1.16: "Bête Noire"

by Mindy

A terrorist infiltrates NCIS headquarters, coming in within a body bag, and holding Ducky and Gerald hostage in the autopsy room.

Upstairs and completely oblivious, Kate and Tony are logging evidence from a recent case and casually discussing nightmares. Kate has never had one, whereas Tony has a list of neuroses to choose from. The comedy continues up in the bullpen, with Gibbs’ estrangement from the technology he has to put up with in order to do his job. Kate’s thinking of things before him and Tony’s offering to teach him stuff – it’s not a good day in Gibbs’ world.

The intruder downstairs makes them lock the autopsy room and put a signal outside the door that an infectious autopsy is in progress so no one may enter. He demands that Ducky begin the autopsy on Qassam, a terrorist that Gibbs had shot and makes him get all the forensic evidence back from Abby that relates to the case.

Abby has recently had a nightmare about autopsy and can’t make herself go down there. Not finding Gibbs or Tony in the bullpen, she confides in Kate and enlists her help. Kate is mildly suspicious, but takes the box of evidence down. She acts normally when talking to Ducky trhough the glass doors, trying to gauge if anything’s wrong but Ducky practically convinces her that everything’s fine.
          “I beat my phobia,” she shrugs as a last ditch effort.
          “Well done – Abby,” Ducky responds and she knows something’s off. She leaves the evidence box and is turning to go (presumably to alert Gibbs and get back up) when the gunman spots her gun under her clothes and corners her before she can get away.

He has her lie face down on one of the tables and frisks her. Her shoes are off and he has her weapon.
          “Special Agent Caitlin Todd,” he reads from her badge: “Any good with gun, Caitlin?”
          “Give it back and I’ll demonstrate,” Kate spits.
          “Mmm,” he hums, interestedly: “Ever fire it in anger?”
          “I would love to right now,” she mutters darkly.

He allows her to roll over and asks if she shot Qassam -- Kate refuses to answer. Ducky tells him it was Gibbs that shot the man and Kate protests protectively. But she doesn’t know that without the cooperation he wants, the gunman intends to shoot Gerald in one of his ball and socket joints. He has Ducky explain the rules if the game, including that they must not try to trick him -- and then he points out that Ducky tried to do that by calling Kate “Abby”. And for this he aims his gun at Gerald and shoots. Ducky goes to his aid and Kate gasps in shock as Gerald collapses bleeding from his shoulder.

Meanwhile upstairs, Gibbs and Tony have figured something’s going on in autopsy, call in backup and get down there to check it out. “We got a hostage situation, don’t we, Boss?” asks Tony nervously and Gibbs actually smiles. (Freak)

He stands look out, as Gibbs calls autopsy and speaks to Ducky, pretending nothing’s wrong and trying to get as much info as possible. The terrorist listens over the speaker phone. They insert a camera into the room, getting a shot of the man’s face before, he spots it and shoots it, knowing that they’re now on to him. The building is evacuated and HRT called in. The gunman tells Kate that they’ll soon be calling to negotiate their release but she tells him that they don’t negotiate with terrorists.
          “Caitlin,” he says: “when you know me better you won’t call me that.”
          “I have no intention of getting to know you better,” she replies hotly.
          He pauses: “Are you sure?”
Kate stares at him, hatefully for a long moment and only when she blinks does some doubt show in her eyes.

Upstairs, they stall giving him the evidence he demanded from Qassam's home, in order to find out what is so important about it. Abby tests everything and finds that he was carrying (in a nose spray) small pox virus that he no doubt intended to release at the base he was working on. The man downstairs is trying to cover up this plot. The negotiator tries to talk with him, but he just demands the evidence.

While he is distracted, Kate spots a scalpel and picks it up.
          “No,” Ducky whispers at her, urgently: “He wants you to try.”
He approaches her, seeing the knife in her hand and smiling indulgently.
          “Doctor Mallard thinks you were daring me to pick up this knife,” she says.
          “The proper term is a dissecting tool,” he corrects her.

She accuses him of trying to find reasons to shoot Gerald and when he just laughs at her, she takes a swing at him with the knife. He blocks her easily and twists her arm behind her back, pulling her up against him. He draws his weapon and trains it on Ducky warningly. Kate struggles a bit against him and the knife falls from her hand.
          “I have no intention of shooting Gerald again, Caitlin,” he tells her, then leans in to whisper against her cheek: “I did, however, want to see…if I was right about you…”
          She stops squirming and levels him with a death glare: “Next time, I’ll be quicker,” she promises.
          “Oh, don’t you wonder why you weren’t now?” he purrs.
          “Ah, could you give me a go?” asks Ducky from the sidelines, to which the terrorist answers that Ducky would probably kill him without hesitation, but that he would regret it.

