'NCIS New Orleans' season 6: Dwayne Pride struggles mentally as he copes with his near-death experience and kidnapping
The fifth season of 'NCIS New Orleans' saw Dwayne Pride (Scott Bakula) go through some brutal experiences. At the very beginning, he was shot at and it was fatal. In his mind, he oscillated between giving up his life and holding on to it and all of this was shown as if it was happening when he was at the brink of death. This was while he was being targeted by the wife of a CIA man, Amelia Parson, that Pride had tangled with in the past. He survived it and even went on to recover well enough to become the Regional Special Agent In-charge (SAC) while Hannah Khoury arrived as his replacement.
During this transition, it is clear that Pride has not completely healed mentally from being shot. While his daughter Laurel Pride (Shanley Caswell) tried to get him to give up on a job that would require him to put his life on the line daily, Pride cannot help but try to get back in action. In fact, in one of the scenes after his recovery, Pride is directed by his daughter to head home directly after a walk, because his heart rate has hit 140 BPM. Only, he stops by to meet his team with donuts, helps one of his agents Christopher LaSalle (Lucas Black) reach out to a contact at the DEA in relation to a case that the team is currently on. It is also then that he learns of Hannah being hired as his replacement and his new post as Regional SAC.
Now, fast forward a few episodes and we see Pride deal with Loretta Wade (C. C. H. Pounder) and his father Cassius Pride's (Stacy Keach) kidnapping He is directed by two masked men who pick him up during his early morning jog to do certain tasks to ensure Wade and his father's safety. However, things do wrong which results in his father's death and in the following episodes, Pride and his team begin to investigate the people behind his father's death. He suspects that the entire set up has something to do with intelligence officers. Even as he is dealing with this, Pride and Lasalle get involved in an investigation into Apollyon leader after FBI Special Agent Isler gets captured while investigating the leader. They head to South Ossetia to rescue the officer but instead get captured as well.
It is during this time that Pride experiences hallucinations, quite similar to the ones that he experienced while he was on his death bed. While his team in New Orlean do everything to rescue him, the entire ordeal may leave an emotional scar from which Pride may not recover easily. From the looks of the trailers that have been released, Pride is back on the job and he begins with an investigation that leads to Hannah's suspension. However, is he mentally in the right place to lead his team?
We will see in the upcoming episodes of 'NCIS New Orleans' season 6 which will premiere on September 24 on CBS.