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FBI Agent Tobias C. Fornell
Played By: Joe Spano
- Fornell: And people say we're bastards?Gibbs: Only because they know us.
- Aloof Ally: Though he does always want to help if he can even when he is likely breaking rules to do so. Even when he is technically an antagonist, he still wants what's best for Gibbs and his team.
- Always Gets His Man: Much like Gibbs, both are famed in story for this.
- Big Eater: Half of his lines during his guest appearance on NCIS: New Orleans is him telling Pride which restaurants he wants to visit and the list of dishes he intends to eat at each one.
- Broken Ace: At the start of the series, he's at the top of his game. When Diane is assassinated, he begins to lose his edge and leans more on Gibbs to be The Confidant. When Emily develops a drug problem, he starts behaving obsessively to stop any drug dealers he can find, to the point of accosting a teen girl about Emily's age an Gibbs has to pretend Fornell is his mentally impaired uncle Ed. Fornell starts talking about retirement to settle down and be more involved in his daughter's life. Then, Emily relapses and dies of an overdose and Fornell has lost everyone he loved, exactly like Gibbs.
- Death Glare: He has one that rivals even the Death Glare of Gibbs himself. In one instance when they did an interrogation together, they get the target to spill the beans in seconds.
- FBI Agent: Obviously. Fornell is the FBI equivalent of Gibbs.
- Harbinger of Impending Doom: Due to being part of a different agency Fornell only shows up when something bad is happening so everyone tends to view his appearance within NCIS headquarters as this.
- Hero of Another Story: Implied for the most part, but we do get glimpses of Fornell's career at FBI. He's their version of Gibbs.
- Like an Old Married Couple:
- This scene from "Short Fuse"
says it best. - Then there's this exchange in the Season 11 premier:
Fornell: You know I'm not going to kiss you goodnight.
Gibbs: What?
Fornell: You're walking me to my car. We breaking up?
Gibbs: If I could, I would. Unfortunately, I trust you. - This scene from "Short Fuse"
- Long Runner: Fornell is in every season except season 17, making it the only season so far he hasn't appeared in. He still makes occasional appearances even after Gibbs stopped appearing on the show.
- The Lost Lenore: His ex-wife Diane, who he was in the process of getting back together with when she died. As it turns out, Diane's death would begin a seasons-long Trauma Conga Line that takes him until Season 15 to really recover from.
- The Missus and the Ex: He and Gibbs are a Gender Flip of this trope. (Though by the time the series starts he's divorced from Gibbs's ex-wife too.)
- Outliving One's Offspring: Much like Gibbs, Fornell also outlived his daughter, who relapsed and overdosed on pills.
- Papa Wolf: When his daughter Emily gets kidnapped by a money lauderer as ransom for the money the team confiscated, Fornell tells him this during the ransom call:Money launderer: [Bishop's] got eight minutes to bring me my money, by herself. Once I'm safely away I'll tell you where your daughter is. She's fine, but if you even think about sending anyone else, I'll know, and your daughter will pay the price.
Fornell: Okay, but just so we're on the same page; if you so much as touch a hair on my daughter's head, so help me God, I will find you, and I will rip the eyes out of your face and shove them so down far your throat that you'll need a proctologist to read the evening paper. - Perp Sweating: Not seen as often, but he's brutal in the interrogation room.
- The Rival: A friendly rival, but a rival.
- Shot in the Ass: Two episodes into season 11, tying back to the last few seconds of the season 10 finale.
- Sixth Ranger: Occasionally, when he shows up.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: In the wake of all the trauma he experienced in later seasons, he begins Season 14 having taken residence in Gibbs' living room, eating all the food in the kitchen, watching endless TV, and wearing Gibbs' bathrobe. Gibbs has made it abundantly clear he'd like Fornell to move out, but Fornell is cheerfully oblivious. After three months of this, Emily tricks him into moving back home by having her entomologist boyfriend seed Gibbs' home with termites. At which point Gibbs moves into his living room while his place gets fumigated.
- Trauma Conga Line: Experiences a drawn out one over several seasons. First his ex-wife is murdered. Then he loses his job after Gibbs exposes that he concealed exonerating evidence on a murder case (of a suspect who later turned out to actually be guilty), then his daughter becomes an opiate addict. And then, just as he thinks he's put his life back together and can retire to Central America, Emily relapses and has a fatal OD.
- Unexplained Recovery:Tony: I thought you were dead.
Fornell: Got better.
Kate: I thought he was dead.
Tony: Got better. - Vitriolic Best Buds: He considers Gibbs his best friend.
CIA Agent Trent (Thomas) Kort
Played By: David Dayan Fisher
- Asshole Victim: Gunned down by the entire main cast of federal agents after supposedly killing one of their own.
- Back for the Dead: And one episode later, is gunned down by every single field agent on Team Gibbs for murdering Ziva. He says it wasn't his intention to have her killed, but at this point no one cares what his motivations are.
- Deep Cover Agent: CIA agent deep inside Rene Benoit's organization.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Supposedly once Benoit's Number Two, supposedly CIA Deep Cover Agent, it is not clear what he is up to.
