Is the team really about to be saying goodbye to one of its own? One of the agents did accept a job offer that would take her across the country in the NCIS Season 21 finale, but we can’t help but expect something to change that when the drama returns in the fall.
But that wasn’t the only question we were left with as we look ahead to Season 22. NCIS finally has an onscreen couple (versus it taking one of a pair to leave for something to happen or be revealed) with Special Agent Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) and Dr. Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen), but that relationship may very well be over. And Special Agent Alden Parker (Gary Cole) appears to have something quite mysterious in his past that has come up again, due to his near-death experience in the finale.
Below, we take a look at those and more loose threads ahead of the NCIS Season 22. Let us know what you need answered when the drama returns in the fall in the comments section, below.
Is Knight really going to take that job?
In the Season 21 finale, Vance (Rocky Carroll) offers Knight the open position of Chief REACT Training Officer at Camp Pendleton (her former REACT colleague took the job she didn’t, her father’s old position in the Far East office). She had applied a few years ago, at a vulnerable time after her team was killed, but now she has more to consider, namely, Jimmy. But he’s none too pleased when he hears about the offer and tells her to take it—and at the end of the episode, she does!
Law hopes that she’s not leaving, she told TV Insider as part of our NCIS: Case Closed aftershow for the finale, adding, “The writers said that they were going to bring me back, but they lie sometimes, so we’ll see what happens.” Still, she did say that she sees Knight as being “at a crossroads” and even suggests that her character could truly go off and take the job—just because she said yes doesn’t mean she’ll even step foot on a plane—and then decide to return to D.C.: “Maybe she… realizes that she truly loves her NCIS team or maybe that she doesn’t want to do a long-distance relationship, or maybe she just wants to be back in a relationship with Jimmy full-time. Maybe something happens with the NCIS team that calls her back. I think there’s a whole plethora of reasons that could make her either come back or stay.”
Do Knight and Palmer have a future?
The finale does leave their relationship in a rough spot, and whether or not they’re truly broken up or decide emotions were running high and talk things through sooner rather than later, conversations need to be had before they can move forward—as a couple, friends, or even just coworkers.
After all, as Dietzen noted during our aftershow, “What I’ve always loved about this relationship is that I’ve always loved the way that they talk, the way that they communicate as adults, that they’re both emotionally intelligent and she’s been there to help him through hard times, and he’s been there to listen as well from the very first scene they’ve had together. I’ve really appreciated the way that they’ve lifted each other up and been emotionally intelligent about this. So I’d like to think moving forward, whether it’s they just try to move into a friendship arena or they eventually get back together, however it works, that that’s one thing I’ve really loved about their relationship is that they can talk through and say, ‘Hold on, let’s discuss this.’”
Who is Lily?
While pinned and losing blood, Parker sees a little girl in a yellow dress and calls her Lily (Kensie Mills). Then, he sees himself as a young boy chasing Lily on a ship and warning her to be careful as she leans over the railing. But when Knight asks him about her later as he recovers in the hospital, he claims not to know who she is. Is he telling the truth? Who is she?
Will the team have a new member when Season 22 begins?
If Knight truly does take the new job, there could be someone new working alongside Parker, McGee (Sean Murray), and Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) in the Season 22 premiere—even if it’s just temporary until she returns. If that’s the case, could it be someone we’ve seen at the agency before? Someone with a history with at least one member of the team? Someone new?
Will there be crossovers of any kind?
There have been in the past, with New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Hawai’i. But looking ahead to the 2024-2025 season, the other NCISes that will be airing are the prequel Origins (meaning a crossover with it is impossible unless they’re working the same case across two timelines on both shows, but even then, the characters wouldn’t be interacting) and Sydney (with the international location making it tricky). That being said, there are a couple ways one of a sort could happen…
Will anyone from Hawai’i or LA show up?
LA‘s LL COOL J was a special guest star in what ended up being Hawai’i‘s final season after the end of the former show. In fact, Carroll pointed out just that when we spoke with him soon after Hawai’i‘s cancellation: “Who knows, those characters may turn up. I mean, LL COOL J’s character came from Los Angeles and was in Hawai’i. So who’s to say that Vanessa Lachey’s character wouldn’t show up somewhere in the NCIS universe again?” Someone can even show up like Daniela Ruah and Lachey did in the franchise’s 1,000th episode, simply via video.
Will Season 22 set up NCIS: Tony & Ziva?
The franchise is bringing back Michael Weatherly‘s Tony and Cote de Pablo‘s Ziva in a new spinoff, to air on Paramount+, with filming set to begin this summer. It picks up after Tony and Ziva were reunited in Paris (off-screen) following the revelation she’s alive and her completing one final mission with NCIS. “Since then, Tony and Ziva have been raising their daughter, Tali, together,” according to the official description. “When Tony’s security company is attacked, they must go on the run across Europe, try to figure out who is after them and maybe even learn to trust each other again so that they can finally have their unconventional happily ever after.”
A premiere date is unknown at this time, so it’s always possible that NCIS Season 22 could set up the new spinoff—even if it’s just an offhand mention of Tony and Ziva in a conversation; it would be easy for McGee to remark that he’s spoken to them and Tony’s mentioned his security company. The spinoff being on Paramount+ vs. CBS does make crossovers difficult.
