Directed by Tony Wharmby
Written by Steven D Binder
Season 8, Episode 2:
Worst Nightmare
A gas attack at a school on Quantico's base results in the disappearance of a young girl. The NCIS team investigate but their efforts are jeopardized by her grandfather who will stop at nothing in saving his missing granddaughter. Meanwhile, Gibbs allows three college interns to shadow the team for a week, something that shocks all of his subordinates as he's normally not fond of interns.
- Actor Allusion: William Devane previously played a CIA operative in Marathon Man.
- The Atoner: Carmichael believed that he and his team deserved to die for what they did on their ops, leading him to kill the surviving members.
- Badass Boast:Conrad Zuse: You really think [the granddaughter's] dead?
McGee: I don't know.
Conrad Zuse: What are you going to do?
Abby: We're going to do what we always do. We're going to catch the bad guys. - Batman Gambit:
- Carmichael kidnaps Mason's granddaughter because he knows that he would take matters into his own hands and go to the surviving members of the team to help him rescue her. As a result, Carmichael would discover their locations then kill them.
- The team stage Mason's death so they can nab the bad guy and have him reveal where he's hiding the granddaughter, because Mason was the last person Carmichael needed to kill to complete his self-imposed mission of atonement.
- Call-Back:
- Multiple references were made towards Gibbs' previous distaste for interns in the office, which is why his subordinates are shocked when he allows three of them to shadow the team for a week. When Conrad Zuse asks him about it, Gibbs admits he had a change of heart.
- Abby is unsure of having another assistant in her lab, citing problems with previous assistants, a reference to Chip (who attempted to frame Tony for murder and tried to kill Abby back in Season 3). She even makes the intern wear bells so she can always know where he is.
- Abby also references Darren, who was a security guard assigned to her lab during the Paloma Reynosa arc.
- Character Development: Conrad Zuse, one of the interns, is a rich kid who balks at the government salaries at NCIS, and is initially uninterested in the internship; the only reason why he's taking it because he needed the Public Affairs requirement for his finance major and he gets to skip a week of school. Helping out with the case, and seeing the kidnapped girl reunite with her family, makes him realize the awards and benefits of working in law enforcement. McGee and Gibbs award him a filled-out application for a full-time internship only requiring his signature to get into the system.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: The substitute teacher from The Teaser orchestrated the kidnapping. In fact, he's the one who tipped off NCIS to the fact that the granddaughter was kidnapped in the first place.
- The Dreaded: Gibbs gets very annoyed by the jingling of the bells worn by the intern assigned to Abby's lab. He gives the guy his classic Death Glare - and the intern doesn't flinch, simply stating, "Sorry, but I'm more scared of her than you." Gibbs concedes the point.
- Faking the Dead:
- The Villain Of The Week faked his death after a botched mission abroad, returning to the states on falsified credentials.
- In order to catch the Villain Of The Week, Team Gibbs stage Mason's death was staged in order to make Carmichael believe his “mission” was accomplished and free the granddaughter.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Palmer gets a bit of envy when he sees that the autopsy intern and Ducky get along extremely well and fears that he might be replaced.
- Hostage Video: Sent to NCIS for the bad guy to prove that the granddaughter is alive.Conrad Zuse: [Shaken up] That was... really real.
Tony: Real as it gets. - Killing in Self-Defense: Mason kills the hired gun who helped kidnap his granddaughter, but it was in self-defense. The autopsy on the hired gun proves it.
- Knockout Gas: Used to knock out everyone at the school, facilitating the kidnapping of Mason's granddaughter.
- Let Off by the Detective: After Mason is detained, as he killed the hired gun who helped Carmichael in self-defense, an anonymous request comes to the desk of NCIS to have the murder charges dropped. Gibbs complies without complaint, as a bewildered DiNozzo follows suit.DiNozzo: No one's willing to comment on Mason, but we do have a request... to drop all the charges.
Gibbs: So drop 'em. [walks away]
DiNozzo: But we...
[Gibbs looks back]
DiNozzo: Dropping all the charges! - Long List: After the team figures out the kidnapper's true plan is to go after Mason and his surviving teammates, Gibbs asks Mason who would want his old team dead. Mason admits that they would need a stenographer for that list, as the team made a lot of enemies during their time.
- Papa Wolf: Mason takes matters into his own hands when he finds out that his granddaughter was kidnapped, leading his own investigation and getting his surviving teammates to help him. Unfortunately, Carmichael was counting on him doing this.
- Retired Badass: Mason was in charge of a Special Ops team that answered directly to Ronald Reagan. Mason might not have been involved in Special Ops since the 80s, but he still has all the skills he received during that time.
- Retired Badass Roundup: Exploited by Carmichael, who kidnaps Mason’s granddaughter because he knew Mason would go to the surviving members of their team to get help in rescuing her. This would let Carmichael find out their identities post-1980s so he could kill them.
- Right Behind Me: During the first bullpen scene, Tony describes to the interns how Gibbs does this often to his subordinates, just as Gibbs does exactly that to him.
- Self-Poisoning Gambit: Carmichael, who poses as the substitute teacher, also made himself a victim of the gas attack. It gives him a solid alibi, and then him taking some sick days from work while claiming that he needed to recuperate from the attack gives him enough time to pull off his plan.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Played With; Carmichael kidnaps Mason’s granddaughter as part of his scheme but he never planned on physically harming her and has no problem letting her go once he believes Mason is dead.
