As of Season 22 of NCIS, no characters remain from the procedural’s original cast. The last remaining, Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard (David McCallum), exited NCIS in its 21st season due to McCallum passing away. While McGee (Sean Murray) is still a cast member of NCIS, McGee wasn’t there from the first episode (even if it feels like he was). Another original cast member, Mark Harmon, left the show in season 19. Harmon’s exit wasn’t the first to shake up the series, though; Sasha Alexander departed NCIS after only 49 episodes as Special Agent Caitlin “Kate” Todd.
Who Was Caitlin “Kate” Todd on NCIS?
One of the First Characters on NCIS, Kate Was a Secret Service Agent Turned NCIS Special Agent
Caitlin Todd was one of the core characters in the long-running procedural series. NCIS‘s Agent Caitlin “Kate” Todd was introduced during the first episode, “Yankee White,” when she was still a member of the President’s Secret Service detail. During the episode, the Naval officer tasked with carrying the “nuclear football” mysteriously died while aboard Air Force One. Although some people thought the death was from natural causes, Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Tony DiNozzo found otherwise. They enlisted the help of Caitlin Todd and uncovered a plot to assassinate the President.
Gibbs liked what he saw of Kate and offered her a job before the episode ended. It wasn’t long until Kate quit her job after disobeying fraternization rules and joined NCIS. She became the junior member of Gibbs’ team and a popular part of the series. Kate’s more conservative attitude contrasted with Tony’s often-forthcoming personality, which made for a nice comedic effect. However, they easily found common ground when picking on the new “probie,” Timothy McGee. When Kate was killed by Ari Haswari in the finale of NCIS Season 2, it hit everyone hard because they had become quite attached to her character.
Why Did Sasha Alexander Leave NCIS?
Alexander’s Leave Was Due to the Overwhelming Demands of Network Television
NCIS didn’t kill off Kate because the writers wanted her gone, nor was it because fans disliked her. Actor Sasha Alexander decided to leave the show on her own terms, because of the grueling commitment that NCIS demanded. In a 2012 interview with TV Guide, Alexander explained her reasoning: “People don’t realize that on a network show, you make 24 episodes a year — that’s 10 and a half months a year, 17 hours a day. It’s hardcore,” she shared. This has been a frequent reason listed for actors leaving television shows after only a few seasons, with Ruby Rose leaving Batwoman and Katherine Hiegel leaving Grey’s Anatomy for similar reasons.
Grueling 24-episode seasons would be difficult for anyone to deal with, and even Mark Harmon spoke about the taxing schedule the show has to keep. In a 2017 interview with The Talk, Harmon said that the “first day [of filming] was 21 hours.” The schedule has been slimmed down since then, but it’s still difficult — explaining why Harmon also eventually left NCIS and Gibbs was replaced by Gary Cole’s Alden Parker. Alexander simply got off the train before Harmon did, and she doesn’t regret her decision to leave the show.
In the same TV Guide interview, she said, “I really firmly believe in my heart that I would not be where I am today — happily married, with two kids, doing things creatively that I want — if I had stayed.” So, while it was difficult to see Kate killed off in such a dramatic way, it seems like Alexander made the best decision for herself. Alexander is far from the only popular character to leave NCIS. After replacing Alexander in Season 3, Cote de Pablo’s Ziva David left NCIS in Season 11, followed by many more departures over the years. Even so, many actors have returned to NCIS over the years for special episodes. Kate Todd made a posthumous appearance for the 200th episode of NCIS in its ninth season, proving that there are no hard feelings between her and the showrunners.
It Took Viewers a While to Warm Up to Ziva David
And Even More So For Ellie Bishop
When Ziva returned to take Kate’s role on the NCIS team, some fans were not too pleased. Ziva, in many ways, felt like such a stark difference from Kate, with a harsher personality and an aggressive streak. The characters on NCIS also struggled to accept Ziva’s position, even preventing her from taking Kate’s desk. Despite the fact that viewers, once upon a time, believed that they would never get over Kate, years (and seasons) passed – eventually, Ziva was more of a face for NCIS than Kate ever was.
It was hard to overlook the fact that Kate’s role as the “girl character” on the team seemed very apparent. Tony had the absolute hots for Kate, and while Tony chasing women wasn’t anything new, when the show began to set Tony and Ziva up initially, it felt like a forced way to continue the plot point of having romantic affairs within the main team. Suddenly, it was no longer Tony and Kate that fans shipped, but Tony and Ziva.
