Rosefern

Caitlin "Kate" Todd Profile

profile by DC
I understand that not everyone will agree with the profile here, and that's your right. I asked someone I thought could do it well and fairly and take into account best what has happened Seasons 1 and 2. So that's that.
Thanks to the fans and the boards who helped clarify episode titles. I have added them into the profile.

Kate's the straight man, the most normal person on the team. Some consider that the reason she is most expendable; it is instead the reason she is most necessary. She is a point of relatability for many fans, and her normality only accentuates the others' quirks.

Kate embodies every normal person in the world and every reaction that people in general feel when faced with a whole team of oddballs. Someone said she was the humanity of the show, and it's more than just heart. It was her natural, normal attitude that accentuated the others' oddities.

Basics
Born: 1973-1974
Died: 24 May 2005, buried in Indiana ["Kill Ari, Part II"].

(Director Tom Morrow endorsed Gibbs' recommendation to award her posthumously the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her picture was in the Washington Post and the article said she had been killed by a terrorist ["Kill Ari, Part I", "Mind Games"].)

When Kate was a junior, she went to Panama City on spring break and won a wet tee-shirt contest. The picture is labelled 1994 ["Bikini Wax"]. She takes the usual age progression for college and believes a junior will be about 20 [Conspiracy Theory].

Assuming she likewise was about 20, possibly 21 when she went on spring break, she would have been born 1994 - 20 = 1974 or 1973 (if she were 21).

Family: three "psychotic" older brothers ["The Bone Yard", "Caught on Tape"] and a sister who lives in Miami, Florida whose calls she does not like to return ["Enigma"]. Mother is alive (if the woman Abby speaks to ["Kill Ari, Part II" is Kate's mother) and wonders all the time why she's not married ["Caught on Tape"], but no indication on her father.

She has a cousin named Maureen Ingalls who lives at 620 Niagara Street in Alexandria, Virginia ["Left for Dead"]

Appearance

shoulder-length brown hair, sometimes worn in curls; large dark brown eyes. Not very tall, very square shoulders, and very pretty.
a righty [e.g. "Seadog", "Twilight"]. Throws and bats with her dominant right hand, but she golfs left-handed, like Gibbs' second wife ["Eye Spy"].
Kate dresses quite appropriately for work--long pants and a blouse, and often knee-length skirts (often in suits). She shows up for her first work day at NCIS in a suit and heels ["Hung Out to Dry"]; her dress code relaxes slightly later, and she likes it relaxed ["Seadog"]. She sleeps in a University of Southern California basketball jersey ["Minimum Security"]...and gets an awful case of bedhead when she wakes up ;) ["Missing", "Twilight"].
Kate may or may not actually own the scary white boots and huge hoop earnings she wore to the DNA clinic ["The Bone Yard"] and the white dress she wore to go "club hopping" ["Pop Life"]. She has a grossly ugly hat ["Eye for an Eye"].
sometimes wears a crucifix ["Left for Dead"] and many times, small (work-friendly) earrings. (She keeps a pooka shell necklace, a gift from her grandmother, in her purse [ "Missing"].) She wore a small pearl necklace once ["Yankee White"].
has a tattoo, supposedly on her rear, which she got when she was drunk and out with Abby, which may be why she knows where and what it is ["My Other Left Foot", "Kill Ari, Part I"].
We can't be sure what it is. She tells Tony it's a rose, but earlier she told him it was a butterfly, so we can't be sure she told him the truth the second time. Gibbs says it isn't a rose, and her response is *not* "It *is* a rose" but to deny Gibbs knows what it is, so again we can't be sure it is a rose. To throw another twist in, Abby tells Tony she knows about Kate's tattoo (where it is). When Gibbs tells them it's not a rose, however, Abby just grins and nods at an embarrassed Kate and doesn't help her friend clarify where or what it is (and thus proving Gibbs doesn't know). Considering the situation, however, Gibbs were probably teasing Kate--so we cannot be sure about the tattoo ["My Other Left Foot"].

