TL;DR: NCIS season 24 opens with a confident, efficient premiere that makes Tony DiNozzo the new director and gives the series its most exciting setup in years, though McGee and Tony’s family pay the price.

“Wayward Son” turns a stalled cliffhanger into a real reset

Long-running procedurals have a habit of treating season premieres like a save file reload: patch the cliffhanger, restore the status quo, carry on with the case of the week. NCIS season 24 opens with “Wayward Son,” and to my genuine surprise it does something braver. The show has been running without a permanent director since Leon Vance died in the landmark 500th episode, and season 23 coasted on that vacancy longer than it probably should have. Showrunner Steven D. Binder clearly decided the waiting game was over. The premiere fills the chair, settles the finale’s threads, and points the Navy Yard somewhere new, all within a single hour on CBS.

What struck me is how efficient it is. The season 23 finale left Timothy McGee facing a personal and professional mess after his son got tangled up in trouble that Nick Torres caught before it could be buried. Instead of dragging that out across a sweeps-season arc, “Wayward Son” wraps up both the McGee situation and the director question by the time the credits roll. Some fans may wish those threads had room to breathe, and I understand that impulse. For me, the speed reads less like a shortcut and more like a show that knows exactly what problem it needs to solve first.

Michael Weatherly’s DiNozzo returns with more than nostalgia in his pocket

The headline, of course, is Michael Weatherly. The premiere reworks the events of the season 23 finale to reveal that Tony DiNozzo had been part of Torres’s investigation all along, and that he was the one who took the bullet. It is a neat retcon, the kind of narrative sleight of hand comic books pull off when they decide a character was secretly in the room the whole time. Crucially, it puts Tony inside an actual storyline rather than parking him in a glorified cameo, which is what separates a meaningful return from a fan-service victory lap.

The reunion with Sean Murray’s McGee is where the episode earns its emotional credibility. These two were the comedic engine of the show’s early years, the Probie-and-big-brother routine that half the fandom could quote in their sleep. The banter is still there, but neither man is the guy he was a decade ago, and the script lets that show. Watching them connect as fathers rather than as office rivals gives the nostalgia a grown-up anchor, and it is the smartest creative choice in the premiere because it acknowledges time has actually passed.

Making Tony director is an inspired gamble for the NCIS season 24 story

Handing Vance’s job to the former Very Special Agent sounds, on paper, like a fan fiction prompt. In practice, it holds up better than almost any alternative the writers could have chosen. Tony was trained directly by Mark Harmon’s Gibbs and has served under every person who has ever held the director’s title, so his résumé is hard to argue with. There is also something delightfully subversive about putting the team’s resident class clown in the most buttoned-up office in the building. It is the Captain Jack Harkness move: take the irreverent wildcard and saddle him with real responsibility, then see what breaks.

The appointment also neutralises the looming Gabriel LaRoche threat quickly, which is a mixed blessing. I appreciated not having another season-long boardroom villain hanging over the team, but LaRoche was set up as genuinely menacing in the finale, and his menace evaporates a little too conveniently here. Still, with Weatherly signed on for a season-long arc and Harmon back in the wider franchise through NCIS: Origins, this feels like the most exciting starting position the flagship series has had in years. Long-time viewers will feel the old-school energy humming in the background, even if a full reunion remains a hope rather than a promise.

The cost of this bold move lands on McGee, Ziva and Tali

Every big swing has a price, and NCIS season 24 pays it with the characters orbiting Tony. McGee is the most obvious casualty. With Gary Cole’s Alden Parker running the Major Case Response Team and the Assistant Director role he once chased seemingly off the table, Tim is stuck as Senior Field Agent with nowhere obvious to climb. That stagnation has been a recurring frustration with Murray’s character, and installing Tony upstairs effectively locks the door again. If the show ever does promote McGee to director, it would almost certainly mean writing Tony out a second time, which is a lose-lose equation.

The other sacrifice is quieter but sadder. Taking a government job in Washington means Tony stepping back from the company he was building, and it reshapes his relationship with Cote de Pablo’s Ziva David. The episode makes it clear Ziva encouraged him to accept the post, so this is not a breakup in disguise. Even so, after everything Tony, Ziva and their daughter Tali have endured to finally share a life, seeing them pushed back into largely separate orbits stings. It is good drama, but it lands like trading away your best party member right after the long quest to recruit them.

Verdict

“Wayward Son” is one of the strongest NCIS premieres in recent memory because it treats Tony DiNozzo’s return as a structural fix rather than a nostalgia stunt. It resolves the finale’s loose ends quickly, gives the agency a director who makes sense, and builds the McGee and DiNozzo reunion around who these men have become. The weaknesses are real: LaRoche deflates too easily, McGee remains trapped in career limbo, and the Tony and Ziva family pays a steep emotional price. Longtime fans and anyone who drifted away after Weatherly’s exit should absolutely tune in, while viewers attached to McGee’s growth may find the new setup frustrating. NCIS season 24 airs Tuesdays at 8 PM ET on CBS, and this opener earns a confident recommendation.