We’re back on the summer classic NCIS recap couch, but before we dive into this week’s gem from the past, I want to send out a HUGE thank-you and shout-out to all of you who raced out and snagged your copy of my brand new release, Blue Hollow Falls. Thanks to your efforts, it landed on BookScan’s bestseller list! Virtual celebratory drinks on me! (I’m such a big spender like that.)
Mark Harmon as Gibbs in a screenshot from the NCIS season two episode Lt. Jane Doe. NCIS airs on CBS.
OK, OK, so now that we have adult beverages and hopefully a big bowl of popcorn, let’s settle in for this week’s classic episode. We’re going all the way back to season two with an episode where Ducky takes a turn in the spotlight. This is episode four, Lt. Jane Doe.
We open late at night with two young seamen home on leave, excited to see their significant others. Driver Sailor spies a rest room beside an athletic facility and pulls over due to nature calling. Passenger Sailor is none too thrilled with the delay. Driver Sailor promises to hurry, explains he doesn’t want his first words to his sweetie being “I have to use the head.” Props to him for that. DS discovers the bathroom door is locked, so heads over behind the bleachers to take care of things…and that’s when he spots the dead girl, laying under the bleachers.
Cue amazing opening theme song and credits! (Hello, Special Agent Kate! We miss you!)
Mark Harmon as Gibbs in a screenshot from the NCIS season two episode Lt. Jane Doe. NCIS airs on CBS.
Kate and Tony enter the Bull Pen of Orangey Goodness with Kate giving Tony a hard time for not returning the overpayment of change he received after they got their drive through meal. He lists a number of reasons why he didn’t, but Kate tells him karma will get him and he’ll wish he had. Enter Gibbs with the announcement of the dead body found at Norfolk and it’s grab your gear time. Tony asks Gibbs if he believes in karma. Gibbs responds that he’s had three wives. Heh. Grinning, Tony stands aaand immediately dumps his drink all down the front of his pants. Heh.
At the scene of the crime a superefficient young petty officer has already marked off the scene, marked her steps, done preliminary work to ID the body, and interviewed the two sailors who found the body. Turns out SuperEfficient Petty Officer also knows McGee. Apparently the two dated. Then maybe McGee didn’t call her back? Ruh roh, McGee. Tsk tsk. Gibbs isn’t forthcoming with the praise for the PO’s efforts, and when Kate comments on that, Gibbs makes it clear that if the PO had been doing a good job, she’d have waited for the ME to arrive.
David McCallum as Ducky in a screenshot from the NCIS season two episode Lt. Jane Doe. NCIS airs on CBS.
Speaking of which, Ducky and Palmer enter the scene. We learn Ducky is heading to London for the Society of Medical Examiners conference, an organization that is so old it was founded by Leonardo Da Vinci right about the time he started painting the Mona Lisa. The things we learn from NCIS! Seems he won a coin toss and the losing doctor will be filling in during his absence. That should go well. Ducky kneels over the body of the young woman, whose shirt has been opened, panties around her ankles, eyes open in that dead stare. And all I could think was that poor actress had to lay there, splayed that way with people talking all around her, kneeling for a closer look, likely for hours while this was filmed. The things we do for our occupations …
Ducky concludes that the abrasions on the neck were likely due to strangling, and the ones on her thighs would be consistent with rape, but says that his stand-in, Dr. Guterman, will be the one to confirm the findings. Tony asks if he can let the sailors go on and meet their girlfriends and is given the OK. Tony comments to Kate that they’d been away from their significant others for over six months. He lets out a whistle, saying the longest he was without the company of a woman was 11 days, six hours. Kate comments that she’s surprised he has that piece of information. “It’s a gift,” Tony says, quite seriously. Kate and I both shake our heads. Back to Ducky and Gibbs, Ducky determines time of death to be somewhere between 11 p.m. to one in the morning. He then gleefully gets up, excited to go catch his flight to the city of London, which McGee, and we, learn isn’t exactly London at all. As we ponder how that works out, Gibbs comments there is no ID on the body and calls her Lt. Jane Doe. This gets Ducky’s attention and he turns to look back at the body one more time. He checks the back of the victim’s neck, then tells Palmer that he wants the body back at the morgue the moment the scene is done being processed, then, clearly disturbed, leaves the scene. He also leaves McGee and us hanging on that whole “the city of London isn’t London” thing.
