Yankee White (episode)

Yankee White is the series premiere episode of NCIS and the 1st episode of the entire NCIS series.
It is the first-ever episode to introduce Sasha Alexander as Caitlin Todd, a Secret Service Agent assigned to the Presidential Protection Detail on Air Force One and who later permanently joins the NCIS team as Vivian Blackadder's replacement while also marking the debut appearances of both Gerald Jackson, the NCIS Medical Examiner Assistant and FBI Agent Tobias Fornell.
==Synopsis==
When a Navy Commander collapses and dies after having lunch with the President of the United States on board Air Force, the NCIS team investigate in order to determine if the death was accidental or something far more sinister.
==Prologue==
After bidding farewell to a crowd, President George W. Bush heads into the main area of Air Force One with a group of stewards getting to their feet just as he arrives in.
As Bush approaches the Chief Steward, Bobby, he wonders if the baby backs from Papa Joe's made the flight.
Bobby confirms they did and that they were flown in from San Antonia ten minutes ago. 
Bush is pleased and then decides they'll all have an early lunch with Bobby agreeing.
Heading back down the corridor, Bush tells Secret Service agent William Baer he loves Papa Joe's with Baer stating that he knows and as they approach the end, Bush is curious as to why wasn't Major Timothy Kerry supposed to be handling the football or the nuclear football?
Baer's colleague, fellow Secret Service agent Caitlin Todd informs Bush that Kerry came down with the flu.
As the three reach the end, Baer introduces Bush to Kerry's temporary replacement, Navy Commander Ray Trapp who is standing to attention with Baer revealing Trapp is new to the detail.
As they shake hands, Bush wonders if they met with Trapp confirming they have and it was on the Abraham Lincoln, something that has Bush telling Baer and Kate the Lincoln was the best day he's ever had on the job.
He then invites Trapp to join him for lunch with Trapp saying, "Be my pleasure, Mr. President".
"Good", Bush replies. "I look forward to it".
He heads into the area where his office is situated with Baer following.
As everyone sits down once more, Kate approaches Trapp and remarks about him having lunch with the boss on his first day while believing Trapp is also destined to have stars on his shoulders.
She then heads off.
Trapp then sits down once again with a smile spreading across his face while his left hand is focused on the suitcase beside him.
Outside, Air Force One takes off.
Inside, everyone's having lunch as a female steward places a tray consisting of some sandwiches and a plastic cup on coke on a table just as the Chief Steward, Bobby, walks past.
He then apologizes to a man before continuing on and stopping at the area where Baer and Kate are, Bobby wondering if they would like anything to eat.
"No, thank you", Baer replies.
"I'm fine, thanks", Kate adds.
"Very well", Bobby says and heads off.
As that happens, Baer tells Kate he'll be in Comms, getting an update from Backhoe while he gets to his feet. He also instructs Kate to keep an eye on things down here.
Kate wonders if he's expecting a problem?
Pausing at the staircase, Baer tells Kate to expect problems and with a little luck, she'll never lose a President.
He then heads up the stairs.
Kate smirks.
As Baer heads upstairs, Trapp arrives in, holding onto the suitcase but it's immediately clear something isn't right as he drops the suitcase which falls to the floor.
This has Kate looking up.
Trapp looks at his left hand and then glances at Kate before revealing he fumbled in his first Army-Navy game but that he recovered the ball as he picks up the suitcase once again.
As he places the suitcase against the seat, he introduces himself to Kate with the two shaking hands.
Trapp reveals eating with the President was a bigger sweat than making a night trap.
He then slumps into the chair, causing Kate to wonder if he's ill.
Seconds later, Trapp begins seizing and as he slumps to the floor, Kate uses her comm to inform Baer or Slammer that it's Rosefern and that there's a medical emergency in Section One.
She approaches Trapp and puts her hands behind his head as Trapp continues seizing with saliva emerging from his mouth just as Baer comes back downstairs, wondering what's wrong.
Kate tells him she doesn't know.
Seconds later, Burger and two Medics, an unnamed man and woman arrive and begin treating Trapp with the situation not looking good as it's revealed that Trapp is no longer breathing and that he has no pulse with the female Medic telling her colleague to give her the bag.
As Burger gets up, Kate tells him Trapp just had lunch with the President.
"Oh my God!", Burger says.
"Let's go!", Baer announces.
As he and Burger head off to check on the President, Baer orders Kate to stay with the football.
Kate then takes the suitcase and brings it over to where she's sitting as the female Medic and her colleague continue working on Trapp with the female Medic stating "Pulse compressions" as her colleague performs CPR on Trapp.
She then tells her male colleague, "Let's take a pulse" while Kate stands there, staring at Trapp who's still lying on the floor, unmoving.
