3.09 - Frame-UpThis is a featured page

Previous Episode Season #: 3 Episode #: 09 Air Date: November 22, 2005 Next Episode

Frame-Up


Synopsis:
Tony is accused of murdering a woman whose body was found at Quantico, and the team must prove his innocence. All the possible evidence proves that Tony is guilty, and the team will do their best to set their agent and friend free.

Episode Recap:
This episode begins with a bunch of youngsters out in the woods, necking around a campfire. The party is broken up by a couple of MPs, who discover a woman's leg sticking out from under a bush.

The scene at NCIS begins with Ziva reading "The Handbook of American Slang" as Tony oohs and aahs over his the web site "JudgeMyTush.com". On his way back to his desk, McGee pulls up his jacket to let Ziva see his tush, which she rates as a 4. He's indignant until she explains it is out of 5. Tony presents his for review and is outraged that she gives it a 2, much to McGee's delight.

To reach the crime scene the team has to cross some stepping stones across a stream. Ducky tries to help Ziva; she refuses and they both fall in. They find the finger of a rubber glove. The legs, it appears to Ducky, have been severed by a saw. There are curious bite marks. The team tries to estimate the woman's height and weight from the legs; but Tony is able to assess it expertly!

Now the curious things start:First of all the rubber glove comes back with Tony's fingerprint. Tony thinks Ziva has set him up. Next they take an impression of Tony's mouth, and that fits the bite marks.
As evidence is discovered, Abby is distressed because it is her forensic results which are 'proving' Tony to be the killer.

Jenny has to proceed on the evidence and officially suspend Gibbs, while turning the case over to the FBI. There is as yet no ID of the victim. However, there is any number of people who might have set Tony up. Fornell has to detain (though not yet charge) Tony on the evidence, so Tony goes to jail on a holding arrangement, after being interrogated at NCIS HQ by Agent Sacks (Tony's Nemesis). After irritating Sacks to the point that Sacks leaves in disgust, we have a bored Tony alone in an empty room. He entertains himself by tapping on the table which rapidly escalates into a full scale percussion performance...and this percussive music becomes the soundtrack as we watch the team race to duplicate the evidence which is being confiscated by the FBI. The performance peters out into Tony checking his appearance in the two-way mirror and patting his hair into place after the exertions of his drum solo.

It also has the favourite scene where Gibbs visits Tony in jail, bringing Tony's favourite pizza. Tony is glad to see him and starts running ideas past Gibbs: it becomes a soliloquy about the circumstantial case against him, incidentally revealing much about his childhood and insecurities. The Agent Tony interrogates the Suspect Tony, concluding that he is not going to get out of this. Gibbs beckons him back to the bars of the cell and leans forward as if to say something, but in reality to reach behind Tony's head and slap him, for which Tony says "Thank you, boss". You realize that Gibbs hasn't actually said anything in the entire scene, but you've known what he was thinking throughout. Magic.

McGee and Ziva start looking for subjects; but there is a big choice. McGee has the men and top is George Stewart - a forensic technician whom Tony has discredited and has since won a sealed court case. Ziva has the women's list - top of that is Lt Pam Kim a surgical nurse, who egged his car and put him on the herpes website, she is currently on honeymoon. Kim is annoyed to be brought in for questioning.

Ziva quotes an old Hebrew proverb- a little fire burns a lot of corn; Jenny comes in at that moment and translates but she and Gibbs agree it makes no sense; however, she has traced Stewart's alias. Next, Charles (whom Abby calls Chip, much to his irritation), reveals he has found carpet fibres from a 2004 Ford Mustang; Tony's is much older. Ziva and Gibbs pay Stewart (or Petrie as he is now called) a visit in his autopsy lab; he is hostile. Unfortunately the carpet fibres match Tony's car and Tony's DNA is on the severed legs. The victim still remains a Jane Doe.

At this point, Abby matches the bone marrow to a live person, indeed a nurse, who is on a bone marrow donor database; she did donate blood to a recently deceased person, indeed a Jane Doe. Abby analyses the carpet fibre again - it must have been carried to the crime scene. Meanwhile, Gibbs and Ziva are back at Stewart's with a warrant; he signed for the Jane Doe body.

McGee visits Tony; with Chip's present of a harmonica. Gibbs and Ziva arrest Stewart and find the body minus the legs. Now Fornell visits Tony and lets him go. It's still not 100% clear what has happened.

Abby finds sweat in the fibres, from which she hopes to find DNA. Jenny has the records of Stewart's court case, Gibbs carps at how long it has taken and then realises his place and thanks the Director.

