Warning! Spoilers ahead for Season 3, Episode 4 of NCIS: Origins, “Shimmy Shimmy Ya." You can stream it now with a Paramount+ subscription.
The NCIS franchise continues to lean into the nostalgia on the 2026 TV schedule, and NCIS: Origins is no exception. Just a week after Mark Harmon and Michael Weatherly’s reunion on the prequel, Harmon reunited with another former NCIS agent. Emily Wickersham guest-starred in Tuesday’s episode, reprising her role as Ellie Bishop. While it was great for the fans, it was actually a weird moment for Wickersham, and that's partially because of the basement.
Wickersham joined NCIS in Season 11, following Cote de Pablo’s departure, and left at the end of Season 18. She briefly came back to the Mothership during Season 23, and now she’s back in the franchise for Origins. In the episode, “Shimmy Shimmy Ya,” Bishop comes back to help Gibbs, who’s on the hunt for the person who shot him in Alaska. Their reunion happens in Gibbs’ basement in D.C., and it was a very weird full-circle moment for Wickersham, who told TV Insider:
It was so weird. When I first tested for NCIS, that’s where I tested in that basement. And so it was very strange to not have been there for so many years and to step back onto that specific set. It was weird, but it also felt so, so familiar to me.
I had no idea that, essentially, Wickersham’s first scene for NCIS was in Gibbs’ basement. And I love that her first one back with Harmon is in that same basement. It was so nice to see Gibbs and Bishop together again, especially since that basement was also the last place that the two of them were facing each other before she left.
For a while after Wickersham’s exit, many fans had been hoping for her to return, in whatever capacity. When she made an appearance in the Season 23 midseason finale in 2025, it was a pleasant surprise, even if Bishop was on the run. Seeing her reunite with her former team in the midseason premiere earlier this year definitely brought back memories, and her now reuniting with Gibbs after Tony called her, it’s almost as if nothing has changed.
Unlike Weatherly’s appearance on Origins, Wickersham won’t be a one-and-done on the prequel. Gibbs and Bishop found the location of the tracker who found him, as he’s been used by the CIA for years as one of its contractors. So the two will be heading off to Baltimore, and while it’s unknown just how many episodes she’ll be in, Wickersham did confirm it’ll be “a bunch.” That means there are going to be many more moments between Gibbs and Bishop to look forward to.
I cannot wait to see what happens next, and what we’ll learn about the things Gibbs and Bishop did during their time apart. I'm also excited to dive deeper into Gibbs’ past. Now, fans will just have to find out how they deal with the tracker in new episodes of NCIS: Origins on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS. Additionally, viewers can go back and watch all seasons of NCIS, including Wickersham’s seasons, on Paramount+.
