CBS Officially Confirms Nick Torres’ Status After NCIS Season 23 Finale Cliffhanger

Following the conclusion of NCIS Season 23, fans have been wondering if Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) would live to see Season 24. That question has officially been answered amid the wait for the new season, though others remain for now.

At the end of the Season 23 finale, Torres confronts Mateo (Patrick Keleher), the son of McGee (Sean Murray), who reveals that he’s armed with a gun. A gunshot is then heard just before the episode closes out, but it was left unclear which one of the two fired. In a new interview with TV Insider, showrunner Steven D. Binder discussed the cliffhanger. He confirmed that one character was indeed shot, but the good news is that the wound isn’t fatal, meaning even if it turns out to be Torres who was hit, the character isn’t being killed off.

Torres Might Have Been Shot (But He Won’t Die)

“Someone was hit. I can confirm that,” Binder explains. “I sort of had my fill this season, all of us, of killing people. So I can rule that out. And also, there’s not a lot of fun there. When someone’s dead, they’re dead. It’s much more interesting — I’ll think back to when Gibbs shot McGee. It’s much more fun when someone’s alive and been shot than when they’re dead. And by fun, I mean, interesting.”

Regardless of which character was shot, Binder also teased that McGee would be “all kinds of conflicted” when Season 24 picks up. The agent had previously been in a “rock and hard place” with his family when his sister came to him before, covered in blood and telling him she thought she’d just killed someone. Binder pointed out how a conversation between McGee and Gibbs at that time foreshadows how things will play out with Mateo.

McGee May Be Feeling Déjà Vu in Season 24

Image via CBS

Binder notes, “And there’s a moment where, and I think what can be illuminating for the present is a line that McGee says to Gibbs when Gibbs comes at him and it’s like, ‘What are you doing, man?’ The idea that anyone on the show would try and pull a fast one on Gibbs. Gibbs was a father figure to them. He never would do that. And McGee’s standing there with Gibbs and McGee says to him, I don’t remember the exact line, but it’s something like, ‘You are my mentor, my teacher, my father figure, you’re everything to me, but she’s my sister.’”

Additionally, the showrunner hints that Season 24 will take the show’s characters to some “very interesting places,” as was the case with this past season. At the same time, fans can expect to see more intriguing week-to-week mysteries that NCIS is best known for exploring. The goal will be to try to balance these endeavors in the best way possible.