Upon detecting no pulse, the female Medic prepares to remove Trapp's shirt while it's shown that Trapp is lying there, silva or drool having emerged from the right side of his mouth.
It then cuts to Kate who stands there, watching.
==Act One==
In his basement, as a radio plays in the background, NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs is busy working on constructing a boat. He then stops to admire it before blowing the dust away just as the phone rings.
Heading away from the boat, Gibbs picks up the phone and answers it with "Yeah, Gibbs".
At NCIS Headquarters located in the Navy Yard in Washington D.C., NCIS Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo Junior tells Gibbs that a Navy Commander carrying the football on Air Force just carked in the air.
In the basement, Gibbs wants to know where they landed.
Tony reveals it's Wichita, Kansas and that the President's transferring to the back-up bird. 
He also informs Gibbs he booked them on a 1500 United flight on Reagan and that it stops in Dallas, Texas before heading to Wichita.
"That the best you could do?", Gibbs wonders.
Back in the bullpen, as Tony puts on his coat, he tells Gibbs that it's a Saturday and if they had their own jet...
Gibbs informs him they don't and that Ducky is buds with coroners across the country before asking Tony to see if he can't get one of them to hold the body until they get there.
"All right", Tony says and hangs up.
In the basement, Gibbs hangs up too and prepares to head upstairs, walking past his TV that has as a Female Newsreader on the air, revealing her name is Doris McMillon and she has a CBS news update while stating that they've just learned that Air Force One has made an unscheduled stop at Wichita's Mid-Continent Airport while Gibbs heads upstairs to get ready.
She announces that details are sketchy...
However, Gibbs then hits a button that shuts off the TV and turns off the lights in the basement.
Some time later, Gibbs and Tony have arrived at the airport where Tony's giving out about the fact that other federal agencies such as the FBI, CIA, DEA, ATF and even the NYPD have private jets.
Gibbs states it's for 36 cents a mile and wonders if Tony wants to drive.
Tony, on the other hand, believes it's humiliating. 
==Act Two==
==Act Three==
==Act Four==
==Major Events==
*Secret Service Agent/future NCIS Special Agent Caitlin Todd, FBI agent Tobias Fornell and Medical Examiner Assistant Gerald Jackson are all introduced for the first time.
==Trivia==
*"Yankee White" is the first ever episode of NCIS as a stand-alone series. The NCIS team of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Anthony DiNozzo, Abigail Sciuto and Donald Mallard as well as NCIS Director Thomas Morrow all originally appeared in the JAG Season 8 episodes Ice Queen (episode) and Meltdown (episode), both of which served as a backdoor pilot for the main NCIS series. In addition to that, "Yankee White" also includes some of the background music that was also originally heard in both "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown".
*The TV in Gibbs's house is playing CBS, but later in the series, they use Zulu News Network, a fictional news network carried over from NCIS's parent series, "JAG".
*After watching a reporter go in to see the President alone, Gibbs references a Tom Clancy novel in which a terrorist hijacked a plane and crashed it into the Capitol and notes the novel was published before September 11 (the 1994 novel was "Debt of Honor"). Gibbs then points out a movie starring Harrison Ford as the President in which terrorists pose as reporters and hijack Air Force One (the 1997 movie was aptly named "Air Force One"). In the movie, the Secret Service agent who betrayed the President had the last name "Gibbs." The airplane set used as Air Force One in this episode was also used in the Harrison Ford film.
*The coroner states that the body is in Wichita County while the Secret Service and FBI are arguing over jurisdiction, but this is inaccurate since the city of Wichita is located in Sedgwick County in southeast Kansas, which is 250 road miles from Wichita County in western Kansas.
*When Tony is driving to the crime scene where Major Kerry's body is, a camera man can be seen sitting in the passenger seat, presumably filming the scene itself.
*"Yankee White" is a special security investigation considered the nation's most rigorous security background check in which candidates must pass in order to work for the Defense Communications Agency. The criteria include U.S. citizenship, unquestionable loyalty, and an absolute absence of any foreign influence over the individual, his family, or "persons to whom the individual is closely linked."
*Fornell's first name was revealed to be Tom although it was later changed to Tobias in later episodes, presumably so that he wouldn't be confused with Thomas Morrow, the NCIS Director who was played by actor Alan Dale and who also appeared throughout Season 1 and 2, having originally debuted in the two-part episodes "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown".
*When Abby remarks "What are you, my priest?" about Tony's "Bless you", he then counters with "Curse you?". This could be a reference to the fact that Michael Weatherly (Tony DiNozzo) played a warlock named Brendan, who wanted to become a priest in the Season 1 episode "When Bad Warlocks Turn Good" in the TV series "Charmed".
*This episode also marks the first appearance of the Mysterious Red-Head, an unidentified woman often seen with Gibbs during the first three seasons of NCIS.
