NCIS Season 22: Why Episode 15's Lily Twist Makes No Sense

Contains spoilers for "NCIS" Season 22, Episode 15 — "Moonlit"

Alden Parker's (Gary Cole of "The Brady Bunch Movie") twisted childhood history has been hinted at, whispered about, and revealed throughout his time on the "NCIS" force. Unfortunately, what we learn in "Moonlit" about his late and lamented friend Lily — officially revealed not to be his sister — fails to pass the smell test, turning into a big non-reveal that's supposed to shock but instead simply bemuses. What's disclosed about their mother, however, is much more tragic and trenchant to Alden's history, and ought to have been the focus of the episode. 

That revelation comes courtesy of dad Roman (character actor Francis X. McCarthy), who explains to Alden that instead of deserting her family and later dying of a stroke, his mother came home one night after driving, soused to the gills, with little Alden in the car. After fighting about it with Roman, she subsequently raced out into the night and died in a car wreck. Roman explains that he lied to Parker about the crash and his mother's death for years — but that doesn't clear up the mystery of Lily.

Searching for the truth, Alden digs into newspaper archives of that day. Lily shows up in pictures of the crash site — and then within Parker's living room! This ought to be a huge shock, but the show's ghost mystery has begun to make less and less sense as time goes on. Parker professes not to know Lily in this episode — but going by previous episodes and flashbacks, they share a secret that she doesn't want him to talk about. The confusing set-up for this mystery beggars something resembling a rewrite — or, at very least, a guiding hand.

Alden calls in Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) to help him try to figure out who Lily is — which is a good thing because, almost an entire season after her introduction, none of us have an idea who she might be, either. But it seemed as if Alden did know during Season 21. In "Reef Madness" — which explained Alden's tragic hatred of boats — he knows and recognizes her by that name on some level, even if it's subconsciously. He has actual memories of playing with her as a child, to his mother's disapproval, though he can only access them while unconscious. 

If he knows Lily by name and remembers playing with her, why is she suddenly an unfamiliar face to him and to Roman alike? Is Roman covering up the fact that Alden's mother drunkenly managed to get Lily killed somehow while they were playing? Did Alden kill her? What on Earth is going on, and why on Earth is Alden behaving so mysteriously about this ghost girl?

All of this confusing information either means that Alden's being haunted by a stranger or that he's being chased by someone he once knew but whose presence was completely blocked out by his faulty childhood memories. Either way, this is one odd story — the most supernaturally-centered one "NCIS" has ever put together. Time will tell if it's ultimately a worthwhile one.