This story contains details from the May 23 series finale of “NCIS: New Orleans.”
Wedding bells were ringing in the series finale of “NCIS: New Orleans.”
Since it’s a police procedural, a criminal not surprisingly nearly crashed the festivities, but even then it was a family affair of sorts.
The final episodes of the CBS drama, which filmed in the Crescent City, centered heavily on the personal life of Special Agent Dwayne Pride (Scott Bakula), the leader of the NCIS Big Easy field office. (CBS will still have three “NCIS” dramas next season: Mark Harmon’s mother ship, heading into its 19th season; long-running “NCIS: Los Angeles”; and newcomer “NCIS: Hawai’i,” as the franchise trades one telegenic travel destination for another.)
Everything’s in a hurry in the finale, “Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler” (“Let the Good Times Roll”), as Pride and attorney Rita (Bakula’s wife, Chelsea Field) have accelerated their wedding plans. That’s because they want Pride’s mother, Mena (Joanna Cassidy), to be able to enjoy the nuptials while experiencing a brief recovery from her dementia that’s known clinically as “terminal lucidity.”
And that’s the easy part.
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Things get tricky when Pride has to figure out how to protect Connor (Drew Scheid), the teen he’s only recently learned is his son from a long-ago relationship with longtime criminal Sasha Broussard (Callie Thorne), who’s been trying to evade the law and, it appears, other felons.
At the end of the penultimate episode, two assailants rough up Connor and Pride’s half-brother, Jimmy Boyd (Jason Alan Carvell), and Sasha eventually agrees to go into witness protection. But she wants to take Connor with her, with Pride firmly opposed.
As the finale opens, Pride and his team are trying to find the assailants as plans for the next day’s wedding proceed. Pride, resigned to Connor leaving with Sasha, insists he attend the wedding: “I’m saying goodbye to a son I never had the privilege of knowing.”
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In an impressive display of multi-tasking, Connor persuades his closest friend, Dr. Loretta Wade (the great CCH Pounder), to officiate the wedding before he ends up on a rooftop and street chase in pursuit of one of Connor’s attackers.
As they run through Jackson Square, a carriage operator and friend of Pride literally whips the bad guy to the ground as a brass band starts playing and the surrounding crowd cheers. The scene seems more valedictory fantasy than realistic depiction of how onlookers would respond in this day and age, but this is Pride’s New Orleans and he basks in the moment. “God, I love this city,” he says.
Soon after, Pride figures out Sasha staged the attack on Connor and Jimmy to make their son’s life appear in danger so he will join her in witness protection. Pride comes to terms with Connor’s departure after he explains that his mother needs him more, although the young man is angry at Sasha for her incessant lying.
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The wedding is a celebratory gathering, with Rita wearing jewelry Mena gave her, Connor playing his guitar and the NCIS team passing a handkerchief during a crying montage.
It’s the culmination of a series of happy events for other characters in the final episodes: Loretta persuades the city to take up an important health-care reform proposal; Special Agent Tammy Gregorio (Vanessa Ferlito) moves in with her girlfriend; and another agent, Quentin Carter (Charles Michael Davis), passes up a promotion in Japan to pursue a budding relationship with colleague Hannah Khoury (Necar Zadegan).
During the reception, Sasha shows up outside with two U.S. marshals and looks through the restaurant window, about to take her son away with her. Then, suddenly she’s gone.
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Shortly thereafter, she calls Pride from a parked car and tells him she will take her chances without witness protection. “You need to protect our boy,” she adds, revealing she’s leaving Connor with him.
“You know I will,” Pride responds.
As Sasha pulls away, another vehicle follows. It doesn’t look good for her.
Pride tells Rita the news and they realize they’re suddenly newlyweds and parents. But they’re happy.
Computer specialist Patton Plame (Daryl “Chill” Mitchell) pulls the couple back to the party: “Hey, lovebirds! This train is moving out.”
And that’s a signal for a Second Line, a brass band parade and New Orleans staple, as the NCIS team, friends and family march and dance up the street to “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
As Pride had advised his hard-working unit just a bit earlier, the work will be there tomorrow but tonight, “Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler.”
