Who was shot in 'NCIS' finale? Here's our theory as Wilmer Valderrama teases major Season 24 changes
Everyone's still talking about that 'NCIS' Season 23 finale cliffhanger. Although it doesn't seem like either Wilmer Valderrama's Nick Torres or Patrick Keleher's Mateo would end up on a morgue slab by the time 'NCIS' season 24 premieres this Fall, the consequences of the shooting are still up for debate. Season 23 saw McGee, played by Sean Murray, coming into touch with his eighteen-year-old son from a previous marriage. He soon took Mateo under his wing, and when the latter expressed his wish to apply for a cyber internship in the finale, McGee readily agreed.
However, things took a turn when Palmer informed Torres that someone had used an agency terminal to fill out an application, and the former couldn't locate it in the system. When Torres confronted Mateo, the latter revealed he was armed and tried to talk him down. The finale episode, titled 'Sons & Daughters, ' ended with a wide shot of the cityscape and the sound of a gunshot. The fact that 'NCIS' didn't explicitly reveal who shot whom left the door open for subsequent speculation. If one were to consider the final scene, four distinct possibilities emerge with respect to the shooting. The first scenario is, obviously, that Mateo shot Torres. It feels sensible, given the fact that Mateo is clearly hiding something and that he was last seen at the verge of pulling the trigger.
Such a scenario would land McGee in a quagmire, with the guilt of having his long-lost son shoot one of his closest field agents weighing heavily on him. The second scenario that comes to mind is the inverse of the first one, i.e., Torres shot Mateo. In any case, this scenario seems unlikely, and such a thing could only come to pass if Torres missed Mateo's first shot and fired back somehow. The third theory, one that seems more plausible, is that someone else shot either Torres or Mateo, or both of them. One must keep in mind that Mateo had mentioned "they could be watching" before the screen cut to black. The show didn't hint at who "they" might be, and whether "they" are set to go to any length to get what they want. The final theory suggests that either Torres or Mateo shot someone else.
Once again, given the dubious nature of "they", it could be possible that a third individual was standing by and tried to overpower either Torres or Mateo at the last instance and got shot. Valderrama has a theory of his own and recently spoke about it in an interview with PEOPLE magazine. The 'NCIS' veteran commented, "Look, every couple of years, you guys know NCIS has to make sure you're watching. So we shake up the TV a little bit, and we listen. And we listen to where you as fans want to see us do. So we always really pay attention to what our fans want to really experience on the show." He further added, "So if you ask me to speculate, I think there's a major, major shakeup happening and that episode one is going to bring both ... I don't want to get in trouble for this one. Let me get in trouble. How about this? Next season, there's some major changes and there are some major additions. What does that mean for Torres? I can only hope that he makes it out alive." 'NCIS' is exclusively available on CBS.