- Eye Scream: The Port-to-Port Killer gouged out his eye. He had it replaced with a prosthetic, because a man with an eyepatch gives a scary and conspicuous vibe that an agent doesn't need.
- It's Personal: Seemingly had Ziva killed in a farmhouse bombing after he all but went rogue, so naturally this pisses off all of the active NCIS staff. He actually completely failed.
- Jerkass: Always uses his Smug Snake nature to highlight his CIA authority, or how he knows info the heroes don't. It reaches the point that he not only becomes The Friend Nobody Likes, but is ultimately killed once he had a Face–Heel Turn without a single ounce of remorse for seemingly killing Ziva.
- Killed Off for Real: Shouldn't have taken out that hit on Ziva, Kort.
- Knight Templar: As far as we can make out.
- The Mole: In "Dead Letter", is revealed to have sold nuclear secrets to Russia in 2002.
- No Name Given: If we're to believe Jenny, "Trent Kort" is an alias.
- Put on a Bus: Leaves the series after season 8 episode "Pyramid"...
- The Bus Came Back: ...but later comes back in the last two episodes of the thirteenth season and eventually dies in the season 13 finale.
- Smug Snake: As Gibbs put it, he doesn't hide being a jerk.
- Stepford Snarker: Should've kept your mouth shut.
- Too Dumb to Live: When he's surrounded by all of Gibbs' team and MI6 extra with Tony approaching him directly, he tries to pull his handgun concealed on his waistband. Despite the fact that Kort was blatantly trying to escape moments before to get away for the ramifications for his actions, his attempt to kill Tony gets him mag-dumped by everyone present.
- You Monster!: Followed orders up until he was fired. Then he went on a covert rampage. Mind you, NCIS messed up his operation first back in season 4, then used him for information going forward (neither party was very nice about it). His missions included doing some heinous things to people, but it was all sanctioned. Acting on his own to cover his tracks, however, he turns into a monster.
Army CID Agent Lt. Col. Hollis Mann
Played By: Susanna Thompson
"If this is going to turn into a pissing match, you'd better bring an umbrella."
- Amicable Exes: Though their relationship didn't work out and she ultimately marries someone else, she clearly still cares very much for Gibbs, as she tried to reach out to him in the wake of Diane's death to see how he was doing. Likewise, when she calls him out on avoiding her, he specifically admits that he's doing so because he doesn't want her to be targeted the way Diane was.
- Distaff Counterpart: To Gibbs. She's even a team leader in the Army's corresponding agency, Army Criminal Investigation Divisionnote - yes, that spells what you think it does: usually referred to as Army CID.
- Everyone Can See It: Her UST with Gibbs is noticed by the whole team. Upon meeting Mann for the first time, Vance asks Gibbs if she's one his ex-wives.
- Fiery Strawberry Blonde
- Girl of the Week: Subverted; she appears to be this at first, but it takes her and Gibbs two episodes to get together and they remain together for almost a year. In fact, she's easily the most long-term love interest Gibbs has had on the show.
- Hands-On Approach: Gibbs does this to her in "Grace Period." She doesn't seem to mind that much.
- Hero of Another Story: Her career with CID could easily have been the basis for a Spin-Off.
- Iconic Sequel Character: Does not appear in the show until Season 4.
- Jurisdiction Friction:
- This is how she meets Gibbs and what brings them back together.
- It happens again when she returns from Unretirement. When Gibbs tries to take her case away from her, she goes over his head... to the Secretary of Defense, whom she has on speed dial.
- Love Interest: To Gibbs in her first run of appearances. She later married someone else.
- Put on a Bus: To Hawaii.
- The Bus Came Back: She now works for the Department of Defense.
CGIS Agent Abigail Borin
Played By: Diane Neal
- Ambiguously Bi: In "Oil and Water", she and Tony are chasing a suspect, which she KOs with a left-handed swing of an oar. Her explanation is...interesting.Borin: College softball.Tony: Southpaw?Borin: I swung both ways.
- Berserk Button: Don't joke about blowing stuff up. Her temper's much more explosive.
- Broken Bird: Her lover was killed in an IED explosion with two other Marines. She had to pull his mangled body out of the water.
- Distaff Counterpart: To Gibbs, to the point that the entire team lampshades it. So naturally the following apply: Death Glare, Dope Slap, Gut Feeling, Must Have Caffeine, Rule #1 and Right Behind Me. She's even lost the love of her life like he did.
- Expy: This is an extreme case of Actor Allusion, but Borin is ADA Casey Novak as a cop, minus the emotional trainwreck but it looks like she could be headed that way. It's more than likely some of her lines are recycled. Bonus points for the softball playing and commentary on her swinging.
- Hero of Another Story: She's the Gibbs of CGIS so you better believe she's having adventures bringing down bad guys off screen.
- Iconic Sequel Character: Does not appear in the show until Season 7.
- Last-Name Basis: To avoid the One-Steve Limit with Abby Sciuto.
- Must Have Caffeine: It's implied she and Gibbs even take their coffee the same way.
