What Happened to Jimmy Palmer's Wife Breen on NCIS?

“NCIS” is arguably one of the most successful shows on TV today, if not ever. The CBS police procedural has run for a whopping 22 seasons and counting, with nearly 500 episodes to its name. It's even more than Criminal Minds. One of the main characters of the show is Jimmy Palmer. Jimmy, played by actor Brian Dietzen, has been there since the beginning, first appearing at the end of Season 1. He has been a staple of the series ever since. Unfortunately, Ms. Palmer was not so lucky.

Bryn Palmer, played by Michelle Pearce, didn't appear in nearly as many episodes of the show. This means that she is not less important. She also made a huge impact, especially with her exit from “NCIS.” For fans of the show, Bryn Palmer's death was a huge blow and is still talked about today. With that in mind, it's worth looking into exactly what happened to him and, perhaps more importantly, why it happened.

Death is just part of any long-running show. That's just the nature of the beast. But some deaths hit particularly hard. For example, the brutal death of Glenn in “The Walking Dead”.which fans talk about to this day. That, as brutal as it was, was still shown to the audience which made it real. In the case of Bryn Palmer, it was like the lightning of a finger. Poo, she was gone. That's because Breen was killed off-screen in “NCIS,” which made the whole thing more than a little surprising.

“NCIS” season 18 aired while the Covid-19 pandemic was still raging. The episode “Day One” aired in February 2021, more than a year after the global disaster. Jimmy personally confirmed that his beloved wife died as a result of the coronavirus. “You guys were so great when, you know, I lost Breena,” he tells the team in the episode, while explaining that his mom is moving in to help. “Between work, single parenting and school, it was just too much. So I called a lifeline.”

That was it. In an interview with ET after the episode aired, Brian Dietzen explained where Jimmy's head was while all of this was unfolding.

“In this week's episode, we can see that Jimmy is trying to maintain as much happiness as he can, trying to say, 'Hey, my glass is half full here. I'm doing really great” while we as viewers can see that it might not be, he's doing the best he can, but there's only so long it can take before there's a known tipping point.

The COVID-19 pandemic was too big an event for many media outlets to ignore. In some cases, the shows decided not to address it. In other cases it shows e.g “Futurama” used the pandemic to fuel its storytelling. In the case of “NCIS”, it was appropriate to focus on what happened, especially the tragic loss of life around the world. As Dietzen explained in the same interview, the death of his character's wife was a way of acknowledging what was happening in the world at that moment.

“I think that was one of the interesting and obviously heartbreaking things about this disease that we've all seen is these people on the front lines working as doctors working as EMTs who have had to go through the heartbreak themselves. And yet they are asked to just keep working, because if they stop working, we no longer have our front line. In many ways, this episode proved to be a tribute to the people who have lost others during this pandemic.”

Still, that didn't make the death any less upsetting for longtime fans of the show. Bryn Palmer wasn't a series regular, but considering Jimmy is the show's anchor, her death was a big deal. Having it happen off-screen was a bold choice, but it was done for a conscious reason.

In terms of influence and screen time, Michelle Pearce's time as Bryn Palmer on NCIS is quite impressive. The actress only appeared in six episodes of the show before leaving the screen. But things keep coming back, and Pierce has appeared in seven episodes of the show as of this writing.

In “NCIS” season 19 episode “The Helpers”, Pierce returned as Breena. It wasn't like a comeback though John Goodman as Dan after his death in the “Roseanne” revival. Rather, Breen's posthumous appearance on the show happened during a dream sequence inserted at the beginning of the episode. It shows Jimmy lying with his head on Bryn's lap in the middle of a field and talking about how much he misses her.

Talking to TVLine after the episode aired, Brian Dietzen, who also co-wrote the episode, explained why they included the scene in the show.

“The reason for this isn't just to give a cool cinematic introduction… I wanted Michelle to come back on set and she wanted to come back. The fact that we were able to get Michelle to come back was such a blessing because she's definitely been one one of my favorites to work with on the show.”

NCIS is currently streaming on Paramount+, or you can purchase the season DVD of the show through Amazon.