When NCIS returns for Season 22 next month, MCRT will look very different.The team will be scattered as everyone pursues different interests, and that is triggered by Jessica’s decision to take the REACT job, which takes her to the West Coast. Part of the motivation for her to get away was Jimmy’s decision to break up with her. While he thought he was setting her free, he might have pushed her to go away.
Showrunner Steve Binder talked to TV Insider about what fans can expect from the couple when the show returns, and he had some bad news. Jimmy seems to have moved on, while Jessica buries herself in her job. Binder talked about Jimmy’s moves post-break up, saying:
“It’s months later. Knight’s on the West Coast [in her new job as chief REACT training officer]. They’ve settled into the new normal of not being together. Jimmy is dating. We’re going to learn a little bit about that. He’s been busy as a single man; that will make an appearance in the most inopportune time.”
Jessica’s Decision Triggers an Avalanche In ‘NCIS’ Season 22
This state of affairs might put the couple at odds when they reunite, because Jessica has not moved on and wonders if she made the wrong decision in breaking up with him. Binder previously told Entertainment Weekly that a case would take Parker out west, and he would see Jessica. Binder teased, “the worst circumstances possible,” when Jessica will broach the Jimmy subject. How bad are those circumstances? Well, “Knight encounters a very serious problem involving her skills as a hostage negotiator. “There’s certain things you never do, and that’s what [she] does.”
The upside is that this will give her and Jimmy the opportunity to “have part two of the conversation that we didn’t see in the finale.” The conversation will conclude in Episode 4 and viewers learn what they have decided, if anything. “Jimmy and Knight are going to get a chance to have Part 3 of who and what they are and what they’re going to be and what they’re not going to be,” said Binder.
Jessica seems like the glue that held the team together because once she leaves, everyone else pursues different things. “McGee applies for a deputy director position in Colorado to move up in the world,” while “[Torres] goes undercover with some bad people, and it doesn’t work out well. He gets into a lot of trouble.” But she who tore them apart might be the one to bring them back together. “[Jessica’s] case will bring our team back together on one level, not necessarily “yay, we’re all back here in NCIS,” but paths will cross,” Binder teased.
Catch the NCIS Season 22 premiere on October 14.
Stream on Paramount+