NCIS star Gary Cole promises “revenge” to come in the hit series’ twenty-third season.
Speaking to TVLine, Cole was asked about how his character, NCIS Supervisory Special Agent Alden Parker, can be expected to react to the murder of his father Roman when the series returns for Season 23. “He’s pissed. He’s really pissed,” Cole responded. “I’m not sure how that’s going to play out, but I know it’s going to have something to do with revenge — whether accurate [by targeting crime boss Carla Marino] or misplaced…. [But] it can’t not have any consequences to him mentally.”
Cole went on to discuss the scene in which Parker discovers his father, portrayed by Francis X. McCarthy, shot to death, seemingly by Parker’s arch-nemesis and Kansas City mob boss Carla Marino. Cole described being “intimated” by the scene, explaining that “normally you have a scene where just one thing happens… in the same moment, he comes to a full realization… that he knows who did it, immediately.”
Expect Vengeance in Season 23
Cole made his NCIS debut during the series nineteenth season back in 2021 and quickly became a fan-favorite addition to the cast. Leading up to Parker’s introduction, the character was an agent with the FBI who left his career with the Bureau behind after a tragedy in the field. During a gunfight with a dangerous suspect, Parker fired a round that ended up striking his partner, Michael Patrick Thornton’s Jeremy Brighton, leaving him paralyzed. This drove Parker to leave the FBI and seek out work elsewhere, which eventually led him to the position of leader of the NCIS Major Case Response Team, replacing original series star Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
The shocking turns on NCIS aren’t the only major shakeups that the franchise is facing, with the end of prequel series NCIS: Origins’ first season leaving off on a massive cliffhanger of its own. When NCIS: Origins left off, star Mariel Molino’s Lala was seen unconscious inside a totaled vehicle following a major car crash. Regarding the future of her character, Molino said, “Oh, man… I hope she comes back. I hope that she’s alive. But who knows.” Molino added, “NCIS has taken big swings before with characters and their futures, so it’s tough to say… Turn on those candles and pray, please!”
NCIS is currently available for streaming on Paramount Plus.