Scott Wolf talks about his NCIS days; praises Mark Harmon: Reports

CBS's police procedural drama NCIS has had many memorable characters who have contributed to the show over the years. One such character was Scott Wolf's Jonathan Cole, who was introduced in Season 9 as a member of the Phantom Eight, a Special Ops team.

While he was established as a killer, which made him an antagonist on the show, his character was redeemed in the Season 9 finale when he saved Mark Harmon's Gibbs' team and sacrificed himself.

Jonathan had a three-episode arc and Wolf still remembers working with Harmon on set and how he made him feel welcome there. More on Wolf's character on NCIS Season 9 in our story.

Scott Wolf reminisces about his NCIS arc and working with Harmon

Wolf recently opened up about his experience working with Mark Harmon and his three-episode arc on NCIS, in an interview with TVInsider he said,

“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,”

He sheds light on the final moment from the Season 9 finale where Cole decides to sacrifice himself for the team:

''...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.”

While Wolf is an established actor with many television and film credits under his name, he says that people still recognize him as Jonathan Cole from the show. He feels proud of having done a character with an incredible arc in such a short time:

“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].”

Exploring Wolf's character's arc on NCIS Season 9

Wolf's Jonathan Cole appeared in Season 9 Episodes 1, 12, and 24, and Wolf thinks it was quite commendable that the makers of the show gave his character a redeeming arc in just a three-episode span.

While he was a killer who wanted to take out Tony, his sacrifice in the Season 9 finale resonated with the audience and he finally redeemed his character in the end.

When a bomb is delivered to the Navy Yard in the NCIS Season 9 finale, Gibbs refuses to leave Cole alone to sacrifice his life and save the lives of his team members, but Cole makes Gibb leave in the end and martyrs himself in the end.

Many fans believe that while Cole was an antagonist, his last act was the ultimate sacrifice that redeemed him and made him a memorable character on the show.