{"id":4032,"date":"2025-12-19T16:41:52","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T16:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=4032"},"modified":"2025-12-19T16:41:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T16:41:52","slug":"ncis-season-23-fall-finale-is-not-really-a-christmas-episode-with-one-major-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=4032","title":{"rendered":"NCIS season 23 fall finale is not really a Christmas episode, with one major twist"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for\u00a0NCIS<\/em> Season 23, Episode 9.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite its festive backdrop,\u00a0NCIS<\/em>\u00a0Season 23, Episode 9 does not really feel like a Christmas episode. It might have a subplot about stolen toys and there are plenty of decorations, but it\u2019s not until late that the hour has any kind of holiday vibe. Some fans might not mind (especially since the episode finally answers some questions), while others might miss the usual holiday-themed experience.<\/p>\n

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from everyone at NCIS! Wishing you and yours a wonderful day tomorrow filled with family fun, love and special memories! 2012.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The real meat of the story is finally finishing up the mysteries around Parker\u2019s mother\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0the woman who was with his father before Roman\u2019s murder.<\/strong> \u201cHeaven and Nature\u201d spells everything out for fans: Lily was Parker\u2019s childhood friend, whose mother Judy was abused by her husband, Illinois state trooper Lester Burm. Parker\u2019s mother Eleanor tried to help Judy and Lily escape Lester, but Lester ran the ladies\u2019 vehicle off the road. Judy was killed and Eleanor escaped\u2014only to be murdered when Lester tracked her and Lily down in a hotel in Toledo. Parker\u2019s mom didn\u2019t abandon her family; she was saving what was left of another one. A now much-older Lily subsequently visited Roman, who had intended to tell Parker the truth but died first.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a pretty complicated story, but by the end of the hour, viewers have all of their questions answered.\u00a0That ends the plotlines that stretched out over multiple seasons, and gives the show a clean slate\u2014which is good, because writer Scott Williams ends things on another surprise cameo.<\/strong>\u00a0Former series regular Emily Wickersham returns as Ellie Bishop, who is watching Eleanor Parker\u2019s memorial service, while Jessica Knight learns that Bishop is now on NCIS ELITE\u2019s wanted list. Clearly, Bishop is back from the CIA mission that led her to resign in Season 18.<\/p>\n

This will definitely have viewers buzzing over the winter hiatus. Bishop\u2019s exit was one of the more convoluted farewell storylines, and of course her romantic tension with Nick Torres never culminated in anything. So there\u2019s a lot to resolve (too bad Jamie Bamber has moved on to other roles like\u00a0Beyond Paradise<\/em>, or this would also be a clever way to bring his character back). On the other hand, what makes it exciting is also what makes it jarring: it absolutely doesn\u2019t fit with the rest of the episode.<\/p>\n

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Actor Adam Ferrara as Sammy Craig in NCIS season 23 episode 9. (Photo Credit: Courtesy of CBS.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Christmas component, which would be front and center under different circumstances, is a B-story at best. It feels as if the plot exists because there has to be some kind of holiday tie-in. Torres and Timothy McGee investigate the theft of a truck containing all the toys donated to TAPS (it\u2019s nice that CBS has a promo for the charity after the episode ends). This story just gets handwaved at the end, with the never-seen bad guys choosing to return the toys.\u00a0The best part of it is the return of actor and comedian Adam Ferrara as Sammy Craig. He provides spark and personality to a plot that just doesn\u2019t have the screen time to really get off the ground.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s because Williams devoted so much to the Parker plot, and he kind of has to.\u00a0NCIS<\/em>\u00a0has put so much effort into the Parker mysteries that it must deliver a payoff worthy of all that waiting. \u201cHeaven and Nature\u201d isn\u2019t just giving closure to Parker; it\u2019s doing that for viewers as well, save the absence of Nancy Travis as Parker\u2019s sister Harriet. Given the importance of all this, it feels off to just say that she\u2019s \u201con a carrier in Guam.\u201d Perhaps the show didn\u2019t want to take away from the Bishop reveal by making that last scene about the Parker siblings\u2014it\u2019s also noticeable that Eleanor\u2019s memorial service isn\u2019t shown. Mourning her is much shorter than the effort put into\u00a0Roman\u2019s passing. But emotionally, this\u00a0is<\/em> supposed to be Parker\u2019s story. In a perfect world, this episode would have found enough for Harriet to do in order to include her in the proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeaven and Nature,\u201d truthfully, is not a Christmas episode. It\u2019s a regular\u00a0NCIS<\/em>\u00a0episode that happens to have a Christmas subplot, and that creates a certain disjointed feel.<\/strong>\u00a0For example, audiences get just a taste of the final showdown between Parker and Lester (played by\u00a0X-Men<\/em>\u00a0alum Bruce Davison). This is the moment everything has been building toward, with two veteran actors on opposite sides of the table; it could be\u00a0huge<\/em>. But it\u2019s not fully played out, possibly because Williams has to leave screen time for the stolen-toy story. This might have been an even stronger ending if it had been Episode 8, when\u00a0NCIS<\/em>\u00a0could use the whole hour for Parker\u2014and then Episode 9 could be a lighter hour about Christmas thieves and duplicate gifts, serving as a palate cleanser before dropping that Bishop bombshell. \u201cHeaven and Nature\u201d is still satisfying because it answers so much, yet it does leave something under the tree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for\u00a0NCIS Season 23, Episode 9. Despite its festive backdrop,\u00a0NCIS\u00a0Season 23, Episode 9 does not really feel like a Christmas episode. It… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4034,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4032\/revisions\/4034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}