History NightmareFuel / NCIS

** At the crime scene, the team finds a bag stashed by the killer filled with Lesser spot-nosed monkey skulls. Even though the team quickly rules out any ritual use, the sight itself is creepy enough.
** During Abby's presentation on a non-profit organization of military veterans who protect animal rights, she shows an "after" photo of a rhino that had its horn ([[FacialHorror and a good part of its snout]]) cut off with a ''[[ChainsawGood chainsaw]]''. The photo leaves nothing to the imagination.

** At the crime scene, the team finds a bag stashed by the killer, filled with rotting animal skulls. Even though the team quickly rules out any ritual use, the sight itself is creepy enough.
** During Abby's presentation on a non-profit organization of military veterans who protect animal rights, she shows an "after" photo of a rhino that had its horn (and a good part of its snout) cut off with a chainsaw. The photo leaves nothing to the imagination.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_5398_1.JPG]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[LackOfEmpathy "Sorry, Caitlin.."]]]]

[[folder: Season 5]]

-->'''Torres''': ...Yeah.

* A woman is sent a death threat with the use of a dead rat in the car. Later on in the episode, Bishop and Quinn find a freezer full of dead rats.
* Qasim Nasir's death. Right in front of poor Bishop.

** Perhaps an understated part of nightmare fuel is how Gibbs' own team, despite him telling them to tell the truth, ''immediately'' opt to commit a series of BlatantLies under oath after realizing how much of an asshole Luke was to try (and fail) to get Gibbs out of trouble. When that fails, as the trio know how much they screwed up with that alone, they decide to ''try to erase the video footage of the incident'', this time losing what sympathy they had entirely in the matter. It ends up justifying the media's response, given they'd prioritize one of their own over a scumbag and commit multiple felonies to do it. After all is said and done and they're mercifully demoted off of major cases temporarily rather than fired outright, Bishop and Torres continue to act indignant like they've been personally slighted, meaning they took all the wrong lessons from the series of events.

** Perhaps an understated part of nightmare fuel is how Gibbs' own team, despite him telling them to tell the truth, ''immediately'' opt to commit a series of BlatantLies under oath after realizing how much of an asshole Luke was to try (and fail) to get Gibbs out of trouble. They unwittingly participated in the very thing that the modern media have become so condemning of, covering for other officers in the "Blue Wall" regardless of the legality or morality of it, and consequently justify the harsh response. Even worse, they're temporarily demoted from major cases for committing what would be a crime that should get real police sacked from their jobs, and act entirely indignant about it, meaning they don't even realize what they did was illegal.

* "Watch Dog" is the ultimate culmination of Gibbs' feelings of anxiety, depression, and his inability to be there for the departing Sloane or the loss of Fornell's daughter Emily coming to a head. When the team find out some idiots driving a convoy swerved to avoid hitting a dog, which dropped a live missile on the side of the road, it seems like it might be a funny episode -- until Gibbs sees the dog responsible with a ''bullet wound'' in her, and the local vet says two more dogs were found in a similar state by [[HarmfulToMinors Boy Scouts.]] When he goes to investigate and a local old lady gives him the lowdown on the area and a local {{Jerkass}} of a dog owner, Gibbs gets curious about a fishing line in the nearby water and [[ShootTheDog pulls up a kennel with a drowned canine]], immediately driving the lady to a breakdown at the sight. And the result is sheer, UnstoppableRage as Gibbs attempts to murder Luke with his ''bare hands'' for how many lines the son of a bitch crossed within the span of a minute, while [=McGee's=] body camera was on the whole time, completely lacking context as his assault ends up destroying his career in court thanks to anti-police bias from the media.

* "Watch Dog" is the ultimate culmination of Gibbs' feelings of anxiety, depression, and his inability to be there for the departing Sloane or the loss of Fornell's daughter Emily coming to a head. When the team find out some idiots driving a convoy swerved to avoid hitting a dog, which dropped a live missile on the side of the road, it seems like it might be a funny episode -- until Gibbs sees the dog responsible with a ''bullet wound'' in her, and the local vet says two more dogs were found in a similar state by [[HarmfulToMinors Boy Scouts.]] When he goes to investigate and a local old lady gives him the lowdown on the area and a local {{Jerkass}} of a dog owner, Gibbs gets curious about a fishing line in the nearby water and [[ShootTheDog pulls up a kennel with a drowned canine]], immediately driving the lady to a breakdown at the sight. And the result is sheer, UnstoppableRage as Gibbs attempts to murder Luke with his ''bare hands'' for how many lines the son of a bitch crossed within the span of a minute, while [=McGee's=] body camera was on the whole time, completely lacking context and attempting murder ending up destroying his career in court.

