Why is Bishop a fugitive in NCIS? It goes way back to season 18 finale
NCIS fans got one of the show's biggest jolts in years when the season 23 midseason finale ended with Director Vance handing Jessica Knight her first NCIS: Elite target — and the photo showed Eleanor Bishop. A former teammate, now officially a wanted fugitive. To understand how Ellie ended up on a wanted poster, you have to rewind to May 2021.
It started with a fake scandal
In the season 18 finale, Bishop (Emily Wickersham) was accused of leaking classified NSA documents. Her teammates believed she was innocent — then she confessed and resigned in disgrace. The kicker: it was all deliberate. Bishop torched her own reputation so she could join a covert operation with Odette Malone, the CIA operative who once handled Ziva David.
She kissed Nick Torres goodbye and vanished. Wickersham confirmed her exit on Instagram after the episode aired, and Katrina Law's Jessica Knight joined the team in season 19 as her replacement.
For nearly five years, that's where the story sat.
Why she's suddenly a "cyber-terrorist"
The season 23 midseason finale, which aired in December 2025, filled in the gap. Bishop had been stationed in Ukraine with a black-ops unit when their site was hit, forcing the team underground. Since then, someone had been attacking the Department of Defense's mainframe and leaking classified information — and the government decided that someone was Bishop.
Hence the cyber-terrorist designation, and hence Knight's uncomfortable first Elite mission: hunt down and arrest her colleagues' old friend.
What actually happened in "Her"
The March 3, 2026 midseason premiere resolved it. Bishop, back stateside, broke into Torres' apartment because she needed the one person she could still trust. The truth: she'd been framed by a member of her own unit — a mole leaking the intel she was being blamed for. With two of her teammates already dead, the MCRT worked the case quietly rather than going through official channels, and by the end of the episode Bishop was exonerated.
Then she left. Again.
Will she be back?
The door is wide open — Bishop walked away cleared, not captured, and her unfinished business with the team is now text rather than subtext. Wickersham has hinted there's more to say, particularly about McGee, who never got a real goodbye:
"There is definitely something that needs to be addressed," she told TV Insider in 2026.