NCIS’s Season 23 Christmas episode and fall finale provided some closure for Parker while McGee and Torres tracked down stolen toys. Meanwhile, Agent Knight’s training with NCIS: Elite pays off when she gets her first assignment, with a surprise appearance at the end from someone familiar with the team.
When Jimmy obtained the remains of Parker’s mother, he confirmed that she had died from blows to the head, inconsistent with a car accident. However, Kasie surprised both him and Parker with the news that this was not actually Eleanor Parker’s body. Now they need to find out what happened to her.
The only lead they can track down is the former officer who appeared in the photo of the wreckage. He lives in a van he uses to travel the country, and they see an old photograph of him with his wife, Donna, who recently passed away. Lester Burm claims his memory isn’t the best, but he asks the agents to let him know what happened to Eleanor when they find out.
Jimmy and Kasie use facial recognition to try and figure out who the woman is in Eleanor’s coffin. When Knight sees her face, she tells them to try green eyes, since that is the color Lester mentioned when talking about his wife.
However, when they find a recent photo of Donna and Lester, they see she has brown eyes, and Lester never mentioned being previously married. Knight had also requested a records search to find Lester’s photograph he had displayed. Instead of just himself and they woman, the archive shows the whole photo where Lily is standing next to him.
Parker learns the truth about his mom's fate on NCIS
When they asked Lester, he claimed his wife, Judy, had left him. He had spent all of this time trying to find his daughter, who had changed her name. He wanted the agents to let him in on the search, although if anyone had figured it out by now, this was not a good idea.
In addition to the facts of the case, Kasie also discovered that whoever left the lipstick mark on the glass at Roman’s house the night he died was related to the woman in the casket. They were able to track down her DNA through a genealogy website, and she was a teacher who used the last name Johnson. This was significant to Parker since it was his mom’s maiden name.
When Parker and Knight found her, it turned out to be Lily, and she was now a grandmother to a little girl named Eleanor, who looked just like her as a child. Lily and Parker had actually known each other for a few months. Her mother, Judy, was getting piano lessons from Eleanor and Lily had told Parker her dad was hurting her mom.
Judy actually told Eleanor, who worked with a relative to try and help Judy escape. However, Lester found them. He caused the car crash that actually killed Judy. Eleanor escaped and while Lester was making the accident look like Eleanor’s fault, she was actually attempting to get Lily away.
Unfortunately, Lester found Eleanor while Lily hid in a closet and eventually killed her as well. Parker learned for the first time that his mom never left him, and she had been trying to come back to him and his sister. Roman had actually reached out to Eleanor’s relative to ask if she remembered a girl named Lily.
Lily had found out about this call and went to see him, not knowing that later on, he was killed before he could tell Parker the story. Parker then made sure Lester couldn’t hide behind his memory issues and discovered what Lester did to his mom’s body.
Eleanor was reburied properly in a small ceremony, and Parker told Knight he planned on visiting his sister, something the two of them would need now that they knew what really happened to their mom.
A familiar face is coming back to NCIS
It was then that Knight got a surprising phone call. Vance told her she had her first assignment, which was to track down a wanted fugitive. This person, as it turned out, was former NCIS Agent Eleanor Bishop. Vance told her not to tell the team as Knight looked back at Torres, who had history with his former colleague. Unbeknownst to the team, Bishop was nearby watching them.
This was a really touching episode, allowing Parker to get closure not only for his mom’s story, but also to learn what happened the night his dad died. Now he can properly mourn his parents and this might help his relationship with his sister as they grapple with the truth of what happened in the past.
The episode also had a lighthearted storyline for Torres and McGee, who worked to find a stolen military truck carrying toys for kids of fallen soldiers. They got help from an informant, who asked for a rare toy for his niece in exchange for any information. Sammy found out that there was a group looking to steal military equipment, but they would go after him if he talked.
Sammy ended up getting beaten and the toys were missing from the truck. The group ran off when he mentioned NCIS, but then apparently, the season got to the thieves and they returned the toys. They left a note saying they did not want trouble with NCIS and they apologized to Sammy.
In the end, Sammy ended up giving the toy for his niece to a little boy at the event, while Torres played Santa and McGee passed out toys.
There was a lot happening in this episode, and now with one story over, it’s time to find out just what Eleanor Bishop has been up to. Unfortunately, we do have to wait until February to find out just what happened and if Knight will keep the secret of what her target is for Elite.
NCIS returns with new episodes on CBS on Tuesday, February 24, 2026. You can catch up on Season 23 on Paramount+.