- Perp Sweating: At one point, she and Gibbs double team someone.
- Once a Season: She proved to be so popular that her appearances tend to be this. Lampshaded really, really hard at the end of one of them:"Same time next year, Gibbs?"
- One-Steve Limit: Averted for a gag in her first appearance. She asks Gibbs to call her 'Abby', which he immediately refuses to do. It becomes clear as to why when he takes her to the NCIS lab.Abigail Sciuto and Abigail Borin extend their hands and simultaneously say: "Abby."
- From then on, she's addressed as "Agent Borin" or simply "Borin" with Abby Sciuto being the only one to call her "Abby" or "Other Abby" for fun. If they are both in the same room, they sometimes get collective addressed as "Abbses".
- Put on a Bus: After her last appearance in season 12 episode "The San Dominick" note , Borin just simply stopped appearing. This was due to Diane Neal burning lot of bridges after going on Twitter complaining about unsafe working conditions on the set of NCIS: New Orleans, resulting Neal not getting invited back again ever and her permanent departure from the NCIS franchise.
- Rule #1: Never make excuses.
Ray Cruz
Played By: Enrique Murciano
Ziva's boyfriend and near-fiancee in seasons 8 and 9, and also a CIA field agent. DiNozzo refers to him as CIRay. Ziva dumps him after he kills someone in the process of trying to finish up a hit he botched overseas, and Ray is arrested for the murder.
Dr. Samantha Ryan
Played By: Jamie Lee Curtis
At work, a creepy-as-hell DoD psy-ops expert who's almost a match for Gibbs in the mindgames department. At home, a single mother with a divorce from an abusive husband in the past. Needless to say, she and Gibbs hit it off very well. As of the end of season 9, in hiding after CEO-turned-terrorist Harper Dearing got her abusive ex sprung from prison.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Gibbs. They match very well, but they put each other on the defensive so frequently that some of their interactions can be quite angry.
- Gaslighting: What Ryan does for a living, and not just to military targets.
- Hypocrite: Flips her lid when Gibbs manages to hack her records and figure out where her son went to school, utterly furious enough to confront Vance on it. This gets thrown in her face because Gibbs only did it over her bugging his house to gather any information his active case got. Keep in mind that using such methods on U.S. soil is illegal by law.
- Jurisdiction Friction: She's willing to work with NCIS, but she's withholding vital information at the same time that she decided was not "need-to-know", and bugging them for gathering information that they're holding in return. To say Gibbs is annoyed about this would be an understatement.
- Kick the Dog: She obviously cares for Gibbs, both with feelings and with competition. But she crossed a line when she placed a radio bug in Gibbs' basement, which promptly cause him to stop treating her carefully for the rest of the active case and work with Vance to get her to stop screwing with them.
- Riddle Me This: She always tells Gibbs what she thinks he needs to know, but for some reason always does so in the most infuriatingly roundabout ways possible. (One tip was delivered on the inside of a pizza box.) Gibbs does not like this.
- Silver Fox: Jamie Lee may be the most triumphant example for women right now.
Diane Sterling
Played By: Melinda McGraw
Gibbs' second wife. She was also married to Fornell, whom she has a daughter. She works for the I.R.S.
- Amicable Exes: Mostly with Gibbs. Not so much with Fornell.
- Berserk Button: Mentioning how Gibbs was still pining over Shannon instead of paying attention to her is pulling the pin on the grenade and letting it rip.
- Boom, Headshot!: Via Sergei as Call-Back to Kate's death.
- Call-Back: Her death is patterned over Kate's death in the season 2 finale.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: She dies in Gibbs arms, though it happened in broad daylight instead of the night like the trope suggests.
- Dies Wide Open: Via Boom, Headshot! courtesy of Sergei. While he he doesn't seem to mind if she dies this way, it sure added to the Call-Back to Kate's death.
- Fiery Redhead: As expected for Gibbs' ex-wife.
- Has a Type: Government employees. Besides Gibbs and Fornell, her third husband Victor is a member of Homeland Security, and the boyfriend/fling she had prior to getting back with Fornell turned out to be an undercover Secret Service Agent.
- Iconic Sequel Character: Does not appear in the show until Season 9.
- The Lost Lenore: For both Gibbs and Fornell, much so for the latter.
- The Missus and the Ex: She gets along with Gibbs' second wife just fine.
- Mrs. Robinson: She got... "cuddly" with McGee at one time.
- One True Love: To Fornell. While Fornell has shown attraction to other women in the series, the only one he's had a lasting relationship with was Diane, who is the mother of his daughter Emily. Her death was the beginning of the ongoing Trauma Conga Line he endured for the following six seasons, and is only now really beginning to recover him.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: One of the most domineering and hateful shrews to ever darken one's doorway when scorned... but a nice one to those who make her feel adequate.
Zoe Keats
Played By: Marisol Nichols
A classmate of Tony's in the police academy. She now works as Special Agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
- Fair Cop: She's a Special Agent and is certainly easy on the eyes.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She's an Ambiguously Brown Fair Cop who gets a Ship Tease with Tony, who was introduced not long after Ziva left.
