Gary Cole was just as stunned as fans by the NCIS season 22 finale that concluded with a shocking death that hits close to home — warning that “revenge” is coming.
Warning: Spoilers below from NCIS season 22, episode 20.
“It’s a horrific [moment],” Cole, 68, exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, May 5. “Discovering somebody that’s dead who you love is one thing. Discovering someone who you love that is dead and has been murdered is quite another thing.”
During the CBS finale, Special Agent Alden Parker (Cole) and his team at NCIS discovered that Carla Marino (Rebecca De Mornay) was the true leader of the Nexus cartel. After she played them by pretending to be an informant for NCIS and the Department of Defense, she revealed herself as “The Butcher.”
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Carla and one of her goons later kidnaps Parker, because she blames him for her son dying in a motorcycle accident while trying to escape her and the cartel. Instead of killing Parker, Carla threatens to ruin his life with an ominous warning.
At the end of the episode, Parker comes home to find his father, Roman (Francis X. McCarthy), murdered in his house. There are two wine glasses next him hinting that he knew his killer.
Cole pointed out to Us on Monday that this murder is “an act of violation” that leads Parker to deal with “rage and vengefulness and guilt and shame.” Had Roman died of natural causes, Parker would “simply [be] grieving.”
“There’s a consequence to writing that, which is, it can’t be ignored in any casual way,” Cole teased, noting that the showrunners will “have to address it” during season 23, which was renewed earlier this year.
He explained, “It doesn’t have to be in the forefront. Obviously, it’s not gonna be [talked about] every time we do an episode, but it has to color what Parker [does], the way he behaves and what he thinks about.”
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Cole added that the way in which Roman died will haunt Parker and members of his team moving forward. (He was killed inside Parker’s home days after Carla invited herself in for dinner with both of the men.)
“This isn’t just another murdered victim that this team runs across. This is one of our own,” Cole said. “It becomes that to some other team members.”
He told Us that Special Agent Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) becomes personally invested in all his teammates and their families, so Cole expects Torres to feel Roman’s death even deeper.
“He would understand that more than maybe anybody else,” Cole said of Torres. “I would assume that’s where they’re headed, [revenge]. The way the last moment was written was that [Parker] goes from this shock and grief to immediately vengeful.”
The actor warned, “Somebody’s gonna pay for this,” but only time will tell if Parker and his team make the “right decision” in bringing the culprit to justice.
While many fans thought it was clear that Carla is the murderer — there was a lipstick mark on a second wine glass at the scene — Cole played coy about the whodunit portion of the story line.
“You can add two plus two plus two equals six, but the one thing you don’t know is whose lipstick is that? Really? We don’t know,” Cole confessed. “Carla didn’t leave a note saying, ‘Hello, I did this.’”
He revealed that the lipstick could be a red heron, or a “decoy” meant to lead Parker to Carla.
“That’s what our writer’s room does, they throw stuff out there and sometimes it pays off the way you think it would. And sometimes it’s a left turn,” Cole added.
In addition to Parker finding his father murdered, the finale shed a little light into another one of his relatives: his late mother. Throughout the season, Parker learned that his mom died in a car accident when he was just a child.
A girl named Lily was a witness and later came to him in a series of dreams and hauntings, which has yet to be fully resolved. During Monday’s finale, Parker’s father hinted that he might not have told his son the full truth about his mom’s death but died before he could reveal more.
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Dr. Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen), meanwhile, spent the finale searching for the real burial site of Parker’s mom — at his request. When he received the death certificate, Jimmy was visibly concerned with the report.
“Something doesn’t add up,” Jimmy told Special Agent Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) during the episode, but had yet to share his finding with Parker before the credits rolled.
“It’s mysterious to him just from the get go. The circumstances of her death,” Cole told Us of Parker’s mom’s story. “It’s a hole in his past that doesn’t seem to be filled with anything specific.”
Cole confessed that he has “no idea” when Parker will learn the truth that Jimmy recently discovered about his mom’s death certificate. He hinted that neither his mom’s death nor the mystery of who Lily (the witness) was, or where she is now, is anywhere near over.
“I know when you get pieces of information like that about this death certificate and the way it was structured — and that Parker doesn’t even find out about it [yet] we don’t know when he’s going to find out about it later — I know that’s something that they’re gonna deal with [eventually],” Cole shared.
He added that the writers will “pay up” and give fans answers but “they’re not gonna let it [details] emerge until they have to.”
Fans can catch up on NCIS on Paramount+.
