Let's talk "Turkey Trot," the first episode of "NCIS" you helped co-write.
This is my very first time. I begged them this year, "Please let me write something." They said, "All right."
Which character were you most excited to write scenes for?
Definitely Knight. I absolutely wanted to dive into that character because she's so fascinating. Every episode, we learn something new, and it's such a fun puzzle to put together. I'll tell you something funny — this originally was not supposed to be a Knight and Kasie episode. It was originally going to be a Knight and Jimmy episode. He was going to accompany Knight for the Thanksgiving dinner.
At the time that [co-writer] Scott Williams and I were conceiving the episode, there was another episode — the one where we saw Knight's ex-boyfriend come back — that was going to be a Knight and Jimmy episode. We weren't quite sure what that one was going to look like as the script was being written. We switched it to Knight and Kasie. I truly begged Scott. I was like, "Please, Kasie's been through so much. Don't make her do this."
Why did it switch from Jimmy to Kasie, exactly?
I went to Scott Williams and said, "I love your writing. Will you please co-write with me?" He said, "Yes." He, in his infinite wisdom, knew that if we put Knight with any other agent, the episode would be five minutes long. Knight would immediately disarm them, and any other agent would also help take this guy down. It was always going to be between Kasie and Jimmy, and Scott said, "I know why you want it to be Brian [Dietzen], because Brian's wonderful, but it'll be very fun to explore this sisterhood, both in terms of Knight's sisterhood with her [actual] sister and Knight's sisterhood with Kasie." That was pretty irresistible, so I was like, "All right, fine. I'll have one more hostage situation."
As if that's going to be your last.
I know! When is somebody going to write Kasie's spa day where she gets to relax and eat pizza?
