NCIS Fans Can’t Help But Hate E.J. Barrett’s Character – Looper

Redditor u/whispering_unicorn posed and answered the question, “Who’s your least favorite side character,” asking about the non-antagonist character fans are supposed to like but aren’t really a fan of. Though a few were mentioned, like Jeanne Benoit (Scottie Thompson), M. Allison Hart (Rena Sofer), Agent Michelle Lee (Liza Lapira), and “the psychologist woman” Dr. Ryan (Jamie Lee Curtis) — hmm, “interesting” that they’re all women — the name mentioned most was E.J. Barrett.

“I tried really hard to come up with another – but – yeah. Nope. She was the worst,” u/KeepLkngForIntllgnce agreed about E.J. “I don’t know if it was the writing or the actress – but the only word that comes to mind is whiny. She just whines.” u/Didilucy also agreed, saying “Barrett-Awful-Awful-Awful!” u/tellmemorenow was concerned that Barrett replaced Ziva David after Cote de Pablo left the show in 2013, because “I hated Bar[r]ett from the first episode she was in and had to google how long she stuck around. … Thankfully not because I probably would have stopped watching.” 

Yet another Redditor also agreed that Barrett was unpleasant, but gave a more specific reason for their dislike. “She got her team killed because of her arrogance.” They also hated Barrett’s relationship with Tony. “We were shown zero personality traits to win us over, so it was literally him sleeping with her ‘because hot’.”

Sarah Jane Morris seemed to address this animosity in an early interview with TVLine. Referring mostly to Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs character and his distrust of E.J., Morris said, “I still don’t really get why no one trusts E.J.” These fans seem to agree with Gibbs.