* In "Smoked", the utterly TERRIFYING DeathGlare given by the killer once said killer's been caught. Scarier still, it comes from a ''woman'' SerialKiller who feigned innocence and forced Gibbs to warn Fornell (mind you, he says this in a stoic but very clearly freaked out tone of voice) to get away from her right then and there out of fear of what she could do the second a crack in the facade shows.

* It's nightmare fuel enough in "On Fire" that Torres was nearly killed as part of an undercover job gone wrong, and Bishop is on a warpath to put the man who did it in the grave. Several times throughout the episode it's blatant that she's been strongly contemplating committing murder, and Gibbs himself gets on her case wondering if she's really willing to do such a crime of vengeance. The man's then found murdered in his own home, shot to death, and there's even blonde hair at the scene matching the culprit's girlfriend. But when [=McGee=] questions the girlfriend, who played her significant other like a fool and tried to off Torres for no witnesses, she denies killing him, and Bishop stiffly declines having done it to his face. The episode closes out on an ominous tone as Gibbs walks out of the office behind them, strongly implying [[ItsPersonal he did it for Bishop because his team was hurt]].

* It's nightmare fuel enough in "On Fire" that Torres was nearly killed as part of an undercover job gone wrong, and Bishop is on a warpath to put the man who did it in the grave. Several times throughout the episode it's blatant that she's been strongly contemplating and contending with the possibility of having murdered the culprit. But when [=McGee=] questions the culprit's girlfriend, who played her significant other like a fool and tried to off Torres for no witnesses, she says she didn't kill him, and Bishop stiffly declines having done it. The episode closes out on an ominous tone as Gibbs walks out of the office behind them, strongly implying [[ItsPersonal he did it for Bishop because his team was hurt]], and after he had also tried to talk her down about the matter.

* Ziva getting captured in the Somalian Terroist Training Camp at the end of Season 6, we don't even get to properly see her face, but we do get to see her Star of David necklace get ripped off her, and her capturer asks her what she knows about NCIS...

* The climax of " The Meat Puzzle". Ducky is StrappedToAnOperatingTable, [[BoundAndGagged gagged]], and [[spoiler: ''gets an IV needle inserted into his neck to make him bleed to death''. The camera keeps cutting from Team Gibbs and their race against the clock to rescue Ducky to the sight of his blood flowing down a drain. Thankfully, they do save him in time, but one of the culprits decides that he can't handle going back to prison and [[DrivenToSuicide slits his own throat]] while his mother screams in agonized horror.]]

* In "Smoked", the utterly TERRIFYING DeathGlare given by the killer once said killer's been caught. [[spoiler:Scarier still, it comes from a ''woman'' SerialKiller who feigned innocence and forced Gibbs to warn Fornell (mind you, he says this in a stoic but very clearly freaked out tone of voice) to get away from her right then and there out of fear of what she could do the second a crack in the facade shows.]]
** Even worse is the moment of in-universe fridge horror when Fornell and Gibbs think about the case afterwards. The last line rubs it in that [[spoiler:either she self-mutilated her toe and fed it to her husband or his corpse just in case he was ever found as one long con of false innocence, or they were ''both'' serial killers and the wife was just the last one standing.]] Fornell's expression gives way to clearly not wanting to even think about the implications of that and they both [[INeedAFreakingDrink focus on their coffee in silence.]]

* "Angel of Death" has a patient at Jeanne's hospital who died from a heroin bag rupturing inside him - he was a drug mule. His junkie sister and her boyfriend (who ran the drug op in the first place) show up to get the drugs before they're found. Near the end of the episode, the girl [[spoiler: snorts heroin FROM HER DEAD BROTHER'S INTESTINE]]. Drugs ''mess you up'', kids.

