How should NCIS season 15 write out Pauley Perrette’s Abby?

You likely have heard the news at this point: Pauley Perrette’s Abby is leaving at the end of NCIS season 15. The character is beloved the entire world over, but all things must end and it now feels as though we’ve reached that time with her. The exit has been planned for some time, and this means that the writers should be moving slowly towards an endgame for her over the course of this season.

So what could this endgame be? There are a few different possibilities for what the show has planned, and we at CarterMatt have some of them listed out for you below.

Gets another science-related job elsewhere – This is the most likely scenario here for the writers: Abby gets offered a dream job somewhere else where she can take her love of science and helping others to new heights. This should be the way the series goes with her given that the character is inspirational for people out there looking to get jobs in various STEAM fields. You want to leave her thinking that she’s made both the NCIS office and the world a better place; having her take another job in a similar, but different enough field is a way to do this. (It can’t be too similar since there would be questions as to why she would leave to just go to another lab for another bureau/department.)

Goes into a completely different field – Maybe Abby discovers a love for charity and is going to be heading off somewhere around the world; or, maybe she has a secret passion that she wants to fulfill and there is a dream she’s never been able to explore before now. If you tell this story right you make it into a worthy send-off for the character. It would be hard to be upset over Abby departing if she was getting to take off and do something else she really loves.

Could producers kill her off? – We don’t want to get negative, but since it’s happened with prominent female characters before on the show you have to mentioned. Here, we doubt it and we hope that the show has learned some of its lessons from the past. All killing off a character does is depress fans who were hoping to see them pop up again at some point down the right. (For the record, we still refuse to believe that Ziva is actually gone.)

How to build towards the end – Don’t blindside everyone within the final episode or two with news that Abby is departing. Let this be something that the show builds towards slowly over time with some interesting character discussions and stories geared around it. Maybe Abby discovers at around February that it’s time for something new. Perrette isn’t blindsiding us with her exit, so we hope that Abby doesn’t blindside the characters in the process.

How do you think Pauley Perrette’s Abby should depart?

Share some of your thoughts on that subject below, and be sure to click here to see more of what CBS and the show producers had to say on the exit.

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