Downstairs, Chip confesses; he worked at the medical lab that Tony busted; he framed Tony, for example by taking an apple out of the trash to make Tony's teeth imprints, the two bloody tissues from his trash after Tony's undercover mission, which he took a savage beating when he was captured and hit seven times, a piece of one of the gloves he used and a carpet fiber from his car. He flourishes a knife in front of Abby.

Gibbs, reading through the court case records, has realized too. The team rushes downstairs, but Abby has already hog-tied him.

New Character Development / Insights:
  • Tony can play the drums well
  • Tony's favourite pizza is sausage, pepperoni and extra cheese.
  • Tony's middle initial is D.
  • His mother dressed him as a sailor till he was 10 years old.
  • Gibbs once covered for Director Shepard when she made a mistake when she was training as an agent.
  • Chip took the job at NCIS to set up Tony to get back at him for getting him fired from a medical lab.
  • For once, Tony was happy to see Fornell.
  • Tony tell McGee, "Prison changes a man." That's what happened to McGee in "Caged" when he was stuck in a women's prison.

Funny Moments:
  • Ziva's lecture to Ducky on carrying things herself, and their splash into the creek.
  • Tony interrogating himself.
  • Ziva rating Tony and McGee's butt. (McGee - 4/5, Tony - 2/5 for "excessive hair")
  • Tony asks Ducky, "Couldn't you have just used my dental x-rays?"
  • Tony's drum solo
  • Lt. Pam Kim (from episode 2.09 "Forced Entry") posted Tony's pictures on the "Herpes Alert Website."
  • The moment Abby's faith in forensics is renewed
  • McGee's harmonica solo
  • (After they saw Abby beat-up Chip) Abby: Now can I work alone?
  • Fornell's interview of Abby
  • Tony driving agent Sacks crazy with his Jokes.


Trivia:
  • In the commentary for this episode featured in the season three DVD's, Michael Weatherly, who plays Tony revealed that his lines were hidden on the back of his camera in the scene where the team first find the glove in the forest.
  • After the Opening Credits, if you look carefully, you can see that Ziva is reading The Handbook of American Slang which is probably used to help Ziva with her English.
  • When asked by Gibbs if he quit, real-life NCIS Director David Brant replies that he refers to it as a "lateral movement into the recreational sector" (retirement). Director Brant retired from NCIS in December 2005.
  • In the commentary, Michael Weatherly says that they did do a real mold of his teeth for that scene in Abby's lab, during which he actually lost a filling and had to go to the dentist to get it repaired.
  • Micheal Bellisario, who plays "Chip" is Sean Murray's (McGee) stepbrother.


Recurring Cast:
    Guest Starring:
        • Stephanie Mello (Cynthia Sumner)
        • Joe Spano (FBI Agent T.C. Fornell)
        • Brian Dietzen (Jimmy Palmer)
        • Michael Bellisario (Charles Sterling)
        • Casey Weiant (Mina Campbell)
        • Jarrod Crawford (Marine M.P. Sgt. Brooks)
        • Randy Wayne (Grant Bridges)
        • Elizabeth Bennett (Carla Johnson)
        • Matt Malloy (George Pardo)
        • Don Franklin (FBI Agent Ron Sacks)
        • Lindsay Price (Lt. Pam Kim)
        • David Brant (NCIS Special Agent David Brant)
        Written By: Directed By:
        • Laurence Walsh
        • Thomas J. Wright





        Add Episode Photos Below: (No blurry or duplicate photos please)


        3.09 - Frame-Up - NCIS
        3.09 - Frame-Up - NCIS


        David Brant, NCIS 3.09 - Frame-Up - NCIS


        3.09 - Frame-Up - NCIS 3.09 - Frame-Up - NCIS


        3.09 - Frame-Up - NCIS 3.09 - Frame-Up - NCIS



        Previous Episode Back to: NCIS Season 3 Next Episode




        #1hotchfan
        #1hotchfan
        Latest page update: made by #1hotchfan , Sep 10 2009, 5:24 PM EDT (about this update About This Update #1hotchfan Edited by #1hotchfan

        5 words added
        6 words deleted

        view changes

        - complete history)
        More Info: links to this page
        Started By Thread Subject Replies Last Post
        48thk Frame-Up Jane Doe, looks familiar?????? 3 Dec 31 2008, 9:38 AM EST by Scorpio-lady
        Thread started: Dec 29 2008, 10:04 PM EST  Watch
        Does anyone else besides me think this Jane Doe looks a lot like Abby?
        0  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
        Keyword tags: None
        Show Last Reply
        Showing 1 of 1 threads for this page

        Related Content

          (what's this?Related ContentThanks to keyword tags, links to related pages and threads are added to the bottom of your pages. Up to 15 links are shown, determined by matching tags and by how recently the content was updated; keeping the most current at the top. Share your feedback on Wetpaint Central.)