Frame-Up
Tony is suspected of murder when part of a female body is found at Quantico, and Abby makes it her personal mission to find out who is framing him.
Tropes in this episode:
- Alone with the Psycho: Chip cuts the phone lines when Abby is talking to someone.
Chip: (wielding knife in hand) Looks like we lost our connection, Abby.
- Big Damn Heroes: Subverted, when they realize Abby is possibly in danger, the crew all rush down to Abby's lab. When they see her, they think she was done for, but she stands up, clearly ticked off, and points to her Bound and Gagged killer, asking exasperatedly, "Now can I work alone?"
- Call-Back: A flashback shows Chip discreetly palming two wads of tissue that Tony removed from his bloody nose at the end of the previous episode, "Under Covers."
- Clear My Name: Gibbs and his team must prove that Tony didn't commit the murder.
- Determinator: Abby refuses to stop working until she clears Tony's name. In the end, McGee states that it was mainly because of her that Tony was cleared of the murder charge.
- Disproportionate Retribution: During Lt. Kim's interrogation, after the recently married Lieutenant said she regretted her one-night stand with Tony, she put him on the Herpes Alert website.
- Dope Slap: After DiNozzo finishes his monologue in the holding cell, Gibbs signals him over and pops him one.
- Dramatic Drop: Downplayed. Gibbs drops an unsealed document on his desk when he sees a picture of Chip testifying in court.
- Embarrassing Superpower: Tony can look at a murdered woman's severed leg and guess her height and weight to within two decimal points. McGee and Ziva brush off his "wild guess" and enter a series of measurements into a complex computer program... which spits out Tony's exact figures.
- Foreshadowing: Tony says, "you set this up, didn't you?" Chip flinches, before realizing that Tony is pointing past him, at Ziva.
- Frame-Up: Tony is framed by Chip in revenge for getting him fired from Pemberton Medical Analysis.
- Fun with Subtitles: Tony asks, "Cooon't yooo haaa uuuued my een-al ray-corss?" Ducky insists that making a mold of Tony's teeth is more accurate than his dental records.
- Gallows Humor: An accidental case. While describing Abby's exhaustion, Ziva says that she had probably "passed on" when she meant "passed out."
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Ziva finally gets fed up with Ducky's chivalry at the crime scene, and tells him she's a bona fide Action Girl and can handle herself. Then she takes one step, slips on a rock and bowls herself, Ducky and their gear into a pond with a huge splash.
Ducky: How refreshing: an independent woman!
[They both laugh heartily.]
- It's All My Fault: Abby blames herself for Tony's situation, because it was her forensics that seemingly proved that he was a murderer. It makes her all the more determined to clear Tony's name and she never stops working until she finds forensic evidence that will exonerate him.
- Large Ham: Abby goes full Southern televangelist when she promises the heavens she will "find the man who did this to Tony and ah will crucify him!"
- Long List: As a former cop, a federal agent, and (according to Ziva) a general slime of a human being, the team agrees that the number of people who would like to see Tony rot in jail for the rest of his life is not exactly short.
- Not Me This Time: Tony's first assumption is that Ziva (a trained spy) created the Frame-Up as a practical joke.
Ziva: I would never... all right, maybe I would - but, I didn't.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: We never see how unarmed Abby overpowers knife-wielding Chip.
- Shout-Out: To The Two Towers, when Tony "questions" himself in his cell, and the shifting camera angles make it seem as if there are two different men speaking.
- Title Drop: Abby places a carpet fibre into an evidence capsule and states, "Frame-up".
- Verbal Backspace: Jenny gives Gibbs the unsealed Baltimore case file.
Gibbs: A little late for that, Jen.
Jenny: (scoffs)
Gibbs: Uh, I mean... Thank you, Director.
Jenny: Better, Jethro.
