NCIS Cast REVEAL Jimmy Palmer’s Most HATED Moments..

If you’ve watched NCIS since its 2003 debut, you know that Jimmy Palmer-our lovable, awkward, endlessly kind autopsy gremlin-has become one of the show’s most cherished characters. But that doesn’t mean the writers spared him from some truly painful storylines. Here are the moments that hit fans the hardest.

1. Jimmy on the Ledge – Season 14, “Keep Going”

In one of the most anxiety-inducing scenes of Jimmy’s career, he climbs onto a building ledge to stop a young man from jumping. With the wind whipping around them and the stakes unbearably high, viewers were practically holding their breath the entire time. It was terrifying, brave, and classic Jimmy.

2. When He Revealed His Failures

In the same episode, Jimmy tries connecting with the young man by sharing his own struggles-accidentally admitting he failed his medical examiner exams twice before passing. It was raw, vulnerable, and a reminder of how hard he works behind that cheerful exterior.

3. Jimmy Loses His Wife

One of the show’s most devastating turns came in Season 18, when it’s revealed that Jimmy’s wife, Breena, died of C0V1D-19. The grief, denial, and emotional collapse that followed felt painfully real-especially as he tried to juggle work, homeschooling his daughter Victoria, and pretending he was okay.

4. Gibbs Helps Him Face His Grief

Seeing Gibbs-who also lost a wife-sit Jimmy down and gently, firmly tell him he needed to grieve was almost too heartbreaking to watch. Jimmy’s emotional breakdown, especially his story about the unsent letter to Breena, left fans in pieces.

5. Jimmy Is Poisoned – Season 19, “The Helpers”

The episode opens with Jimmy hallucinating Breena in a peaceful meadow before cutting to the horrifying reality: he and Casey lying nearly lifeless on the autopsy room floor after being exposed to a deadly toxin. The situation becomes even more gut-wrenching when Victoria arrives for bring-your-daughter-to-work day-only to watch her father fight for his life behind glass.

One of the most painful scenes has Victoria confessing to Torres how much she misses the dad she used to know, unaware Jimmy is listening.

6. The Final Goodbye

Jimmy and Victoria’s glass-separated goodbye-complete with the iconic hand-to-hand “Kirk and Spock” moment-was nearly unbearable. When he later removes his wedding ring while holding his sleeping daughter, fans knew it symbolized both grief and healing.

7. Hostage T3rror – Season 17, “Blarney”

This wasn’t Jimmy and Casey’s first brush with danger. In this earlier episode, the two are held hostage in a diner after a botched diamond heist. Forced to perform a gruesome procedure-or be k1lled-they cleverly bluff their way out, convincing the cr1minals that their friend had ingested broken glass. It was tense, unpredictable, and hard to watch knowing how gentle Jimmy is.