Head Case

Season 3, Episode 15, Aired

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8.9
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While discovering an illegal automotive chop shop, the NCIS team stumbles upon a severed head of a Navy Captain 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.moreless
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Fan Episode Reviews (13)

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  • Head case

    7.5
    "Good"
    By Parricida, Jun 06, 2010
    I think the point is, that you may never know where you end up, when you go to get bad guys.. it was busting people who stole cars but they ended up dealing with head.. and soon other body parts followed.

    I think the case itself was quite disturbing and the whole way what that woman and others involved did... but I really liked how Gibbs interacted with that family.. that poor kid: "where are you taking my dad". And Gibbs doing everything to get right ashes back to the family.

    And ofcourse.. some great team interaction too here and there.moreless

  • A really superb episode.

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By whiteraven2005, Jan 20, 2010
    Another reason I'd never go into a mortuary cleaning up the ashes and then he claps his hands and there's a cloud of extremely suspicious dust.

    Gibbs was astonishingly diplomatic with the wife you do not want to tell her the husband's head has been found. Jenny talking to the wife was hilarious. It was lovely for Gibbs to make sure the widow got the correct ashes.

    How does Tony do that? I'm sure that's a question everyone from Kate to McGee would love to know. He appears to be doing absolutely nothing then when Gibbs appears, a crucial piece of evidence appears in his hand to everyone's astonishment except for Gibbs. He actually seems to expect it.moreless

  • Yet another brilliant episode, however, not my favorite.

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By amazing_race, Jan 10, 2010
    This episode was pretty interesting to watch, with a pretty interesting storyline. I did not enjoy the first scene too much, and I thought the beginning moved a little too fast.

    However, the case got more interesting for me as the episode carried one, and I was really hooked halfway through.

    Once again, I found the ending to be a great one and it was pretty unpredictable once again, which is always a bonus with me.

    There were a few funny scenes, but humour was not this episode's prized asset, which did disappoint me a little.

    I do recommend this episode, but for a casual viewer, there are several others which I prefer over it. Still, another decent episode.moreless

  • Yet another good one

    10
    "Perfect"
    By vicky24c, Dec 02, 2008
    This episode opens in a car body shop, with two men taking part cars. A third enters with another car and NCIS enter the building. In the boot of the newest car, they find a cooler which has a human head inside. They trace down the owner of the car in which the head was found, it is registered to a company. Abby runs a DNA test on the head and discovers that it belongs to Navy Caption Parker Wayne; he died at a hospital over 4 months ago. They go to the funeral parlour which he was realised too.
    When Abby runs tests on the ashes, which Gibbs got from the widow, are not real ashes. When the team enter one of the company's warehouses, in search of documents they discover a freezer filled with frozen body parts. The head of the company Sean Oliver is a woman who Tony and Ziva met with a few days ago. The man, Martin, who the team believed was a part of the body farm, is one of the body which was chopped up. Ducky calls in another ME for help with the body's and discover that the ME is the one who chopped up the bodies. They manage to piece back together the Caption's body and take it to be criminated. Gibbs then returns it to his wife in order for them to be scattered at sea, as was his final wish.moreless

  • When the NCIS team bust up a chop shop run by members of the military, they discover a head in the trunk of one of the cars. But they have no idea who's head it is or where the rest of the body is. Why would they have a human head in the trunk?moreless

    9.8
    "Superb"
    By okeydokeythen, Sep 15, 2008
    The boosters say they had no idea the head was in the trunk. They have a lead that sends them to an attorny's office, Sean Oliver, who happens to be a beautiful woman, which Tony is pleasantly surprised. The attorny says she can't devulge any information on the owners of the vehicle without client permission. They find out that it is the head of Captain Parker Wayne. Who was cremated. The owner of the crematorium says his assistant was the one who did the cremation. When they go to his room it is oddly decorated like some kind of voodooish type atmosphere. Tony finds a cooler and makes Mcgee open it only to find pigs feet. Gibbs has to go to the home of the captain to collect his ashes to have them tested to make sure that it is endeed the captain's remains. AS the investigation goes on they find that the remains were just ashes of burnt wood chips concrete and pebbles not the captain's remains. Now they have to find the captain's body and have it cremated intime for the family to have it deployed and scattered at sea per to his wishes. The corporation that owns the car has been decidedly connected to this odd situation. They have yet to beable to et a search warrant for the law office of Sean Oliver. Jenny shows up and has apparently beenable to expedite the recieving of the warrant. They find a storage building belonging to the corporation and thinking that there maybe files in there they open it. Only to find a cash of body parts. It was a body chop shop. Now all there is to know is who is the leader of this chop shop. Sean Oliver actually protecting herslef she had started making a deal with the DA's office once she realized that her goose was fixing to cooked. She felt like the remains were better used for research. Her deal was not doing her any good, since there was atleast
    6 people in the storage building. The cremater's assistant has now been identified in that group of people. Come to find out she was in business with a m.e. That is helping Ducky identify the body parts. Who they belonged to.

    twisty turvy plot. It was great.moreless
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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • TRIVIA (0)

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  • QUOTES (19)

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    • Tony: First severed head? Mine was a motorcycle accident in Baltimore. I thought I was just picking up a helmet... Ziva: Trust me, it's far worse when you know the person. Tony: You knew someone who was beheaded? Ziva: A friend. He infiltrated a Hamas cell in Ramallah. They sent his head overnight express. Tony: I'm sorry, Ziva... Ziva: That's when I decided that I'd... I'd never be captured alive.

