NCIS Season 23 Officially Closes a 20-Year Chapter That Began With Ziva’s Debut

NCIS Season 23 delivered an extended two-part premiere with heartfelt storytelling, and it marks the end of an era after Ziva David’s (Cote de Pablo) debut. The Navy-themed franchise has been around for over two decades, premiering in 2003 with Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs character leading the series. While characters like Gibbs and Ziva are long gone in NCIS Season 23, others, like Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) and Dr. Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen), remain, and the series revisits a key trend from the golden era of NCIS in the opening of Season 23.

Featuring a rich ensemble cast, NCIS has seen many shake-ups over the years. The most significant change to the procedural was in NCIS Season 19 when Leroy Jethro Gibbs exited the series, electing to retire in Alaska. Gary Cole’s Agent Alden Parker, an FBI agent tasked with hunting the NCIS leader, who ultimately went against FBI orders to let Gibbs walk free, took Harmon’s place. Parker has been an excellent replacement for Gibbs, but the season premiere of NCIS Season 23 just made Cole’s character even better.

NCIS Season 23’s Two-Part Premiere Is Its Best Storytelling In Years

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Fortunately, NCIS Season 23’s two-part premiere delivered some of the flagship’s best storytelling in years. The opening episodes build on Alden Parker’s developments from NCIS Season 22, which saw his longtime foe, Carla Marino (Rebecca De Mornay), kidnap the agent, steal his gun, and then murder his father, Roman Parker (Francis X. McCarthy), with his own SIG Sauer. It was a tragic story for Parker, and a robust narrative. Even though Roman was a relatively new character for the franchise, his death carried emotional weight.

In NCIS Season 23’s opener, Parker is hellbent on finding Carla Marino. Though he hasn’t slept in days, Parker is sharp, going off the books to hunt for his father’s murderer. Working under the radar after Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) benches them, Parker and the team trace Carla to a ship called the Quentin, creating a high-stakes cliffhanger. At the conclusion of the first half of NCIS Season 23’s premiere, Alden is aboard Carla’s boat, and his sister, Harriett (Nancy Travis), a three-star admiral, holds his life in her hands.

After Vance informed the Navy about Carla’s location, they took over the mission from NCIS, and Harriett was given orders to destroy the ship. However, in NCIS Season 23, Episode 2, the Quentin explodes before the strike team can fire. While it looks like Parker has gone down with Carla’s ship, the whole thing ends up being a setup. Ultimately, Parker is alive, having found the explosives on board Carla’s ship, discovering that the entire thing was a decoy so that Carla could fake her own death and gain asylum in Cuba.

While the action in the two-part premiere doesn’t disappoint, it’s the story’s emotional core that makes the narrative so profound. Alden’s relationship with his sister is at the center of “Prodigal Son,” with the first episode using flashbacks to establish their contentious relationship as adults, stemming from Harriet’s allegiance to rules, Alden’s tendency to break them, and the impact on their father. In the end, though, Harriet puts down her moral code, letting her brother go so that Alden can save Carla’s granddaughter.

The most effective moment, though, is when the case is closed and the Parker siblings can finally say goodbye to their father, sending Roman off at sea with honors. Grappling with how to say goodbye to his father, Parker starts a rendition of Parker Sr.’s favorite song, John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads, and his sister joins in with the rest of the crew. Drawing on Parker’s history, the story enriches the show with more character-driven narratives while pivoting away from the overly silly or cheesy storylines that recent seasons have suffered from.

The Last Time NCIS Did A Two-Part Premiere Was In NCIS Season 3

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The timeline for NCIS Season 23’s premiere added to its desirability, with its two-part storyline creating a compelling cliffhanger that upped the stakes for Alden Parker and his team. Audiences had a week to consider how Parker would manage to get off the Quentin, and the reveal the following week didn’t disappoint. NCIS has its fair share of two-part episodes, but they are often used to close out the season. The show hasn’t done a two-part story to kick off a new chapter since NCIS Season 3, when the flagship memorably added fan-favorite character Ziva David.

In NCIS Season 3, Episodes 1 and 2, “Kill Ari,” the franchise also delivered some of its best storytelling. After Sasha Alexander exited NCIS after Season 2, the flagship had to reshuffle its ensemble, resulting in a significant shake-up early in the series. After Ari Haswari (Rudolph Martin) shot and killed Kate, the following chapter introduced her replacement, a Mossad agent and Ari’s half-sister who liaised with Gibbs’ team to find her brother. Convinced that he was acting morally, Ziva initially planned to help her brother, but turned on him at the last moment when she realized he was a double agent.

Ziva memorably killed Ari to protect Gibbs and his team, and the moment had a compelling emotional center. David was then added to Gibbs’ NCIS team as a liaison agent for Mossad, subtly introducing a replacement for Kate Todd. The adjustment worked because Ziva’s introduction was engaging and tastefully tied to Kate’s death, striking the right tone through an exciting narrative that made it easier for audiences to accept a substitution. Similarly, Parker’s story in NCIS Season 23’s premiere enhances his role in the overarching NCIS narrative, making him an even better replacement for Gibbs.

NCIS Can Dawn A New Era With Its Focus On Alden Parker

NCIS only has two double-episode premieres, and in both cases, they mark a necessary revitalization of the series. Ziva’s extensive introduction allowed her to connect with the audience before she joined the team, bridging the gap to a new character early in the show’s run. Similarly, NCIS Season 23’s opener reset expectations for the series, with the focus on Alden Parker giving the story fresh stakes. While the series has kept its head above water, NCIS ratings have been dropping over the last couple of seasons, losing ground to other CBS procedurals like Justin Hartley’s Tracker

In each case, the two-part opener is some of the franchise’s best storytelling. Heading into the latest installment, NCIS had a lot of Parker-focused stories to explore that were ready to take off, promoted by his life-changing moment on a Navy ship at the end of NCIS Season 21. It’s clear in the opening of NCIS Season 23 that many of the seeds planted for Parker’s story are coming to fruition. Hopefully, they deliver the same emotional payoff as the premiere, launching a new era of NCIS after Harmon’s exit, one that adequately replaces Gibbs.