NCIS Season 23 Officially Ends an Era 20 Years After Ziva’s Debut

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The 23rd season of NCIS kicked off with a special two-part premiere featuring emotional stories, but it also signaled a turning point for the show, especially with Ziva David’s (Cote de Pablo) return. NCIS, which first aired in 2003 and was originally led by Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, has been a television staple for over twenty years. Though iconic characters like Gibbs and Ziva have moved on, familiar faces like Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) and Dr. Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) are still around. The season premiere also brought back a popular element from the show’s most successful years.

Over its many seasons, NCIS has had a lot of cast changes. One of the biggest happened in Season 19 when Mark Harmon’s character, Gibbs, retired and moved to Alaska. Gary Cole joined the show as Agent Alden Parker, an FBI agent initially sent to investigate Gibbs, but he ultimately allowed Gibbs to go free, defying his orders. Parker quickly became a strong addition to the team, and the premiere of Season 23 has further solidified his role as a fantastic character.

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

The two-part premiere of NCIS Season 23 was some of the show’s strongest storytelling in recent years. The episodes continued the dramatic storyline from last season, where agent Alden Parker’s enemy, Carla Marino, kidnapped him, took his gun, and tragically killed his father, Roman Parker. Even though Roman hadn’t been part of the show for very long, his death had a significant emotional impact.

The season 23 premiere of NCIS finds Parker determined to track down Carla Marino, the person who murdered his father. Despite being exhausted from lack of sleep, Parker is focused and works outside official channels to find her. After being sidelined by Director Vance, Parker and his team discover Carla is on a ship called the Quentin, leading to a tense and uncertain situation. The episode ends with Alden on Carla’s boat and his life at the mercy of his sister, Admiral Harriett.

When Vance told the Navy where Carla was hiding, they took charge of the operation instead of NCIS. Harriet received the order to destroy her ship. But in Season 23, Episode 2, the Quentin blew up before the strike team could even fire! It looked like Parker went down with the ship, but it was all a trick. Turns out, Parker was alive and had actually found the explosives on board. The whole thing was a distraction so Carla could fake her death and escape to Cuba to seek asylum. It was a crazy turn of events, but Parker figured it out!

The premiere episodes are full of exciting action, but it’s the story’s emotional depth that truly stands out. The relationship between Alden and his sister, Harriet, is central to the show. We learn through flashbacks that their adult conflict comes from their different personalities – Harriet always following the rules, and Alden constantly breaking them – and how this affected their father. Ultimately, Harriet sets aside her strict principles to allow Alden to go and rescue Carla’s granddaughter.

The most powerful scene comes when the Parker siblings finally get to say goodbye to their father, giving him a respectful send-off at sea. Struggling with his grief, Parker begins to sing his father’s favorite song, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver, and his sister and the crew join in. This moment, rooted in Parker’s personal history, adds depth and emotional resonance to the show, moving away from the overly comedic and predictable storylines that have plagued recent seasons.

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

The way NCIS Season 23 began really grabbed viewers’ attention. The premiere was split into two parts, leaving audiences on a cliffhanger with high stakes for Alden Parker and his team. Fans had a week to speculate about how Parker would escape the Quentin, and the resolution in the second part delivered. While NCIS sometimes uses two-part episodes to end a season, it hadn’t started a new season with one since Season 3 – when the show famously introduced the popular character Ziva David.

The first two episodes of NCIS Season 3, titled “Kill Ari,” are considered some of the show’s strongest. Following Kate’s death at the hands of Ari Haswari (Rudolph Martin), the series underwent a major change. These episodes introduced Ziva, a Mossad agent and Ari’s half-sister, who joined Gibbs’ team to track him down. While initially believing Ari was justified in his actions, Ziva ultimately betrayed him when she discovered he was a double agent.

Ziva’s dramatic killing of Ari was a powerful moment, done to safeguard Gibbs and his team. Following this, David joined Gibbs’ NCIS team as a Mossad liaison, cleverly filling the void left by Kate Todd. This transition worked well because Ziva’s arrival was compelling and respectfully acknowledged Kate’s death, using an exciting storyline to help viewers accept the new character. In a similar way, Parker’s storyline in the Season 23 premiere of NCIS expands his importance within the show’s overall story.

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

NCIS has only launched two seasons with two-part premieres, and both times, these premieres were crucial for breathing new life into the show. When Ziva was first introduced, the extended introduction helped viewers connect with her before she officially joined the team, which was smart early in the series. More recently, the start of Season 23 aimed to refresh the show, shifting the focus to Alden Parker and giving the storylines new direction. Although NCIS has remained afloat, its viewership has declined in recent seasons, especially compared to other CBS crime dramas like Tracker.

The two-part season openers are consistently among the strongest storytelling moments in the NCIS franchise. Coming into the latest season, the show had several compelling storylines prepared for Parker, stemming from a significant event in his past shown at the end of Season 21. The beginning of Season 23 clearly shows these storylines developing, and hopefully, they will be as emotionally satisfying as the premiere. These episodes aim to launch a fresh direction for NCIS following Mark Harmon’s departure, and effectively fill the void left by Gibbs.

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2025-10-23 19:49