NCIS Season 24 Is Paving the Way for Nick Torres’ Exit

The following contains spoilers for NCIS Season 24, Episode 3, “Sleeping Dogs,” which aired on CBS on Tuesday, October 20, 2026.

NCIS Season 24 gives Special Agent Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) a career upgrade that could ultimately take him away from the team. In Episode 3, “Sleeping Dogs,” Torres’ undercover identity, Dante Navaro, becomes connected to an NCIS case, leading him back to his former handler, Walt Keller (Mike O’Malley), and into a new side job with the CIA that offers him a clear path beyond NCIS.

It’s a massive season for NCIS, with major legends returning to the franchise in all its fall shows. Michael Weatherly has reprised Tony DiNozzo for NCIS Season 24, and Mark Harmon and LL Cool J have also reprised their characters in NCIS: Origins and NCIS: New York, respectively. Still, it’s a standout season for the flagship.

Nick Torres’ Exit Path Is Clear In NCIS Season 24

While it’s unclear where his new job will take him, Nick Torres accepting Walt Keller’s offer to team up on his undercover CIA gig clears his exit path. Nick knows Keller from his past undercover work; the handler notes that he recruited the special agent right out of FLETC. After they reunite, Keller convinces Nick to keep working with him.

Keller pushes Nick to see that Dante Navaro is who he really is, and Nick Torres and his “cushy desk job” at NCIS is the real disguise. Nick doesn’t want to believe it at first, but ultimately admits to himself and Alden Parker (Gary Cole) that he enjoyed the horrible things he did undercover and how alive he felt afterward.

So Nick considers the deep-cover CIA work that Keller wants to team up on. After they solve the case, Nick tells the team leader that, weirdly, the investigation put him on the path to figuring out who he is, and he comes to Keller’s cabin at the end of “Sleeping Dogs” to discuss the job.

Keller pitched the CIA gig as a side job, but the deep-cover work could ultimately demand more of Nick, or he may enjoy it more than his NCIS cases. Either way, Nick may feel pulled to make his new side project full-time, which could prompt him to separate from his NCIS team and even exit the series.

NCIS has already shown that this is a viable route for a character’s exit. In NCIS Season 18, Ellie Bishop (Emily Wickersham) leaves NCIS to do deep undercover work on a top-secret CIA mission with Odette Malone (Elayn J. Taylor). NCIS could be repeating the story, or it could all be part of a larger arc this season.

NCIS Season 24 Is Quietly Setting Up A Massive CIA Story

Wilmer Valderrama as Nick Torres and Sean Murray as Timothy McGee in NCIS Season 23 — Still from NCIS Season 23

Nick’s undercover work could tie into the larger CIA plot NCIS is developing for Season 24. In NCIS Season 24, Episode 2, the team’s case intersects with one of the CIA’s ongoing investigations when they learn the intelligence agency deployed the tactical team that broke into Greg (Michael McMillian) and Linda Fenwick’s (Erica Piccininni) home.

The team identifies CIA Agent Russell Cross (Emerson Brooks) in the security footage that NCIS Forensic Scientist Kasie Hines (Diona Reasonover) pulls from the couple’s robot vacuum. He goes on to explain the bigger picture, telling NCIS that the CIA has become aware of a potentially massive infiltration of the country by long-term deep-cover operatives.

Cross tells NCIS he doesn’t know how big the group is or what their motivations are, only that they have been in the US for years. He tells them Greg and Linda Fenwick’s cell is the agency’s first lead, revealing both are deep-cover spies and setting up a story that could run through NCIS Season 24.

While the team is mostly out of the loop for now, Director DiNozzo later tells Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) that something bad is coming down the pike and that it’s concerning a lot of people. So the team ultimately lets Linda go, hoping she stays in the field, since she is their only lead into the cell’s activities.

So Nick and Keller’s undercover work could tie into the CIA’s investigation into deep-cover operatives in the country. That said, Nick’s work could link back to NCIS’s initial case rather than his exit. Still, while Valderrama seems settled and his exit hasn’t been announced, NCIS has cleared the runway for Nick’s departure in “Sleeping Dogs.”

Rearrange the anime series into the correct Japanese release order.

Overall, NCIS Season 24 marks a new era, as Tony DiNozzo becomes NCIS Director, Secretary of the Navy Helen Marsh (Jillian Armenante) considers McGee for her job, and DiNozzo encourages McGee to take on a mentee. The developments hint at changes to NCIS‘s core team, and Nick’s story could be part of that overall restructure.

Release Date: September 23, 2003
Showrunner: Steven D. Binder
Directors: Dennis Smith, Terrence O’Hara, Tony Wharmby, James Whitmore Jr., Thomas J. Wright, Michael Zinberg, Arvin Brown, Rocky Carroll, Diana Valentine, Leslie Libman, Tawnia McKiernan, Colin Bucksey, William Webb, Bethany Rooney, Alrick Riley, Jeff Woolnough, Alan J. Levi, Lionel Coleman, Martha Mitchell, Peter Ellis, Michael Weatherly, Edward Ornelas, Stephen Cragg, Tom Wright
Writers: Donald P. Bellisario, Don McGill, Steven D. Binder, David J. North, Gina Lucita Monreal, Christopher J. Waild, Scott Williams, Frank Cardea, George Schenck, Jesse Stern, John C. Kelley, Jennifer Corbett, Christopher Silber, Reed Steiner, Nicole Mirante-Matthews, Jack Bernstein, Scott J. Jarrett, Matthew R. Jarrett, Kimberly-Rose Wolter, Gil Grant, Frank Military, Nell Scovell, Steven Kriozere, Brian Dietzen, Kate Torgovnick May, Jeff Vlaming, Sydney Mitchel, Katie White, Richard C. Arthur, Laurence Walsh