Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS episode “Her” are ahead!
After making a surprise cameo at the end of “Heaven and Nature,” Emily Wickersham made her full return to NCIS last night on the 2026 TV schedule. Ellie Bishop resurfaced in “Her” to seek help from her former teammates, and by the end of the episode, she and Wilmer Valderrama’s Nick Torres said goodbye on much better terms with each other compared to when she left in the Season 18 finale. So then where does this leave Torres and Katrina Law’s Jessica Knight? After all, there’s been quite a bit of talk during NCIS Season 23 about if something could brew romantically between them.
Wilmer Valderrama addressed where things stand between the two characters following Ellie Bishop’s pop-in while chatting with TVLine alongside Emily Wickersham. Unfortunately for those of you who’ve been shipping Torres and Knight, the actor doesn’t see anything happening between them, saying:
[Laughs] It would get too complicated. We don’t know what that writers’ room has got on that board. I think that if you watch the episode, you realize that there were energies in there that could be interpreted in different [ways], you know? But I will say that, with [Nick and Jess], if we do pull that lever, it’s a lever you can’t come back from, right? And I think that’s kind of something to consider. We’re not shy to pull levers. We actually shuffle the emotional blueprint that the show has.
Ever since Torres and Knight got fake-married in the episode “For Better or Worse,” there’s been chatter among fans about whether they might become a couple. Last October, Wilmer Valderrama said things between Torres and Knight were “a little complicated” and “a little messy,” but he didn’t rule out a possible romance. Now, however, he believes it wouldn’t work out between the two of them, and if the writers did decide to go down that creative path, it would of course be a major shakeup on NCIS. Valderrama continued:
And by the way, this is a show that can actually pull that lever and work it out over time, because we get to have enough episodes to figure it out. But I will tell you they have a great shorthand. They do great work together, and there is a major understanding beyond the job for them, too. But we’ll see, you know. I’m not in that conversation yet. [The writers] normally bring me in early into those. So I would say that’s not in the kitchen yet.
In other words, don’t expect Nick Torres and Jessica Knight to lock lips sometime during the rest of NCIS Season 23. They’re still excellent partners and remain platonically close, but evidently there’s nothing that’s going to push them into a more romantic place together. It’s also worth remembering that at the end of the episode “Stolen Moments,” Jimmy Palmer stopped himself from having a private conversation with Knight when he saw her and Torres getting into an elevator together. However, when I asked Brian Dietzen if that meant Jimmy legitimately thinks something is brewing between Torres and Knight, he told me that’s for “the eye of the beholder.”
If there’s any hope for you Torres/Knight shippers out there, it’s that NCIS has been renewed for Season 24, so there’s a chance that the writers could give this potential romance a shot. For now though, there are still plenty of Season 23 episodes to get through Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. That includes the momentous 500th episode, which will air on March 24.
