Our first clue was when Knight invited Palmer to be her plus one for her cousin’s wedding, and while we don’t know exactly what went down, they seemed to enjoy each other’s company. “When you have a wonderful time on something that is a ‘date-not-a-date,’ and then you both choose not to talk about it to one another that inevitably will bring up some sort of, ‘Hey, why are we not talking about this, we had a really good time?’” Dietzen told Parade.com in this exclusive interview. “I think the next natural progression of that is should we talk about ‘Is there something there?’ I was happy that they wrote this episode to address that and say maybe there is something there.” On Monday night’s episode, Knight and Palmer were paired up on a road trip to deliver an organ for donation that was tied into the death of a Navy reservist who was also an investigative journalist – and this time viewers got to watch them together. And, while at first it looked as if they were finally going to get to talk about what happened between them at the wedding, the bad guys quickly got in the way. But so did Jessica’s insecurities. Unlike Jimmy, who had a happy marriage until his wife Breena’s (Michelle Pierce) death from COVID, Jessica comes with a lot of baggage and is worried about jeopardizing their friendship if they attempt to see where else their relationship could go. So, in this instance, Palmer is the brave one! “Well, that’s a real concern,” Palmer said. “If you have a friend that you’re suddenly attracted to, or maybe gradually been attracted to, you definitely don’t want to put your friendship on the chopping block. And Jimmy’s been such a good friend to a lot of people on this team and has been there from the onset with Jessica.” Viewers will recall that Palmer has been a friend to Knight since the introduction of her character. One of her first big scenes was when she was in autopsy talking about the loss of her REACT team and Palmer commiserated with her saying, “I’ve lost someone, as well.” “So, they’ve had a closeness and I can understand anyone’s perspective who says, ‘I don’t want to jeopardize that closeness for something that may not pan out,’” Dietzen said. “But I really like Jimmy’s demeanor and overall perspective of saying, ‘You’ll never catch a wave if you don’t get on that surfboard.’ There’s something to be said for that. Yeah, we can live lives of peace and safety and never leave our house but maybe we won’t get the rewards and the great life that we want if we don’t take a chance here and there.” And Palmer did take chances in this episode. Knight is the one with all the training when it comes to guns and hand-to-hand combat, but when he had the opportunity to escape and get the organ delivered, Palmer didn’t take it. He came back to help Knight, even though as a single dad, if, God forbid, anything happened to him his daughter Victoria (Elle Graper) would be an orphan. “I think in a moment like that, Jimmy’s not thinking with his mind, with his right brain,” Dietzen said. “He’s thinking with his heart and he’s thinking about the fact that he wants to protect a friend, he wants to be there for her, and wants to do anything he can to help to save her.” It’s much like the episode where Palmer went out onto a ledge to save a kid he didn’t know from jumping to his death. Why did he do that? Because Palmer is a thoughtful person who sometimes doesn’t think with his mind as much as his heart. That was a classic example of it as was coming to Knight’s rescue. Where it will go from here remains to be seen, but luckily, NCIS has already been renewed for season 20, so we have more time to see if this relationship will develop. Keep reading as Dietzen also talks about how Palmer has grown over the years, the return of David McCallum, and the future of NCIS. How lonely has Palmer been since Breena’s death? I think quite. There’s an episode earlier this year that I co-wrote with Scott Williams where Jimmy and Kasie (Diona Reasonover) nearly died from a toxin exposure. Jimmy’s daughter, Victoria, reveals to Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) that her dad has been holding on, he’s not been letting go of his wife even though it’s been a year since his wife’s death. The thing is when you lose someone that you love, as unfortunately many people have, especially the last couple years, and I certainly have, you let go in your own time. There’s no timeline for it. Some people can move on and let go in a healthy way early and some people it takes a much longer time to let go in a healthy way. I think that Jimmy is just coming out of that fog of grief and, as he did in that episode earlier in the year, as he hung up his ring ready to experience life again and ready to be there more for his daughter and be there more for his friends, I don’t think his impetus to taking his ring off was to go find another partner right away. But one of the side effects of doing that is to open yourself up to saying, “Perhaps I can find happiness alongside someone again in this life.” I’m happy that he’s able to do that because I think that it’s been a hard journey over the last year for him. Jimmy’s world has been expanding this season. There’ve been a couple of shows that have been Jimmy-centric. What’s that like for you? It’s been amazing. How often does an actor find themselves on a 20-year guest