SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for NCIS Season 23, Episode 20.
The NCIS Season 23 finale revolves around two plot twists from earlier in the season: the murder of NCIS Director Leon Vance and the reveal of Timothy McGee’s previously unknown son. “Sons & Daughters” seems to say this is what both of those head-scratching ideas were meant for. But that only goes so far for the CBS series.
A large part of “Sons & Daughters” takes place in flashback, as Vance’s daughter Kayla (a returning Naomi Grace) is a witness to a coffee shop bombing a year before her father’s death. The incident prompts Kayla to start a private organization looking into extremist threats. The suspect’s father then goes on the warpath to avenge his son. The episode’s title is not subtle whatsoever.
While it’s fantastic to see Rocky Carroll again in these flashbacks, they have the knock-on effect of reminding NCIS fans how unnecessary it was to kill off Vance in the first place. The interim director appointed after him, whom audiences never saw on-screen once, is said to have taken another job. And this plotline is a setup for McGee’s nemesis Gabriel Laroche (Seamus Dever, also making a return) to try and become Director; he plans to clear Vance’s name in the media solely for his own good PR. But NCIS already did the Laroche clawing for power bit with McGee; there’s nothing new here, either for the characters or the show as a whole.
The B-story involves McGee’s son Mateo Garcia, who shows up to get a tour of NCIS operations. McGee is hopeful that Mateo will want to join the agency and follow in his footsteps. Given that all of these scenes feel like filler, the last-minute plot twist of Mateo actually working for someone is no shock. Making him an agent for an unknown “they” comes across as a retroactive explanation for his existence. None of this is the fault of actor Patrick Keleher, but the cliffhanger of either Mateo or Nick Torres getting shot isn’t that interesting because the audience has never been invested in Mateo as an individual character. And in general, ending NCIS Season 23 on a cliffhanger is almost expected—since so many TV dramas utilize open endings in a not always necessary bid to coax viewers back next season.
NCIS is one of those shows that doesn’t need to pitch for attention. It has 23 seasons of cache. And the general theme of parents and children has been done better before, such as in the landmark episode “A Thousand Yards.” Is this a bad finale? Not in the sense that it’s entertaining. But it feels like there is more that could’ve been done here than bringing back an old villain and putting the bulk of the weight on two guest characters, even if they are the children of main characters. The NCIS Season 23 finale could’ve appointed a new director, for one idea—or simply not killed the old one. It could’ve told a serial bombing story that had nothing to do with the past, and made the case of the week element as big as the promos made it out to be. Finales are typically the exclamation point at the end of a season; instead, this is half a story that the audience won’t fully embrace until Season 24.
NCIS airs Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Photo Credit: Courtesy of CBS.
Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.
