NCIS Season 23 Episode 6's Revelation About Parker's Mother Changes Everything

Contains spoilers for "NCIS" Season 23, Episode 6 — "Page-Turner"

In "Page-Turner," a shocking new tidbit of information finally surfaces regarding the death of Alden Parker's (Gary Cole) mother, Eleanor. Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) tells Kasie Hines (Diona Reasonover) that he's gotten his hands on Eleanor's original autopsy report. The injuries she sustained at the time of her death aren't consistent at all with loss of life in a car crash. Kassie immediately tells Jimmy they need to inform Alden of this new fact — but as the episode ends they're the only ones who know what happened to Eleanor. 

Parker has long struggled with his mother's death. He initially believed that she died of a stroke years after abandoning her family. But Parker's father, Roman (Francis X. McCarthy), later explains at least part of the truth to Parker, telling him that Eleanor died in a car accident when Alden and his sister, Harriet (Nancy Travis), were both young. His mother had a drinking problem, and caused the collision while intoxicated. The situation seems solved, but then Roman hints that he'd held back the whole truth from his son. He dies in the Season 22 finale, leaving the plot thread unresolved. 

Alden has been having visions of a young girl named Lily, whose enigmatic existence intertwines with Eleanor's death and also remains unsolved. Lily's inexplicable manifestations begin when Parker nearly drowns in the episode that ends Season 21, "Reef Madness." His visions of her become so persistent that they start to interfere with Parker's daily life. He seeks therapy, then asks Jimmy to help him figure out who the girl is. 

In a Lily-related plot twist that makes little sense, archival newspaper photographs pulled up by Jimmy prove that Lily was at the site of Eleanor's crash. The case remains wide open, and though Alden's visions of Lily have tapered off, there's no word yet as to why she would haunt Alden — whose initial memories of her in Season 21 as a childhood friend are now suspect — and what her exact involvement in the crash is.

While Alden doesn't yet know what happened to his mom, he'll likely go to the ends of the earth to find out how she really passed away — while making things right for her and solving the mystery of Lily as well.