NCIS Season 23 Is Quietly Destroying One of Its Best Characters in the Most Painful Way Possible

NCIS Season 23 is quietly killing Timothy McGee’s (Sean Murray) potential, keeping one of the Navy procedural’s best characters on the back burner. The season had a massive start, seeing Alden Parker (Gary Cole) almost get killed on the Quentin in the two-part premiere. It’s also been a pretty strong start for Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) and Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama), who are both getting pulled for special operations by Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) in Season 23. That said, developments have come to a standstill for McGee.

NCIS Season 23 makes McGee’s story worse in Episode 4, bringing him into the spotlight only to dismiss him. The Major Case Response Team (MCRT) goes looking for a missing Marine in “Gone Girls,” and, after a power struggle with the FBI, realizes that they’ve stumbled upon an underground operation for moving women in abusive relationships to safe houses. While McGee should have been in his element with a room full of bibliophiles, the episode puts Tim in an awkward situation that underlines his underlying conflict.

NCIS Season 23 Has a Timothy McGee Problem

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As other characters get the spotlight in NCIS Season 23, it’s clear the show doesn’t quite know what to do with McGee. He applied for the deputy director position in NCIS Season 22, a season that honors some of the best in the series, but lost the position to Gabrielle LaRoche (Seamus Deaver), the Department of Defense’s former Inspector General. While the development led to an interesting twist, it put McGee in an uncomfortable position. He has admitted to himself and his teammates that he’s ready for more responsibility and more regular hours, but couldn’t launch from MCRT.

As McGee admits to Parker in NCIS Season 22, Episode 3, “The Trouble with Hal,” he was more than qualified for the deputy director position. That said, McGee is doubtlessly overqualified for his fieldwork. The senior field agent has been with MCRT since NCIS Season 1, serving the team for over two decades. After watching his Season 22 story, audiences know that Tim is unhappy and wants more from NCIS than his fieldwork. However, now NCIS Season 23 is failing to push McGee in an upward direction.

Audiences have watched McGee evolve from a probationary agent to second-in-command to team leaders, Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and Parker. In the 1000th episode of NCIS, McGee even temporarily filled in as the NCIS director. However, there’s little room for McGee to grow, since Vance and Parker are seemingly in their positions to stay for now. Therefore, the problem with McGee is that the fan-favorite is at a crossroads and deserves a monumental season, but there’s no clear direction to push him in.

How NCIS Season 23’s Thom E. Gemcity Reference Makes Its McGee Problem Even Worse

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NCIS Season 23 makes things even worse for McGee in “Gone Girls.” One of the women who runs the book club, a front for their program, recognizes McGee from his author photo. Tim writes mystery novels under the pen name Thom E. Gemcity, in addition to his work as a police officer. The book club front was a great way to nod to McGee’s side career. Still, it’s ultimately dismissive. The woman has seen his picture before, but hasn’t read his thrillers, saying that she doesn’t like his pulpier crime stories.

Later, after discovering that the book club is a front, Tim wonders if that’s why they haven’t read his books about LJ Tibbs, a character he based on Gibbs. However, rather than redeeming McGee’s embarrassment, NCIS doubles down. The lady even made sure to point out that while she has read crime novels, she just didn’t like his crime novels. Therefore, even when his elements overlap, McGee has a sense of irrelevance in Season 23. That’s far from what the fan favorite character deserves.

NCIS Needs to Redeem Timothy McGee’s Story

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NCIS needs to give McGee a landmark season to redeem his story, especially after he turned down Gibbs’ job. While McGee did get some of the focus in Season 22 in his plot with LaRoche, it didn’t lead to any long-term growth for Tim. He didn’t step into the deputy director role, nor did he address how the setback would affect his relationship with his wife, Delilah (Margo Harshman), and their two children. Delilah wanted McGee to have more regular hours, and yet he is back in the field working nights and responding to calls at a moment’s notice.

Things would have been different had McGee not turned down the position to lead MCRT after Gibbs retired in NCIS Season 19. However, Tim turned down the job, mostly citing paperwork and wanting to stay in the field. McGee’s feelings have clearly changed since then, but he remains stalled. Knight, Torres, and Parker are responsible for much of the recent interesting development. Still, NCIS needs to remember that characters like McGee and Jimmy (Brian Dietzen) are what longtime fans want to see.