NCIS season 24 is only three episodes in, but the new season just keeps finding new ways to leave fans panicking and wondering if a beloved cast member is eyeing an exit.
The second episode of the season seemed to hint that the show was laying the groundwork for Sean Murray to leave when it was revealed by Tony that McGee was being eyed to take over the SecNav position. Jump ahead to episode 3, and fans are now worried about Torres departing the show, which is fair.
Episode 3 forced Torres to confront the ghosts of his past when someone began killing under an alias he used back during his undercover days. The case reunited him with his former undercover handler Walt Keller, who dragged up a lot of old baggage for Torres before offering him a side gig working with the CIA. At first, Torres rejected the offer as he made it clear to Keller that his undercover days were behind him; however, as the episode ended, Torres found himself at Keller’s doorstep asking if the side job was still available.
The ending immediately created a panic in the NCIS fandom with many worrying that the storyline was setting up Wilmer Valderrama’s exit from the show. Thankfully, he’s clearing that speculation up and has made it clear that while he can’t predict where things will go, he has no intentions of leaving. In fact, he welcomed this unexpected development for Torres, which has left him excited to explore the evolution of the character.
“I’ve heard some people ask me these questions, and you really do never know. But so far, I have a major purpose on this show, and I don’t think this is telegraphing anything that he’s going anywhere yet, but I don’t know. Who knows? And again, I often don’t make these decisions anyways, but I will say that I’m excited,” Valderrama told Entertainment Weekly. “I’ll just be even more vulnerable and say that the character needed to have an evolution in order for me as an actor to be motivated to continue to play him 10 years later. So something had to wake up in him that will make him new again. And where that takes him, I don’t know.”
Although Valderrama was unable to rule out what the writers have planned, which is fair as they’re ultimately the ones who decide when a character’s time has reached its end, it’s clear in his comments that Torres isn’t going anywhere in the immediate future and that he isn’t itching to exit the show.
NCIS has never been afraid of writing out a longtime character, as we saw just last year with the departure of Rocky Carroll, when the show killed off director Vance. That said, it feels like they’ve only just started to unpack this story and that there is a lot of gas in the tank for exploring Torres’ time undercover and how this CIA side gig will impact his role at NCIS. There are sure to be some consequences to his actions, and some feathers will likely be ruffled, but hopefully this new direction will inspire the writers and keep Valderrama feeling excited to continue exploring the character after a decade on the show.
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