While we know one of the two new NCIS Season 19 series regulars will be with the team — Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) joins Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) and Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) in the search for the missing Gibbs (Mark Harmon) — it’s not until the second episode that we’ll meet the other: Gary Cole‘s FBI Special Agent Alden Parker.
So how do they cross paths? In “Nearly Departed,” CBS teases, “while trying to find the serial killer Gibbs was after, the NCIS team discovers another person has been tracking the case as well.” And based on the photos below, it looks like the team chase down Parker, perhaps thinking he’s a suspect … assuming he’s not just wearing a very similar sweatshirt in Director Vance’s (Rocky Carroll) office. (Does this remind anyone else of when Michael Weatherly‘s DiNozzo chased down Gibbs in the “Baltimore” flashback?) What will the team think of him as a result?
Pam Dawber is still around as reporter Marcie Warren, which makes sense, given she and Gibbs were the first ones on this investigation. (The “was after” in the logline when referring to Gibbs and the serial killer has us a bit worried, we have to admit, especially since we see Marcie but not him in the photos.)
Scroll down for a look at Cole’s debut as Parker in “Nearly Departed.”
NCIS, Season 19 Premiere, Monday, September 20, 9/8c, CBS