Before season 23 of NCIS premiered on CBS, there was a lot of interest in what the show's return would reveal about Alden Parker's past following the note the series had been left on. Weeks later, fans of the series now have to wait weeks for the second half of the season to begin after the airing of new episodes has been pushed back. During that wait, the majority of fans will almost certainly be much more compelled by what is going on with a totally different character.
During the ninth episode of the season, which aired before the show went on hiatus for weeks, fans saw Emily Wickersham return as Eleanor Bishop. Seeing a character return to a show after many years of absence is always going to cause excitement, especially among fans who have been fans of theirs. However, it seems like many fans may be disappointed by what has been revealed about Bishop's return.
Emily Wickersham's NCIS return Eleanor Bishop as is happening under a cloud
From the moment that NCIS premiered, nobody has watched the show expecting it to focus on feel-good stories. As a result, when Emily Wickersham made an NCIS comeback as Eleanor Bishop, it would have been somewhat ridiculous for anyone to think that every moment of her onscreen appearances would be positive. On the other hand, it can easily be argued that most fans of a returning character will be interested in learning that things have been going well for them.
Unfortunately for anyone who was hoping that Bishop's return would bring a smile to their face, it seems much more likely that their brows will be furrowed. After all, when TVLine interviewed NCIS's showrunner Steven D. Binder in December 2025, he revealed that Bishop has had to make a lot of tough decisions since Wickersham last starred in the show in 2021. Worse yet, NCIS's boss says that Bishop has changed since fans saw her last.
"I can tell you that she left on a pretty dangerous, interesting mission in a foreign land, and she has been doing that kind of work since then, and it's taxing and it's trying, and it's deadly, and people die, and you're responsible for people dying. You're not at the Four Seasons, and she is not the same person. I mean, in some way, she is. She still likes her Klowny Kakes. [Laughs] But she is not the same person that left the show. She's a very different person. A lot has happened to her, and that will go a long way to explain why we are looking for her in a way that suggests she's done something wrong."
If Bishop hadn't grown as a character at all during her time away, that would have felt disappointing. However, that doesn't mean that fans want the character they were invested in between seasons 11 and 18 to come back as someone they don't recognize. The only potential silver lining is that Binder seemed to hint to TVLine that assumptions that Bishop has gone bad may be off base. Instead, Binder suggested that the thing that will matter is her motivations.
"She has done something wrong. The question is: What is her motive? And that's what we will explore." While it would be wildly premature to assume the storyline of Bishops' return will be disappointing by the time it ends, Binder's tease makes what is to come seem less exciting.
We'll have to wait until March to know what's truly next for Bishop when NCIS season 23 resumes at 8/7c on CBS.