Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS episode “The Plan” are ahead!
The main characters on NCIS comprise a family of sorts. Sure, they spend most of their time together in a work setting solving crimes, but they also care for each other on a personal level too, as evidenced by how hard Ducky’s death hit them, or how Alden Parker let Nick Torres crash at his place a few weeks back. Every now and then though, family members directly tied to these characters stop by the hit CBS show. This week, it was Jessica Knight’s dad, Feng Zhao, played by Russell Wong.
This week’s case started out with the team investigating the disappearance of one of Feng’s subordinates and why he’d killed a John Doe, and it culminated in the discovery of a food scientist from China’s bureau of agriculture who’d been sneaked into the United States and brought with her cultures from a virus she'd been forced her to weaponize. You can stream the episode with your Paramount+ subscription to see how they got from Point A to Point B, but there are some personal developments stemming from Feng’s introduction that we need to talk out here; namely, how he may have complicated her relationship with Jimmy Palmer. Oh, and McGee had some family drama of his own too.
Feng Zhao Has A “Plan” For Knight’s Career
It turns out that Knight didn’t tell her dad that she and Jimmy were dating, and upon learning about this, Feng Zhao looked into the medical examiner’s background. The good news is he agreed with Knight’s description of Jimmy being a “great guy.” The bad news is he thinks Jimmy could interfere with the “plan” he and Knight have spent years constructing for her career.
This plan maps Knight’s professional trajectory going from team leader, to field office Special Agent in Charge, to NCIS assistant director, and finally, to director of the law enforcement agency. Losing her REACT team derailed this a bit, but she was able to get back on course when she joined NCIS’ core cast. But now that she and Jimmy have something special together, Knight doesn’t want to feel the pressure of going back to this plan, and she’s well aware that her father sees Jimmy as a distraction. Knight tells Jimmy that “right now,” her life is better for having him and his daughter Victoria in it, and when Jimmy bristles a bit at “for now,” she clarifies that he and Victoria are part of her new “plan.”
By the end of the episode, Feng, who’s set to retire from NCIS, has recommended that Knight succeed him as Special Agent in Charge of the agency’s Yokosuka office, but she turns down the offer. She’s happy with her current NCIS placement and being with Jimmy, but he wonders if that will change someday. Soon after, they meet with Feng at the diner, and Jimmy tells him that he’ll “always support Jessica” because he really loves her.
Right now, Knight and Jimmy’s relationship doesn’t appear to be in danger, but it’s clear from the look on Jimmy’s face that he’s now concerned about a time when Knight may feel differently. He doesn’t want to stand in the way of her career aspirations, even if that means they had to go their separate ways. So the pessimist in me wonders if a seed has been planted that will eventually bloom in these two breaking up. I guess that depends on if Katrina Law or Brian Dietzen leave NCIS someday, though Dietzen’s departure seems less likely given how long he’s been on the show.
McGee Has A Half-Sister
For this week’s side story, McGee revealed that he’d taken an online genealogy test, and he learned that rather than being 100% Irish as he’d assumed, he’s actually 22% Danish. More importantly, he discovered the existence of a half-sister he never knew about named Lauren Redding. Fortunately, it turns out Lauren wasn’t the product of his father having cheated on his mother, but in vitro fertilization, and the late Admiral John McGee was the sperm donor. With that mystery out of the way, McGee and his Sarah meet Lauren, who’s a yoga instructor, offscreen, and they end up liking her a lot.
Now that Lauren’s been established on NCIS, perhaps there will come a day when we can meet her. With this new branch of McGee’s family established, surely there could be a way to loop her into one of the cases. This could also be a good opportunity to finally bring back Sarah, who was played by Troian Bellisaro (Sean Murray’s real-life stepsister) in episodes from Seasons 2 and 4.
New episodes of NCIS premier Mondays at 9 ET on CBS. Consult our 2024 TV schedule to plan what else you’ll be watching on the small screen in the near future.
