NCIS season 18 episode 9 photo: Why are Bishop, Torres smiling?

NCIS season 18 episode 9 is going to be a very important one for the series, largely because it represents quite a sea change for the story. This marks the first episode since the departure of Maria Bello — so are there any other changes that are afoot here?

Judging from the photo above, you can see that both Bishop and Torres are out in the field sans masks — as a matter of fact, we haven’t seen masks in many of the promotional photos for “Winter Chill.” Does this mean the show is jumping forward now to a post-virus world? That’s something to consider, since we don’t think the writers intended to spend a lot of time taking on the real-world event.

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Also, of course we have to wonder about the romantic status of these two characters. We still think they may have kissed following the events of “1mm” earlier this season, and in the promo for this episode, there is a certain amount of physical closeness you can detect. While we don’t know how the writers are going to address their status, we do think they will at some point. We’ve already seen this show go the way of secret relationships with Ziva/Tony and very recently Sloane/Gibbs — it’s hard to argue they need to do the same thing again.

As for whether Bishop and Torres come clean about what’s going on to their boss … that’s an entirely different story. We just hope we can see some of their actual relationship, if there is one anyway.

Related – Check out some more news when it comes to NCIS, including other details on “Winter Chill”

What do you want to see next for Bishop and Torres on NCIS season 18 episode 9?

Be sure to share right now in the attached comments! Once you check that out, remember to stick around for some other news on the series. (Photo: CBS.)

This article was written by Jessica Carter. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.