NCIS season 22 will find the members of the team reacting to Knight’s departure in different ways, teases producer Steven D. Binder. Slated to return on CBS next month, the long-running procedural ended its previous season with a surprise twist for Jessica Knight (Katrina Law). After a devastating fight with her boyfriend Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) and a near-death experience rescuing team leader Alden Parker (Gary Cole), Knight accepted a new position at NCIS, meaning she would have to depart the team she’s been on for a few seasons now. NCIS season 22 will pick up months later.
Speaking with TV Insider, Binder confirmed that when the new season begins, Knight will have officially left the team, and her former colleagues are grappling with her departure in different ways. While some, like Timothy McGee (Sean Murray), seem to have taken some positive steps forward, others, such as Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) are taking it harder. Binder said:
Poor Torres. Every time he gets a family member, they leave. So he’s like, “I’m going solo Torres again.” He goes undercover with some bad people and it doesn’t work out well. He gets into a lot of trouble. He’s on this road of undercover loner, not really having relationships. Where does that road lead? We pair him up with a grizzled, hard-boiled private detective who is at the end of that road and is about to leave humanity behind and retire to some beach and drink himself to death. Is this Torres’ future or is he able to bring this guy back from the brink?
Knight [leaving] inspired a chain reaction of events. McGee [Sean Murray] applies for a deputy director position in Colorado to move up in the world. A lot of the fans have wondered why he hasn’t done so. It’s an open position and it will be filled by the end of the [premiere] episode. Kasie’s smarting a little bit from Knight being gone. Papa Bird Parker has an empty nest in the squad room. He wants his team back but very quickly gets embroiled in something that Knight gets into trouble with. This case will bring our team back together on one level, not necessarily “yay, we’re all back here in NCIS,” but paths will cross.
What Binder’s Comments Mean For NCIS Season 22
The Team Will Be Fractured, But Knight Isn’t Gone For Good
Following the end of NCIS season 21, it wasn’t clear whether Knight was leaving for good. Though she accepted Director Vance’s (Rocky Carroll) offer to lead the REACT team’s training program, Law and the creative team played coy over whether her departure would be permanent. While there is a very good chance Knight could return to Parker’s team, and is confirmed to reunite with them in the premiere, it is clear that, when season 22 begins, she will have been gone for a while, thus giving her teammates the impression that she won’t be coming back.
As a result, Binder’s comments indicate everyone is in a unique place when the show returns. Most interestingly, the producer mentioned McGee applying for a different job farther away. This has the potential to really shake up the team dynamics, since McGee has been an NCIS mainstay since the very first season. Beyond that, there will be emotional tension, with Torres and Kasie (Diona Reasonover) taking Knight’s departure quite hard. That’s not even touching upon Palmer, who will no doubt be missing his ex-girlfriend quite a bit.
Our Take On NCIS Season 22’s New Story Details
This Sets Up An Interesting Start To The Season
In the past, NCIS has started a few seasons with the team in radically different forms than where they previously left off, most notably at the start of season 6, when Gibbs’ (Mark Harmon) team was forcibly separated by Vance. For season 22, most of the characters will still be intact, but Binder alluding to how the premiere will “bring our team back together on one level” suggests that the once-close group won’t be so tight-knit anymore.
With Knight’s exit sending ripples through the group, it seems likely that some characters will have emotional encounters with each other as they all try to find their footing in a new reality.
This could be a very interesting dynamic to play with. Each iteration of NCIS’ main team has always been akin to family, but that doesn’t always allow for chances to test the bonds between each character. With Knight’s exit sending ripples through the group, it seems likely that some characters will have emotional encounters with each other as they all try to find their footing in a new reality. This can add a character-driven layer to the usually procedural-minded show, making for an even more thrilling season 22.