3.15 - Head CaseThis is a featured page

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◄ Previous Episode Season #: 3 Episode #: 15 Air Date: February 7, 2006 Next Episode ►
Head Case
Synopsis:
While discovering an illegal automotive chop shop, the NCIS team stumbles upon a severed head of a Marine, hidden in one of the cars from the shop. When they find possible suspects, the team will have to find the rest of the body and find the murderer.

Episode Recap:
Two Petty Officers are in a garage taking apart cars, bragging about the money they are going to get for each part. The garage door opens and a third Petty Officer drives in with another car to strip. He gets out and brags about the car, pops the trunk and finds a medium sized cooler. As the garage door starts to go down, the NCIS team rushes in and busts them. Tony and McGee handcuff the three soldiers while Ziva checks out the trunk. She opens the small cooler, then calls for Gibbs. When Gibbs looks in, they show a severed head on ice.

As the team is processing the scene, Ziva stands staring down at the head. Tony thinks it's Ziva's first "severed head" crime scene but she tells him it's not easy when you know the person. She tells him of a friend of her's who was undercover in a Mossad Cell and his head was overnighted to them in a cooler. She said after that she vowed never to be captured alive.

Ducky and Palmer enter the scene and Ducky thanks Gibbs for calling him in. Ducky said it was WWE Smackdown night in the Mallard residence and he was happy to leave. He said his mother loved wrestling and he didn't have the heart to tell her it wasn't real. Palmer said he loved WWE as well as he started to bring the stretcher out of the ME Van and he looked stunned when Ducky says he didn't have the heart to tell his mother the WWE wasn't real. Tony told Palmer he wouldn't need the stretcher as there weren't enough body parts.

Back at the lab, Abby came in as Ducky was telling the history of the guillotine and how it came about. He said that the Nazi's killed over 20,000 people between 1942 - 1943 by decapitation. He then examines the head and realized the head was cut off post-mortem - the man had been dead before his head was removed. Abby asks for tissue samples to test to see if she could find a match in the system. She said "Lay some tissue samples on me Duckman."

Ziva was looking over Tony's shoulder, reading an email from a woman and referenced Tony's nickname, "Honey buns". Gibbs came in and said that nickname was only for him and another person and asked for an update. Tony and Ziva did a background check on the car and found it had just been purchased two weeks prior to being stolen. Tony said the registration wasn't in DMV's system yet but McGee had hacked into the system and uncovered that the car was registered to Epsilon Corporation. Bummed that McGee showed them up, Tony and Ziva busted on McGee about hacking DMV and the penalty. Gibbs said it was better than checking personal email on his time "Honey buns." McGee gave them a name and address and Tony and Ziva went to check it out. After they left, Gibbs told McGee he'd done a good job, however, Tony was right that it was a penalty to hack into the DMV system.

One of the three Petty Officers was brought into interrogation by McGee. Gibbs interrogated the P.O., who claimed he had no knowledge of the head. Gibbs indicated he'd already interrogated the other two P.O.'s and they rolled over on the third one. He asked McGee to explain how long the P.O.'s jail time would be and as McGee rattled it off, Gibbs took out the pictures of the severed head. McGee said for murder, the P.O. would be looking at life. Rattled the Petty Officer said he had just stolen the car from a parking lot at a strip club, he had no idea about the cooler or it's contents when he'd boosted the car.

Abby got a hit on the tissue samples for the head. They belonged to a Navy Captain Parker Wayne and it was discovered he had died four months earlier due to a heart attack. Ducky contacted the ME, Commander Ross, who had done the autopsy on Wayne and met with him. Ross brought his x-rays from Wayne's case and assured Gibbs and Ducky that Wayne had died on the operating table of a heart attack. Ross said he'd done the autopsy two days later, then released the body to Vernon Family Mortuary in Andover, VA.

McGee and Tony went to the Mortuary and interviewed the owner. He was clearing out some ashes and clapped his gloves in Tony and McGee's faces, getting ashes on them, much to their horror. He researched the file on Captain Wayne and said the body had been picked up and the cremation was done by his assistant, Martin Roussad. When they asked to speak with Roussad, Vernon admitted Roussad hadn't shown up for work that day. When Tony asked for an address, Vernon said Roussad lived on the grounds and gave them access to Roussad's place. When they entered, they discovered a room with skeletal remains set up like a ritual but no Roussad.

Gibbs went to Captain Wayne's home and spoke with his widow and daughter. Gibbs indicated that there was a paper mix-up and he needed Wayne's remains to straighten things out. Jocelyn Wayne wondered why an NCIS agent would be doing something so tedious as to following up on paperwork. Gibbs said it was punishment from the new director. Jocelyn was reluctant at first but Gibbs assured he she could trust that he would take the utmost care of her husband. She requested to have the remains back in 8 days as it was her husbands wish that the next time his ship sailed, his ashes be scattered at sea by his former shipmates. Gibbs assured her he would have them back to her in time.

