Palmer & Knight’s NCIS Break-Up Is Great Despite Katrina Law’s Season 22 Fate

Jimmy Palmer and Jessica Knight’s break up will be beneficial to NCIS season 22 despite Katrina Law’s impending return. The NCIS season 21 finale was unusually less exciting than its predecessors as the MCRT tackled a straightforward case. While the professional side of the story was rather boring, its more exciting parts came from personal arcs for its core cast members. Alden Parker’s Lily mystery was introduced while Knight’s exit was set up. Apparently, her dream REACT job opened up, and she was presented with the opportunity to take it. Despite some reservations, she took the chance.

It’s worth noting that it didn’t seem like Knight was going to accept the offer. Sadly, Palmer’s freak-out about how it would impact their relationship convinced her to move forward with it. So, while it wasn’t necessary, the pair ended up going their separate ways. Months later, when NCIS season 22 picks up, they remain separated. It was easier for the pair to just bury themselves with work, considering that they are at opposite ends of the country. However, that’s about to change after the pilot. All clues point towards Knight returning to MCRT permanently sometime in the near future.

Palmer & Knight’s Reason For Breaking Up Doesn’t Make Sense

Being In A Long-Distance Relationship Shouldn’t Be A Deal Breaker For Them

Months after the NCIS season 21 finale, it’s still mind-boggling that Palmer and Knight broke up just because they were going to have to do a long-distance set-up. The pair had been together for several years, and one would assume that their relationship was solid enough to survive not being physically together. It was clear that their feelings for each other were genuine, so it was such a flimsy reason to break them up. They could have kept in touch and visited each other regularly — both things are much easier now in the digital and traveling.

As weak as the reasoning for their split, especially considering Knight’s eventual return to Navy Yard, there’s hope that there may be a silver lining to come out of this. NCIS is not known for its romances. If anything, Knight and Palmer is its first proper love story. It has had many couples in the past, but most of them weren’t really in an official relationship. So, splitting them up when the very reason for their separation doesn’t make sense is quite disappointing.

Palmer & Knight Working Together After Splitting Is A Fresh Narrative For NCIS

NCIS Season 22 Will Have To Deal With The Awkwardness Of Knight & Palmer’s Reunion

While it may not be obvious, there’s a benefit to breaking Palmer and Knight. As previously mentioned, the pair is the show’s first successful office romance in more than 20 years, which means that their impending reunion in Navy Yard is also the first time that NCIS will have a chance to tackle a post-break-up narrative in the series. For context, Tim McGee and Abby Sciuto previously dated in the earliest seasons of NCIS, but their romance was more of a fling compared to what Palmer and Knight had. So when they split, it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Seeing how it handles Knight and Palmer’s relationship at work after their rather haphazard break up will be one of the most intriguing narratives in NCIS season 22.

This is great because it allows NCIS to offer something new to its viewers. Being on the air for more than two decades is a rare feat, especially considering the changing ways that the public consumes their entertainment. This makes it all the more important to come up with a creative narrative for long-running procedurals such as NCIS. Seeing how it handles Knight and Palmer’s relationship at work after their rather haphazard break up will be one of the most intriguing narratives in NCIS season 22. It will be curious how the rest of MCRT acts around them, as well.

Will Palmer & Knight Ever Get Back Together?

Knight & Palmer Getting Back Together Seems Inevitable Now

It’s difficult to say, but at this point, bringing Palmer and Knight together would be fairly easy. Knight’s return to MCRT in NCIS season 22 paves the show for the police procedural to play with the forced proximity trope for romance. Since the pair immediately and decidedly started dating, the CBS series wasn’t able to play out a possible will-they/won’t-they storyline for the couple — something that it is currently an expert now, considering the many pairs that it subjected to the same situation, more prominently Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David.

With Palmer and Knight rekindling their romance more likely than not, the question now is how long NCIS is planning to milk their reunion storyline. Unlike their predecessors, it’s clear to both of them that still have strong feelings for each other. For what it’s worth, they could sit down and have a conversation immediately after Knight officially comes back and decide to be a couple again with no issues.