NCIS season 22 took McGee on quite a journey, especially towards the end of the season.
While others tried to tell him that he was imagining things, McGee knew that something was wrong with Deputy Director LaRoche from the start, and his intuition proved to be correct. In the final episodes of the season, we learned that LaRoche had been working undercover this entire time. He burned Torres’ cover early on to gain the trust of the Nexus gang and acted as a spy with the goal of bringing down the gang.
After the truth came to light and his cover within the gang was blown, LaRoche decided to resign as Deputy Director of NCIS and his time on the show officially came to an end. With LaRoche’s resignation, many fans began to speculate whether this could pave the way for McGee to pursue the job of Deputy Director of NCIS once again. After all, it’s the job that McGee went after and clearly wanted to do, so wouldn’t it make sense for him to go after it now that LaRoche is gone?
Well, it seems like that would be a no.
While it seems like the natural progression of the storyline would be for McGee to once again pursue the job of Deputy Director of NCIS in season 23, it doesn’t seem like there are any plans for McGee to want the job next season. In fact, it seems like the entire storyline around McGee going after the job was created as a way to bring LaRoche into the fold.
“His desire for the job is kind of a creation of the LaRoche [storyline]. We didn’t say, ‘Let’s bring McGee in and how can we complicate it?’ It was, ‘Hey, let’s bring in this guy LaRoche, and McGee wants his job.'” Push McGee into an advisory position, a middle-management level… just saying, I fell asleep! Besides, Sean [Murray] is great in the bullpen,” NCIS showrunner Steven D. Binder told TVLine after the finale.
Honestly, this makes sense when you think about it. We never really heard McGee express any desire to become Deputy Director of NCIS until the LaRoche storyline came up, and we can definitely see Binder’s point that it was a great way to bring in the LaRoche character and create conflict between him and McGee.
Looking back on the season, McGee never pursued LaRoche out of jealousy, but rather out of a desire to protect NCIS and fear that LaRoche wasn’t who he said he was. McGee wasn’t trying to bring him down to get the job; He sensed something was off and his instincts proved right, which helped him salvage the day.
Binder is also 100% correct in saying that McGee is great in the bullpen, and the last thing we want to see is his character develop into a desk jockey for position. He’s too valuable to the core, and he’s best at it, working with his team. That’s not to say we wouldn’t like to see McGee take on a leadership role in the future, perhaps one day leading the team on the field, but for now, we’re happy with where he is!
