‘NCIS,’ I’m Begging You — Please Don’t Waste Your Villains in Season 23

When it comes to any police procedural series, there’s typically a new threat each episode as the main cast handles a new case. Because of this repetitive case-of-the-week format, even bigger antagonists are introduced throughout the season to raise the stakes, or a big bad is teased near the season finale to leave audiences on a cliffhanger until the following season. With over 22 seasons and Season 23 on the way, NCIS has featured a variety of different villains in its time. One of the reasons I find the main characters so beloved and heroic is how they’re able to overcome and outsmart their foes.

These enemies have not only left our heroes scarred and damaged physically, but emotionally as well. Some have even left ripples that still affect the series to this day with agents, family, and friends used as collateral damage. As great as it is to see the NCIS characters become this tight-knit family over the years, I need to see the villains shake up the status quo and try to tear this loving team apart. Unfortunately, the series has recently been lacking in delivering villains on this level. The majority of the best NCIS episodes are due to the threats the team has to face off against, or the earth-shattering consequences of these stories. But lately, NCIS has been lacking in making compelling villains that I should love to hate.

‘NCIS’ Season 22 Villains Weakened the CBS Crime Procedural Series

NCIS Season 22 introduced an antagonist in the season premiere “Empty Nest” in the form of Department of Justice Investigator Gabriel LaRoche (Seamus Dever). Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) uses his skills as an undercover agent to infiltrate a drug cartel, but his cover ends up getting blown. Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) discovers that LaRoche, who has been secretly investigating NCIS, is the source of the leak. But before McGee can express his concerns to NCIS Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll), LaRoche is appointed NCIS Deputy Director, the position McGee was vying for. I really enjoyed this setup for the latest villain in the series. It made me question how the NCIS MCRT (Major Crimes Response Team) could be able to secretly investigate someone internally, especially someone as powerful as their Deputy Director?

The most memorable NCIS villains to me have been terrorists, cartel leaders, and serial killers, but it’s not often the political figures. LaRoche was the first foe in a long time to break out of this cycle in the series. But it was revealed in the NCIS Season 22 finale “Nexus” that he was a triple agent working for the Department of Justice all along. McGee’s crusade to take down LaRoche feels underwhelming to me, and ultimately, a disservice to McGee. A hero is only as good as its villain, and unfortunately, because LaRoche wasn’t a villain, McGee didn’t look so heroic.

‘NCIS’ Needs To Build Up Its Antagonists Better

Gone are the days of NCIS where villains would be featured across multiple seasons, or really show how threatening they are throughout a handful of episodes. Another recent example of this is Carla Marino (Rebecca De Mornay), the leader of the Kansas City Mob with a personal tie to Alden Parker’s (Gary Cole) FBI past. First mentioned in NCIS Season 22, Episode 6 “Knight and Day”, Marino is built up to be this big bad who even the FBI couldn’t catch. Although Marino only shows up in the final eight minutes of the episode, she gets caught up in a trap orchestrated by Parker and Jessica Knight (Katrina Law). She has one of her henchmen take the fall for one of her crimes, showing just how powerful she is and how she’s been able to avoid being arrested. The end of that episode teases her return as Parker keeps Marino’s mugshot by his desk as a constant reminder, yet we never see her again until the NCIS Season 22 finale.

I found that NCIS Season 22 was off to a great start by introducing two new foes, LaRoche and Marino, early on in the season. While LaRoche had a few more appearances than Marino, the gaps between their episodes make it difficult for the audience to feel their looming presence. I found myself more frustrated with LaRoche’s appearances because he works for NCIS, yet he’s barely seen. To make him a compelling villain, I would’ve appreciated more scenes of him interacting with Vance and the MCRT because it would show the complexities of his character. I found him to be a charming individual to McGee’s wife, Delilah (Margo Harshman), in NCIS Season 22, Episode 17, but it’s featured so late in the season that I didn’t feel confused as to where his loyalties lie. While I do appreciate that LaRoche and Marino were revealed to be working together, these villains had the potential to be season-long threats all on their own.

‘NCIS’ Season 23 Can Solve Its Villain Problem

With NCIS Season 23 coming soon, the series needs to up the stakes to make the show feel more personal. The Season 22 finale did see the death of Parker’s dad, Roman (Francis X. McCarthy), seemingly at the hands of Marino. Showrunner Steven D. Binder teased that Parker will be like a “man of fire” in the next season as he avenges his father’s death, which is something we haven’t seen a villain cause in a long time on NCIS. One of the biggest enemies in NCIS is arguably Ari Haswari (Rudolf Martin), the man who killed Kate Todd (Sasha Alexander). Not only was it an impactful death since she was a main character in the series, but also because fans (including myself) never saw it coming.

I’m not wishing for any of the current main NCIS characters to bite the bullet, but the biggest thing for them to do is to kill off one of their beloved team members. The procedural series 9-1-1 only recently killed off one of its main characters after eight seasons. While 9-1-1‘s decision caused a lot of fan uproar and affected ratings, NCIS has the potential to make it more meaningful and fit the story they’re trying to tell. After two decades of episodes, it’s time for NCIS to make its villains scary again.