At the heart of a long-running police procedural series like NCIS is the importance of family and how it affects us, for better or worse. While the show typically follows a formulaic case-of-the-week narrative structure throughout the season, what keeps audiences coming back is its characters. Even though beloved characters have come and gone, the main cast is always given the space to embody fleshed-out three-dimensional characters. When the lead star of the franchise, Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs departed NCIS in Season 19, fans were worried about the show’s longevity. But the series has gone on for three more seasons and has already been renewed for Season 23. In addition, Harmon made his return for a prequel show, NCIS: Origins, that focuses on Gibbs’ (Austin Stowell) start as a federal agent, which has also been renewed for another season.
With Gibbs no longer featured on NCIS, Gary Cole’s Alden Parker took on the NCIS Supervisory Special Agent title and became a new fan-favorite character in the series. Instead of trying to fill the gap left behind by Gibbs, the NCIS creative team has constantly shown that Alden is his own person. In the Season 21 finale “Reef Madness,” when Alden gets trapped on a Navy ship and loses a large amount of blood, he starts having hallucinations of his mother, Eleanor Parker (Mackenzie Firgens), and a mysterious little girl who he calls Lily (Kensie Mills). Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) asks who Lily is after hearing Alden call her name, but he claims he doesn’t know. Since then, Lily has popped up a couple of times in Season 22, with Episode 15 “Moonlit” pushing a chilling theory forward.
Lily’s Connection to the Parker Family May Not Be What You Think
Considering that Lily appeared in a vision featuring Eleanor, fans believed that Lily might be a long-lost sister of Alden’s. But in an interview with TV Insider, executive producer Steven D. Binder claims, “If it’s a theory, it’s probably wrong. This is not his sister, and I wouldn’t even say her name is Lily necessarily.” In NCIS Season 22, Episode 15, Alden continues the search for answers by having Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) sketch her from Parker’s descriptions. He shows the picture to his dad, Roman Parker (Francis X. McCarthy), but he doesn’t recognize the girl. Even though he’s hesitant to discuss the past, especially surrounding Eleanor, Alden’s relentless questioning causes Roman to reveal the truth behind Eleanor’s death. Roman initially told Alden and his sister their mother died from a stroke a few years after she left them, but the real answer is much more tragic.
Roman reveals that Eleanor would drive drunk, and one of those times included Alden in the car. She claimed he was with friends, even though Alden has no memory of who he could’ve been with. Roman accused Eleanor of cheating and yelled at her to leave and never come home. These were ultimately his last words to her as Eleanor’s car was found a few towns over, wrapped around a tree, where she died instantly. At the end of the episode, Alden is searching for articles that cover the accident. When he finds the right one, he recognizes one of the bystanders in the photo: none other than Lily, who then appears right next to him, looking sad but not saying anything. It’s a spine-tingling moment for NCIS, which very rarely deals with the supernatural.
‘NCIS’ Just Raised More Questions About Who Lily Is
The plot is starting to get creepier surrounding Lily. When Alden calls Dr. Grace Confalone (Laura San Giacomo) in NCIS Season 22, Episode 8 to help him find answers about Lily deep within his memory, she is right in trying to have him focus on Eleanor instead. Now we know Lily has some connection to Alden’s mother, but how deep does it go? Alden claims he’s never seen Lily before, but he’s able to blurt her name out like he knew her.
In Alden’s initial vision back in Season 21, Episode 10 a young version of him was seen playing hide and seek with Lily before his mother appeared and told him that he’s always playing around. Since Eleanor mentioned that Alden was playing with friends before she died, Lily is more than likely that friend. At the end of NCIS Season 22, Episode 8, “Out of Control,” Alden sees Lily writing a note that eerily says, “You can’t tell anyone.” Something traumatic must have happened for Alden to repress all memories of Lily because it seems he doesn’t even know what she could be referring to. Although he now learns the truth about Eleanor’s death, he still has lingering questions: how is Lily connected to his mother, and why is he still having visions of a person he doesn’t know? The suspense is building up for this ongoing mystery, which is what NCIS does best after all these years.
Alden Parker Is More Than Just a Gibbs Replacement
NCIS Season 22 has been giving Alden a lot more storylines, from the introduction of a new villain to a potential love story. The story with Lily is the most intriguing so far, and it shows that he’s more than just a substitute for Harmon’s Gibbs. Although it also took three seasons for Gibbs’ mysterious past to be revealed, the seeds of Alden’s past have been sown throughout his three seasons on the series. In Binder’s same interview with TV Insider referenced above, he notes that this specific story was part of “the original pitch to Gary Cole” when he signed on for NCIS.
Even with 22 seasons of this show, the creative team has continually injected compelling storylines for the main characters. Their stories are even more relatable with the inclusion of their family members. With the huge cast of main characters throughout the series, audiences have seen a good blend of different family dynamics they could relate to. This mystery about Lily and Eleanor has been going on for quite some time and, hopefully, the answers will be worth the wait for Alden’s sake.
