NCIS fans are in the middle of quite the treat: Emily Wickersham surprisingly returned at the end of the December fall finale and will be seen in the March 3 midseason premiere. But Ellie Bishop has gone through a lot in the five years since she left (in the Season 18 finale). Sure, she’s wanted as a cyberterrorist, the reasons for which have yet to be revealed, but we trust there’s much more to that than meets the eye — and so when we spoke to her about her return, we had to ask if we could see her again after this next episode. (Executive producer Steven D. Binder previously told us that the upcoming episode is it for Wickersham, for now.)
“It is open. The door’s open,” Wickersham promised TV Insider. “I love it there. I love working there. Getting to go back was just going back and seeing family that I’ve worked with and friends that I’ve worked with for so many years, so, the environment was wonderful and they left it open.”
She continued, “I don’t know, I’m happy to go back again. I would never close the door on that at all. I feel so lucky to have been able to work there for so many years, and it’s such a great set and it’s such a great team. If they wanted me back, I would definitely. It would be fun. We had fun.”
It was at the end of the fall finale that Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) learned that for her first NCIS Elite assignment, she’s to track down Bishop — who just so happened to be watching her and the rest of the team at the cemetery, where Alden Parker’s (Gary Cole) mother was (finally) being buried. Our exclusive sneak peek teases at least part of the reason she’s back. But there’s not just what’s going on with Bishop and why NCIS Elite is after her that her return has to address. There’s also the will they/won’t they relationship with her former partner, Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama).
For Wickersham, “a lot of why I was excited to go back also is this relationship between Bishop and Torres that I’ve missed playing so much. I love working with Wilmer, and we have such a fun time on set and off set,” she told TV Insider. “And the two of them, when he joined NCIS, I think that there was just this rapport right away, and over the years, as you know, the two characters shared so much friendship-wise, bubbling romance-wise, and just like a vibe. And so I think that Torres has always been a character for Bishop to lean on in any moment, for any silly thing but also something real.”
What are you hoping to see from Emily Wickersham’s Ellie Bishop in the midseason premiere? And do you want to see her again after it? Let us know in the comments section below.
