1.01: "Yankee White"

by Mindy

On board Air Force One, The President meets Commander Ray Trap, the new guy assigned to the “football detail” and invites him to have lunch with him, after which the young naval officer drops dead right in front of Agent Kate Todd of the Secret Service.

Gibbs arranges for one of Ducky’s many colleagues to hold the body till he, Tony and Ducky can get there (unlike many other law enforcement agencies, NCIS has no private jet, as Tony bemoans).

The place is swarming with FBI agents by the time they arrive; the lead agent, Fornell, already butting heads with Agent Todd over jurisdiction. Ducky has everyone evacuate the crime scene, and they’re about to steal away with the dead naval officer, plane and all, when Agent Todd storms back in, demanding to know who they are and what the hell they’re up to.

Gibbs shows his NCIS badge and threatens to hijack the plane without her permission, so, after some back and forth, she unhappily hands them the investigation, reluctantly joins Gibbs’ team, and the two warily shake hands. They take off, leaving the FBI on the tarmac, wondering what has happened.

Once in the air, Ducky and Tony begin to process the crime scene, while Agent Todd looks on. Ducky thinks that the Commander may have stroked or suffered a brain aneurysm.

Gibbs investigates the plane, with all the glee of a movie buff (“Yeah, Harrison was sitting right here!!”) as Agent Todd trails behind him, arguing with everything he says. She tells him that Ray Trap only received his Yankee White clearance that day, because the guy who usually had the job, Timothy Kerry, had flu.

Gibbs begins to outline the first of his rules to her. (No1; Never let suspects stay together. No2; Always wear gloves at a crime scene.) When they begin bagging and tagging the remains of the lunch the President had shared with the Commander, she begins to look ill and rushes for the loo. Gibbs runs after her and has her vomit in an evidence bag.
          “Think she’s got what killed the Commander?” asks Tony, when she’s gone to rinse.
Gibbs shakes his head, looking way too concerned for a man who only just met the woman and sits down to wait for her.

Meanwhile, Agent Fornell is on the phone with Todd’s superior, Agent Baer, reporting the stunt that she and NCIS has pulled on them and trying to regain control of the case, which he is eventually granted.

Lying on the couch, Kate Todd is examined by Ducky, as Gibbs watches, and she admits she got a stomach virus from Major Kerry. Ducky asks if they’d worked together recently before realizing that it wasn’t through working together that she caught it.
          “Did you think I was a virgin?” she asks with raised eyebrow.
          “I’d hoped not,” says Ducky and walks away, leaving Gibbs perched on the end of the couch, staring down at her.
          She looks back at him and finally says: “Are you gonna lecture me about sleeping with people you work with?”
          “No,” Gibbs shakes his head and she nods slowly, relieved.

There is a phone call for her and Agent Baer orders her to turn the body over to the FBI. She argues NCIS’ case but despite her vehemence, is put in her place. She apologizes to Gibbs and he tells her “Never say you’re sorry”.

He has anticipated that the FBI would be back and when they land, hands over Tony in a body bag, while he and Ducky make a get away with the dead body. The FBI realize they have a live one when Tony’s cell phone starts to ring. “I guess they found him,” muses Gibbs, on the other end of the phone as Tony is tossed from the vehicle.

Back at NCIS headquarters, Gibbs naps on an adjacent table in the morgue as Ducky sets to work on the body. Abby tests the victim’s food and uniform etc, and offers Tony her futon under a cabinet. In the morning they report to Agent Fornell and Agent Todd that however freakish, the Commander seems to have died a natural death. Agent Fornell seems convinced and leaves.
          “Kate?” sings Gibbs as she is going. He wants to know when the President is returning and if he can come. “Pleeeaase?” he grins winningly.
She stalls but says yes, informing him of their rule – that only Secret Service can carry weapons. So he leaves his behind and follows her out, telling Abby as he goes to keep looking.
          “Wow,” says Abby to Ducky: “Gibbs said ‘please’.”

Kate has drinks with Major Kerry, who admits that he gave tips to Commander Trap when he first arrived about where to find grocery marts and dry cleaners etc. They drink a toast to him and she breaks the news that they must stop seeing each other, for the good of their work. After the meeting, he strokes and dies in his car.

Back aboard Air Force One, she tells Gibbs of their breakup. She says they hadn’t been dating long but that when on the job constantly, how else do you get to know someone?
          “Church,” says Gibbs, straight-faced, turning away with a smug grin as she shoots him a death look.

Still weaving conspiracy theories, Gibbs watches as members of the press take turns to speak with the president – and asks “Katie” to look up all the differences between the current Air Force One and the plane that was evacuated when the ball-carrier died.

He speaks with Tony who tells him of the death of Major Kerry. Abby tells him she discovered poison from an Australian snake laced inside the uniforms of both victims that made it look like a natural death, probably planted by their common dry cleaner. Director Morrow conjectures that the attack has all the markings of Al Queda and that taking out the ball carriers cannot be the final goal.

Gibbs rushes to find Agent Todd and confront her; he shoves her into the lavatory and pulls her gun on her, telling her brutally of the poison and the death of her ex-boyfriend. She looks shocked, begins to cry and hit him and he puts his arms around her briefly, explaining that he had to get her reaction: “Liars can’t pale on cue,” he explains.

