Caitlin Todd - Characterization

Characterization

Todd was portrayed as professional and as a talented agent, with great profiling skills and artistic talents. At the beginning of Season 1, she was often shown to be surprised by the rule-breaking tendencies that her colleagues performed but eventually adhered to them. She also seemed to get emotionally attached to victims as seen in the episodes "The Immortals" and especially "Left For Dead", when she befriended a Jane Doe who had memory loss after being buried alive in a grave. It was later revealed, however, that the Jane Doe had actually been deceiving Todd all along and she later killed herself and her lover, with the aftermath leaving Kate emotionally scarred for some time.

Her attitude contrasted vastly with DiNozzo's behavior, and they routinely argued over matters of privacy and personal boundaries: throughout the first two seasons, Todd was the prime target of DiNozzo's nosing, with the latter sneaking through her purse, cellphone, PDA and desktop computer on a regular basis, which infuriated her to no end. DiNozzo even went through Kate's trash to discover where she'd eaten breakfast much to her chargin in "Doppelganger".

Whereas Todd considered this outrageous and unacceptable, DiNozzo seemingly merely did this for his personal entertainment. However, DiNozzo had also been the target of numerous taunts and regular teasing from Todd as well.

It was also revealed in the Season 2 episode, "Witness" that Kate had a phobia of going to the dentist but she eventually overcame it thanks to Tony giving her the number of a hypnotist.

A talented sketch artist, she sketched an accurate likeness of a suspect in the episode "Marine Down". During the same episode, it was shown that she had drawn caricatures of the team, some of which showed DiNozzo lusting after a pretty girl and Abby Sciuto as a bat. She also drew one of Gibbs as well, but managed to take her drawing pad back from DiNozzo before he revealed it.

In addition to being excellent at drawing, Todd, like Abby, was greatly skilled in using a Personal digital assistant or a PDA. Kate's first PDA was destroyed during a practice test at the shooting range at the beginning of Season 1 episode "Marine Down" after Gibbs taped it onto her target to force her to shoot accurately. It had to be discarded as the warranty did not cover damage caused by bullets. She was later seen using a possible replacement in "Eye Spy" and was always seen with one at various crime scenes, usually giving Gibbs or the team information.

Despite being seen writing things with her right hand, Todd was seen operating her computer mouse with her left hand, suggesting that she might be ambidextrous.

In season three, when Ziva David joined the team full-time and moved into Todd's cubicle, she presented Gibbs with Todd's sketch pad. There were portraits of each cast member in it, including Gibbs.

Todd had an opportunity to kill Ari when he broke into the NCIS autopsy lab in "Bete Noire" and shot Gerald in the shoulder, but found she was unable to do so. Gibbs later chastized her for this. In "Kill Ari (Part I)," during a discussion with Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard in the morgue, Todd, who had been shot dead in the previous episode, explained that she had not been able to kill Ari because she had looked into his eyes and that there had been something kind in them. She also expressed regret at not killing Ari when she had the chance because in her opinion, Todd knew that she did not deserve to die.