It’s become common practice on NCIS for storylines that began in one season to be resolved early on in the following season. That will continue in Season 23, as we’re coming to the end of the Carla Marino storyline after the head of the Kansas City Mob killed Alden Parker’s father in the Season 22 finale. That said, NCIS showrunner Steve D. Binder has revealed a key way that Rocky Carroll’s Leon Vance will change when the procedural returns to the 2025 TV schedule that has me concerned about what this means for the upcoming season.
Binder opened up about some of the things planned for NCIS Season 23’s opening episodes, including how Timothy McGee, Nick Torres, Jessica Knight, Kasie Hines and Jimmy Palmer are all “specifically told” to make sure that Parker “doesn’t go anywhere and do anything” when it comes to Carla Marino. While it doesn’t sound like they’ll follow those orders for long, apparently they won’t be able to count on Director Vance for his usual brand of discreet help. Binder shared to TV Insider:
We’ve often played Director Vance telling his team they need to get back in the box, then he goes, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, and leaves the file on his desk while he leaves the office so they can look through something they need to. That’s not the case this time.
The showrunner added that there are “mysterious reasons” why Leon Vance will revert to being “very by the book.” This will result in some kind of conflict between him and Alden Parker that will continue after the Carla Marino storyline finishes. In real life, I would very much expect Vance to be by the book since he’s the head of a law enforcement agency, but this is NCIS we’re talking about. I’ve gotten so used to Vance providing assistance on the down low, like when McGee was trying to uncover the truth behind Gabriel LaRoche.
So why the status quo shift? Steven D. Binder’s comments make it sound like this stems from something beyond Vance’s control. Perhaps his superiors have learned how close he is to the other NCIS agents and have demanded that he keeps things more professional. Or maybe there’s something deeper at work here that, for whatever reason, necessitates that Vance keeps his metaphorical distance from the other characters. Whatever the explanation, apparently it will create a divide between Vance and Parker, which I hope can be fixed sooner rather than later.
That’s just one of the many things that we can expect in NCIS Season 23, which you can read more about in the TV Insider piece. The new season kicks off on Tuesday October 14 on CBS, and new episodes will be available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription following their live airing. The NCIS: Origins Season 2 premiere and the NCIS: Sydney Season 3 premiere will follow afterwards the same night.
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