    • Tony: We don't believe in coincidences around here, Ziva. Gibbs: However, we do believe in bad luck.

    • Gibbs: You're asking me to believe that a sailor jacked a car with a head in the trunk and didn't know. Ziva: If the glue sticks. McGee: Shoe fits.

    • McGee: Do you believe them? Gibbs: They had a human head in the back of their car, what do you think McGee?

    • Tony: What a coincidence Boss, I was just about to call you! Gibbs: What a coincidence, I was just about to shove my boot up your - Tony: Got a lead.

    • Tony: Broussard stole the Mercedes? Abby: Either that... or he really likes to touch stuff.

    • Jenny: Do you think it would be inappropriate if as Director, I went in there and smacked that smile off her face? Gibbs: Yeah it would... That's what you have me for.

    • Tony: Sleepless in Seattle?
      Ziva: That was about voodoo?
      Tony: No, but the first time I saw it, scared the bejeezus out of me.

    • Tony: I'd buy that except for the fact that it looks like this guy did an episode of Trading Spaces with Satan.

    • Jimmy: Red meat or white? (Abby stares horrified at him) Inappropriate? Abby: With a big dash of creepy, Jimmy.

    • Ducky: You did me a favour tonight Jethro. Tonight is smack down night at the Mallard residence. Can you believe it? Mother's favorite program. Wrestling. Palmer: Oh, me too, I love the WWE. Ducky: I haven't the heart to tell her it's not real. (Palmer's smile falls)

    • Shepard: Something wrong, Agent DiNozzo? DiNozzo: Just wondering if Gibbs knows you're Ziva's contact. Shepard: We had a saying back in Europe, anything Gibbs doesn't know... DiNozzo: Can't hurt him. Shepard: No, can't hurt us.

    • Mrs. Wayne: Thank you, Agent Gibbs... and Parker would never forgive me if I didn't say... "Semper Fi".
      Gibbs: Fair winds and following seas, Ma'am...

    • Tony: You know what that means? Ziva: No, not at all. Tony: Good. Neither do I. Pick the lock.

    • Ziva (leaning over Tony's shoulder reading his email): I didn't know your nickname was Honey Buns. Gibbs: Only Naomi and I call him that. Tony: I didn't think you were going to say anything about that boss.

    • Gibbs: What are you going to say when they answer the phone, Officer David? 'Hey, we found your car, anyone at Epsilon missing a head?'

    • Abby: There's really no foreplay with you. Is there Gibbs? Gibbs: What? You been talking to my ex-wives again?

    • Tony: You thinking what I'm thinking? McGee: Yeah, that we've just walked into an episode of the X-files.

    • Ziva: Why doesn't Tony just sleep with her? It's a viable interrogation technique. Gibbs: I've done it. Ziva: Me too.

  • NOTES (2)

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    • Original International Airdates: Denmark: February 21, 2006 on TV3 Australia: June 28, 2006 on Channel 10 Sweden: September 24, 2006 on TV3 Germany: October 8, 2006 on SAT 1 France: November 17, 2006 on M6 Italy: December 10, 2006 on RAI 2 Croatia: December 28, 2006 on NOVA TV Finland: January 5, 2008 on Nelonen Slovakia: May 12, 2009 on Markiza

    • The song playing at the beginning of the episode is "Twisted Transistor" by KoRn.

  • ALLUSIONS (4)

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    • Ducky: Last year we had a patient who spontaneously combusted. Ducky is referring to episode 2x08, "Heart Break." The patient did not actually spontaneously combust, although some people thought he did at first.

    • McGee: (On finding a stash of body parts) Oh, great! Another Dahmer. Jeffrey Dahmer was a serial killer who preyed on young African-American and Asian gay men and kept bones and refrigerated body parts as souvenirs. He admitted to eating part of one victim's arm, and the cannibalism overshadowed the reports of his other killings. His first murder was in 1978, and his spree accounted for fourteen deaths from 1989 to 1991. In all, he is credited with seventeen murders. Dahmer was arrested in 1991 after one of his victims managed to escape and alert the police. He was convicted and sentenced to fifteen consecutive life sentences without parole. In 1994 another inmate beat him to death with a lead pipe. In actuality, however, the situation in this episode is more akin to that of Ed Gein from Plainfield, Wisconsin, who is famed as a murderer, although he was only connected with two victims. On his arrest, his home was found to be filled with collections of body parts and artifacts made from human bones and skin, most of them found to have been obtained by grave-robbing. Since the body parts in this episode were in the possession of someone who worked in a funeral home, they were more likely the work of a collector, not a killer. The story of Ed Gein has been considered the inspiration for a host of works, including the movies Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock, Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs.

    • Tony and McGee refer to Trading Spaces, a TV show where two couples are to help decorate the rooms of another couple.

    • McGee and Tony refer to The X-Files when they enter the room. The X-Files was a cult show in the 1990's that would have episodes that deal with the unusual and grotesque. One episode in particular -- "Our Town" -- had a closet that had shrunken heads, bones, and other unusual pieces.

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