Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS episode “Close to Home” are ahead!
Victoria Palmer, the daughter of Brian Dietzen’s Jimmy Palmer and the late Breena Palmer, was born during NCIS Season 11, but it wasn’t until the Season 19 episode “The Helpers” that actress Elle Graper first played the character. Three years later, she reprised the role tonight for “Close to Home.” Ahead of its premiere on the 2025 TV schedule, I was able to chat with both Dietzen and Graper on behalf of CinemaBlend about what they enjoyed most about shooting this Season 22 episode and what they’d like to see Jimmy and Victoria do together the next time around.
Brian Dietzen And Elle Graper’s Experiences On “Close To Home”
“Close to Home” wasn’t nearly as high stakes as Victoria seeing Jimmy and Kasie nearly die from exposure to a biotoxin back in Season 19, but it was still pretty eventful. It kicked off with the now 14-year-old Victoria passing along $35,000 she found to Nick Torres, which paved the way for a case involving $5 million that was stolen 15 years earlier by a bank robber who was never caught. More importantly though, the episode provided another rare instance of being able to directly explore Jimmy Palmer being a father, which Brian Dietzen greatly appreciated, telling me:
I just love that we got to explore this the the connection that Jimmy continues to have with his daughter, and I love the ending of this episode, man. I just think it’s so on point and it’s sweet without being saccharine. I really, I really enjoyed it. I also really loved working with my dear friend Erinn Hayes, who plays Wendy Hill. I’ve known her since I was about 18 years old, and it was great to have her come play on our set, and we’ve seen her in so many other things. I was very excited that she said, yes, I’ll come, I’ll come do this part. I thought it was a blast.
The team’s investigation into the mysterious money and the death of Carson Marcone, an HVAC repairman who was a fan of the bank robber known as the Saratoga Specter. This in turn led to them discovering that Carson’s murderer lived in Jimmy and Victoria’s neighborhood, Briarwood. So they set up a get-together for Jimmy to host so he could discreetly collect DNA samples from six suspected neighbors through the sangria he made. That’s how he met Erinn Hayes’ character, Wendy Hill, who just moved into Briarwood.
As for Elle Baker, her highlight from “Close to Home” (which can also now be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription) was sharing screen time with Katrina Law, who plays Jessica Knight on NCIS. As the young actress put it:
Well, my favorite part was probably getting to do the really intense scene with Jess [Knight] this time. Last time I was there, I feel like it was really amazing, but I didn’t really get the opportunity to do scenes with her specifically. It was a really great experience because she’s such a wonderful actor.
Wendy was also ruled out as a suspect, although it unfortunately led to the interruption of her romantic dalliance with Jimmy when Jessica, a.k.a. the ex-girlfriend, and the rest of the field team barged in on them. It turned out that Wendy’s late father was the Saratoga Strangler, and he hid the money in the home he’d purchased for her under his name that she’d only just moved into. Carson found the money and start stealing it piece by piece, but Rhonda, the woman in charge of security at Briarwood, found about this and killed him, though she was unable to discover the money’s location beforehand.
What Brian Dietzen And Elle Baker Want For Jimmy And Victoria Next
Jimmy and Victoria went through a bit of a rough patch in “Close to Home,” as Victoria found the money while out with her friends when she was supposed to be at the library preparing for the science fair, from which she’d actually dropped out. But by the end of the episode, the father and daughter were on the best of terms, thanks in no small part to Victoria helping set a trap to apprehend Rhonda. So with this adventure out of the way, what could Jimmy and Victoria do next on NCIS? Brian Dietzen joked to me about how the two of them should go on vacation, specifically a “spa day” for “a little skin treatment,” then said:
I think what’s great about this episode is that we get to see some peeks into Jimmy’s home life, and of course we get to check in on Victoria, which is something that I think everybody wants to see. I’d like that to continue, we get to check in and see… how’s Victoria doing? How are McGee’s twins doing? I think it’s something that people watch the show for. They’re invested in these people’s lives. So I don’t think it necessarily has to be event-driven so much as just seeing how how Victoria lives in Jimmy’s life. And she’s at the age where maybe she might start coming by NCIS on her own at some point soon.
Dietzen may have been joking about the vacation, but Elle Graper shared immediately afterwards that she’s game for this to happen. At the very least, she wants to see Jimmy and Victoria together with there being little to no danger. In her words:
[I] 100% love the vacation. These episodes have [had] some very harsh things that have really caused a lot of torment to both of our characters, and I think it would be really nice to have a little break and be able to see how they’re like when they’re not under some life or death situation.
It’s hard to say when we’ll see Elle Graper reprise Victoria again, but whenever it happens, I hope that she and Brian Dietzen’s wishes are granted. Family is an important part of the NCIS framework, and sometimes it’s nice to check in on the people in our main characters’ personal lives without any looming threats (and I agree with him about wanting to see McGee’s twins). Until then, new episodes of NCIS air Mondays at 9 pm ET on CBS, and it was announced last month that the series has been renewed for a 23rd season.