Tony and Ziva went to the attorney, Sean Olivier, for Epsilon Corporation. Tony and Sean did a little flirting and Ziva asked for the women's help but Sean refused without a warrant. They returned 24 hours later with a warrant and Sean had all the files ready and processed. When Ziva and McGee were going through the files, they realized Sean had had time to cleanse them before she got them ready for NCIS. They came up with another address for storage for Epsilon and McGee, Tony and Ziva went to investigate. When they knocked, nobody answered and Ziva picked the lock, much to McGee's dismay. They walked through and saw it was sparse, but there were machines in there and the team wondered what they were used for. They opened up a freezer in the back and discovered it was full of human body parts.

Jocelyn Wayne showed up at the NCIS offices. Jenny Shepard went to meet with her and during their conversation, Jocelyn mentioned that Gibbs had told her it was his punishment from the new director. Jenny played dumb and asked for more information as Gibbs walked in. Jenny called Gibbs on his lie and said she thought the new director was easy to get along with. Jocelyn informed Gibbs that the ships departure had been moved up and she needed to have the remains sooner rather than later. Jenny said they would have them back to her in time and Gibbs agreed. When Jenny walked away, Jocelyn realized Jenny was the "new" director.

Gibbs had Sean Olivier brought in for questioning and she showed up with her attorney. She claimed she had no knowledge of any of the goings on. Meanwhile Abby discovered that one of the sets of remains found in the storage freezer belonged to the missing Martin Roussad. Gibbs went back to talk with Sean Olivier and told her the truth so she admitted that Roussad had supplied the body parts.

Ducky called Commander Ross to help him autopsy the body parts they discovered. Ross admitted he was honored Ducky had called him. Ducky got Ross to state how much body parts were with and a full body. He then had Palmer go work on another exam table, while he worked together with Ross on the upper torso of one of the remains. Ducky had Ross make the first cut and then backed off and asked Ross if it was worth it. Ross denied knowing what Ducky was talking about. Gibbs entered along with Ziva and Sean Olivier and McGee and Tony entered through the back door to block Ross' exit. Ross and Sean got into a shouting match over who did what and who had killed Roussad. Gibbs told them to shut up as he didn't care who did what, they both were under arrest. Ziva, Tony and McGee lead the two out of autopsy. Ducky pointed to a nearly put together body, which was the remains of Captain Parker Wayne. He asked Gibbs if he planned on having the remains to the widow on time as it was part of evidence. Upon Gibbs' look, Ducky said he'd accompany Gibbs and the body to the mortuary to oversee the cremation.

Gibbs returned the ashes to the widow. Wayne's little girl was happy to have her father "back." Jocelyn asked Gibbs if indeed, those were her husbands remains and Gibbs said they were. He offered to accompany Jocelyn and her daughter to the ship but she declined as the Navy was sending a car. She thanked Gibbs and gave him a kiss on the cheek and said Parker would never forgive her if she did not now say "Semper Fi". Gibbs smiled and walked towards the door.

New Character Development / Insights:
  • Mrs. Mallard's favorite television program is WWE Smackdown.
  • Both Ziva and Gibbs have slept with someone as an interrogation technique.
  • Ziva swore never to be captured alive after a colleague's severed head was shipped to Mossad when his cover was blown.
Funny Moments:
  • Tony's reading his email at his desk. Ziva reads an email in which a woman calls Tony "Honeybuns." As she says it aloud, Gibbs walks up and says "Only Naomi and I call him that."
  • Palmer's facial expression when Ducky says televised wrestling is not real.
  • Palmer offers Abby a "white meat or dark" tissue sample.
Trivia:
  • For more information on the explanation of the guillotine (as explained by Ducky) you can read it on Wikipedia.


Recurring Cast: Guest Starring:
  • Brian Dietzen (Jimmy Palmer)
  • Thea Rose (Chrissy Wayne)
  • Greta Sesheta (Receptionist)
  • Jamie Martz (Petty Officer First Class Marc Hobie)
  • Ivar Brogger (Simon Katz)
  • Scott Atkinson (Lt. Cmdr. Kyle Ross)
  • Stephanie Michels (Sean Oliver)
  • Bruce French (Floyd Vernon)
  • Chelsea Field (Jocelyn Wayne)
  • Rick Sparks (Seaman Fred Randall)
  • Caleb Brown (Petty Officer Third Class Michael Jones)
Written By: Directed By:
  • George Schenck
  • Frank Cardea
  • Dennis Smith





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