Back in Ducky’s Digs, Palmer enters and wonders why Ducky isn’t on a plane, and wow, Show, give me some warning, will ya? Lt. JD is opened up on the table like a turkey being dressed for Thanksgiving. Seriously, I hope she got combat pay for this. Me, I need to go look at cute baby duck pictures for a minute to cleanse my brain. (We get that’s she’s dead. We get this is an autopsy. We don’t need the gory optics. OK, OK, so I don’t need them. I’m a wuss, a wimp, a sally. I admit it. Freely. GAH.) Ducky has opted for a later flight so he can do the postmortem himself and he’s cranky.
Michael Weatherly as DiNozzo in a screenshot from the NCIS season two episode Lt. Jane Doe. NCIS airs on CBS.
Over in Abby Lab, she takes a call from Ducky, who tells her that Palmer is on his way with fingerprints, semen, and blood for analysis and he’s a little demanding that Abby will make it next on her to-do list. He shoos Palmer out of the morgue, then goes back over to Lt. JD’s body. He pushes her hair aside, then uses a magnifying glass to look at the symbol that was carved into the back of her neck. Ruh roh. Methinks Ducky has seen this particular ritual performed before. He says, “You’re back, aren’t you? You bastard.” So, yeah. And he’s not happy about it. Fade to an angry Ducky black and white.
We come back to Gibbs entering Abby Lab in time to see McGee rewiring Abby’s hotbox. Yeah, on hearing this, Gibbs had about the same look as you do at the moment. OK, so maybe he wasn’t as amused. At all. McGee starts to explain about core elements and rhythmic pulses, and yeah. Stop while you’re behind, McGee. Abby explains McGee is helping speed up her computer so she can get a hit on the fingerprint search that much faster, so as to get Ducky off her back. Concerned that Ducky hasn’t left yet, Gibbs exits, heads down to Ducky’s Digs. There he meets Palmer, who tells him not only didn’t Ducky catch a plane, but that he completed the autopsy solo, wouldn’t let Palmer assist, took much longer than usual, then headed out to go to Norfolk. Gibbs exits again as Palmer is still talking.
We see Ducky in a lab storage room, getting a blood sample out of the fridge, sealing it in a bag, then leaving, taking the sealed sample with him. Over in the Bull Pen, we get more Tony-Kate repartee, this time about lengthy bathroom breaks, and learn Tony went back to the takeout place to return the excess change he received. Turns out the cute blonde who waited on them wasn’t there, so he didn’t return it after all. He did pick up a cup of coffee to help assuage the savage Gibbs when he learns they’ve got diddly on the case. Enter Gibbs and Tony leaps to fetch him the cup of coffee … aaaand spills it all down the front of himself. Oh, Tony. You know what they say about karma.
Sean Murray as McGee and Pauley Perrette as Abby in a screenshot from the NCIS season two episode Lt. Jane Doe. NCIS airs on CBS.
Unfortunately for Kate and Tony, the coffee-less Gibbs is not happy to hear that they’ve got no leads. They haven’t been able to find any Navy personnel marked as missing, and nothing yet on the fingerprints. Enter Abby and McGee with the unfortunate news that the database returned not a single match on Lt. JD’s fingerprints. Gibbs doesn’t understand how there could be no match given the vic is a Navy lieutenant. Enter Ducky, who informs them that Lt. JD isn’t a lieutenant at all. He hands Abby the sample he brought back and asks her to run matches on it with the semen found in Not-Lt. JD.
Gibbs wants to know if Ducky has been holding out on him and a dejected Ducky confesses that he has, then slowly exits the Bull Pen. Well, shoot, no one wants to see a dejected Ducky. Go after him, Gibbs!
Ducky goes down to the morgue, slides out the drawer with Not-Lt. JD and she turns her head, implores him to tell her family what happened to her. Spooky moment! Enter Gibbs who wants to know the rest of the story. Ducky shows Gibbs the trident symbol carved into JD’s neck, and admits it is not the first one he’s seen. He apologizes for holding out but said he wanted to complete the autopsy before saying anything. Gibbs isn’t happy, but Ducky says he wanted forensic evidence, that the appearance of another symbol, by itself, wasn’t enough for him. Gibbs reminds him they’re a team, and team members don’t hold out. Ducky agrees, says it was unprofessional of him.
