‘NCIS’: Emily Wickersham Opens up About Returning & Why Bishop Still Trusts Torres

After a brief glimpse at the end of the fall finale, Ellie Bishop (Emily Wickersham) — who exited the long-running drama in 2021 — is back in the March 3 midseason premiere. And according to the actress, the newly returned agent has some “baggage” when we see her again on NCIS.

After training with ex-CIA instructor Odette (Elayn J. Taylor), Bishop had to leave for an op as a disgraced NCIS agent (having “leaked” NSA documents) and never shared any details in the episode (the Season 18 finale), but we’re sure to get some answers as to what she’s been up to when she encounters her former team — Tim McGee (Sean Murray), Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama), Jessica Knight (Katrina Law), Dr. Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen), and Kasie Hines (Diona Reasonover). First, however, there’s the matter of her being the target of the specialized NCIS Elite team, including Knight.

Below, Emily Wickersham opens up about returning to NCIS, what’s been going on with Ellie, Bishop and Torres’ complicated, will they/won’t they relationship, and more.

What made now the right time for you to revisit Bishop, and what is it about what we’ll be seeing with her that excited you?

Emily Wickersham: They just asked me back, and it was nice because it’s such a familiar place for me, so I was really excited. I think storyline … To be honest, I’ve been busy with kids, so I have not watched the show really at all recently. So I don’t exactly know how it came to be on their end, but I was really excited, and I think when Bishop left the show, there were so many unanswered questions that this will — I don’t know if this will necessarily answer any of them for the fans, but I think it’ll be like a nice little reunion.

Robert Voets/CBS

How is it for you to step back into her shoes, especially because this is a very different Bishop than the one who left because of what she’s been through, right?

Totally. It’s funny, it’s like life imitates art and art imitates life, and it was great to step back into her shoes. I love playing this character so much, and I love that she’s changed so much, as I have. I’ve been through a few battles. I have children now, and my life has totally changed from when I was on the show. And Bishop also has just been through such a change since leaving NCIS, and we don’t exactly get into totally what it is — we skirt it — but she’s seen some stuff, some stuff that she had not seen when she was working at NCIS. So that was cool to come back with that baggage, this new Bishop, this almost… I guess I don’t want to say darker, but just baggage.

I mean, she was already a bit darker by the time she left than when we first met her.

Totally. Over the years, the writers wrote her in such a way that it was really fun for me because it gave me so much more to do and play with. I think looking back at it, it’s like Bishop came in very wide-eyed, as you do when you start at any place new, but then was thrown in, and definitely things got darker over the years.

Bishop is now designated a wanted cyberterrorist. We know that she’s the target of NCIS Elite. What can you say about what she’s been up to and what’s got her on NCIS Elite’s radar?

Somehow their paths crossed, and she’s been in the trenches doing this work that I don’t want to completely reveal, but it’s been different from what she was doing at NCIS. The way their paths crossed aligned perfectly. I’m excited for everyone to see it.

Is it more that she’s operating in the gray, and that’s kind of where there’ll be diverging between what she used to do with NCIS and what she’s doing now?

Yeah, she’s definitely operating in a somewhat gray area, a dark area.

The episode description teases that Bishop turns to Torres when she needs someone she can trust. With everything she’s been going through, why does she feel she can still trust him?

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. 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.

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But we did leave them with that kiss. What can you say about the conversations they have to have just about what’s going on personally with them?

Yeah. Well, Bishop went her own way, and I think left this path that she could have taken behind, and she had to do that for personal reasons, personal growth, and just life kind of takes you where it takes you, and you have to follow that. But I think that Torres is such a special person to Bishop and has always remained there. It’s not like he just went away. I love that scene so much of them parting ways and the last kiss, and I don’t think that that moment was easy for either of them. I know it wasn’t for Bishop, but he’s always been there.

So are we going to see that addressed, that kiss?

Maybe. [Laughs] We’ll definitely see the two of them side by side, and I think you’ll see the chemistry that just never went away. You know how it is when you just have a connection with someone, even if it ends, it doesn’t go away necessarily.

Bishop and McGee kind of left things in a little bit of a tense place. What’s their dynamic like now with Bishop back?

Yeah, I think McGee, along with a lot of the rest of the team, kind of felt like Bishop left them high and dry and didn’t give concrete answers of why she was leaving, where she was going. So I would imagine that McGee has some feelings around that that he was maybe never able to express because in my mind, Bishop left and didn’t really communicate with people over the years.

She couldn’t.

Yeah. So I think McGee has a lot of unsaid things, feelings, frustrations around that. But again, they worked together for so long that they have this rapport and such a sweet friendship. I love their friendship together, but there is definitely something that needs to be addressed.

Robert Voets/CBS

I’m really interested in the Knight and Bishop dynamic because Bishop is Knight’s target now. Knight is Torres’s new partner. So what are we going to see there?

I don’t know if Knight really trusts Bishop. I didn’t get to work with Katrina that much. Bishop and Knight didn’t share that many moments together [before she left]. So, Knight, I would imagine, is very wary of me, of Bishop.

And Bishop looking at Knight as Torres’s new partner, how is that for her?

I saw it as like, “All right, life goes on, we all move on, and this is your new partner.” And I think right away, the way it was written and everything, Bishop sees that they’re great partners and they have a great thing going. And I thought of it as Bishop only wants the best for Torres, I would imagine. And so maybe deep down, there’s some jealousy that Knight gets to be there every day with him, but ultimately, I think Bishop’s happy for her and him.

And Rocky Carroll directed you again for this episode…

Yeah, he’s the best. I was really excited to hear that he was directing. I got a little bit of Jimmy Whitmore in the episode before, but yeah, I love Rocky so much. He’s a good bud, and he’s such a wonderful actor and therefore a great director, and he knows the characters so well, and it was really fun.

NCIS, Midseason Return, Tuesday, March 3, 8/7c, CBS