The negotiator contacts him again and the terrorist demands to speak with Gibbs. He goes down without his weapon, carrying the evidence that he’d requested and finding no sign of Kate or Ducky in the room. He informs the other man that they are aware of the virus Qassam was carrying, what his intent was and what he is there to cover up.

The terrorist asks him about shooting Qassam and says he must be a good shot.
          “I would love to demonstrate,” Gibbs retaliates coolly.
          “Funny,” says the terrorist: “Special Agent Todd said the same thing.”
           “Where is she?” Gibbs asks, trying not to betray his concern: “And the doctor?”
He offers Gibbs a shot at him – slides him a clip and points him towards Kate’s weapon that lies behind him in a box. Gibbs slowly turns his back and loads the gun.
          “Why?” Gibbs asks.
          “Why not?” he replies.

Gibbs turns and they both shoot – all hell breaks loose as HRT swarm in and Gibbs collapses with a round in his shoulder, fuzzily watching someone board the elevator. When he comes to Tony is at his side, Gerald is being wheeled away, and Kate and Ducky are being untied and helped out the freezer. Gibbs goes to the body he shot and turns it over – it’s Qassam, the man he already killed.

Later that night in the darkened bullpen, Tony talks with a preoccupied Kate saying that the terrorist always planned to get shot, to trigger the attack and thereby escape. He was probably wearing a bullet-proof vest, says Tony.
          “He was,” Kate confirms, starting from her reverie: “I felt it.”
          Tony looks up: “You felt it? Well, how close did you get to feel it?”
Kate looks uncomfortable and Tony approaches her, leaning on her desk. She admits defensively that she got close enough to stab him with a knife in her hand but couldn’t.
          “Stockholm syndrome?” Tony guesses gently.
          “You can’t identify with your captor in an hour,” she snaps impatiently.
          “Oh, I dunno,” Tony thinks lightly: “Maybe it’s like love. It can happen—“ he snaps his fingers: “—like that.”
He returns to his desk, casting her concerned and curious looks while Kate sinks back into her reverie, looking confused, frightened and disturbed by the day’s events.

In the autopsy bay, Ducky smiles as he turns out the lights, leaving a content Abby lying on one of the slabs.

In his basement, his wounded wing in a sling, Gibbs sits, devastated, cradling his gun. He looks like he might cry but instead, points the gun, and shoots, landing two slugs in the photo pinned to his wall of the man who infiltrated his domain, endangered his people and somehow escaped.
 

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Crazy Credits

• Tony and Abby both talk about vampires. The hostage-taker is played by Rudolf Martin, who played Dracula twice, once in a historical movie about the real-life count. (Look at what he says about his role as the hostage-taker here.)

• The hostage-taker was most likely clued in to Kate not being Abby before he saw her gun. He finds out Abby is Goth before Kate comes to autopsy. Kate was not dressed in a Goth outfit; she was wearing a pink sweather with a light brown leather blazer over top, visible through the windows in the autopsy room doors. More on the hostage-taker below, from Kip.

• At one point titled "Body Bag".

• from Kip:
  • "Black beast" is a correct translation [for "bête noire"], but "bete noir" is also an expression, meaning: "One that is particularly disliked or that is to be avoided". There are 'bete noires' in this episode--even one or two for the viewers.

  • No, [Gerald] won't [heal quickly]. He's mentioned as being in the hospital in the next episode and a couple of months to recover.

  • The bête noires of the episode:
    Tony's was the first. His 'black beast" was the vampire nightmare.
    Gibbs's was his fear of growing old. Being behind the techno curve.
    Kate's was the hostage-taker and her inability to kill or wound him in her split-second of opportunity.

  • On the hostage-taker:
    The hostage taker is an egotist. A man who obviously thinks he has a charismatic effect on women. And maybe he does. Kate admits she hesitated. Why?

    She doesn't know and the last scene shows that it bothers the h-ll out of her. It has nothing to do with guts and a lot to do with the ability to kill someone you've come to know, even a little and who may be on some level attractive to you.

    Also, taking a bullet for the President can be different from putting one in somebody.

    There are a lot of emotional levels going on in this episode. Twists and turns that it wouldn't surprise me if the audience missed. This won't be the last time we see this unknown hostage taker.

  • About Kate not being able to stab the hostage-taker, a fan asked whether the writers would have written Tony hesitating if he had been in Kate's place:
    If that was the story we were telling and it very well could be, the answer is yes. It also sets Kate up for not wanting to have that happen, again.

    Gibbs was set up in this episode as being a geek when it comes to electronics, as being behind the times, as making a couple of mistakes, as getting old, as letting the bad guy get away...if that had been Kate, I do believe we'd being hearing a female rant about it.