NCIS Season 23 Proves Nick And Ellie Fans Were Robbed Of The Show's Best Romance

Contains spoilers for "NCIS" Season 23, Episode 10 — "Her"

Though it's much beloved as a relationship-that-got-away by "NCIS" fans, a great deal of the union between Ellie Bishop (Emily Wickersham) and Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) took place offscreen, never having a chance to grow before Ellie left the show during Season 18. "Her" adds new layers and depth to the connection between them — and has us realizing that the show robbed us of a really interesting love story.

In "Her," Nick and Ellie are seen together in bed during a flashback Nick has after Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) confronts Nick about whether or not he can be trusted to help the team track down Ellie. She's been accused of committing acts of cyberterrorism, and has become Jessica Knight's (Katrina Law) first quarry as a member of the Elite team. In the brief scene, Nick and Ellie are seen in an implied state of post-coital bliss; He remarks about how right everything feels after Ellie asks him what's wrong, indicating their romance occurred on a much deeper and more intimate level than fans previously knew about. 

The mission allows a returning Ellie and Nick to reconnect; she convinces him to help her clear her name, and eventually they figure out that a member of her team is actually guilty of the black market cybercrime Ellie's been accused of. Nick and Ellie share one more kiss, but he turns down her request that he come with her to her next posting, explaining that he belongs with the team — while she belongs out in the world doing good. While that leaves them in a better place than before, it still leaves Nick's romantic status — and that of multiple other characters — still up in the air.

Whether or not Ellie and Nick have a chance at romance lies in the extremely tangled and confusing quadrangle that has formed over the past few seasons between Nick, Ellie, Jessica, and Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen). While Ellie isn't sticking around permanently, things between the other three characters have gotten quite complicated. In the wake of Torres' heartrending break-up with Ellie, Nick and Jessica have been spending more time together lately off the job, and fans have been picking up on recent hints that Knight and Torres might want to be more than friends some day.

That's something Jessica's ex, Jimmy, has also noted — and it's given Palmer a serious case of heartbreak. At the end of "Stolen Moments," Jimmy witnesses Nick and Jessica leave the office together just as he's come to realize that he wants to resume his romance with Jess. Jimmy hasn't confronted Jessica about his feelings since that day, leaving the entanglement between them largely unresolved. While Ellie might be off to her next mission, it's clear Nick still likes her — the question is, how does Jessica feel about that?