NCIS Season 23: The Tony DiNozzo Reference You Might Have Missed In Episode 4

Contains spoilers for "NCIS" Season 23, Episode 4 — "Gone Girls"

The past is always present in the "NCIS" world, and sometimes those old ghosts pop up in surprising places. So when Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) approaches Tim McGee (Sean Murray) with a tux bagged and slung over his shoulder in "Gone Girls," he's looking for something their old pal Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) might have left behind. 

Jimmy was hoping that Tim might have held onto an old horde of shoe polish that Tony had in the secret compartment of his desk. Since Tim inherited Tony's office equipment when Tony quit NCIS, Jimmy's hoping that Tim hung on to some of Tony's old things. But Tim has bad news for Jimmy. "No, HR cleared that out years ago, All I got here is some allergy medication and nasal spray," McGee admits. He takes a pregnant pause, then adds, "I'm not sure Tony would approve."

Admittedly, Tony is probably a bit too busy with his own life at the moment to worry about McGee's allergies. While Tim and Jimmy team up to solve a major mystery at a Gilbert and Sullivan-themed gala being thrown by NCIS accountant Barbara's (Victoria Kelleher) community theater company, Tony is globetrotting — and trying to keep himself and his family alive.

While everything is as copacetic as it'll ever be in the "NCIS" world, the titular twosome on "NCIS: Tony and Ziva" have been working their fingers to the bone to keep their daughter Tali (Isla Gie) alive, as well as the world at large safe and sound. 

Though separated, Tony and Ziva (Cote de Pablo) have been living near each other in Paris and raising their daughter together — until a common enemy decides to steal intelligence that Tony had been hired to protect with his private security firm. They have to travel the globe to solve the mystery, with their daughter in the capable hands of her nanny and Interpol breathing down their necks, but in the end they triumph. They also manage to repair their romantic relationship along the way.

Interestingly, both Tim McGee and Jimmy Palmer show up on a guest list filled with the names of Tony and Ziva's colleagues seen in a flashback during "Tony and Ziva." The litany of familiar faces are part of an aborted wedding the pair never go through with. Perhaps in the future, they'll actually pledge their troths together — but until then, it's pretty obvious that the group is still bound together by the ties of friendship.