star? It started out as a guest star role and it turned into something totally different. As the team dynamic changes over the years, so did Jimmy’s role. It’s been a cool transformation to be able to play and it’s been something that’s been keeping it fresh for me, as well, so I’ve really enjoyed it. So often Jimmy is underestimated. I remember how surprised everyone was the first time they laid eyes on Breena and thought, “He got this woman?” That was fantastic. Next,Is Wilmer Valderrama Leaving His Role as Special Agent Torres on NCIS? Now the team seems to accept the fact that he and Jessica may actually have something going. Is that progress? I think they’re finally starting to see the light here. They’re realizing that they’ve been underestimating him for far too long. But I think the thing that really helps their perception, or maybe not helps but changes their perception, is the fact that Jimmy has become a person that each one of them in their own way goes to talk to and then opens up to. We’ve seen that with Torres this year, we’ve certainly seen it with Knight and with Kasie. And, as well as that, Jimmy’s a good person. He’s a good sounding board, he’s a good guy to talk to about life. When you get to have a deeper connection with someone like that it’s hard not to root for them and to see him as something other than just an autopsy gremlin. Right, he’s just quiet and steady, like the way he got his medical degree. It was underplayed so it was a surprise when we actually found out. Yeah, that was a really important episode for Jimmy back in, I want to say, 2014 or something like that. It was some time ago. But he did it on his own. He didn’t try to keep it a secret so much as this was something he was doing for himself. And it really laid the foundation for him taking over the head medical examiner’s position at some point. So, yeah, Jimmy has definitely changed over the last two decades and it’s been an absolute pleasure. Do you like the action stuff? Mostly Jimmy’s in autopsy. Do you like getting to go out and do this stuff? Absolutely. Who doesn’t love that stuff? We have a wonderful stunt team, and we have a great compound there that we work at out at Disney Ranch. And so, whenever I get to go out and do extra things, it’s always fun for me and I think it’s fun for the audience to see whether it’s Ducky or Jimmy or Kasie getting out of their element, being a little bit of a fish out of water. It’s entertaining because it’s something that we’re not used to. Sure, absolutely, Torres could kick all kinds of butt going out there and taking care of the bad guys and stuff, but what happens when you throw in a person who’s not trained to do so? He’s going to be leaning on Knight quite a bit figuratively but also literally. How nice was it to have David McCallum back? You didn’t have many scenes with him because he was replacing you in autopsy, because you were out in the field. But we haven’t seen him in a while. Yeah, it’s wonderful, always wonderful. I love whether it’s me calling to just chat with him, or whether he’s coming back to visit for a couple episodes, I love spending time with him. Obviously, we’re quite close through our many years of working together, but Jimmy and Ducky are even closer. So, it’s always great to have him in there. It’s like that old pair of shoes that feels really great because you can just slide into the Ducky. I love it, I’ll always love it. I was a little concerned when Mark Harmon left that this was going to be the end of the show. But the episodes with Gary Cole as Alden Parker have been really good and now you have your 20th season coming up, but it could go longer than that. Are you up for that and do you want to write more episodes if it does go on? Yeah, certainly, I would love to write more episodes. I believe I’m going to write one next year. And I’m glad you said that about the show. Anytime an iconic character like Gibbs leaves the show, there’s always the question mark of how will this change and will there be a positive to it or will there only be a downside? I think that, yeah, we found a lot of upsides, a lot of great storytelling this year. Obviously, the addition of Gary Cole and Katrina Law has been fantastic for the show. The great part is that when you come in and you’re playing Alden Parker, it’s good they’re not replacing Gibbs. He’s a part of NCIS family and part of NCIS lore forever. So, we don’t have to worry about that as much, the replacement part. We just keep doing the shows and we keep developing this great team dynamic. I really, really enjoyed working with Gary and obviously Katrina, as well. Gibbs could pop back in for an episode or two; DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) as well. I believe so, yeah. There’s a reason why they kept him alive, that’s for sure. Like I said, it’s an iconic character and he is the papa bear of NCIS. Were he to show up, I don’t think anyone would be too shocked by it. Mike Franks (Muse Watson) used to show up every once in a while, so it could be like that where an old case requires it. I think story wise for sure. It’s definitely above my pay grade, but I think story wise that makes sense to me for sure. NCIS airs Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Next, It’s All in the Family for Sean Murray when His Daughter Cay Ryan Murray Guests on Tonight’s NCIS