Mark Harmon as Gibbs and David McCallum as Ducky in a screenshot from the NCIS season two episode Lt. Jane Doe. NCIS airs on CBS.
He tells Gibbs about the original case. It happened back in 1994, the year women were first allowed on combat ships. The woman was found by a sailor jogging on the base. Found with the same uniform, same symbol carved. Only she wasn’t in the Navy, either. Their profiler at the time thought the killer had dressed his victim in the uniform to fulfill some part of his fantasy or ritual. Ducky assumed the killer served under a female officer. He tells Gibbs that the original agent on the case, now deceased, did every kind of search he could think of, but found no leads on the Jane Doe or the killer. Ducky then goes on to show Gibbs a note found at the scene three days after the body was discovered, left there after the case was processed, precisely where the body had been found. The note reads: I’ll be back. Underneath that is the trident symbol. Only he never came back, until now.
Gibbs asks Ducky why the case is so personal to him. He tells Gibbs how when Da Vinci finished the Mona Lisa, he never gave it to the patron who commissioned the painting. Instead, he carried it with him the rest of his life. Ducky goes into his office and comes out with a box containing the ashes of his original Jane Doe and tells Gibbs he’s been carrying that with him for 10 years, that she is the only victim he hasn’t been able to identify. Gibbs gets a call from Abby telling him the two semen samples are a match. It’s the same killer for both murders. Ducky vows they will not let the killer escape again. Fade to black and white.
Back in the Bull Pen, Ducky apologizes to the rest of the team and is now showing the team the evidence from the first Jane Doe murder and the trident symbols that were carved into the necks of both women. He also shows them the note that was left. Gibbs tells the team that he’s having their current crime scene surveilled, in case the killer repeats himself with a note. He then explains that the first murder was ten years back, when women were first allowed on combat ships, and explains that every division that used a trident symbol was investigated, but no evidence surfaced as to the killer or the victim.
Sasha Alexander as Kate in a screenshot from the NCIS season two episode Lt. Jane Doe. NCIS airs on CBS.
Abby asks about the time lapse between murders, and Kate steps in, says it is unusual for a serial killer to wait so long. She also points out that the two victims are dissimilar in appearance, despite being dressed up in the same uniform. Gibbs says that maybe being female and intoxicated, as both women were, was enough for the killer. He points out that the reason for the time frame is that the killer was likely in jail in the interim, and tasks McGee with looking into service personnel who were incarcerated ten years earlier, and released recently. He tasks Tony with sharing the photo of the newly deceased JD at bars in the vicinity of where she was found, that given her blood alcohol level, it is possible she was in one of them that evening. He tasks Kate with interviewing any of the suspects from the original case who still live in the area. Then he urges Abby to go over the original lab results, and nudges her to get Ducky to help her. One look at Ducky’s morose expression as he looks at the photos of the two women, and Abby is all over it. We get a happy smile from Gibbs as he watches the two exit.
It’s interesting to go back to an early season of this show and watch the team dynamics still in the fledgling stages of bonding and becoming a family. Fun, too.
Tony talks to a quirky, somewhat existential barkeep who doesn’t recognize the photo. I do recognize the actor playing the role, so I’m not sure what that’s all about. Seems like an odd scene on the face of it, with no info to help the case. We’ll bookmark that for later. Over at the crime scene our Petty Officer finds the note under the bleachers. It says: I’m back. And the trident symbol is underneath. Gibbs calls for it to be brought to Abby Lab ASAP and asks Abby to look at the paper type, the ink, the handwriting, all of it. She tells him she’s getting trace evidence from the first note that earlier forensic science wasn’t advanced enough to detect.
Amy Sloan as Cluxton in a screenshot from the NCIS season two episode Lt. Jane Doe. NCIS airs on CBS.
Gibbs pulls in a chief officer who found the first body and was temporarily a suspect, to question him about the current case. Chief Officer asks if the new body had a trident on the neck, then comments on how the killer said he’d be back. Gibbs wants to know how Chief Officer knows that since that info wasn’t released. CO says the investigating agent back then had him write “I’ll be back” with both his left and right hands, and it wasn’t a big leap to figure out why. Gibbs asks where he was two nights ago when his ship docked and he said he stayed on the station with a friend.
