Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS episode “Moonlit” are forward!
We’re developing on one yr because the NCIS Season 21 finale aired and arrange an intriguing thriller for Gary Cole’s Alden Parker regarding slightly woman he didn’t acknowledge named Lily. Since his harrowing expertise in “Reef Insanity,” Parker has been seen visions of Lily whereas out dwelling his life, and it bought to the purpose the place he sought out Dr. Grace Confalone to assist him take care of this weird incidence. Now “Moonlit,” the most recent NCIS episode to air on the 2025 TV schedule, has delivered a significant reveal concerning the origins of the Lily thriller. The unlucky tradeoff, nonetheless, is that it got here with some tragic backstory regarding Parker that shocked me.
The primary story in tonight’s NCIS episode noticed the staff working as soon as once more with Particular Agent Dale Sawyer, Nick Torres’ “nemesis” who beforehand appeared in Season 18’s “Intestine Punch,” Season 19’s “Battle or Flight” and Season 20’s “Large Rig.” However within the midst of this case involving Sawyer’s privates safety facet gig, an endangered frog species and a messy divorce that led to one half of the couple being murdered (stream “Moonlit” with a Paramount+ subscription for the total context), Parker was nonetheless scuffling with Lily’s lingering presence. He even went to Jimmy Palmer in the beginning of the episode to have him sketch how the woman regarded.
Final December, NCIS showrunner Steve D. Binder knowledgeable CinemaBlend that the Lily thriller would result in Parker having “an earth-shifting understanding of his household historical past.” “Moonlit” lastly delivered on that entrance after Parker confirmed his father, Roman, Jimmy’s sketch over a video name. Whereas Roman didn’t acknowledge Lily, he was unwilling to debate Parker’s mom when pressed by his son, as she’s at all times been a sore topic between them. Nevertheless, quickly after, he left his Las Vegas getaway, took a red-eye again to Washington D.C., and went to see Parker to inform him the reality about how his mom died.
Moderately than dying of a stroke a number of years after she left her husband and son like Parker had thought for many years, Parker’s mom was as an alternative killed immediately in a drunk driving incident. In line with Roman, at some point she got here house inebriated and with the younger Parker in tow, saying that the 2 of them have been visiting “associates,” although Roman had no thought who she was speaking about and Parker doesn’t keep in mind that day in any respect. His mom and father bought into an argument, she drove off in a rage, and Roman yelled out that if she left, she ought to by no means come again. An hour later, the sheriff took Roman over a number of cities over to point out her automotive wrapped round a tree.
Alden Parker studying the reality about his mom’s demise would have made this NCIS episode a large enough deal by itself, however “Moonlit” had one final twist to ship. Late at evening, Gary Cole’s character discovered a newspaper clipping on-line of a narrative protecting the crash his mom died in. Upon nearer inspection, he realized that slightly woman photographed close to the scene regarded precisely like Lily. Which means, whoever Lily is, she’s by some means related to his mom.
How is that this potential? We could not essentially get that reply subsequent week, however I’ve to suppose that this thriller will lastly be solved by the point NCIS Season 22 is over, particularly since there’s nonetheless the “flight plan” for the Kansas Metropolis mob to delve into. For now, I’m guessing Lily was a part of this group of associates that Parker and his mom have been visiting, however that simply results in extra questions. Who have been these those who his mom was retaining secret from his father? Why didn’t they make themselves identified to Roman after she died? And maybe most significantly, is Lily nonetheless alive? If she is, can she shed any mild on what occurred all these years in the past?
Contemplating that Steven D. Binder additionally informed me that these revelations about Alden Parker’s previous would have “current day implications” too, I believe there’s a definite likelihood we’ll see him meet/reunite with Lily within the current day. Nevertheless this all seems, a minimum of Parker lastly is aware of what actually occurred to his mom, as troublesome because it was to listen to.