Names and Aliases

Her name is Caitlin Todd. Her nickname in all official releases is spelled "Kate"--not Cait, Cate, Cayt, etc.
She is sometimes referred to as "Caitlin" (sometimes by Ducky and nearly always by Ari) and most often as "Kate."
She has been called "Katie" twice: first by Gibbs, during the Air Force One case, when he asks her to give him all the specifics on the two planes which are AF1 ["Yankee White"], and the second time by Tony, who is rubbing it in that he can sleep and do research at the same time ["Eye for an Eye"].
Secret Service codename "Rosefern" ["Yankee White"].
undercover work and aliases:
She played a Marine with the rank of captain, the commanding officer to Gunnery Sergeant Alvin Thomas (played by Gibbs) in the Alvarez murder case ["One Shot, One Kill"] and Lulu, a talent scout and Tony's partner, when investigating a singer ["Pop Life"].
Less officially, Tony (originally supposed to be McGee) and Kate posed as a crazy couple at a DNA clinic so that Kate could photograph a copy of a suspect's DNA records in the mobster case ["The Bone Yard"].

Miscellaneous Trivia

She takes the normal solution to colds: hot tea and honey ["SWAK"]. She has gotten sick a few times, usually with colds or the flu ["Sub Rosa", "SWAK", "Yankee White"].
Her home has two bedrooms; she refuses to give her spare bedroom to Tony ["Left for Dead"].
talks loudly on the phone ["My Other Left Foot"].
bad singer. :) ["Heartbreak"]
knows how to use chopsticks fairly well and tells Tony (who's struggling) that he won't be able to impress a girl without learning how to use them ["One Shot, One Kill"].
hates it when people drive fast, although she doesn't get car sick. She usually doesn't go over ten miles over the limit ["My Other Left Foot", "Missing"].
Never had a nightmare, at least not until the hostage incident ["Bête Noire"]; definitely has a nightmare the next year in which Ari kills her protectee, Gibbs ["Twilight"].
carries protein bars on her because she doesn't always have time to eat ["Left for Dead"].
a good actress, at least in Gibbs' opinion ["Eye Spy"].
hated dolls as a child ["One Shot, One Kill"].
She is quite good at guessing ages ["Split Decision"].
adopts David Runion (deceased)'s little dog and decides to name it "Toni" (I figure it's the girly spelling since Gibbs points out to her it's female) because it growls at and doesn't like Tony. Abby helps her take care of the dog ["Caught on Tape"]. She thinks shih-tzus are little and annoying, and so Tony uses it to annoy her by pretending he has a shih-tzu named Kate ["Chained"].
She doesn't consider herself all that knowledgeable on movies and TV, and she doesn't recognize "The King of Cool" or Stringfellow Hawke from "Airwolf" ["The Truth is Out There", "SWAK", "Dead Man Talking"].
She is, however, fairly conversant in contemporary pop culture and knows "Punk'd," "Bounce," and "Pirates of the Caribbean" ["The Truth is Out There," "The Curse", "Engima"]. She sees no appeal in horror movies, unlike Tony, who loves them ["A Weak Link"].
Her taste in movies runs closer to Gibbs'. Both have seen "Three Days of the Condor" and she accurately identifies Alan Ladd in Gibbs' reference to "Shane" when Tony can't ["Eye Spy", "Minimum Security"].
She likes the Red Sox ["The Truth is Out There"] but hasn't heard of Yogi Berra ["The Good Samaritan"].
really addicted to her PDA and quite proficient with it [e.g. "Marine Down"].
very good at sketching faces and has done four drawings: two serious pictures of Gibbs and Tony ["Seadog", "Twilight", respectively] and two caricatures of Abby and Tony ["Marine Down"]. She has done drawings for two cases: one of a fake Marine colonel and one of the woman who was involved with a missing Marine ["Marine Down", "Missing"].
Her weekend is spent doing bills, laundry, shopping, vacuuming ["A Weak Link"]. She hates living or working in a pigsty ["Witness"].
Kate is quite a healthy eater and only breaks that for the occasional lollipop ["Eye Spy"] or when Gibbs offers her gum ["Yankee White", "My Other Left Foot"]--and coffee, if one counts that as anything. She refuses ice cream and donuts; she likes to keep her belt notched where it is ["Sub Rosa", "A Weak Link", "Eye Spy"], but makes an occasional allowance for ice cream on a date ["Doppelgänger"]. She also thinks cold pizza in the morning is disgusting ["Missing"]. She drinks coffee with milk and sweetner and gets hers from DC Bean (in the episode, we learn that Gibbs does *not* get his coffee from the same "caffeine dealer"--his is two blocks away) ["Reveille"].
She is a good baker, though, and bakes for her fellow agents ["Pop Life"].

