Indeed, Nancy Travis will be reprising her role as Navy Vice Admiral Harriet Parker, the distant sister of Gary Cole’s Alden Parker. You can catch her in the upcoming episode titled “Deal With the Devil,” airing on May 5, according to Pop Culture‘s Anna Rumer.
“As a secret immunity deal threatens to let a man walk free, Parker fights to keep the case alive,” CBS teased of the upcoming episode. “But when his estranged sister (guest star Nancy Travis) suddenly appears – and buried family wounds resurface — the battle for justice becomes deeply personal.”
Harriet’s previous appearances this season clearly weren’t enough to close the case on the Parker family saga, as Cole said back in November that he was hoping to see more of Travis as the show went on.
“I hope that we see Nancy Travis come back. Obviously, she was wonderful, but I’d like to see that character reappear and to see where that relationship goes from there,” he told TV Insider then. “We see them basically kind of connected through their father, and now that he’s passed, it would be interesting to see them together and dealing with that in each in their own way.”
“But also I think there’s a lot of stuff to be mined there about Parker’s past, which she’s obviously a part of,” he added. “So I hope the writers — hello, writers! — mine that a little bit. It would be good.”
Just a week later, NCIS is set to deliver its Season 23 finale, “Sons and Daughters,” on May 12. According to CBS, the episode’s plot is as intense as a Gibbs stare-down: “One year after a deadly coffee shop bombing, a new explosion proves the attack wasn’t the work of a lone wolf — a case that forces the team to confront legacy and loyalty.”
Brian Dietzen, who plays head M.E. Dr. Jimmy Palmer, teased to TV Insider that the Season 23 finale could bring even more changes to the NCIS world, especially after the shocking death of Rocky Carroll’s Director Leon Vance in the 500th episode.
“This season was a tumultuous one for our show because of the 500th episode, of losing Director Vance,” Dietzen told the outlet. “The finale, I got to say, I’m not going to say it’s the same as the 500, but there’s echoes of it. And people are not going to want to miss the last, what, five minutes of this show because it has the potential to change a lot within our universe yet again.”
NCIS airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. For those who prefer to solve crimes on their own schedule, it streams the next day on Paramount+.