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* [[Abuse Is Okay When Its Female On Male]]: Subverted in S3 Ep14, "Light Sleeper". The initial suspect in the murder of a Korean woman is her Marine husband. Their neighbor claimed she frequently heard them screaming at each other, leading her to believe that husband was abusive. However, the husband reveals to Gibbs that she was the abusive one and proves by lifting up his shirt to reveal a large burn mark where she hit him with an iron. He's actually taken seriously and released.
* [[Action Girl]]: First Kate, a former Secret Service agent in the presidential protection detail, then Ziva, whose background with the Mossad was as a spy and an assassin rather than as an investigator.
* [[Actor Allusion]]:
** In one episode, Gibbs is asked what Ducky looked like when he was younger. He responds, "Illya Kuryakin," who was David McCallum's character in ''[[The Man from U.N.C.L.E.]]'' 40 years earlier.
** Gibbs once asked Tony for help with the crossword puzzle clue "TV Drama" and Tony answers "St. Elsewhere," which Mark Harmon appeared on.
** Tony once says "I've got a better chance of hooking up with Jessica Alba than these guys do of infiltrating Sea Lift." Michael Weatherly was engaged to Jessica Alba for a time. He also starred with her in ''[[Dark Angel]]'', where they kept trying to hook up.
*** In the episode ''Obsession'' (7x21), Tony obsesses over a journalist who embodies all what he finds attractive in a woman, and who is missing. When calling her at her cell phone, he says: "It would seem strange, but I feel like I know you". It's not so strange, though: the journalist is played by Ashley Scott, who also played underground operative and potential secondary love interest Asha Barlow in ''[[Dark Angel]]''.
** In the Season 4 Halloween episode "Witch Hunt", Abby, in her [[Marilyn Monroe]] Halloween Costume, calls Gibbs "Mr. President" in a reference to [[John F. Kennedy]]. However, Mark Harmon also played the US President in the 2004 film, "Chasing Liberty".
** Harmon's turn as serial killer Ted Bundy (in the TV movie ''The Deliberate Stranger'') is referenced by Fornell in the episode "Smoked" (4x10).
{{quote|'''Fornell:''' I was on the team that nailed Bundy, Gibbs. And I'm familiar with sick, charming bastards.
'''Gibbs:''' That's probably why we get along so well. }}
** In the season eight double episode "Enemies Foreign/Domestic" Tony makes a reference to ''[[The West Wing]]'' by calling McGee "McBartlet". Both Mark Harmon and Michael O'Neill (who guest stars in these episodes) played secret service agents on the show.
** A combination of [[Actor Allusion]] and [[Shout-Out]]: Tony (Mike Weatherly)'s father is played by Robert Wagner. Weatherly met ''NCIS'' producer Donald Bellisario while Weatherly was filming ''The Mystery of Natalie Wood'', in which he played Wood's husband...Robert Wagner.
** In the Episode 'Light Sleeper' while on stake-out Tony is reading an entertainment magazine.
{{quote|'''Tony:''' Damn, I can't believe this... Mick and Jessica broke up, I'm always the last to know.}}
:::This is just after Michael Weatherly and Jessica Alba broke up.
** A retroactive one: Early in Season 7, a Metro detective who annoys Gibbs is described as having "tugged on [[Justice League Crisis On Two Earths|Superman]]'s cape".
** In the Season 9 episode "Newborn King", Jimmy Palmer, when explaining that his future Father-in-Law, Ed Slater, is visiting the NCIS building, he mentions that the first time he learned that Palmer was marrying his daughter, "[Ed Slater] laughed, and then he cried from laughing too hard". Ed Slater is played by Larry Miller, who himself used the phrase "I laughed, I cried" during his first [[Is This Thing Still On?]] moment as Principal Jindrake in the movie ''[[Max Keeble's Big Move]]''.
* [[Adorkable]]: In ''Jurisdiction'', the CGIS expy of Abby is a cute Asian [[Meganekko]] wearing [[Nerd Glasses]].
* [[Affably Evil]]:
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