Family and Friends
Kate is Catholic ["The Immortals"] and probably grew up in a Catholic family--she went to Catholic school for twelve years ["Forced Entry"], which may have been where she had four years of Latin ["Lt. Jane Doe"].

She has 3 older brothers and a sister in Florida she doesn't like to talk to ["The Bone Yard", "Enigma"]. Her family was not well off and she worked every day ["Black Water"].

It may be her family background and her religious upbringing have an effect on the way she views things. She respects priests ["A Weak Link"] and also has a positive view of marriage, pointing out to a doubtful Tony that men live longer when they're married ["Witness"]. She values loyalty in a relationship (she is not impressed by Tony's comment about his ex-girlfriend being mad when the ex found out he was dating someone else) ["Enigma"] and considers "taken" (including married) men strictly off limits ["Caught on Tape"].

Many of her friends are from the Secret Service, and thus are men; she is often as good friends their wives as she is with her coworkers, like her friends Deb and Rick. She has no problem hanging out with them, with or without a date ["Caught on Tape"]. When she has to try to get information out of the Secret Service, she turns to her friend Marcy ["Seadog"].

She has to have a couple of female friends, however, because after Tony says that women talk a lot to each other, she retorts that that is the reason why none of her friends will go out with him ["Conspiracy Theory"]. She and Abby seem to be friends outside of work.

As is the usual case with the show, we see Kate's significant others rarely, but despite her claims of having no life ["One Shot, One Kill", "The Truth is Out There"], she has an active social life outside of NCIS. She was dating Maj. Timothy Kerry, who carried the nuclear football, at the time we meet her. She breaks up with him because she feels their relationship will distract her from her job ["Yankee White"]. She has dated a surgeon ["My Other Left Foot"], a Dwayne ["Dead Man Talking"] and a Harrison ["Forced Entry"].

The only second date we see is when Kate goes out with a date with Thomas MacAllister after he is cleared of his brother's murder ["Black Water"]. It seems to have been a one date thing, because two episodes later she went on a date with Steven Adler, Tony's fraternity brother ["Meat Puzzle"]. Before her death, she breaks up with an unnamed lawyer who didn't take care of his personal hygiene ::cringe:: ["Twilight"].

She feels no need to share what happened on her dates and is particularly upset when she finds out both Tony and Abby know about one of her dates ["My Other Left Foot"]. When Tony tells Gibbs Steve Adler is Kate's boyfriend, her immediate response is to deny that Adler's her boyfriend ["Meat Puzzle"].

A man in the Agricultural Department and a "feeb" in mail fraud both hit on Kate, and she uses the latter one to her advantage ["Reveille", "Bikini Wax"].

Background on Kate
Her upbringing no doubt has some bearing on how she views money. She has no problem talking about salaries; my guess is that having grown up average but is highly confident otherwise, she doesn't see salary as any indication of ability and so doesn't care about it. She is entirely unimpressed and thinks it unprofessional to talk about how much one pays for a shirt and points out to Tony that Gibbs would never do that ["The Truth is Out There", "Bikini Wax"]. Her own pay is roughly ; she spent a month's pay on a Prada purse ["Dead Man Talking"].

She seems to have had at least a semi-party , fun college past (maybe between the Catholic school and her year in law school) which was left behind when she graduated; she seems to have gotten it out of her system. Her dates now are mild by comparison (meeting at a nice restaurant for a drink, dessert, art galleries and ice cream ["Yankee White", "Black Water", "Meat Puzzle"]. Moreover, her reaction to having her college spring break picture discovered is one of complete embarrassment; Tony uses it quite well as blackmail because she doesn't want anyone seeing it ["Conspiracy Theory"], though this may have something to do with her determination to gain respect as a peer and equal among her male colleagues.

Kate spent a year in law school and hated it. She doesn't deny it when Abby says she just likes strapping on a gun ["Hung Out to Dry"].

