S20.E01: A Family Matter

[Poohpoohpooh]

“A Family Matter” – Special Agent Alden Parker (Gary Cole) is still on the run with his ex-wife Vivian (Teri Polo), so the team investigates who from his past might have a personal vendetta against him in hopes of clearing Parker’s name. Enlisting the help of NCIS: Hawai’i’s Special Agent Jane Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) and Computer Specialist Ernie Malick (Jason Antoon), who are in town meeting with Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) in preparation for a global military exercise, the group tracks down their prime suspect, The Raven, on the CBS Original Series NCIS, Monday, Sept. 19 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.*

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Hope I'm not stepping on toes setting up this episode thread, as this is the best and only forum for detailed discourse.

So happy that Gary Cole & Teri Polo's chemistry shined today (they didn't have much chemistry in the s19 finale imo, but they are both strong actors!)

So we find out the reason that Vivian divorced Parker is because he used to be hot-headed(?) and overprotective of her. But she still cares for him? And now Agent Parker is a much more chilled out boss (mostly). I had the headcanon they lost a young son together. The s19 finale said they had a happy marriage, and the loss of a young child has to be the absolute worst thing to a relationship.

Also retconned that Fornell now knows Parker and Vivian much more closely than Parker & Fornell appeared to know each other in s19.

Generic Mr. Baddie: once again, no continuity. Would have been awesome if the Raven was someone introduced/teased in s19 previously. But cool enough twists about Raven guy's plot and his jail breakout, and the Hawaii episode fleshed out Raven guy's backstory well enough.

[Xeliou66]

I liked this 2 part episode, it was a good conclusion to the storyline of last season. There was good action and intensity in the first half and good continuation of the story into the Hawaii part, I was concerned that it would be awkward making it a crossover given that the whole Raven storyline was all on NCIS last year and I wasn’t sure how they would work Hawaii in but overall it worked decent enough. I do feel like Parker should’ve been more involved in the second half because it was centered around him, and I wish the episode had ended with Parker being informed they arrested the Raven instead of on the 2 characters from Hawaii at their apartment which had nothing to do with the case (don’t know their names as I haven’t watched much of the Hawaii show), that ending felt weird.

I liked how we got more backstory on the villain by the end, and I didn’t see it coming that Maxwell was the big bad guy, I thought he might be playing NCIS but I didn’t think he was the mastermind.

Interesting how Fornell helped assist Parker, they assassinated the character of Fornell a few seasons ago but he’s been better in his last couple of appearances.

I thought Sweeney was going to bite the dust in the shootout.

Overall a solid effort and decent conclusion to the storyline from last season, but it felt like Parker and the main NCIS team should’ve been more involved since that’s who dealt with him since the beginning.

[HurricaneVal]

Yeah....it seems between seasons the showrunners sat down and decided to take the story arc in a different direction.  Probably to play off of Gary Cole's chemistry with the rest of the cast and inhabitation of the Parker character.  I suspect they've been holding their breath last season to see how the absence of Mark Harmon and Gibbs and then the insertion of the new guy were going to be received.

I think there are things they can do now that the character is "settled" that they hadn't thought of before.  Was Parker going to be Gibbs2.0, or was he going to be something different, and would either of those play with the fanbase?  I think now that the fanbase has accepted Parker, they have some flexibility.  And they're flexing.

I do love that Palmer and Agent Knight are still a thing.  I think they're cute together, and Jimmy deserves happiness.

[officetemp]

Why is the Agent Torres character still on this show?  I thought Wilmer Valderrrama was going off to be Zorro?

Still liking Gary Cole a lot and happy to see the better interaction between Parker and Teri Polo's Vivian.  I guess she's now on the "recurring character" roster.  Also like that Knight doesn't take any crap from Torres despite still being no-drama, matter-of-fact, and easy to get along with, while at the same time being a fiercely accomplished agent.

I have to admit that I didn't pay as close attention to this episode and the connecting NCIS Hawai'i continuation episode as I should have, but it seemed to me as if McGee didn't have much screen time last night.  Did notice that Mark Harmon is still executive-producing despite not appearing (finally!) in the cast credits in the beginning.

When the agents went to see Maxwell in prison, I told my husband that the character was either going to end up with a bullet through his forehead while they were transferring him, or that he, in fact, was the big bad mastermind of the whole "Raven" thing.

[Grizzly]

Part of me didn't want to watch but I needed to know how it ended with Parker and his wife. I didn't understand Vivian not telling Parker about her getting Fornell to help. The darn episode drew me in, and by the second half, I had a knot of anxiety in my stomach. 

Thinking about the bad guy, his history, and his motivation, reminded me of the Port-to-Port killer. Hard to be original after 20 years.

[StarBrand]

I'm just glad the Raven thing is over with.  Killers and psychopaths quoting Edgar Allen Poe is VERY cliched at this point.  I wasn't on board with that whole arc anyway.

I have to mention I quite like long term story arcs in general-but on other shows.  I think this show would be best off not doing them, at least in terms of seasonal Big Bads.  EVERYONE thinks they have to do that these days to keep a show interesting.  Not so.

[StarBrand]

On 9/20/2022 at 9:50 PM, Grizzly said:

Part of me didn't want to watch but I needed to know how it ended with Parker and his wife. I didn't understand Vivian not telling Parker about her getting Fornell to help. The darn episode drew me in, and by the second half, I had a knot of anxiety in my stomach. 

Thinking about the bad guy, his history, and his motivation, reminded me of the Port-to-Port killer. Hard to be original after 20 years.

Which is part of why I posted that this show should stop attempting to have a season-long big bad arc. Focus on the cases of the week, and they'll do OK>

[StarBrand]

I had been curious about how NCIS would work without Mark Harmon.  And as it turned out, IMO, it's worked just fine.  In fact, the complete absence of Gibbs and his assorted issues, helps things out a lot.  In short, I got tired of Gibbs' bullshit, especially the season and a half before he left.  I actually was glad to see his name absent from the credits-they kept him there despire being gone for all but a handful of episodes last season, so to NOT see his name means it's official now.

It helps also they made Cole a guy I like.  They haven't given him much baggage at all.  The writers probably had to decide whether to go with someone even crustier than Gibbs, or someone somewhat more personable, and they chose the later. Good idea.

I liked the ending scene where Cole, after softly saying "promise me one thing", went straight to anger and vengence with "get that son of a bitch!".  Some might think of it as cheesy, which it probably was, but I liked the actor's delivery of it.

I've also liked the fact that the show allows the so-called"geeks" of the show have some romantic success, with beautiful, smart-and tough-women. In Jimmy's case, he's been put through a lot, and it's nice to see him with Agent Knight.  I really hope they don't try and do someting bad with them.  Also, nice to see them together relatively quickly, as opposed to dragging it out over several seasons (see Tony and Ziva, Bishop and Torres)

Edited September 22, 2022 by StarBrand

[StarBrand]

Quote

I think there are things they can do now that the character is "settled" that they hadn't thought of before.  Was Parker going to be Gibbs2.0, or was he going to be something different, and would either of those play with the fanbase?  I think now that the fanbase has accepted Parker, they have some flexibility.  And they're flexing.

That's exactly what I think.  As I pointed out before, from the start they've made Cole a likeable kinda guy.  There's a small percentage of viewers that jumped ship after Gibb's left, but of those still watching, I haven't heard any complaints about Cole.  If they had made him Gibbs 2.0, that would have been a huge mistake.  Gibbs had become almost this supreme God that no one was allowed to question, and always inspired extreme loyalty where, more than a few times, I didn't feel he deserved.

Edited September 22, 2022 by StarBrand