The NCIS cast will feature Gary Cole in his new role as FBI Agent Alden Parker during the new episode called Nearly Departed.
Cole has been acting for a long time, and it was big news when we learned during the NCIS hiatus that he was joining the cast.
It had been an expectation that Cole would show up in the NCIS season premiere, but the episode worked to give Gibbs central status instead.
Now, we finally get to see Cole share the small screen with the rest of the NCIS cast, and his debut episode looks like a lot of fun.
According to the synopsis for NCIS Season 19, Episode 2, “While trying to find the serial killer Gibbs was after, the NCIS team discovers another person has been tracking the case as well, on NCIS, Monday, Sept. 27. Gary Cole joins the cast as FBI Special Agent Alden Parker.”
The impact of Gary Cole on the NCIS cast
It is going to be very interesting to see how the addition of Gary Cole works with the rest of the NCIS cast. It looks like there could be a big impact, as he is going to be playing a main character. It also seems like he might slide into the role that Joe Spano made so familiar for years as Tobias Fornell.
Fornell was often on hand to be the eyes and ears of the FBI for NCIS and Gibbs’ team as they were working on a case. Fornell and Gibbs weren’t always on the same page, but they became great friends on the show. Could we see something similar develop between Agent Tim McGee (Sean Murray) and Parker?
Gary Cole is not replacing Mark Harmon officially
The people behind the scenes at NCIS continue to stress that Gary Cole is not replacing Mark Harmon on the show. He isn’t going to step in and take over Gibbs’ former team, but Parker is definitely going to be an important character on the show.
We saw how easily actress Katrina Law was assimilated into the NCIS cast. It just took the right storyline and the right situation, and then we saw McGee and Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) scrambling to work with Agent Jessica Knight (Law).
Over the years, a lot of people have come and gone from the NCIS cast, so it isn’t even new territory to bring on someone new in a leadership role. Just from the early teaser trailer that featured Agent Parker, it looks like he might actually be the perfect fit for the show…as long as he isn’t replacing Gibbs because NCIS fans would not like that.
As a reminder, the first episode where NCIS fans get to see Gary Cole playing FBI Agent Alden Park is Nearly Departed and it debuts on Monday, September 27. A new episode of NCIS: Hawaii will be debuting right after it on CBS.
NCIS airs Mondays at 9/8c on CBS.