Another “JAG” alum is set to reprise her role on the CBS offshoot “NCIS: Los Angeles” this season.
Catherine Bell, who starred as Lt. Col. Sarah “Mac” MacKenzie on the original series, will reprise her role in a guest appearance in the “NCIS: LA” season finale on Sunday, May 19. She joins her longtime co-star David James Elliott, who was announced to be reprising his “JAG” role in a multi-episode arc last week.
“Catherine’s “Mac” was a strong, smart woman who held her own, and then some, in a male dominated world,” said “NCIS: LA” showrunner and former “JAG” producer R. Scott Gemmill. “Her character paved the way for other strong female leads. Not only is it great to be working together again as friends, but to be able to write for Catherine and have her same character interact with our ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ characters now, that’s wonderfully surreal. It feels like everything has come full circle.”
Bell and Elliott starred together on “JAG” for 10 years between 1995 and 2005. The success of the show led CBS to spinoff the franchise with “NCIS” in 2003, followed by “NCIS: Los Angeles” in 2009 and “NCIS: New Orleans” in 2014.
Elliott’s first appearance will be the Sunday, May 12 episode of “NCIS: Los Angeles,” kicking off an arc which will see the NCIS team uncover ISIS sympathizers who appear to be planning an attack on US aircraft carriers, driving them to team up with Rabb, the XO Captain on the USS Intrepid. In the May 19 finale, Hetty (Linda Hunt) has to call in a favor to an old friend, Lt. Col. Sarah “Mac” MacKenzie (Bell), to help get access to an elusive Russian diplomat.