NCIS season 23 returned with the second part of the premiere after the ship carrying Carla Marino and Agent Alden Parker exploded. At first it appeared his sister, Vice Admiral Harriet Parker, had to make the tough decision to fire on the ship to stop Carla. However, not everything was what it seemed.
After the ship self-imploded, the team thought that Parker had been killed on the boat, but Kasie found a clue that could lead to another theory. She knew there should be an inflatable boat on board used for evacuation. But there were no remains of a boat found, so she put out a BOLO for a boat that would have been used in case of emergency.
Sure enough, she found footage of a boat that was discovered and a rule was written on the boat, specifically Gibbs’s rule 52: Sometimes, you’re wrong. The team realized this meant Parker had survived and he wanted it kept quiet.
How were the team able to stop Carla in NCIS season 23 episode 2?
McGee made work of going to Gibbs’s cabin, knowing Parker would make his way there. He confronted him about what happened, learning that Parker had discovered explosives on the ship. Parker elected to fake his death so he could find Carla without interference from work.
In the meantime as Jimmy had a hard time lying to the Vice Admiral about her brother being alive, Kasie was trying to identify the femur to make sure it wasn’t Carla. However, she didn’t have any DNA from Carla and had been unable to get in touch with her granddaughter, Lauren, for a sample.
Eventually they realize with the FBI pulling protection detail on Lauren now that Carla was “dead,” Carla was likely using this opportunity to take Lauren and disappear. It turns out that Carla had been in contact with her granddaughter, slowly luring her in to gain her trust.
With new surveillance footage to aid the investigation, they were able to find out that Carla had gotten onto a private jet to leave the country. At the same time, Harriet had put Alden in jail to keep him out of trouble, leaving him to stew in everything that had occurred.
In the meantime, just as Harriet got to talking with the Department of Defense about going after Carla, she learns Carla had been granted asylum in Cuba in exchange for information on the entire Nexus network. This means they can’t touch Carla despite the fact that she has Lauren and had killed Harriet and Alden’s father.
Agent Knight has a talk with Harriet and convinces her to let Alden out of his cell so they can bring Lauren home. The team goes to Cuba in an effort to get Lauren, making sure to distract the guards so Parker could go into the house she is in.
Parker tells a story about her locket before she lets Lauren go. Realizing Parker played her, she goes to confront him, but the team is there with their guns drawn. After killing her, the team prepares for Roman Parker’s funeral.
He is set to be launched at sea, with the team joining Harriet and Parker as they sang a song to send him off. It was a touching moment at the end of an arduous two-parter.
Now we will have to wait to see the consequences that befell Parker after all that has gone on. Plus, Director Leon Vance held Torres back at one point to talk to him. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we find out what their conversation entailed.
With two episodes under the belt for NCIS season 23, we’re looking forward to seeing what else happens.
NCIS airs Tuesdays on CBS at 8/7c. Episodes are available the next day on Paramount+.