James Palmer

James "Jimmy" Palmer (AKA "Autopsy Gremlin") is a Doctor and also the Chief Medical Examiner for the NCIS Major Case Response Team.
Prior to that, Palmer originally served as the Medical Examiner Assistant to Dr. Donald Mallard, having first joined NCIS on a temporary basis back in May 2004 due to Ducky's original assistant, Gerald Jackson, taking a leave of absence to recover from the NCIS Hostage Crisis.
Following Jackson's resignation, which occurred in September 2005 after his second encounter with terrorist Ari Haswari, Palmer became Ducky's permanent assistant and regularly assisted Ducky with autopsies.
In March 2019, Palmer became the new NCIS Medical Examiner after Ducky stepped down from his position. 
Dr. Palmer was married to Breena Palmer from May 2012 until December 2020 when she died of the Covid-19 virus. Together they have a daughter, Victoria Elizabeth Palmer. 
==Biography==
===Pre-Series ===
James Palmer was born to Eunice Palmer and an unnamed father, possibly around November 1977. He also had an aunt named Beatrice. 
His father died when Jimmy was ten, and in his son's own words, 'he was not a good man'. Jimmy only gave up hating him when his daughter, Victoria, was born in 2015. 
===NCIS Season 1===
James was brought on as Ducky's assistant after Gerald Jackson was wounded via gunshot by Ari Haswari and placed on medical leave.
===NCIS Season 2===
===NCIS Season 3===
===NCIS Season 4===
In most of season 4, he had a sexual relationship with NCIS agent Lee, which was a big part of his story for this season. 
===NCIS Season 5===
===NCIS Season 6===
===NCIS Season 7===
===NCIS Season 8===
In the season finale, Pyramid (episode), it is revealed that he is still in a relationship with Breena, the mortician he started dating a while back, and that they are getting married. Shortly after Jimmy and EJ Barrett are taken hostage by serial killer Jonas Cobb. He is water-boarded and beaten, but is saved along with the others by the NCIS team. 
===NCIS Season 9===
A lot of the season he spends planning his wedding with Breena and it appears to be stressful. He also introduces his father-in-law who constantly criticizes him to the team when he shows him around NCIS. He stands up for himself eventually revealing that he loves his job and that he will not be going in to the proposed family business with his father-in-law. In Up in Smoke (episode) Abby had put together a bachelor party for him as his "best woman". The bachelor party is also apart of a cover, to take down a delivery of a suitcase full of money in the Harper Dearing case. In the season finale, Till Death Do Us Part (episode), Jimmy and Breena marry. 
===NCIS Season 10===
===NCIS Season 11===
===NCIS Season 12 ===
Jimmy and Breena's daughter was born at the end of We Build, We Fight. They had not agreed on a name beforehand, but chose to name her Victoria after Ducky's deceased mother. As it turned out in about 5% of patients the epidural doesn't work, and consequently Breena had to use alternate means to deal with the pain. This resulted in two broken fingers for Jimmy, although he didn't mind at all.
Abby Sciuto, Tony DiNozzo, Ellie Bishop, Tim McGee and Ducky were all present in the waiting room as soon as their latest case wrapped up. Gibbs arrived late.
===NCIS Season 13 ===
=== NCIS Season 14 ===
In Keep Going, Jimmy reveals he finally passed the Medical Examiner exams on the third try and is now a qualified Medical Examiner. None of his coworkers knew for years, until he revealed it to a man he tried to save from jumping off a ledge. Unknown to him, Timothy McGee and Nicholas Torres had placed a small microphone on a box with burgers in it so the entire team could hear what they were saying in an attempt to solve the case of who killed the man's father.
=== NCIS Season 15 ===
=== NCIS Season 16 ===
=== NCIS Season 17 ===
=== NCIS Season 18 ===
In The First Day, it's revealed that Jimmy's wife, Breena, had died of the Covid-19 virus two months prior (December 2020). It's implied that she went into a coma before she died, and was presumably on a ventilator. Jimmy was not allowed to see her before she died due to the lockdown. It also forced him to grieve alone, and he was also not able to give her a real memorial. 
In an attempt to deal, he went into denial. He tripled his workload and he was being relentlessly cheerful to a point where the entire team found it unsettling. At the same time, he was also homeschooling his daughter. His mother moved in with him and Victoria to help out. 
At the end of the episode, he had a conversation with Gibbs - the only other person on the team who had also lost his wife. Afterward, Gibbs called the entire team and they met in the bullpen to have a memorial for Breena. 
===NCIS Season 19===
=== NCIS Season 20 ===
=== NCIS Season 21 ===
In The Stories We Leave Behind, Jimmy brings coffee to his longtime superior, colleague and friend, Donald "Ducky" Mallard, when he discovers that Ducky passed away in his sleep.
Throughout the episode, Jimmy is clearly saddened by Ducky's death. He, along with his coworkers at NCIS, work to solve one of Ducky's unfinished cases. Jimmy does many things in memorial of Ducky, such as telling his stories, adopting his dog, Solo, and attending his funeral.
===Personality===
===Physical Appearance===
Palmer is a man in his late twenties at the beginning of the series. He has dark brown hair and hazel eyes and wears glasses. 
===Abilities===
As the Assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner for NCIS and later the NCIS Chief Medical Examiner, Jimmy is often tasked with helping Ducky perform numerous autopsies or perform an autopsy himself on the many bodies that NCIS often receive in order to determine if the deaths were natural or as a result of murder.
==Relationships with NCIS Colleagues==
===Donald "Ducky" Mallard===
He is very close with his superior Dr. Mallard. They form a close friendship over the years. They worked together for over a decade. 
When Ducky dies, Jimmy is clearly saddened. He also adopts Ducky's dog, Solo.
Michelle Lee
Special Agent Michelle Lee and Jimmy had a romantic relationship in Season 4. Jimmy and Michelle broke up when he felt like he was being used. Agent Lee died in the Season 6 episode Dagger when she sacrifices herself to stop her handler from escaping and tells Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs to shoot her because the bullets will go right through and kill her handler Ted Bankston.
Leroy Jethro Gibbs
Jimmy was always scared of Special Agent Gibbs because he was "very intimidating" to him, but he always respected him.
== Personal Relationships ==
Eunice Palmer - Mother
Breena Palmer - Wife (deceased)
Victoria Elizabeth Palmer - Daughter
==Trivia==
*He, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Timothy McGee and Donald Mallard are the only main characters to have met every other main character in the mothership.
Category:Americans in NCIS
Category:Recurring Characters in NCIS
Category:Main Characters in NCIS
Category:Doctors in NCIS
Category:Medical Examiners in NCIS