S19.E22: Birds of a Feather

[thewhiteowl]

When Agent Parker is framed for murder, the team puts their jobs and lives on the line to buy time and uncover the truth.

[Grizzly]

I have so many questions. Guess that makes this a successful finale. Really hope his ex-wife isn't going to be a bad guy.

[Poohpoohpooh]

My head is spinning. Parker and ex-wife had almost no chemistry (granted they didn't have much time to focus on that), despite Gary Cold and Teri Polo being strong actors who can fake anything. Ex-wife clearly isn't all good, she has something bad-dish up her sleeve.

Not looking forward to the s20 opening episode(s). We wait on edge for the next 4 months, then Parker will be alone in a motel/hotel somewhere (with his crafty ex-wife) being led into danger, while the team cluelessly try to help him from the ncis office. Huh?!?

[South]

I had a little laugh at the matching hairlines of Parker and his Dad.

[HurricaneVal]

I had to work, so won't be able to watch until tomorrow, but......no Gibbs?  I thought the word was that Mark Harmon would make another appearance as Gibbs near the end of the season.  Did I blink and I missed it?

[preeya]

IMHO, this was the worst episode in the new Parker era.

Very underwhelming and forced.

I saw the plot reveal long before the fake trip in his or was it her Mercedes.  I'm puzzled as to, WHY?

Edited May 24, 2022 by preeya

[MDL]

Near the end of the ep, as Parker and his ex were in the car, she leaned over into the back seat  to "look for a cassette" in her bag, but secretly texted with someone. I couldn't read the messages (maybe that was intentional). Could anybody read them, if so what did they say?

Thanks in advance.

[Trey]

6 minutes ago, MDL said:

Near the end of the ep, as Parker and his ex were in the car, she leaned over into the back seat  to "look for a cassette" in her bag, but secretly texted with someone. I couldn't read the messages (maybe that was intentional). Could anybody read them, if so what did they say?

I don't remember the words exactly, but basically she was telling whomever it was that she had him.  I was very disappointed that it implied she is a bad person, but things may change again as they do on NCIS.

6 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

I had to work, so won't be able to watch until tomorrow, but......no Gibbs?  I thought the word was that Mark Harmon would make another appearance as Gibbs near the end of the season.  Did I blink and I missed it?

No, you didn't miss it.  It didn't happen. I thought for sure he would be in this episode but apparently not and I am disappointed.

[12catcrazy]

The texts received by Parker's ex-wife and ex-partner, and their replies were identical which leads us to believe that they are/were working with the same person (The Raven?).   Now we will see if Parker's ex-wife is really a bad guy or if she is a good guy pretending to be a bad guy and who needs Parker's help in taking the real bad guy down.   

Gazing into my crystal ball, I think that Raven has a mole in the FBI and that Parker's ex is aware of it.  She might be worried that there is also a mole in NCIS.   So she has gone undercover as somebody in co-hoots with the Raven and pretends to kidnap Parker.    

I'd love to see her REALLY being a bad guy but something tells me that isn't going to be the truth.  Why did they now have to drag all this personal Parker crap into this?   I don't care if he has a crusty father who plays board games with him; I don't want to know his ex-wife (who he clearly still has feelings for), and God only knows what the backstory of "something even a happy marriage can't recover from", and I don't think that I want to know.   We've got the romance with Knight/Palmer (nice to see Ducky again) - show leave it at that.   Please.  But it appears that the actress playing the ex Mrs. Parker is being added to the cast list, so she is going to be around for a while next season.  

Edited May 24, 2022 by 12catcrazy

[preeya]

2 hours ago, MDL said:

Near the end of the ep, as Parker and his ex were in the car, she leaned over into the back seat  to "look for a cassette" in her bag, but secretly texted with someone. I couldn't read the messages (maybe that was intentional). Could anybody read them, if so what did they say?

Thanks in advance.

Here it is:

[milkyaqua]

2 hours ago, 12catcrazy said:

But it appears that the actress playing the ex Mrs. Parker is being added to the cast list, so she is going to be around for a while next season.  

Her role is supposed to be reoccuring and not a permanent member of the cast.

I got the feeling that as far as her working with the the Raven that she's being put up to it to probably protect someone (whether or not that's Parker or someone else, I'm not sure).  That seemed sort of obvious when she was able to escape like she did.  I do hope they can wrap this up fairly quickly when the next season starts.  Also didn't someone call that the Raven was probably going to come back into play for the season finale?

It was also nice to see Ducky again.