* "Murder 2.0": The serial killer murders three people in the most deliberately flamboyant (and gruesome) ways imaginable, places their bodies in a manner designed to shock and terrify bystanders, and posts footage of their deaths on the Internet - [[spoiler:all for the sake of "fifteen minutes of fame".]]
* "Broken Bird". Ducky gets a switchblade shoved ''all the way through his hand'', [[spoiler:and the antagonist of the episode, [[KnownOnlyByTheirNickname Mr.]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Pain]], is '''incapable''' of feeling pain, and used it to horrifying advantage by using ColdBloodedTorture without sympathy. What makes this so scary is that he is missing his entire right eye, which is now just an empty socket as a result of having it ''[[EyeScream carved out]]'' in the Middle East long ago, and the crazy bastard is okay with showing it to people sans eyepatch or the like, as a war trophy and an intimidation device.]]

* [[spoiler: EnfantTerrible Rachel Barnes]] in "Parental Guidance Suggested". The entire plot centers around the murder of a family's mother, and all evidence tries to point towards the father as having done it.. but he's so broken up about the ordeal that even when he takes Rachel "hostage", he was never going to seriously threaten or hurt her. [[spoiler:Rachel did it, faking signs of abuse from her mother to keep her father home longer, and then murdering her mother altogether when it wasn't enough. As Gibbs interrogates her directly, TheSociopath in Rachel manifests, highlighting a girl that meticulously planned the events out to even make her father take the fall for the murder, and not even caring that she's been found out at that point.]]

* The [[TheBadGuyWins ending]] of "Burden of Proof". [[spoiler:Gibbs and Jack campaigned against Fornell's testimony that a man could have killed someone on account of the fact the man is not right, but left-handed. Turns out the person they helped get off the hook for murder was ambidextrous.]]

* Season 15's finale. In what is a franchise-wide {{Cliffhanger}} where ALL THREE NCIS SHOWS leave us in the lurch on their season finales, this one actually has the most hopeful situation. [[spoiler:Dr. Vance is kidnapped by a man pretending to be friendly and ambassadorial as long as it suits him... and then drops the act once he gets the chance to snatch the Director of NCIS, calling him an "infidel" in the same hateful tone of voice Jack dreaded hearing.]]

* Pictured on the right: The moment Caitlin got McLeaned on the show. A shocking headshot in the closing moments of the show with probably its most graphic scene to date at that time where a bullet tore through her head and a huge burst of blood ripped out. We later learn a ''grapefruit''-size hole was made upon its exit. And Ari Haswari had done this simply to spite Gibbs, after meeting Kate in person and casually headshotting another woman.

* Carries into the season 10 opener, but Harper Dearing's entire arc. A seemingly normal corporate CEO loses his son in a terrorist bombing of a Navy ship -- and subsequently loses his marbles, blames the Navy for the ship's vulnerabilities and NCIS for transferring his son onto the ship, and starts indiscriminately killing anyone in his path as he escalates from more ship bombings (and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness murdering the people he hired to do it]]) to outright bombing ''the NCIS headquarters.'' And to top it all off, his final scene portrays him HopelessWithTech, and yet he managed to hack the MTAC firewall, set up numerous explosives, camcorder remote tricks and other methods, and access tons of confidential info to the point he knows about Gibbs' revenge, something very, ''very'' few ever discovered. [[NothingIsScarier It's never explained how he managed any of that,]] effectively making him an insane boogeyman of almost ''Film/LawAbidingCitizen'' levels.

* Carries into the season 10 opener, but Harper Dearing's entire arc. A seemingly normal corporate CEO loses his son in a terrorist bombing of a Navy ship -- and subsequently loses his marbles, blames the Navy for the ship's vulnerabilities and NCIS for transferring his son onto the ship, and starts indiscriminately killing anyone in his path as he escalates from more ship bombings (and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness murdering the people he hired to do it]]) to outright bombing ''the NCIS headquarters.'' And to top it all off, his final scene portrays him HopelessWithTech, and yet he managed to hack the MTAC firewall, set up numerous explosives, camcorder remote tricks and other methods, and access tons of confidential info to the point he knows about Gibbs' revenge, something very, ''very''' few ever discovered. [[NothingIsScarier It's never explained how he managed any of that,]] effectively making him an insane boogeyman of ''Film/LawAbidingCitizen'' levels.