Now that NCIS has officially been renewed for Season 23, fans might have a clue about one storyline that could be featured soon. NCIS Season 22, Episode 14, "Close to Home", premiering tonight on March 3, 2025, will see the return of Elle Graper's Victoria Palmer as she discovers a large sum of money near a naval library that the team has to investigate. Jimmy Palmer's (Brian Dietzen) daughter, Victoria, was last seen in NCIS Season 19, Episode 13, "The Helpers", which showcased how close Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) was to the Palmers. While Jimmy was still struggling to deal with the death of his wife, Breena Palmer (Michelle Pierce), Torres helped with taking care of Victoria.
With Victoria returning in NCIS Season 22, Episode 14, audiences will get to see how Victoria interacts with Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) following her breakup with Jimmy. Although Jimmy and Jessica had a mutual breakup on NCIS, there's been a dynamic shift between the pair since then. Speaking to Collider's Ryan Cortero, Dietzen said "it would be great to see [Nick] Torres and Victoria [Palmer] paired up" more. He also teased a casting search for a character heavily tied to the Palmers that could lead to "fun dynamics" with Torres:
"We learned that after Breena Palmer passed away, Jimmy's mom came and stayed with him and helped him with Victoria, prior to meeting Victoria in Season 19. And I think it would be great to see what that dynamic is like. You have Nick, who's Uncle Nick, he's like super close with Victoria. And it would be kind of neat to see, does he butt heads with Jimmy's mom a little bit like, 'Well, I'm the one that picks Vic up from school on Wednesdays. What are you doing?' I just think it'd be fun. It'd be a cool thing to see. We have some really wonderful actors in mind potentially for Jimmy's mom that I think would be great."
Jimmy Palmer's Mom Is Coming to 'NCIS'
Jimmy's family life outside of Breena and Victoria hasn't been shown or talked about much throughout NCIS. Jimmy's unnamed father passed away when he was only 10 years old, but Jimmy notes "he was not a good man." His mother, Eunice Palmer, ended up raising Jimmy and his unnamed brother on her own. As Dietzen mentions, Eunice was mentioned to be taking care of Victoria while Jimmy processed Breena's death, so it seems they have a decent relationship to still be a part of his life. With Dietzen revealing that they're actively considering actors to play Eunice, it seems that fans can expect to see her by Season 23, the earliest.
Torres has stepped up as a character since his NCIS debut, especially through his relationship with Jimmy and Victoria. Since Dietzen co-wrote a few episodes of NCIS with Scott Williams, including Graper's introduction to the series, his dream pairing of Torres and Eunice could see the light of day. Dietzen is excited to see it play out and has faith in his co-stars' ability to pull it off.
"I think Wilmer [Valderrama] is so good at playing all of that stuff and Elle [Graper] is absolutely, as I told you already, just such a joy to work with. And no matter what we do family-wise, I think it'll turn into some fun dynamics."
How will Torres face an opponent that he can't physically fight? As much as Victoria and Jimmy love him, that might not be the case for Eunice when she makes her NCIS debut. Tune in to CBS on Monday, March 3 to see more of Victoria and Torres' relationship.
NCIS Season 22 airs new episodes every Monday at 8pm ET. Past episodes are available for streaming on Paramount+.
