What’s Next With Torres’ Relationship, McGee vs. LaRoche, More (Exclusive)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for NCIS Season 22 Episode 9 “Humbug.”]

Well, it looks like Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) figured out his love life on NCIS! The fall finale ended with the reveal that he’s in a relationship with someone.

Also in the show’s last episode of 2024, the team worked with Deputy Director LaRoche (Seamus Dever), and McGee (Sean Murray) continued to get weird vibes about him. And it seems like he’s right to wonder about the guy. We can’t help but think what he meant at the press conference he gave about “bold, decisive leadership [defining] the next chapter” of the agency.

Below, executive producer Steven D. Binder answers our burning questions about that and more.

What can you say about Torres’ relationship and the identity of this person?

Steven D. Binder: I can tell you that we’ve seen this person before. This will be a character who has been on the show before and will be back again and it’s going to cause some issues with some of his team members—one in particular, may or may not be related.

It’s Knight’s (Katrina Law) sister, right?

I can neither confirm nor deny this rumor.

Robert Voets / CBS

But that’s why he’s keeping it secret right now?

Yes.

LaRoche talks about how bold, decisive leadership will define the next chapter of NCIS. Is that about to put him in direct conflict with Vance (Rocky Carroll)?

He will be in direct conflict with—you probably already picked up on [the fact that] McGee has an issue with the guy. It’s going to be McGee that takes the lead on looking into this guy or questioning this guy or wondering about this guy. Is this connected to the fact that this guy took the position McGee wanted? Maybe, but McGee’s a good agent, so if he smells smoke, there just might be fire.

You’ve really been slow playing that from the beginning of the season and now it seems the others are picking up on things, too. Is McGee going to have help now in his investigation?

Yeah, this isn’t some secret underground concern that McGee has. It’ll be out in the open. We’re going to have an episode [that]’s something like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner with McGee and LaRoche and some of the family. So that’ll be a fun episode to get them together. It’s one thing to hunt down a guy or be suspicious of a guy or track a guy who is in the next office or works across the way someplace in DC, but when they’re in your powder room, it becomes a little more entertaining.

How carefully do McGee and the others have to tread? Because it seems like LaRoche knows how to play the political game well.

[So far] there’s just suspicion. You can keep an eye on somebody without necessarily … Season 22, anything’s game.

How concerned should they be for their jobs?

Well, the show’s called NCIS, so they shouldn’t be all terribly concerned for their jobs, but we play life and death a lot on this show, so I would think bigger.

Will anything coming up set up the Tony & Ziva spinoff in any way? And is there any chance of seeing Michael Weatherly or Cote de Pablo on NCIS before then or after it premieres?

I have to give you a no comment on both of those things.

Are there any returning characters coming up?

Delilah [Margo Harshman] is going to come back. The episode’s called “Killer Instinct,” that’s the Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner episode. So we’re going to have McGee and Delilah meet LaRoche and his wife in an episode, and that’s an episode where Torres is going to have to go undercover as a hitman to try and track down a hitman. There’s a lot of fun things. There might be a possible Kansas City connection. We’re thinking about Rebecca De Mornay coming back. With a long-running show, we think in longer terms than we might normally; if we were wondering if we were going to come back, all these things would be happening in the next five episodes, but we’re thinking a little longer. So if not this season, the next.

There’s also Meredith Eaton returning as Carol Wilson. Kasie [Diona Reasonover] has a game night group and it’s her and a bunch of her forensic scientist colleagues, and they’re going to be targeted by a killer who’s got his motives. That’s going to be a Kasie episode. That’ll be fun. So we’ll meet a bunch of her friends who are really fun to see together. Just picture three, four forensic scientists together and all hilarity ensues.

Should we be worrying about anyone dying or saying goodbye this season?

I hope not, but I’m usually not told these things until February by the actor. They don’t want to have this conversation before December, but I don’t think so. Everyone’s pretty happy. You never know. Someone’s been there for 20-plus years, you get tired. But so far so good.

I just have to say how much I love how you’re using Ducky’s office.

Thank you. Yeah, it checked off so many boxes, the most important of which is remembering Ducky, so that’s great to hear that.

NCIS, Returns, Monday, January 27, 2025, 9/8c, CBS