NCIS season 23, episode 12, threw a major curveball McGee’s way when the show revealed he had a long-lost son who he didn’t know about. The episode established that McGee’s old girlfriend, Olivia, had found out she was pregnant after they broke up and she had kept the secret out of fear he’d have wanted to marry her when she knew he was destined to find happiness with someone else. While McGee was understanding, it didn’t erase the fact that her decision has cost him and his son, Mateo, 18 years, preventing them from establishing a relationship and robbing him of the chance to be in his son’s life.
After the storyline was introduced, fans expected that there would be fallout, but the show ended up shelving the storyline as the following episode brought about yet another shocking development. Episode 13 served as the show’s 200th episode, which ended with the unexpected death of NCIS Director Leon Vance.
Understandably so, the episodes that have followed the 200th episode have put a major focus on the loss of Vance and what it will mean for the future of NCIS. With the Vance fallout taking center stage, some of the show’s other ongoing plot lines were put on the back burner, including the McGee and Mateo storyline.
Nearly a month after first introducing Mateo, NCIS finally acknowledged the character again in its April 14 episode, “S.O.S.,” with McGee admitting to his friends and colleagues that he was struggling to connect with Mateo in recent weeks. As he admitted, he couldn’t seem to find common ground with Mateo and wasn’t sure what would be the best approach to connecting.
The episode ended with McGee reaching out to Mateo to invite him to join him in checking out his old laser tag spot, though we never actually saw Mateo in the episode as the scene unfolded as a one-sided phone conversation. Although Mateo failed to appear in the episode, fans have not seen the last of the character this season!
As confirmed by Matt’s Inside Line, Patrick Keleher will be back to reprise the role of Mateo again in an upcoming season 23 episode, making at least one additional appearance before the season comes to a close.
An exact return date for Keleher has not been set, but with only four episodes left this season, fans should be seeing Mateo again very soon, though we might have to wait a few weeks for his return. The upcoming April 21 and April 28 episodes will be a two-parter that welcomes back LL Cool J’s Sam Hanna, who becomes caught up in a deadly game of cat and mouse and then helps a member of the NCIS team clear their name when they’re framed for murder.
With all that is set to unfold in episodes 17 and 18 with Sam’s return, we imagine the writers might wait to bring Mateo back into the fold until after the two-parter. Regardless of when Mateo returns in the upcoming episodes, we’re just glad the show is going to provide fans with more follow-through on the storyline by giving us the chance to see McGee connecting with his son and working on building a relationship, which we hope will continue to be explored in the show’s next season!
NCIS airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on CBS.
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