That raised the question of whether whoever filled that “role” would ever be able to outshine such a specific casting move. Of course, “Tiva” went on to become an incredible couple with great chemistry, and Ziva went on to have exceptional plots and growth, yet the curse of the “girl character on the team” continued further even after de Pablo’s exit. Naturally, Ziva was then replaced with Ellie Bishop.
Even though it had been years since Alexander left and there had been countless other exits on NCIS, it was an odd feeling to see the rest of the main team stay the same (once again) while the “girl character” was once again swapped out. However, at this point in time, even though Ellie Bishop (Emily Wickersham) has also left the team, the original NCIS squad has been completely replaced, effectively voiding any weird feelings about continuously replacing the same role on the team.
Sasha Alexander Could Return to NCIS In A Limited Capacity
Kate’s Death Makes It Harder for Alexander to Return
Since Kate was undoubtedly killed in Season 2, there isn’t any reason why she could return. It’s been nearly 20 years since Kate’s time on the show, meaning many more cast members have come and gone in that time. Procedural shows love to use deceased characters as hallucinations to motivate characters, but there aren’t too many characters remaining on NCIS who were around when Kate was alive.
Alexander may not be able to come back as Kate on-screen, but that doesn’t leave behind-the-scenes out of the question. Alexander has directed episodes of Rizzoli & Isles, Netflix’s You, and Bull in recent years. Alexander’s reunion with NCIS cast members Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo on their NCIS rewatch podcast has sparked excitement about possibly returning to direct an episode of the series. Bringing Alexander back into the fold as a creative would gain more interest in the main series and the upcoming spinoff NCIS: Tony & Ziva. Kate might not return to NCIS, but Sasha Alexander still can.
What Has Sasha Alexander Done Since Leaving NCIS?
Alexander Gained Recognition In Other Film and Television Roles
Since leaving NCIS, Sasha Alexander has continued to enjoy a fruitful career. She has starred in several notable films over the years, including a relatively minor cameo in Mission: Impossible III as Melissa, a relative of Ethan Hunt’s new wife. However, the vast majority of Alexander’s post-NCIS career has been on television. The actor has dabbled in various guest roles on several popular television series, including Friends, House, Shameless, and The Morning Show. Alexander has even returned to the crime procedural genre in shows like FBI and Law & Order.
However, Alexander’s most well-known role by far is that of medical examiner Maura Isles in Rizzoli & Isles. The long-running procedural teamed Alexander up with Angie Harmon, who plays Detective Jane Rizzoli. The two made a terrific pair, carrying the procedural throughout seven seasons. The series ended its celebrated run in 2016 and remains a favorite of many crime procedural fans.
Though Alexander left NCIS far sooner than many fans would have preferred, her impact on the series cannot be understated. The actor still makes frequent appearances in television procedurals, even outshining her role on NCIS with a bigger part in Rizzoli & Isles. After leaving NCIS, Alexander continued to appear in movies occasionally. She played a detective in Netflix’s Dangerous Lies in 2020. Later in 2023, Alexander starred opposite Ewan McGregor and his daughter Clara in the drama Bleeding Love.
Sasha Alexander’s Career Before NCIS
She First Rose to Prominence in the Late ’90s
Sasha Alexander left NCIS only two years after she joined the show, enjoying the praise around Kate Todd’s role to experiment with other projects. But before she joined the iconic procedural TV show, Alexander appeared in another popular 2000s procedural: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, where she played District Attorney Robin Childs. It was a small, yet significant cameo in Season 2, Episode 6, “Alter Boys.”
Alexander kicked off her career with a small, obscure film called Twin Falls Idaho, a gloomy romance story about conjoined twins who fall in love with the same woman. The NCIS actress then moved on to TV, playing Jesse Presser in the series Wasteland; a coming-of-age series that failed to find its audience despite being created by the creator of the enduring Scream franchise, Kevin Williamson. However, it was thanks to him that Alexander got his breakthrough role in Williamson’s other show, Dawson’s Creek.
Sasha Alexander played Gretchen Witter, a recurring Season 4 character. She was the older sister of Pacey, one of Dawson’s Creek‘s main characters. Their unique sibling relationship was one of the season’s highlights, and so was Gretchen’s relationship with the titular character, Dawson. Alexander’s role as Gretchen was essential to her significant role in NCIS as Kate Todd two years later.
