What happened to Eleanor Bishop on NCIS?

Characters come and go on NCIS all the time. Eleanor Bishop was one of the recent exits. What happened to her, and could she return?

We’ve seen many NCIS characters come and go over the years. At the end of Season 18, we said goodbye to Eleanor Bishop, played by Emily Wickersham. The exit was a surprise to many, confirmed afterward that it would be permanent.

Just how permanent is it? What did happen to the character, and is there any way that we could see the character return in the future?

Eleanor Bishop was disgraced on NCIS

During the Season 18 finale, Bishop was accused of leaking NSA documents. At first, she tried to prove her innocence. The entire team did. That was until Bishop told everyone to stop.

She had done it. There was no need for Gibbs, McGee, and Torres to try to save her from being fired from NCIS. This was it for her. She would leave the service as a disgraced agent.

However, it turned out that it was all some sort of ploy. Torres had figured it all out. He knew Bishop well enough to know that she wouldn’t have leaked any NSA document. That wasn’t her style.

It turned out that she needed to leave the team as a disgraced agent. This was a way for her to head undercover with Odette, who Bishop had connected to throughout the 17th and 18th seasons of the series. Odette was linked to Ziva and had helped Ziva fake her death and then track down the person who wanted to kill her. Odette had a mission for Ellie and trained Ellie into being a better agent for the undercover work.

Emily left the show in season 18

It does leave things open for Bishop to return if Wickersham wants. There’s surely a storyline there that would lead to Bishop turning to Torres and McGee to deal with whatever undercover job she’s on.

Next: ‘NCIS’ Season 21 — 8 Main Cast Members are coming back, 1 in Reduced Role!

What did you think of the way Bishop was written out of the series? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

NCIS is available to stream on Paramount+.