NCIS season 23 episode 9 recap: Parker finds out the truth about Eleanor, and Lester's crimes are unraveled

CBS Network and Paramount+’s American procedural action drama series NCIS premiered on September 23, 2003, and is currently in its 23rd season. The show, created by Donald P. Bellisario, has received critical acclaim for its compelling storylines and focus on the agents working at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, also known as NCIS.

The central storyline and plot arc revolve around the main protagonist of the show, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, who leads an entire team of officers focused on solving criminal cases involving Navy and Marine Corps personnel.

On NCIS’s season 23, episode 9, which served as their fall finale, as they take a break until the end of February 2026, things got stranger and murkier.

The details surrounding the mysterious murder of Eleanor Parker were unfolded, while the true identity of Lily was also a main plot point of the episode. Meanwhile, the viewers and the audience were also on the brink of finding out who had killed Eleanor and her close friend, Judy.

Things got emotional as well when Parker finally accepted that he wanted to find out the truth regarding his mother and agreed to have her body exhumed for a proper forensic investigation to be carried out.

Details explored on everything that happened on CBS’s NCIS season 23, episode 9

CBS Network’s NCIS, Season 23, Episode 9, aired on the channel network at 8:00 p.m. ET, tying up a lot of loose ends regarding the ongoing storylines. Episode 9 was the fall finale of NCIS before the show goes on its fall break and will not air new episodes till February 24, 2026, resuming its usual schedule.

Season 23 episode 9 focused on Parker’s difficult decision to have the body of his mother, Eleanor Parker, exhumed to find out further details of her death with the help of a forensic investigation.

However, things got strange when he found out from Jimmy that all of the scars of the accident injury on her body seemed to be normal, but the cause of her death was blunt force trauma to her head, an unexplained injury. Parker realized that the accident was staged to hide the truth regarding Eleanor’s death and seemed to be devastated.

Things got worse when Kaisie delivered news that the woman they had been investigating on the autopsy table was not Eleanor at all. The team then tracked down Lester Burm, who had written the accident report for Eleanor in 1972, and they returned to the department with a picture of Lester’s wife, who eerily resembled the woman who had been exhumed. 

Things unraveled quickly for the officers on NCIS when they pieced the mystery together and realized that Lily, in reality, was Nelly, Lester’s daughter, and Lester’s wife Judy, who turned out to be the exhumed woman, had confided in Eleanor regarding Lester’s abusive tendencies, and she had agreed to help them escape.

To ruin their plan, Lester had ended up killing both of them and staging an accident to conceal his crime. He had run Judy off the road with his car and followed Eleanor to a nearby motel and killed her there. After Lester was questioned, Eleanor’s body was found, and Parker gave his mother a proper burial.

Stay tuned for more updates.