Farewell Duane Henry: The talented actor from the “NCIS” series has passed away at the age of 40 md20

On the heels of their shock return in the season 23 fall finale, NCIS‘s former series regular breaks silence on their comeback. As if the ongoing year hasn’t already been packed for MCRT, CBS drops a major twist before the procedural goes on its winter hiatus for the 2025-2026 TV season. The surprise involves the return of a familiar face, which is quite exciting.

NCIS season 23 has been leaning on nostalgia for its storytelling, and for good measure. The show has been on the air for over two decades, so there’s no scarcity of old characters and plots to mine narrative inspiration from. Not long after Roma Maffia’s comeback as older Vera Strickland, CBS brings in a much bigger character back with the unexpected re-emergence of Ellie Bishop.

Taking it to her official Instagram account, Emily Wickersham addresses her return by reposting the sentimental video originally shared by Wilmer Valderrama, who plays her former partner and almost romantic interest, Nick Torres. The clip sees Valderrama sitting on a filming chair, and when he is called for his take, it is revealed to be Wickersham’s, confirming that she is offically back on set. In the comment section of the same post, Wickersham also responded with a series of emojis: “🙋🏼‍♀️🏴‍☠️”. Check out the post below:

Any post acknowledging Bishop’s NCIS return would be great, but there’s something very special about Valderrama being the one to film and share the aforementioned post. Specific details about why the former NSA analyst is back are still uncertain at the moment, aside from her being Jessica Knight’s first ELITE target. Regardless of how this plot develops, her comeback will undoubtedly have a profound impact on Torres.

It’s worth noting that aside from being agent partners, Torres and Bishop were also in a complicated romance. Similar to Tony Dinozzo and Ziva David, they were trapped in a will-they/won’t-they cycle, but unlike their predecessors, their ending was maddeningly frustrating.

Stemming from how the show wrote out Bishop, the character had apparently been training to be an undercover agent for a while. Once she passed the final test, she was going to walk away from everyone in MCRT without a proper goodbye. Understandably, this was heartbreaking for Torres.

Showrunner Steven D. Binder has confirmed that Bishop’s return has something to do with Torres moving on. After hints of a potential romance, NCIS season 23 officially sets up a possible affair between him and Knight, which is already complicated as it is. Whatever happens, the procedural sure set up one of its most intriguing narratives in years. Sadly, fans will have to wait a little while to find out what’s next as NCIS won’t be back with new episodes until February 2026.