chip is "grumbling", a spider can be seen dangling on its web to the right of Chip.
9. Abby is the only one to acknowledge Gibb's birthday, not even Ducky who is his oldest friend says anything.
10. When Tony accuses Ziva of setting him up in the lab, the camera briefly pans to Chip before showing that Tony was pointing at her while she stood behind Chip. It is later revealed that Chip had set Tony up as the murderer.

Boxed In

1. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) is an actual bollywood movie.

Deception

1. When McGee shows up for work in a turtleneck shirt, Tony refers to him as "the ghost of David Niven." Tony later tells Ziva he used the "genital cuffs" gag from the movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) to get some information from two teens. The movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a remake of the movie Bedtime Story (1964), which starred David Niven (in the role later played by Michael Caine).
2. Gibbs' Rule No. 3: Never be unreachable.
3. Zac Efron who guest stars in this episode has recently played Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019) and Mark Harmon played him in the film The Deliberate Stranger (1986).
4. When McGee shows up in the turtleneck outfit, among the ways Tony mocks him is to call him Banacek (pronounced BAN-a-check.) Banacek was a 1970s series starring George Peppard as a suave, urbane insurance investigator. Based in Boston, he favored turtleneck sweaters and drove a 1940 Packard. Banacek was rotated on the regular schedule with Colombo, McCloud and McMillan &Wife, although it ran for the shortest time, only two seasons.

Head Case

1. In the touching final scene Gibbs and the widow exchange honored and traditional wishes often used among Marines and Navy people; the widow says to Gibbs, "Semper fi", and he responds to her, "Fair winds and following seas".
2. Chelsea Field guest stars as the Commander's widow. She is the real-life wife of NCIS: New Orleans (2014) star Scott Bakula, which would not premiere until 8 years later.
3. The last command of the dead captain was the fictional USS Manassas (CG-74), a guided-missile cruiser, from which his remains are to be spread at sea; however, no such ship exists, and no ship of the US Navy has ever borne the name of Manassas.

Family Secret

1. When Gibbs first met William Danforth, Sr., the victim's father, he said that "AFIS couldn't match the body in autopsy with Lance Corporal Danforth's DNA". However, AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) is a database of fingerprints, not DNA. A separate DNA database exist, the most commonly used in USA being the FBI database, CODIS (Combined DNA Index System).
2. In one scene Ducky refers to the Bertram Mills Circus, which existed in the real world in England from 1920 until 1967. It became especially well known for its annual Christmas shows, which members of the royal family, Winston Churchill, and UK and foreign dignitaries routinely attended.
3. During the episode, Tony is interested in (and McGee briefly dates) an Agent Tina Larson. Her last name is most likely a joking reference to Glen A. Larson, the creator of the original Battlestar Galactica (1978), a series upon which NCIS (2003) co-creator Donald P. Bellisario wrote for and produced earlier in his career.
4. Gibbs smacks his own head in the elevator.
5. When Gibbs is chewing out the team for updating the director, je says "and my loyal Saint Bernard held out til last. Probably all of 30 seconds." In fact, Tony didn't get involved until 68 seconds after Ziva first caved.
6. Corporal Merrill mentions eating out at a restaurant named The Gold Monkey. Tales of the Gold Monkey (1982) was a short lived TV series produced by Donald P. Bellisario and Belisarius Productions.
7. In the opening scenes when the 2 paramedics are pulling away they smell gas then the ambulance catches on fire inside and out. When they leave the ambulance and the scene changes to the outside it blows up but wasn't on fire.
8. The photo found on McGee's iPod is, in fact, his step-sister, Troian Bellisario. She plays his sister on the show and was seen in a previous episode.

Bait

1. The movie that Ziva was trying to name, and DiNozzo apparently got the idea from was Speed (1994).
2. Tony tells Gibbs that Kate has the boys mother in custody. Kate had died at the end of the season 2 finale, giving Gibbs the clue that his mother was dead.
3. Guest star Jade Carter had a recurring role on JAG (1995) as Harmon Rabb's Russian half-brother Sergei.
4. Michael Welch who plays Kody Meyers here will play Kevin Heller in NCIS: New Orleans: The List (2015).

Iced

1. When Ducky pulls out the third gangbanger in autopsy, his (the gangbanger) belly shakes.

Hiatus (Part #1)

1. DiNozzo Michael Weatherly says, "I have a better chance at hooking up with Jessica Alba than these guys have at infiltrating Sealift." Weatherly co-starred with Alba in the series Dark Angel (2000), and the pair were also briefly engaged to be married.
2. First appearance of 'Mike Franks'.
3. This marks the first appearance of Darby Stanchfield as Shannon Gibbs, and much about Gibbs's family history becomes apparent through flashbacks although it is not spelled out until the second NCIS: Hiatus (Part #2) (2006) episode.
4. Aloma Wright, who plays the admit nurse, also plays a nurse in the TV show Scrubs (2001).
5. The ship aboard which Gibbs is injured is allegedly berthed on the East Coast, but in several location shots on the ship's deck the east, or San Diego end of the Coronado Bay Bridge is clearly visible.
6. Final appearance of Ruth Cohen who died on August 23, 2008 of a heart attack at the age of 78.