[Daff]

13 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

I had to work, so won't be able to watch until tomorrow, but......no Gibbs?  I thought the word was that Mark Harmon would make another appearance as Gibbs near the end of the season.  Did I blink and I missed it?

Well, they did mention him, and remind us that Parker let him (loose)….in Alaska!

[Daff]

6 hours ago, preeya said:

IMHO, this was the worst episode in the new Parker era.

Very underwhelming and forced.

I saw the plot reveal long before the fake trip in his or was it her Mercedes.  I'm puzzled as to, WHY?

When they were all in the greenhouse and she was describing her “escape”, showing her little blotchy red mark on her wrist, I thought it was bogus. But I was also distracted with pondering: “I thought Teri Polo was taller?” She’s either in with Raven or helping the obsessed FBI guy, and who’s to say they aren’t one and the same?

4 hours ago, preeya said:

Here it is:

Exactly what the “bird photographer” texted…..

[stonehaven]

I liked Mcgee telling Parker about some of the rules...and then adding "We'll send you a list"...

That made me laugh...and I notice that David Mcallum does very little walking and is always standing next to something and holding on for dear life. Good to see him but I get nervous for the actor in that case. Jimmy and Jess' kiss was nice...

Other than that, very underwhelimng...

[twoods]

Wasn’t expecting ex-wife to working for the Raven. Nice twist. And didn’t realize this was the season finale so have to wait 4 months to see how she fits into this mess.

Wow NCIS writers, you are giving us a kiss from team members when one isn’t leaving the other behind? Progress.

[Poohpoohpooh]

In this finale, they finally started to reveal Parker's tragic, sordid (his own word) backstory, which he deserves to have explored just like Gibbs'. I'm sure the writers haven't mapped it all out for s20 yet.

Best theory I heard is that Parker and ex-wife lost a young child together on a boat accident. Which is why Parker canonly has bad memories that make him nauseous aboard ships. So due to the tragedy, they couldn't stand to stay married and divorced but remained close friend. Papa Parker seems to imply that Parker was the one who filed for divorce, but that may not be the truth.

About the case, since the finale ends with the writers wanting us to think Vivian is bad, I suppose the obvious twist would be that she ISN'T bad/ mostly isn't bad. Any theories? So suspenseful!

Edited May 27, 2022 by Poohpoohpooh
Typo on important word

[Daff]

17 hours ago, Poohpoohpooh said:

About the case, since the finale ends with the writers wanting us to think Vivian is bad, I suppose the obvious twist would be that she ISN'T bad/ mostly isn't bad. Any theories? So suspenseful!

Double agent, maybe? I paid no attention to whom her “got him” text was directed, simply because it seemed identical to the birdwatcher’s. Did we all just assume, or was the identifier on the little screen. BTW, while I’m not a tech idiot, I do hate when the writers constantly make us read the character’s texts to follow the story, especially when it gets complicated or motives are murky! Most of the time I have to pause, get up, and go to the screen to read them (it’s wall mounted, not huge, but not tiny, either). 

[laredhead]

Daff, I totally agree with making the viewer read text messages, especially the ones where the type font is small and a pastel color instead of black.  

[Poohpoohpooh]

On 5/28/2022 at 8:47 AM, Daff said:

Double agent, maybe? I paid no attention to whom her “got him” text was directed, simply because it seemed identical to the birdwatcher’s. Did we all just assume, or was the identifier on the little screen. BTW, while I’m not a tech idiot, I do hate when the writers constantly make us read the character’s texts to follow the story, especially when it gets complicated or motives are murky! Most of the time I have to pause, get up, and go to the screen to read them (it’s wall mounted, not huge, but not tiny, either). 

I rewatched the ep to check this. At the start of the ep (birdwatcher/ ex Fbi partner's phone), they only showed the bottom half of the phone. Since top of phone not seen, we can't see the caller ID that he is texting.

End of episode, exwife Vivian's phone when she's texting: It simply says she is texting a "private caller". I should have guessed they wouldn't be so obvious as to label the contact she's texting as Raveny Raven.

Agree with the person upthread who said this finale is the worst of the Parker episodes. They had a good, fun stretch of episodes when Parker just took over the team.

In this finale, so much buildup to find the kidnapped exwife, then ta-dah she appeared at Parker's home. Anticlimactic. No portions of the framing mystery were answered. And why does McGee tell Parker that Parker going on the run is considered "doing his job"? Huh?

[Tony Dickson]

OK, I haven't completely lost my mind, this is Episode 21, not 22.  There is no 22.