NCIS finally gives Parker (Gary Cole) answers about the little girl he’s been seeing since the Season 21 finale, and it involves a heartbreaking revelation about his mother’s death.
Parker has Palmer (Brian Dietzen) do a sketch of Lily. He describes her expression as “bright, innocent, full of hope,” as well as “like an old soul.” Palmer, at first, thinks it’s case-related, but Parker says she’s “just an old friend.” His sketch is great. “You nailed it,” Parker says as he sees her standing behind the ME.
Parker then has a video call with his father, Roman (Francis Xavier McCarthy), who’s on a trip in Vegas with his seniors group. He’s already asked him more than once if he remembered a girl named Lily, but he’s hoping a visual (Palmer’s sketch) will help. It doesn’t ring any bells, Roman says. Parker wonders if someone else might have known her, like… his mother, Roman realizes, asking if it’s just a ploy to get him to talk about her. Parker’s not picky; he’ll take answers on either. After all, both his mother and Lily were in that first dream he had on the ship. Roman doesn’t want to talk about his late wife, but Parker argues that what he wants should take a backseat to what he needs. Roman insists that he blocked out those years, and Parker’s better off not knowing what he does remember. He hangs up.
But then Roman shows up at Parker’s, ready to talk. He didn’t see what good it would do for him and his sister to know the truth about how their mother really died. Roman told them it was a stroke a few years after she ran out on them, but that was just so Parker wouldn’t be as traumatized as he would’ve been over what really happened. His mother came home drunk one day, dragging Parker behind her, and said he’d been visiting friends. Roman thought she’d been having an affair, but he was a lot madder about her driving drunk with their son. Roman says it’s a blessing Parker doesn’t remember any of that. They fought like crazy, it got ugly, and when she drove off, Roman yelled at her to never come back. Those were the last words she heard him say.
An hour or so later, the sheriff came and took him a few towns over to where his wife’s car was wrapped around a tree. The sheriff told Roman she was killed instantly. With them moving so much due to Roman’s Navy transfers, there wasn’t a funeral, and he wanted to protect his kids from the shame of it all.
Later, Parker tells Knight (Katrina Law) that the conversation with his father was like no talk they’d had before and a “be careful what you wish for” kind. And executive producer Steven D. Binder was certainly right when he told TV Insider that Parker has “an interesting sort of messed up history.”
The episode ends with Parker at home looking up articles online to find the one about his mother’s death, the sketch of Lily hanging next to his computer. Then, he does: Eleanor Parker, 38, in a violent crash. Witnesses didn’t report any screech of the brakes, leading the police to believe her speed exceeded the limit upon impact. She was killed instantly. When Parker clicks into the full article, he sees that Lily is one of the bystanders in the photo accompanying it. He then turns and sees Lily standing next to him.