She is a fast learner ["Hung Out to Dry"], and it takes her just a year to be almost entirely knowledgeable in the plethora of Navy acronyms ["Lt. Jane Doe"]. Although she says botany was her worst subject, she seemed to have done fine in biology ["My Other Left Foot", "Marine Down", "Hung Out to Dry"] and shows evidence of having been a good student in general.

She was trained as a profiler ["Sub Rosa"], something which is used quite frequently to help the team. (She's also good at guessing ages, as mentioned above.)

Kate used to be Secret Service and is on the presidential protection detail when we meet her (her boss is Secret Service Agent William Baur, codename "Slammer") and at the end of the Air Force One case she has resigned. Gibbs offers her a new job at NCIS right away ["Yankee White"]. Her first case at NCIS is the death of a Marine jumper ["Hung Out to Dry"]. (She remains quite proud of having been on the presidential detail ["The Bone Yard", "Terminal Leave"] and has a picture of her and the president in her apartment ["Left for Dead"].

Kate's Attitude and Personality; Kate as an Agent at NCIS
Kate is a typical adult. She has lost that sense of "wide-eyed wonder" and fascination with the world both Abby and Tony still often display; she never gets overly excited about anything, except once about going to dive on a nuclear sub ["Sub Rosa"]. She is quite realistic (especially about her position as a woman in a predominantly male agency).

She has lost that fascination with the city, too, and loves small towns for the very reason that it provides peace and quiet and a simpler way of life. "A place where people know you by name? No Blockbuster or Starbucks on every corner? What's not to like?" ["My Other Left Foot"].

Kate is very reponsible, especially in terms of her job. When she's sick, he offers to take a phone call from her boss for her; her sense of responsibility won't let her do it. "I'd have to be dead." Gibbs is impressed. Being an agent is a part of her--even when she's on a date with Kerry, she kicks into 'agent' mode and probes him about the victim. She is also able to lay aside personal feelings temporarily to help Gibbs solve the case ["Yankee White"]. She confronts Gibbs when he implies that she is letting her personal beliefs color her judgment, retorting that he hired her for her experience and her abilities ["The Immortals"]. It doesn't take her long to get acquainted with all the different types of seacraft the Navy uses; even Gibbs comments on the fact that she has done her homework ["The Immortals", "Left for Dead"].

Kate breaks up with her boyfriend because she knows it will distract her from her job protecting the President and later resigns from the Secret Service, considering it "the right thing to do"--Gibbs is probably the only one who knows the full story (and Ducky part). When asked why she left, however, she is embarrassed about mentioning it ["Yankee White", "Left for Dead"].

She had to rewrite her first report for Gibbs twice because she didn't spell-check ["Witness"].

At the office, she usually sleeps on the floor under her desk ["Missing", "Twilight"].

She sleeps with a gun under her pillow, which Tony finds abnormal but which makes Gibbs proud ["UnSEALed"].

Kate is in charge of inventory ["Mind Games"].

The Secret Service has taught her to be extremely observant, and she has an astute ability to remember finer details of faces, which she puts into her drawings ["Reveille", "Marine Down"]. She has had profiler training ["Sub Rosa"] and goes on the good majority of the interviews. More than once Gibbs asks her specifically to profile someone ["One Shot, One Kill", "Reveille", "The Good Wives' Club"], and she does it accurately; quite often, though, it just comes in handy in general, such as when her impromptu profiling of Curtin--identifying that he has changed direction in his search for his wife's killer--gives the case new direction ["UnSEALed"].

It is perhaps for this reason that, although she is the sole Secret Service agent on Air Force One and a junior agent, she is able to hold her own against NCIS. She alone figures out for herself (the FBI has to be told) that Gibbs and Ducky are not who they say they are and also figures out Gibbs' attempt to take off with the body, although she misses how exactly he does it ["Yankee White"].

She is well aware that she is a woman in what is a predominantly male profession and thus is very sensitive about being accepted as an equal for her abilities. When Gibbs summarily dismisses her during the Air Force One case, she retorts that she earned her jockstrap--and she'll grow whatever she needs. "She's got balls." ["Yankee White"] Several times she asks Gibbs if there is a reason he gives assignments the way he does, and the first time she wants to know if it's because she's a rookie at NCIS or if she's female ["Seadog"]; she confronts Gibbs over not being allowed on a sub because she is female ["Sub Rosa"]. Her reaction to her college spring break picture might also be from a desire to win the respect of her male peers as their equal and not as a "hot chick."

