The final episodes of NCIS season 23 have featured some surprising returns, and it seems NCIS fans can look forward to seeing at least one more familiar face returning to the show before it signs off for the summer.
Hot off the heels of LL Cool J’s return via a two-episode arc and the upcoming return of Nancy Travis as Parker’s sister, Navy Vice Admiral Harriet Parker, it’s been confirmed via Matt’s Inside Line that Seamus Dever will also return as Gabriel LaRoche. This will mark Dever’s first appearance since the season 22 finale which brought a conclusion to the LaRoche storyline.
Dever first joined the NCIS cast in the season 22 premiere in what would become a recurring arc that unfolded over the course of the season. The former NCIS Deputy Director spent most of the season in McGee’s crosshairs, with NCIS’s veteran agent quickly getting red flags from LaRoche. McGee’s instincts proved correct as LaRoche was indeed dirty, but that was by design. As we’d come to learn in the finale, LaRoche had been working undercover the entire time in an effort to bring down the Nexus cartel.
It’s going to be interesting to see what brings LaRoche back into the fold in the season 23 finale. In his final appearance, LaRoche revealed to McGee that he had resigned from his position at NCIS, and the pair seemed to bury the hatchet. Upon leaving, LaRoche made it clear that he intended to go underground and lay low to avoid attacks from Nexus, which leads us to wonder if Nexus is about to resurface in the season 23 finale.
The official synopsis for the finale teases that the NCIS team will be forced to confront legacy and loyality after an explosion proves a deadly coffee shop bombing from the prior year was not the work of a lone wolf. Could it be that this attack was connected to the Nexus cartel? That would certainly explain why LaRoche will be resurfacing in the episode, and NCIS has been known to include callbacks to former villains/villainous organizations to revisit storylines from prior seasons.
Nexus resurfacing in the season 23 finale would certainly cause the team to confront legacy and loyalty, as that case nearly tore the team apart last season. It would also make sense for them to turn to LaRoche for help in investigating the bombing given his connection to the operation that brought the cartel to its knees.
It’ll be interesting to see how LaRoche factors into the finale, but we’re definitely eager to see how the writers bring him back. The only thing we don’t want is to see LaRoche named as the new NCIS Director, as that’s a position we’d much rather see McGee fill – though I suppose the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t!
Add us as a preferred source on Google