*This is also the only episode of the entire NCIS series to have a remixed version of the NCIS theme song although it was later presumably dropped in favor of the original version of the NCIS theme song that Numeriklab created. On the Region 2 DVD version of NCIS Season 1, the first three audio options: English, Italian and French all have the original remix version while the German version has the original version of the main NCIS theme song.
==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.
Caitlin Todd 	Sasha Alexander 	A Secret Service Agent assigned to the Presidential Protection Detail on Air Force One. Later presumably resigns from the Secret Service for good at the end of the episode, eventually joining NCIS and as a result, she becomes DiNozzo's partner and also the Junior Agent of the team.
Anthony DiNozzo Junior	Michael Weatherly	The Senior Agent of the main NCIS Major Case Response Team and also the second-in-command.
Abigail Sciuto 	Pauley Perrette 	NCIS's Chief Forensic Scientist.
Donald Mallard 	David McCallum 	NCIS's Chief Medical Examiner.
===Recurring Cast===
Name 	Portrayed by	Role
Thomas Morrow	Alan Dale 	Director of NCIS.
===Guest Cast===
Name 	Portrayed by 	Role
Gerald Jackson 	Pancho Demmings 	Assistant Medical Examiner for NCIS who helps Ducky with various tasks.
Tobias Fornell 	Joe Spano 	Agent with the FBI.
William Baer 	Gerry Becker 	United States Secret Service and head of the Presidential Protection Detail. Codename is "Slammer".
Elmo Poke 	Gary Grubbs 	Local Coroner of Wichita, KS and a friend of Ducky's.
Ray Trapp 	Gerald Downey 	Commander in the United States Navy and the Football Carrier for Air Force One.
Timothy Kerry 	Dane Northcutt 	Major in the United States Marine Corps.
Burger 	Michael Adler 	President's Physician and also a Captain in the United States Navy.
Leonard Rish 	Robert Bagnell 	Reporter and also a terrorist who was given the task of assassinating the President but was later shot dead by Gibbs when he resisted arrest.
Carl Pritchard 	Dwayne Macopson 	Major in the United States Marine Corps and the new Football Carrier in the aftermath of Navy Commander Ray Trapp's death.
Mark (Yankee White) 	Lawrence Pressman 	Director of the United States Secret Service.
Charlie (Yankee White)	Gregory Itzin 	Federal Bureau of Investigation.
George W. Bush 	Steve Bridges 	President of the United States.
Bowman 	Jeremy Overstreet 	Federal Agent with an unidentified federal agency.
Andy Kochofis 	Asante Jones 	Detective and Homicide Investigator with Metro P.D.
Dennis (Yankee White) 	Michael Maize 	TSA Guard assigned to the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington D.C.
Secret Service Agent 1	Ron Brosh 	United States Secret Service. Uncredited role.
Secret Service Agent 2	Michael Calder 	United States Secret Service. Uncredited role.
NCIS Agent 1 	Paul Majors 	Agent with NCIS. Uncredited role.
FBI Agent 	Gerald McCullouch 	Agent with the Federal Bureau Investigation.
Bobby (Yankee White) 	Richard Anthony Crenna	Chief Steward Aboard Air Force One.
Medic 	Jennifer Weston 	Dr. Burger's assistant. Uncredited role.
Doris McMillon 	Doris E. McMillon 	Reporter for CBS.
Stan 	Scott Fishkind 	Rish's Cameraman who accompanied Rish to Wichita. Uncredited role.
  v—[ e]—dNCIS Season 1
♦ Ice Queen (episode) ♦ Meltdown (episode) ♦ NCIS: The Beginning (episode) ♦ Yankee White (episode) ♦ Hung Out to Dry (episode) ♦ Seadog (episode) ♦ The Immortals (episode) ♦ The Curse (episode) ♦ High Seas (episode) ♦ Sub Rosa (episode) ♦ Minimum Security (episode) ♦ Marine Down (episode) ♦ Left for Dead (episode) ♦ Eye Spy (episode) ♦ My Other Left Foot (episode) ♦ One Shot, One Kill (episode) ♦ The Good Samaritan (episode) ♦ Enigma (episode) ♦ Bête Noire (episode) ♦ The Truth Is Out There (episode) ♦ UnSEALeD (episode) ♦ Dead Man Talking (episode) ♦ Missing (episode) ♦ Split Decision (episode) ♦ A Weak Link (episode) ♦ Reveille (episode)
Category:NCIS Episodes
Category:NCIS Season 1 Episodes
Category:NCIS Season Premiere Episodes
Category:NCIS Episodes written by Donald P. Bellisario
Category:NCIS Episodes written by Don McGill
Category:NCIS Episodes directed by Donald P. Bellisario