NCIS' creative team had a heads up Pauley Perrette would be leave her role as Abby on the crime procedural, which ultimately led to the creation of her successor, Kasie Hines. Diona Reasonover got a front-row seat to hearing how her character came to be, thanks to a conversation with the man who created Kasie, Scott Williams.
As we wait for NCIS' return to the 2026 TV schedule to resolve that wild cliffhanger, writer Scott Williams appeared on the Partners & Probies podcast to talk about a litany of topics. This included the beginnings of forensic scientist Kasie Hines, which Williams explained was a response to the series losing Abby:
We were presented with the specter of losing Pauley Perrette. She was ready to go, and she was ready to say goodbye. And we were like, ‘OK, how do we replace her with someone that is equally lovable and wonderful and all that stuff?’ Because we had replaced some characters in the past that maybe weren’t as accepted by fans early on, replacing beloved figures, and there was no more beloved figure than Abby on our show at that time.
Abby's final appearance was in "Two Steps Back," Episode 22 of Season 15. After recovering from a shooting, Abby decided to leave the agency and honor a past colleague, with her final scene being a note to Gibbs and her using sign language to say "I love you," from her car across the street. The moment lives on as a bit ironic, given Pauley Perrette's exit from NCIS was allegedly tied to tensions with Gibbs actor Mark Harmon.
Perrette was beloved on NCIS, to the point that fans still have hope she'll return any time she appears alongside former co-stars. I think people take for granted just how hard it was to replace her, but that's a credit to how well Diona Reasonover has done as Kasie.
Of course, the writing helped as well. Scott Williams talked about how they constructed the character, making a point to put some connective tissue between Kasie Hines and Abby Sciuto:
So we conceived of the notion of bringing in someone who had a relationship with Ducky and was working as his assistant, helping him put together his book and all that stuff, which was a perfect thing. And you and David [McCallum] were awesome together. But then [someone] who also aspired to be Abby and was a fan of Abby’s and also that Abby took under wing for a little bit. And I think that maybe softened your entrance for the fans where they were like, ‘Oh, she’s cool, she’s one of us.’ So that was a pleasure, and I’m glad it was you.
Kasie Hines made her entrance in Episode 17 of Season 15, "One Man's Trash," as a graduate assistant of Donald "Ducky" Mallard. She had two more appearances that season before becoming a full-time member of the NCIS team in Season 16 to present. She's appeared in 156 episodes total, which is impressive, but she still has some seasons to go before matching Pauley Perrette's 354.
Scott Williams also had an interesting anecdote about Kasie's name originally being "K.C." and why it was changed during the character's creation. As Williams explained, spelling her name that way would create a headache for writers thanks to screenwriting software Final Draft. As he explained, the software automatically creates a double space and capitalization after someone types a period. It would require lots of fixes to scripts, so Williams suggested going with Kasie, which was how a friend spelled her name.
The rest, as they say, is history, and now Kasie Hines is as iconic as anyone else on the cast of NCIS. Diona Reasonover remains a big part of the cast, and even has hopes of joining other spinoffs in the future. As someone who has long said Kasie needs to be spending more time out of the crime lab, I'm 100% on board with that idea.
Will any character ever be enough to fill the Pauley Perrette-shaped hole in the heart of NCIS fans? It's hard to say, but thankfully there are plenty of episodes available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription that show Abby doing what she does best. Who knows, maybe we'll one day see Abby return, and she'll team up with Kasie.
As mentioned, NCIS returns to CBS with new episodes this fall. I'm ready for more of Kasie and curious to see what other adventures she gets into when the rest of the team is out in the field.
