‘NCIS’ Season 21 Finale: Is Katrina Law’s Knight Leaving?

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the NCIS Season 21 finale “Reef Madness.”]

Over the years, NCIS has seen its fair share of team changes, whether due to a tragic death on the job or someone moving on, and the Season 21 finale at times sets up the possibility for both.

Vance (Rocky Carroll) reveals to Knight (Katrina Law, along with Brian Dietzen, our guests in our last aftershow, NCIS: Case Closed, for Season 21.) that her former REACT colleague is taking her father’s old position in the Far East office after she turned it down, so his job (Chief REACT Training Officer) is up for grabs—and he wants her to take it. She had applied a few years ago, at a vulnerable time after her team was killed, but so much has happened since then, and now the team is her family. She needs to give her answer by the end of the day.

Unfortunately, due to the case—three bodies found on a ship about to be given a hero’s burial at sea and made into an artificial reef—Palmer (Dietzen) is the last to find out about the offer. And this comes after, following a difficult morning with his daughter Victoria, Palmer snaps at her about not being her mother. (This comes, it needs to be noted, after Knight says she isn’t first.)

Knight and Palmer do get a brief chance to talk about the job offer, which would take her to Pendleton, meaning a long-distance relationship, which she’s willing to consider. But, “I lost Breena, I lost Gibbs, I lost Dr. Mallard, and now apparently my increasingly distant teenage daughter. So if I’m going to lose you too, it’s going to be on my terms,” Palmer decides. She argues he’s not losing her, but “maybe you’re losing me,” he says and tells her, “Just take the job, okay? Just go and you can move on with your plan and I get back to whatever it is mine is. … This is for the best, okay?”

The focus then quickly turns to the case, with the team splitting up to check out the victims’ homes. But Knight and Parker (Gary Cole) take a detour to return to the ship after noticing something in one of the crime scene photos that might not have been picked up as evidence. He does offer a bit of advice (even though he says he’s not qualified); while she sees what happened as a breakup, he’s not so sure. Once on the ship, however, they quickly run into trouble, chasing after someone and getting locked in the engine room—where Parker is quickly pinned. With no signal, they can’t call for help.

Robert Voets / CBS

Palmer talks to Kasie (Diona Reasonover) about what happened, admitting that he’d been waiting for the axe to fall since Knight’s father’s visit and he’s relieved to have taken his fate into his own hands instead of worrying about others. Kasie argues he made Knight’s big job offer about him. It’s when Palmer tries to call Knight and she doesn’t answer, then Kasie tries, then both try Parker that the others realize something’s wrong. Everyone leaps into action, and once they have a lead, Palmer insists on going with McGee (Sean Murray) and Torres (Wilmer Valderrama), not wanting what he said to Knight to be the last thing he says.

While trying to free Parker, Knight talks to him about regrets. There are a few things he wishes he would’ve done differently, but that’s just life, as he sees it. Why didn’t she take over her dad’s job like he wanted? Kids are programmed to rebel, she points out, and that’s the only reason she’s willing to admit, but adds, “I’ve never known anyone like Jimmy before, much less been in a relationship with someone like him.”

Knight rigs a rope and can free Parker (after he taunts her to get her angry, She-Hulk style), but that’s when they notice his leg is bleeding. If his leg’s not broken, his artery is. She uses her belt as a tourniquet, but they need to get him medical help ASAP. Luckily there’s a way out: a hatch. Unluckily, the passage underneath them is flooded. With Parker fading fast and seeing a little girl in a yellow dress he calls Lily, Knight realizes she has to go swimming. As she does, Parker sees himself as a young boy chasing Lily on a ship. She leans over the side, he tells her to be careful, and then his mother says his name. Parker, as an adult, tells her they were just playing, then his mother snaps him out of it and he pulls on the rope attached to Knight only for her not to be on the other end.

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Fortunately, the team arrives on the ship and hears Knight banging on a hatch. They get to her just in time, then get to Parker, who’s not breathing… The good news: He’s going to be fine! The not-so-good news: We’re left with the mystery about Lily, as when Knight asks him about her in the hospital room, he says he doesn’t remember talking about her and doesn’t know who she is.

As for Knight and Palmer, she suggests that he may have had a point, before joining Vance who needs an answer. She looks around then tells him, “hell, yeah, sir. Let’s do it.” So is Katrina Law leaving NCIS? We’ll have to wait until the Season 22 premiere to find out.

What did you think of the finale, Knight’s job offer, where it left her and Palmer, and the mystery of Lily? Let us know in the comments section, below.

NCIS, Season 22, Fall 2024, CBS