Gary Cole is an incredible talent, of course. The way he portrayed grief for Vance in 23x14… so many shades of pain and sorrow. Cole’s performance — his Parker — was the best thing in that episode.
You can see it in the smallest details — the pauses, the way his voice tightens, the restraint that somehow makes the emotion hit even harder, the moment with the boxes outside the director’s office, the conversation with the sailor who lost a friend, the barely noticeable smile when Parker remembered what Vance was like, the quiet “That he was,” and so many other moments, details, shades…
He doesn’t overplay it; he lets the grief sit just under the surface, and that’s what makes it feel so real.
There’s so much talent and craft in every scene — and perhaps some personal experience, too. This is next-level acting.
It’s the kind of performance that doesn’t just show you what the character feels — it makes you feel it with him.
My impression of the script was: “This script feels talentless, lazy, disengaged — like it was written without any real investment or immersion, just slapped together.” The Fleet Week storyline — with the tattoos, the nanochips, and all that — felt empty, unworthy of an episode that comes right after Vance’s death.
It was obvious who the villain was from the moment this character first appeared, because in NCIS, the most proactive character helping the investigation is usually the culprit.
The main cast seemed to be acting as if they were being forced into it.
This episode gave me almost nothing to help me process the pain of losing Vance. The only one who gave me that was Gary Cole — not through the writing, but through his performance.
It feels like he was the only one who truly understood what was happening — and who understood the fans’ pain. The only one who offered any comfort by sharing that grief with us.
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