By the time Mark Harmon exited NCIS early on in Season 19, his character, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, had said goodbye to some of the CBS show’s other important characters, most notably Timothy McGee in Alaska. But Jimmy Palmer wasn’t among them, much to the chagrin of his actor, Brian Dietzen. However, Dietzen did inform CinemaBlend what he’d like to see if Gibbs and Jimmy reunited, be it sometime during NCIS’s run on the 2026 TV schedule or further out.
Having asked Sean Murray back in November what he’d like to see if Gibbs and McGee came face to face again, I posed that same question to Brian Dietzen when I spoke to him earlier this month. The actor, who debuted as Jimmy Palmer in the NCIS Season 1 episode “Split Decision,” shared his thoughts on the subject as follows:
I think Jimmy would have a lot of gratitude to Gibbs. As Doctor Mallard meant to Jimmy Palmer and was a mentor, you know, a pseudo-father figure, that sort of stuff, Gibbs was just as much to Jimmy as well. Yeah, that was one thing that I was sad about, that Jimmy didn't get to express that expression of gratitude, that expression of thanks to Gibbs. It’s not dissimilar from how I feel, with Mark Harmon and the amount of work that he put into our show and the amount of hours and the tone that he set on our show. I have a lot of gratitude for him. And then obviously I'm able to tell him that, so it would be nice for Jimmy to be able to do that with Gibbs as well.
With Jimmy Palmer being the assistant medical examiner to David McCallum’s Donald “Ducky” Mallard for so many seasons, naturally those two characters shared a close connection up until Ducky’s passing in NCIS Season 21. But as Brian Dietzen pointed out, Gibbs was also a mentor/father figure to Dietzen for nearly two decades worth of NCIS episodes. Sure, Mark Harmon’s character usually didn’t have the patience for Jimmy’s enthusiasm, but he also was there to support him during important moments, like when Gibbs hugged Jimmy at the end of “Keep Going” and or when he comforted him in “The First Day” after his wife passed away from COVID-19.
So while it’s easy enough for Brian Dietzen to express gratitude to Mark Harmon, particularly since he’s still part of the NCIS family as NCIS: Origins’ narrator and executive producer, he’s hopeful there will come a day when Jimmy and Gibbs can reunite. Now we just wait to see if Mark Harmon would be game to return to the flagship show. He did reprise Gibbs onscreen in November during Origins’ half of the crossover with NCIS, so maybe there will come a day when he’s game to have Gibbs leave Alaska and make his way back to Washington D.C.
I hope it happens, because as much as I’d like to see Gibbs and McGee catch up, Jimmy also deserves the reunion arguably more so after missing out on that proper goodbye four years ago. For now, NCIS Season 23, as well as NCIS: Origins Season 2 and NCIS: Sydney Season 3, are on an extended break until Tuesday, February 24 because of the Winter Olympics.