We scoot over to the Bull Pen with McGee and Tony as McGee is rushing off to tell Gibbs he has a suspect whose profile fits the timeline for both murders. He was in Norfolk the time of the first murder, assaulted a female officer in the Canadian Navy and did time for that, aaand he just got out recently and is in Norfolk.
Back in interrogation, Gibbs wants the name of the friend, but CO initially refuses. Gibbs presses and we learn that the woman isn’t married, but she is a fellow officer, which is against regulations. Gibbs says he’s not looking to ruin careers, he just wants to know CO’s whereabouts the night of the murder. CO asks if they can speak off the record and Gibbs has Kate, on the other side of the two-way glass, turn off the recording. CO still hesitates, then gives Gibbs the name of a fellow male officer. Ah.
Pauley Perrette as Abby, Amy Sloan as Cluxton and Sean Murray as McGee in a screenshot from the NCIS season two episode Lt. Jane Doe. NCIS airs on CBS.
Meanwhile, no one wants to interrupt Gibbs during an interrogation, so Tony and McGee head out check on this the potential suspect without authorization. Turns out nobody is home at the trailer park. Tony decides to head in and take a look, just so they don’t miss anything. Tony scopes out the place, notes that Harlan will be home soon, due to the Hungry Man dinner in the oven … aaaand proceeds to dump dirty dishes all over himself. “Freaking buck-eighty-five,” he mutters. HA. Karma, she’s such a b-b-b-beast. McGee signals that Harlan is returning and Tony does the comical slip ’n’ slide on the goop in the kitchen. Turns out it’s not Harlan’s place. It belongs to his older brother, who informs the duo that they can’t talk to his brother seeing as how he’s been dead for six weeks. Fade to a disappointed black and white.
Back in the Bull Pen, we learn that Gibbs took a spit swab from the CO and McGee took a hairbrush from Harlan’s big bro, just to rule them out via a DNA test match to the semen found in both victims. Gibbs runs a little roughshod over the team in his impatience to get a decent lead, then sends Tony and Kate to show the photograph to other barkeeps near base gates other than the one they’ve canvassed already.
As they exit, Petty O arrives with the note found at the scene. She explains how she managed to get herself to the DC office via a few hopped personnel rides and Gibbs is impressed enough to allow her to accompany him to the lab with the note after she professes her interest in forensics. We see the paternal smile and know she’s found herself a mentor.
Mark Harmon as Gibbs and Michael Weatherly as DiNozzo in a screenshot from the NCIS season two episode Lt. Jane Doe. NCIS airs on CBS.
Meanwhile, Tony and Kate are barhopping and engaging in the sort of banter you would imagine they’d be. They enter a bar and Tony is completely inappropriate with the barmaid and discussions of the thong bikini he’s certain she wears when sunbathing. Even for Tony, this is uh … no. He apologizes, and Kate stops his interview when she notices a woman in the poster advertising the house band. Our Jane Doe is the drummer. Bingo, JD isn’t a Jane Doe any longer. Tony and Kate want an address. Barmaid wants to know what happened to her. She’s taking it a bit harder than one would expect, in an angry kind of way. Barmaid heads back to get them the address.
In Abby Lab, Petty O and McGee are observing the two note cards as displayed on the screen and conclude they think they were done by the same person. Abby says there are discrepancies, more than would naturally occur in handwriting over a ten-year period, but doesn’t point them out. Petty O watches Abby do a fingerprint test while McGee explains the science. Nothing is found on the note, and finally Petty O excuses herself to head back to Norfolk, while Abby teases McGee about his and Petty O’s probable past hookups.
Back with Tony and Kate, we see the building manager let them into No Longer JD’s apartment. They go in, guns drawn, but find nothing. As in, literally nothing. Other than some basic furniture, everything else has been cleaned out. They call Gibbs who tells them that at least he can give Ducky a name for this victim. He opines that the victim likely knew her killer, hence his cleaning out the place. He tells them to process the apartment and bring everything back to Abby.
Sean Murray as McGee and Mark Harmon as Gibbs in a screenshot from the NCIS season two episode Lt. Jane Doe. NCIS airs on CBS.
