NCIS is still staying strong on the 2025 TV schedule, with Season 22 returning with more K.C. mafia drama on January 27. Across its 20-season run so far, the CBS procedural has welcomed loads of great guest stars, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Abigail Breslin, Bob Newhart, Zac Efron, Glen Powell, Millie Bobby Brown, and many more. Party of Five vet Scott Wolf is also included in that list, and after the actor opened up about working alongside Mark Harmon, I can’t get over his sweet thoughts.
Wolf guest-starred in three Season 9 episodes as Jonathan Cole, a special ops team member and a killer who nearly snuffed Michael Weatherly’s Tony DiNozzo. He wound up sacrificing himself in the season finale after a bomb was delivered via car to the Navy Yard. While Wolf can celebrate plenty of movie and TV roles throughout his career, he still can’t help but look back fondly at his villanous turn. He spoke to TV Insider about his brief appearance and how much he loved playing a bad guy, saying:
NCIS was great. Mark Harmon, salt of the Earth, generous, really made me feel welcome there. They told a very cool story with my character. Oftentimes, when you come in and play a character like I did — he was a villain, he was like this rogue ex-Navy Seal who wanted to shoot people and harm people. But they wound up sort of redeeming him in the end.
Wolf recalled his final episode, “Till Death Do Us Part,” where Cole and Harmon’s Gibbs were arguing over diffusing the aforementioned car bomb. After Gibbs realized that the explosive was right next to the lab where Abby (Pauley Perrette) was still situated, Cole told Gibbs to go and save her while he stayed behind with the bomb. That choice is actually Wolf’s favorite part about the character, especially since Cole was quite the bad guy when he was first introduced. As he explained:
In the end, time’s running out, and he has this moment with Mark Harmon where he’s like, ‘You got to get out,’ and he’s like, ‘No, no, no, I’m staying.’ And he smiles, and he’s literally martyring himself. He’s going to die to save people. And for a show like that that doesn’t do that with characters very often, it’s kind of incredible.
Considering Wolf only popped up for a few episodes, he still made quite an impact, which shows just how important his character was to the overall storyline. And not just because he could’ve easily taken out a main character with his very first appearance. It's not everyday that someone gets to save Gibbs, as opposed to the other way around.
Plus, there’s also a very special reason why Wolf loves the redemption storyline so much, even if it did end with his character making the ultimate sacrifice. In his words:
I did three episodes, I don’t even know how long ago, and I might get stopped for that in airports as much as anything else. It’s a very popular show, obviously. But there was something about the fact that they made a little arc out of that character, and he wasn’t a one-off, shoot people and go away [character].
Even though it would have been fun to have Scott Wolf return to NCIS for fans to see that redemption play out, it sounds like he’s pretty satisfied with the grave way things ended for his character. That redemption also gave viewers a really great moment between Harmon and Wolf that the latter will remember for years to come. And that might be the best thing about it all.
At the very least, Wolf has yet to slow down when it comes to acting and can currently be seen in Fox’s new series Doc. He also previously enjoyed a Party of Five mini-reunion with Lacey Chabert, and I'm excited for what could be next for his career. In the meantime, fans with a Paramount+ subscription can watch his Season 9 episodes of NCIS anytime a quick dose of adrenaline is needed.
