‘NCIS’ Adds New Character for Season 18

NCIS fans will soon meet a new character, as the CBS procedural is adding actress Katrina Law to the cast in a recurring role. Deadline reports that Law will play NCIS REACT Special Agent Jessica Knight, a “formidable REACT Team agent who specializes in hostage negotiations and handles daily high-risk operations with skill and precision.” Raised by a single mother, Jessica is used to fighting for everything in life. Equipped with a “wry sense of humor,” the tenacious and tough special agent is married to a stay-at-home dad who is raising their infant son.

Law’s story arc will span the last two episodes of the current 18th season. Her role will be recurring with an option for series regular in Season 19 if the long-running show is renewed. Law was most recently seen as Quinn Lue in Hawaii Five-0, and other credits of hers include The Oath, Arrow and Training Day.

Law will be joining stars Mark Harmon, Sean Murray, Emily Wickersham, Wilmer Valderrama, Brian Dietzen, Diona Reasonover, Rocky Carroll and David McCallum. Perhaps Law’s new character will be a welcome addition for NCIS fans, who have seen a great deal of loss during Season 18 after reflecting on the coronavirus pandemic with Jimmy Palmer’s (Dietzen) wife dying due to COVID-19 complications. Later on, in this week’s episode, Tobias Fornell’s (Joe Spano) daughter Emily unexpectedly died after struggling with addiction.

NCIS fans were devastated by Emily’s death, which played out after Fornell called Jethro Gibbs (Harmon) to inform him that Emily was rushed to the hospital after experiencing an overdose. Fornell explained that he found his daughter at home surrounded by pills. She was transported to the ER for treatment but died following the overdose, which became a major shock to fans. After her passing, Director Leno Vance (Carroll) read a poem aloud called “Epitaph,” written by Merritt Malloy.

Fans have also dealt with loss in another way, with series regular Mario Bello, who played Jack Sloane, exiting the series. After Gibbs sent Jack on a mission to Afghanistan, she decided to stay there to do humanitarian work instead of going to Costa Rica, where she wanted to settle down. She told Gibbs, “I have loved my time with NCIS… You don’t need me anymore… I don’t belong behind a desk. Never did. And you’re right, I was running, and I don’t want to anymore. I want to make a difference here.”

NCIS airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. Stay tuned to PopCulture.com for the latest updates. Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.