‘NCIS: Origins’: Emily Wickersham Opens up About Reuniting With Mark Harmon

In their last episode together, during NCIS Season 18, Gibbs (Mark Harmon) told Bishop (Emily Wickersham) he was proud of her for following her gut. Rule 91 — When you decide to walk away, don’t look back — also came up. Well, now on NCIS: Origins, it’s Gibbs who is looking back, revisiting some familiar faces as he tries to determine who tried to kill him in Alaska and has another target, and Bishop’s following her gut, and a call from Director DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), to join him on that mission.

The October 27 episode will be Wickersham’s first on the prequel, and she’ll be around for more than one. Below, she opens up about reuniting with Mark Harmon, what to expect from Gibbs and Bishop, and more.

How did this come about?

Emily Wickersham: I have been very close with David North for quite a long time since I worked on the OG NCIS, and I just got a call one day and we chatted about it and he kind of took my temperature on it. I mean, I’ve been such a fan of what he does in general, but what he’s created over on Origins. So I was like, yeah, I’d love to be a part of it for a bit.

Talk about working with Mark again.

It was really fun. It was like we were just jumping back into it. It was as if no time had passed. We’ve worked together for so many years and I think, I feel like we have such an easy back and forth. It was great. It was also kind of nostalgic for me. I haven’t really worked with him in, I feel like it’s been, I guess, six years now, which is crazy to me that that much time has gone by, but it really didn’t feel like that at all.

Emily Wickersham and Mark Harmon in NCIS Season 18 (Cliff Lipson/CBS)

What’s different about the Gibbs and Bishop dynamic this time? Because he’s no longer her boss, though he technically wasn’t the last time because he had been suspended at the time, she had also been suspended at the last time that they spoke, but still. Also Bishop isn’t the same person that she was back then even. 

I think the dynamic is more, in a way, they’re on par a bit more with each other. Bishop has gone off and had this whole other life and experiences and done all this stuff that is very different from the life that she was living when she was with NCIS. And I think when she was on NCIS, she always looked to Gibbs as a mentor and the senior guy and always looked up to him and still does. But I feel like now that she’s just had all of these new experience, they’re just on more of an even playing field in a way.

Last time these two saw each other, Gibbs told Bishop he was proud of her for following her gut. And in a way, that’s what she’s doing here too, even though she’s trying to do it alone, she’s following her gut to help him, right?

Yeah, totally. Totally. She’s learned a lot from Gibbs.

How much are Bishop and Tony in touch? Because he calls her

Yeah, I know. I think I would imagine that Bishop is a bit in touch with a lot of people from NCIS just based on the general work that she’s doing and the world that they all live in. But I think it’s just she’s still in contact with people.

What can you preview about what Gibbs and Bishop are going to be getting up to and how much is he going to actually fill her in on? Because he was never very talkative. 

Right. No, I think Gibbs is always Gibbs, but I think Bishop, as the story unfolds, Bishop is learning the story as it unfolds with little bits from Gibbs.

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What has Bishop been up to since we last saw her on NCIS last season? Because she had set off to find who her former teammate had been working for. Do you know anything about what she’s been doing?

I imagine she’s just been off the radar doing underground work and stuff that I don’t really know much about, but I feel like she’s been working in dark corners.

It feels like she’s really settled into who she’s become, that she likes who she is now, right?

I think so. I mean, I think that’s how it goes for anyone. When you are able to experience the world in the way that you want, you gain all these experiences and you feel more settled in yourself. And so I think that’s what’s going on with Bishop as well.

And she can show that off to Gibbs to be like, “I am OK.”

Right. “I’m OK. This is what I’m doing. I feel good. I’m living my calling.”

NCIS: Origins, Tuesdays, 10/9c, CBS