Caitlin Todd - Death

Death

Todd's year and a half long career as an NCIS Special Agent came to an abrupt and tragic end when in the last few seconds of the Season 2 finale, "Twilight" (canonically on May 24, 2005), after she and the team had successfully cleared a warehouse, shooting all the terrorists in sight, Kate herself died after being shot through the head which left a bullet-shaped hole in its wake and killed her instantly with Gibbs and DiNozzo as witnesses to Kate's murder.

The murderer was revealed as the team's old enemy, terrorist and double agent Ari Haswari, who had targeted and killed her merely because he wanted to cause Gibbs pain (even using a Bravo 51 nicknamed "Kate"); the remaining members of the team were left completely shellshocked and numb by Kate's brutal murder and struggled to come to terms with her death, Abby being the one who took the situation pretty hard as she and Kate had been friends since the very beginning of Kate's career as an NCIS Special Agent.

Seeking revenge against Ari, Gibbs solely embarked on a vengeful quest to find and kill Ari during the events of "Kill Ari" Parts I & II. Ari was eventually shot by his own half-sister, Mossad officer Ziva David, who later filled the void left in the team by Todd's death. Although at first the team wasn't too happy about Ziva replacing Todd, they later grew to accept her. At the end of the episode "Kill Ari (Part II)", the remaining members of the MCRT, along with Dr. Mallard and Abby Sciuto, bid a sad farewell to Todd while reminiscing happier times as she was laid to rest with civilian honors. During Gibbs' vision of Todd in her coffin, it was revealed that she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom

After her death, Todd was occasionally referenced in later episodes:

• In "Mind Games", DiNozzo tells Special agent Timothy McGee to ask Todd whether they have knee pads or not before realizing she is dead. Kyle Boone uses Todd's death in an attempt to intimidate Gibbs in the same episode.
• When Gibbs lost his memory from an explosion during the events of "Hiatus (Part 1)", Ziva reminded Gibbs of Todd's murder and of Ziva killing Ari before taking Gibbs' hand and using it to slap herself on the back of the head, to break the blankness of him not knowing who he was, leading him to regain his memory once again. He accidentally called Ziva "Kate" when he returned to NCIS in season 4.
• In the episode "Bait", a teenage student held his classmates hostage inside a classroom by threatening them with a bomb strapped to his chest. Gibbs and his team arrived on scene but were unable to get audio and video of the situation inside the classroom, thus, Gibbs put himself in danger by offering himself as a hostage. While DiNozzo took charge of the team, the boy demanded that his mother be brought to the classroom by sunset, but the team discovered that she had been dead for a year. DiNozzo let Gibbs know by saying to the student that Special Agent Caitlin Todd was looking for his mother. A marine asked how Gibbs would know that the boy's mother was deceased. DiNozzo replied, "Special Agent Todd is dead."
• Todd is briefly mentioned by McGee in the Season 3 episode "Probie" and by Dr. Mallard in the Season 6 finale "Aliyah".
• Todd was a major subject of Season 8's "A Man Walks Into a Bar...", in which her sister, Dr Rachel Cranston, was introduced, conducting mandatory psychological evaluation of the MCRT. Flashbacks of archive footage, alternate takes and deleted scenes including one from the Season 2 episode, "An Eye for an Eye", are used for illustrating the memories of Gibbs, DiNozzo, Sciuto, Dr. Mallard, McGee and Rachel as they remember their deceased friend and sister. A scene where Rachel sleeps behind Todd's former desk mirrors a similar scene with Todd in "Twilight". At the episode's conclusion, Rachel tearfully mentions that the team have been "better than at letting go", revealing her need for closure. Gibbs then takes her to his basement, showing Rachel where Ziva killed Ari, helping her to find closure.
• In the 200th episode an alternate-universe version of Kate is shown in which she was never killed by Ari, is still an NCIS agent, and is married to DiNozzo with a baby girl named Kelly.
• In season 10 "You Better Watch Out" it is revealed Tony named his goldfish after Kate.