In Abby Lab with the entire crew, including Ducky, she rules out Chief Officer, which is no surprise. We learn that the DNA on the first note match the semen DNA for both victims. Unfortunately, there was no DNA on the second note. She did find a match though, from the hair found on Harlan’s hairbrush. That DNA matches the DNA found in both victims. Which is interesting, given the guy has been dead six weeks, complete with death certificate. McGee ponders if the semen found in Victim No. 2 might have been inserted post-mortem. Ducky says the killer could have gotten it the same way he did, from the sample tube at the lab in Norfolk.
So, to recap, we know Harlan killed the first victim, who is still nameless. We have a name for the second victim, but no killer.
Moving on, we’re back up in the Bull Pen watching the security footage of the lab. And we see … Petty O? McGee confesses that while they knew each other back in the day, they never actually dated, because, as it happens, Petty O is gay. Tony and Kate put it together from there. They ID’d the second Jane Doe in a lesbian bar. McGee says that Petty O uses her mother’s name, but her father, as it turns out, was the investigating agent on the original trident case. So she’d know all the details. Petty O is the killer? I so didn’t see that coming. I was waiting for weird barkeep guy to pop back up. Hunh.
Mark Harmon as Gibbs in a screenshot from the NCIS season two episode Lt. Jane Doe. NCIS airs on CBS.
In interrogation, Gibbs tells Petty O that No-Longer-JD was her lover. Petty O asks him if he’s accusing her of being gay and responds that no, he’s accusing her of being a murderer. Meanwhile, on the other side of the glass, Tony is realizing why the barmaid didn’t respond to him. Oh, Tony. For her part, Petty O is playing it very, very calmly, saying Gibbs can’t tell from that tape what, exactly, she’s removing from the evidence locker. Gibbs continues to go through the evidence, and Petty O continues to calmly, and politely, refute him at every turn, saying she didn’t do it. Gibbs explains they matched the semen to the killer and she congratulates him on finding the real killer. He then shows her Harlan’s death certificate, pointing out the date is from before the death of the second victim. Petty O loses it then, swearing and smacking the table. No longer the cool, calm PO. She tries to pull it together in the face of Gibbs’ unrelenting stare.
We shift to Ducky, who is holding the ashes of the first victim, still a Jane Doe. He is at a cemetery and tells the remains that their relationship is going to change, that he has found her a new home, where she will be at peace. “And so will I,” he says, as he hands the box to the curator, who inters the ashes into a crypt vault.
Fade to a final black and white.
Ah, Ducky. The love never ends. Of course, it would have been nice if you’d explained that whole “the city of London isn’t London” thing, but this writer loves to research, so I’ll add that to the list.
The other thing that never ends is my gratitude for all the lovely and kind words you all have taken the time to share with me this summer. I also appreciate the enthusiasm for the contest giveaways. Last time around I put up a signed copy of Blue Hollow Falls along with a fab bookmark charm designed exclusively for the book by The Cotton Thistle. And the winner is? Janice Kroll!!! Come on down, Janice! Drop me a note to donna@donnakauffman.com with your address and your goodies will go out in the mail to you!
The giveaway fun doesn’t stop here. I’ll be back in two weeks, and at that time I’ll be giving away another signed copy of my new release, along with a fab canvas book tote! Perfect for that trip to the beach, or the grocery store, or both! Want in? Drop me a line to donna@donnakauffman.com with “I need a tote! And a copy of Blue Hollow Falls!” in the subject line and you’re in. If you’d care to share any of your thoughts about the classic episodes, or about the upcoming fall season, or my books, or whatever else moves you, please include! I read every note, even if I don’t get a chance to respond to them all.
I’ll be back on July 26 with the next summer classic! Next time we’ll be moving a little forward in the storyline, to season 10 with an episode that gives us a chance to have a little visit with Gibb’s father and enjoy a special guest appearance by Billy Dee Williams. Win-win in my book! I hope you’ll join me on the recap couch again. Adult beverages optional, but I wouldn’t be averse to a little chocolate to go with that popcorn!
See you then!
Donna Kauffman is the USA TODAY bestselling author of 70-plus titles, translated and sold in more than 26 countries around the world. Born into the maelstrom of Washington, D.C. politics, she now lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, thankfully surrounded by a completely different kind of wildlife. You can check that out for yourself and more at www.donnakauffman.com. She loves to hear from her readers (and NCIS viewers!). You can write to her at donna@donnakauffman.com or visit her on Facebook or Instagram.
MORE ON HEA: Read what Donna learned while writing Blue Hollow Falls
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