Is Agent McGee’s Mother-In-Law a Murderer or Just an Innocent Bystander on ‘NCIS’?

What role does Agent McGee's mother-in-law play on NCIS? The Season 19 episode, titled "Docked," features the death of a man on a cruise ship. It is Agent McGee's mother-in-law, Judy, who ends up discovering the dead man in the cruise's sauna.

Let's learn a bit more about Agent McGee's mother-in-law, the actress behind her, and the role Judy will play on NCIS.

If you've seen Home Improvement, you'll recognize the actress playing Agent McGee's mother-in-law. Patricia Richardson was nominated for multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Awards for her portrayal of Jill Taylor on Home Improvement. Patricia also had starring roles on The West Wing and Strong Medicine, in addition to multiple movie and theater roles.

The episode teaser for "Docked" features an embarrassed McGee interviewing Judy, who reveals she was intimate with the dead man on the cruise ship before she found him dead in the sauna. Check out the funny clip from the episode below.

Whether Patricia's NCIS role as Agent McGee's mother-in-law will last for more than one episode hasn't yet been confirmed. If the investigation into the cruise man's murder lasts longer than one episode, it's highly likely that Judy will stick around until McGee and the team figure out who the perpetrator is.

It is highly suspicious, but not damning that it was Judy who ended up finding the dead man in the first place. Of course, the fact that Judy reveals that the two were intimate before the man's death lends credence to Judy being a suspect in the murder. Will McGee be able to distance himself from the fact that his mother-in-law is a suspect in an investigation he's working on?

We hope that Judy isn't the murderer, of course, but it would be an interesting conflict for McGee, particularly in the wake of Agent Gibbs' departure in Season 19 Episode 4. It'll be interesting to see how McGee handles this family conundrum in "Docked" without Gibbs' watchful eye guiding him in the right direction.

Perhaps this will be a good episode for Agent McGee to bond more with Gary Cole's character, Agent Parker, the new de-facto NCIS team leader. After all, McGee turned down the opportunity to take on Gibbs' job because he was afraid of losing loved ones. And yet here is his mother-in-law, smack dab in the middle of a murder investigation.

Regardless of whether or not Judy is murder material, or simply an innocent mother-in-law caught in the crossfire, it'll be exciting to see how McGee handles the stress of the situation. Sean and Patricia also appear to have great comedic chemistry based on the episode teaser alone. Hopefully things will end well for McGee and his family members, but that's not always the case on a show like NCIS!

Check out the latest episode of NCIS airing Monday at 9 p.m. EST on CBS.