Convinced that she is not involved, he fills her in and they figure that the poisoning of the two men was all part of a plot to change planes. The locks on the backup plane are keyed and Gibbs thinks that terrorists intend to get at the armory.

There is a medical emergency in the press cabin, with another man collapsing, but Gibbs says it’s a diversion and directs Kate to cover the President which she does. He retrieves a weapon from the already opened armory and confronts a member of the press heading for the Presidents office. He pulls out a machine gun and starts firing, and Gibbs shoots and kills him.

In the aftermath, Gibbs hears from Baer that Agent Todd resigned because of her inappropriate affair with Kerry. He rushes after her and offers her a job, warning her not to pull the same sort of crap at NCIS -- before getting into a flash car with a flash redhead.

Later, in his basement, he works on his boat, half-listening to Agent Fornell on TV tell how the FBI and Secret Service foiled an assassination attempt on the president, without a mention of the man who saved the day.
 

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Crazy Credits

• Gibbs makes a crack about having seen all of AF29000 in the Harrison Ford movie. It's true, in a sense - they are using the same Air Force One set as Ford does for "Air Force One".

• from Kip:
  • The baseball player mentioned while Gibbs' TV is going has a last name Jackson. If you're thinking of some tie-in to J[ohn] J[ackson, the admiral on "JAG"], the answer is no. Pure coincidence.

  • Two possible reasons [for the lack of cabin pressure change during th shootout].
    One. Like air marshals, the rounds used do not penetrate metal. They are more like buckshot.

    Two. Both AF28000 and AF29000 which are used as Air Force One are armor plated. Take your choice. Either one explains it.

    As for why the terrorist missed. Try bringing up an MKP from under you coat with one hand and firing it accurately in less than one-second.

  • The female EMT [in the teaser]...was a registered EMT and medical advisor to feature films and TV series, with considerable experience. The unit beside her was the latest automatic ACLS system.

  • Meet Gibbs' mysterious redhead! (Full explanation here.)
    [DPB] was directing the pilot and added that as a sudden idea. Heat was developing between the characters of Gibbs and Kate as they filmed. DPB liked the heat, but didn't want it to become a UST kind of thing. Hence the sexy redhead.

• article "More than the sum of its body parts" by David Kronke:
  "Each cast member has specific memories of the scene in which his or her character's place in the series became clear, and it's usually through deviating from the original script. Interestingly, Bellisario agrees with their assessments.

  "In the pilot, set on Air Force One," recalls Alexander, "there was a scene where Kate is sick and Ducky's taking her temperature. The scene was written with her in a chair by a desk, and Gibbs is there. But Don was directing, and as we rehearsed the scene, he asked, 'What would you do?' So I lay down on a couch nearby, and Mark sat on the edge of the couch comfortably, and Don said, 'I kind of like that, let's stay here.'

  "We found a tremendous amount of chemistry between Kate and Gibbs," she continues. "There was this moment between two people - Don let it go, and Mark and I found it. We found in Kate a feistiness to stand up to him, and in Gibbs, something he liked about her - soft and vulnerable yet standing her ground. That was a defining moment; those moments let things breathe." "

• When NCIS first arrives at AF29000 (Air Force One), they trick Kate (Secret Service) and the FBI into getting off the plane so they can take over the crime scene. Later the agency directors fight over who has jurisdiction.

  article No TV Hero Here:
  "As for Harmon's "NCIS" show, Thompson said it gets some things right, including the turf warfare as to who has authority over a crime scene. "But it's mostly entertainment. It's an enjoyable show to watch, a lot of action. But as far as some of their activities and some of their investigations, they don't quite get into some of the things we were doing." "

• BLOOPER: Fornell's name is 'Tom' in the episode. (Baer calls him 'Tom' in their phone conversation.) In later episodes, it becomes 'Tobias.'

• ODDITY: Kate refers to Ducky as "Ducky" after having heard only the local coroner refer to him as "Ducky". She calls him "Doctor" several other times.

• There are at least five levels of security clearance, including confidential, secret, top secret, Yankee White, and a new one identified as "Q". "Yankee White" is special clearance for presidential access.

• For non-American fans: the "football" detail refers to the nuclear football. A military aide to the president carries a briefcase with all the nuclear codes the prez will need. It's called the "football". (No, don't know why it's called that.)

• Steve Bridges (President Bush) often appears on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" impersonating Bush.

• Homicide Detective Andy Kochofis (Asante Jones), who also appears in "Left for Dead", has the same name as the Washington, DC detective who appeared in an episode of "JAG" and was played by Larry Manetti (a veteran of DPB's series "Magnum, PI")
  According to Harriet, Andy Kochofis is an old friend of Bellisario's.

• Richard Anthony Crenna (the Chief Steward) is the son of actor Richard Crenna.

• Joe Spano, who is a recurring guest star playing FBI Agent Tobias C. Fornell, is credited with Mark Harmon in "From the Earth to the Moon"; Gregory Itzin (FBI director Charlie), who also appears in "Seadog", in "The West Wing" episode "Enemies Foreign and Domestic" and also in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"; the Secret Service director Mark (Lawrence Pressman), in "The Deliberate Stranger".