Tonight on CBS NCIS returns with an all-new Monday, October 14, 2025, season 23 episode 1 called, “Prodigal Son (Part 1),” and we have your weekly NCIS recap below.
In tonight’s NCIS season 23 episode 1 called “Prodigal Son (Part 1),” as per the CBS synopsis, “Reeling from his father’s murder, Parker goes to extreme lengths to hunt down the woman he holds responsible.
Mob boss Carla Marino, jeopardizing not only his own future but the team’s, on part one of the 23rd season premiere of NCIS.”
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In tonight’s NCIS episode, Carla Marino had one last revenge before she skipped town. She managed to hurt Special Agent Alden Parker. She found the best way to do it was through his father.
She murdered his father. She killed him and she left the scene in such a way that he knew she killed his dad. Roman Parker served his country. He had a lot of problems with his two kids because he served. He was raising two kids by himself who hated moving all the time because of his job. His daughter tried to support Roman. His son acted out against him.
Parker was a handful as a teenager. He has a juvie record because he was such a handful. He wanted to punish his dad for having a grueling job. Parker said a lot of things as a kid that he can no longer take back. He made up with his dad. Eventually. Roman had been long since retired at the time of his murder.
He was readily available. It couldn’t be said of anyone else’s in Parker’s life. Parker was divorced with no kids. He has a sister named Harriet. She was a three star admiral working out of the Pentagon. She was safe and so that left Parker free to do whatever it took to find Carla.
He wanted to get his own revenge. Carla could have left town after she kidnapped him. She chose to stick around long enough to murder his dad personally and that meant she was within two hour search of his home. Roman being former Navy meant his death was still a crime for NCIS to investigate,but Parker wanted in on that investigation. He also did something very illegal. He had the entire Eastern Seaboard shut down. He did so by calling in a bomb threats all over train stations and airports.
Parker wasn’t just doing this to put Carla in prison. Many feared he was doing this to kill her. They understood where he was coming from. They’d probably feel the same way if someone murdered their dad. It’s just that Parker was a great agent and they didn’t want him risking his career or prison time just to kill a woman they were already looking for.
Director Vance benched Parker officially. He did it at the office because Parker came in expecting updates like everything was normal. The stunt he pulled in shutting every exit route has Homeland Security scrambling to find and locate a threat that wasn’t there. And so Director Vance didn’t have patience for his temper.
Vance benched him. Parker unloaded on him right there in HQ. Vance thought he was helping by telling Parker that he should at least tell his sister about their dad. She hasn’t been informed because Vance thought it would be best coming from a family member. Parker just couldn’t do it. He’s been at odds with his sister since they were kids. She was the good one. He was the problem. He never wanted to hear anything she had to say and the feeling was mutual. Him burying issues with his dad didn’t meant he was ready to deal with his sister.
He let someone else break the news to her. He was investigating off book. He had the vehicle that Carla used to kidnap him to transfer to Kasie. Vance found out about it. He demanded that it be released back to Homeland Security. He also benched everyone else on the team. He sent them to watch Parker. He thought they were all too close to this. They were blaming themselves for pushing Parker to work with Carla. He tried to warn them about her. They didn’t listen and they felt the fallout was partially their own fault.
Carla didn’t just kill Roman. She killed him with Parker’s gun. The one she took from him after knocking him out. She was that cold. She wanted inside of his head and it was working. Parker was beating himself up. He refused to take his sister’s calls. He didn’t want to collect his father’s things or look at the body. To be fair, his sister couldn’t bring herself to look either. Harriet Parker was serving her country like her father served. She looked down on her brother for being a mere federal agent. She didn’t even think he was deserving of that because all of the stunts he pulled as a kid.
During one of his juvie arrests, his father had a heart attack. Roman had been thirty-nine at the time. It helped him survive the heart attack. It also left Harriet blaming Parker. She never forgave him for almost killing their dad. Parker just knew he wouldn’t forgive her for actually getting it done this time. Knight tried to tell him that losing a parent could bring them together. He didn’t want to hear it. The team didn’t go home or watch Parker from a distance. They went to his apartment to offer him their help.
Kasie had run tests on the car before she handed it back to Homeland Security. She found out that the driver otherwise known as Fake Agent Ford had a meat packing dirt on his shoes. This along with the bad fake FBI ID lead them to fake Ford’s address. They went looking for him and they weren’t the only ones. Carla’s Nexus was a plot to murder the five families on top of the terrorism. The survivors were now looking for her. They were hunting her at the same as the authorities. They found fake ford the same time as NCIS.
There was a shootout. The mob got away with fake Ford. They were tracked down. Their prisoner was stolen back and Parker questioned him. A little vigorously. He got what he could and he learned more than his team was prepared to share. He found out his dad was killed using his gun. McGee had kept that part to himself. Parker didn’t care about his reasoning. He decided to go off by himself. He wanted to do the next part by himself. He found out that Carla boarded a ship that left port. He got on that ship.
NCIS learned about the ship after it left. They tracked it. They were still doing so when Parker’s sister used her command to take over the operation. They DOD have been watching that ship for days. Harriet intended to blow it up because of its known links to terrorism. She didn’t care if she killed her brother as well. It seems Parker was right that his sister was never going to forgive him.
THE END!