NCIS star responds to tragic twist in latest season 18 episode
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Brian Dietzen has weighed in on the crushing twist for his NCIS character Jimmy Palmer in season 18.
Airing in the US yesterday (February 9), the latest episode witnessed a time jump to the coronavirus pandemic, where medic Jimmy's wife Breena had tragically passed away after succumbing to the deadly virus.
Related: NCIS answers big season 18 mystery after Gibbs twist
Kicking back with ET Online, Dietzen revealed his initial reaction to reading the script.
"I had been told that this was going to happen, that Jimmy was going to lose his wife before I received this script. The producers let me know that we want the advent of COVID to hit our team.
"And yet, we don't want to lose a team member. So the prospect of having Jimmy lose his wife, the most optimistic team member lose someone, came to the table and they thought it would be a great storytelling mechanic – albeit very, very sad.
"So they went ahead with it. I was notified ahead of time and prepared for it, I suppose, emotionally," he added.
Related: NCIS season 18 to have a very unexpected time jump
As for a possible breaking point in the future, the Jimmy actor also went on to comment: "I certainly think that it's more of a processing than anything else.
"I told the writers and the producers on our show that what I really didn't want to see with Jimmy Palmer was for him to lose his eternal optimism because of something like this. And I think that all of us were totally on the same page.
"They said, 'Oh gosh, yeah, we need to have Jimmy be that light that's on the team for sure.' And if there's ever a test for that light, it's a loss of this nature. So I think that moving forward, we're going to definitely see Jimmy Palmer process this more."
NCIS airs on CBS in the US, and on FOX UK in the UK.
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