Skeletons (episode)

Skeletons is the seventeenth episode in NCIS Season 4 and the eighty-seventh episode of the entire NCIS series.
==Synopsis==
NCIS investigate an explosion at a military cemetery mausoleum with the discovery turning up the dismembered bodies of many victims, leading the team to believe that they're dealing with a serial killer.
==Prologue==
At a military funeral in James River National, as six military soldiers stand guard over a coffin, the priest reads, "In pain, may they find comfort, in sorrow, hope, and in death, resurrection".
A while later, the same six soldiers assume the position and now armed with guns, fire off two shots on the instructions of their leader.
As this goes on, Kenneth Dixon walks the cemetery before he turns around and heads into the mausoleum.
As he reaches another area where his friend Lloyd Jackson is, Dixon tells Jackson that they're almost finished out here.
Jackson just wonders what Dixon wants to tell him before Jackson says that he can't get the damn thing open.
"Stripped?", Dixon wonders.
Jackson disagrees, stating that it's catching and it's just stuck or something.
Dixon wonders when was the last time Jackson himself opened of these?
As Dixon walks by, taking off his coat, Jackson states that this is the first tandem since he's been here.
"That's like what a decade?", Dixon says.
Jackson agrees
Dixon then tells Jackson to let him try.
As the military song echoes, Dixon now holding the tools struggles to open the crypt at first but then announces seconds later that it's moving.
Jackson wonders what that smell is.
Suddenly, a huge explosion erupts, catching both men off guard and sending them to the ground.
As they both sit up, both men realize that they're now covered in some kind of goo which has them disgusted and greatly frightened.
Jackson wonders if Dixon's okay.
In the now open crypt, various piles of goo along with human bones and a skull are emerging with the goo itself dripping onto the floor.
As they both struggle to come to terms with what's happened, Dixon looks over.
It then cuts to show that in the center of the first pile of goo along with a single bone is also a human skull.
==Act One==
==Act Two==
==Act Three==
In the elevator with Mann and Gibbs, Ducky is stating that if the bodies recovered from the mausoleum were the result of mass-murder, then one might except a certain modicum of consistency in the manner of death.
"One might", Gibbs replies and as they enter the morgue, Mann covers her nose, obviously disgusted by the smell.
"Yes and one would be wrong", Ducky states before revealing that the victims were shot, stabbed, strangled, bludgeoned before heading to the remains that contain Miss Undetermined Torrance.
He then states that the victims were composed of three women and two men with the age range varying from 19 to 70 and that three are Caucasian, one Asian and one African-American.
==Act Four==
==Major Events==
*It's revealed that Roy Sanders, who Ziva befriended in the previous episode, died from the radiation poisoning.
==Trivia==
*The episode is inspired by the Donald Henry Gaskins case.
*The footage of the Marines performing the gun salute at the funeral which is played at the beginning of the episode is actually footage that first aired during "Coming Home", the Season 9 episode from NCIS's parent series, JAG.
*Brian Markinson (Sgt. Trask) and Susanna Thompson (Col. Mann) both later appeared together in the pilot episode of the CW series Arrow, where they portray Adam Hunt and Moira Queen, respectively. They both also appear in the episode "Year's End" of that series.
*Abby is upset over her abrupt break-up with Marty Pearson, who does not appear in the episode. Pearson was written out of the show after the actor in the part, Michael Gilden, died December 5, 2006 by suicide at the age of 44.
==Cast==
===Series Regulars===
Name 	Portrayed by 	Role
Leroy Jethro Gibbs 	Mark Harmon 	NCIS Special Agent in charge of the main NCIS Major Case Response Team.
Anthony DiNozzo Junior	Michael Weatherly 	The Senior Agent of the main NCIS Major Case Response Team and also the second-in-command.
Ziva David 	Cote de Pablo 	The Mossad Liaison Officer to NCIS.
Abigail Sciuto 	Pauley Perrette 	NCIS's Chief Forensic Scientist.
Timothy McGee 	Sean Murray (actor)	Junior Agent of the main NCIS Major Case Response Team.
Jennifer Shepard 	Lauren Holly 	NCIS Director.
Donald Mallard 	David McCallum 	NCIS's Chief Medical Examiner.
===Recurring Cast===
Name 	Portrayed by 	Role
James Palmer	Brian Dietzen 	Ducky's assistant.
Hollis Mann 	Susanna Thompson	A Lieutenant Colonel with Army CID.
===Guest Cast===
Name 	Portrayed by 	Role
Len Grady 	Corin Nemec 	A jack-of-all-trades salesman and a serial killer.
Natalie Dalton 	Alexandra Lydon 	Grady's girlfriend, a butcher and a serial killer.
Dan Trask 	Brian Markinson 	A Marine Sergeant with the EOD.
Lloyd Jackson 	Philip Anthony-Rodriguez	A former Marine Lance Corporal.
Kenneth Dixon 	Chris Tardio 	A man caught in the explosion at James River National.
Jacob Torrance 	Brian Cousins 	Madeline's husband.
Madeline Torrance 	Erinn Bartlett 	Jacob's wife.
Martin (Skeletons)	Antwan Razor Daniels 	
  v - [ e] - dNCIS Season 4
♦ Shalom (episode) ♦ Escaped (episode) ♦ Singled Out (episode) ♦ Faking It (episode) ♦ Dead and Unburied (episode) ♦ Witch Hunt (episode) ♦ Sandblast (episode) ♦ Once a Hero (episode) ♦ Twisted Sister (episode) ♦ Smoked (episode) ♦ Driven (episode) ♦ Suspicion (episode) ♦ Sharif Returns (episode) ♦ Blowback (episode) ♦ Friends and Lovers (episode) ♦ Dead Man Walking (episode) ♦ Skeletons (episode) ♦ Iceman (episode) ♦ Grace Period (episode) ♦ Cover Story (episode) ♦ Brothers in Arms (episode) ♦ In the Dark (episode) ♦ Trojan Horse (episode) ♦ Angel of Death (episode)
Category:NCIS Episodes
Category:NCIS Season 4 Episodes
Category:NCIS Episodes written by Jesse Stern
Category:NCIS Episodes directed by James Whitmore, Jr.
Category:NCIS Episodes featuring James Palmer
Category:NCIS Episodes featuring Hollis Mann