This might also be just a part of the reason why she is intensely private and wants to keep her private life private. Her weekend plans leak out once, and Tony emailed the entire office about it ["Hometown Hero"].

She is not a bad shot with her Sig Sauer but is a cautious one, and for that Gibbs says she needs to relax her shoulders when she shoots ["Marine Down"]. She handles a shotgun quite well, too: Abby says once that Kate "unsealed our SEAL [suspect]" on the first shot from her shotgun ["Twilight", "UnSEALed"].

Kate also has quite a sense of humor, which pops up most often in a lightly sarcastic, often witty manner.

She is not without weaknesses. Gibbs manages to take her gun from her, as does a Navy SEAL ["Yankee White", "UnSEALed"]; she is taken hostage twice (both times, Ari knew she was coming) ["Bête Noire", "Reveille"]. She also trusts a victim of a live burial a little too much ["Left for Dead"].

Kate still has a feminine side. She often wears skirts to work and loves purses ["Dead Man Talking", "Eye for an Eye"]. Although she is insistent at first that she pay for her part of lunch, when Ducky prevails about paying, she gives him an affectionate kiss on the cheek and thanks him. She doesn't have a problem with Gibbs buying her coffee, either ["Reveille"].

Cockroaches don't faze her, but snakes do ["One Shot, One Kill", "Twilight"]. She hates helicopters ["Vanished"] and hates the bumpy planes the Marines use ["Marine Down"]. Strangely, as Tony pokes fun at her about, she wants to throw up when she goes up to learn how to rappel. She ends up liking it, but not before emitting a girly scream ["A Weak Link"].

She's never opened an X-rated site, although she has seen what Spike Steel looks like ["Reveille", "Caught on Tape"]. Tony is sure neither she nor Gibbs have any "funky side" ["Pop Life"].

She is usually careful with the other sex. Of Gibbs, Tony, and Kate (McGee only having been there one season as a regular), Kate has been the most cautious about not getting involved with persons of interest. Even the ever cautious and cold Gibbs is taken in thoroughly by a murderess ["Doppelgänger"], if one does not count his flirting with a POI in the Dorn case ["My Other Left Foot"]. She is actually sent to meet Thomas MacAllister by Gibbs, and it isn't until he is cleared and the case entirely solved that she actually goes with him on a date ["Black Water"].

She perhaps is not as aware of how attractive she is (maybe because she focuses so much on trying not to be seen as just a pretty face). She asks Tony once if she's attractive ["Caught on Tape"], and when Gibbs needs to distract MacAllister, both he and Tony seem to have no doubts that MacAllister will stay yes to her invitation, although she does. When she dresses up, she asks Tony's opinion; she's shocked by his definition of "hot" and reverts back to her original appearance when Gibbs tells her it looked better the way she had it ["Black Water"].

Kate has a soft side. She feels particular sympathy for Lt. Schilz's widow and is determined to clear the late Schilz of the charges against him so she and their daughter can receive benefits ["The Curse"]. She also becomes a little too close to a woman who is buried alive. Her instincts are correct--the woman had committed no crime, but she and the others don't anticipate the fantastic blow-up the woman commits at the end ["Left for Dead"]. She also feels "creepy" about playing a new widow in order to see if that widow was the one who killed her husband ["Eye Spy"]. She is usually gentle in tone when talking to widows.

She accidentally shoots an ensign who at the time was a murder suspect. When it turns out he is innocent, she is distraught and feels extremely guilty ["Heartbreak"].

She also has a gentleness about children. She isn't happy about getting assigned to babysit, but when she is with Kevin Curtin, she doesn't talk down to him ["UnSEALed"], and she seems to do well with teenagers, too, confident and older enough to win their respect without feeling like an old grump ["Terminal Leave"]. Sandy Watson's plight brings out Kate's most maternal instincts, and once she confronts Gibbs over making Sandy listen to a live feed of her captured mother, fearing it will traumatize the child even more. When she sees Sandy reunited with her parents, it prompts Kate to voice her own desire to have children someday ["See No Evil"].