NCIS Premiere Brings Tony DiNozzo Back and Offers Him Director Role

NCIS opened its 24th season on October 6 with the return of Tony DiNozzo and an answer to the previous season’s cliffhanger: Tony was the person shot during the confrontation involving Nick Torres and Timothy McGee’s son, Mateo. The premiere, “Wayward Son,” also set up a possible change in agency leadership, as Secretary of the Navy Jillian Armenante offered Tony the director’s job after Gabriel LaRoche was fired. Tony, played by Michael Weatherly, had returned to Washington to establish a satellite office for his private security company. He joined McGee and Torres as they investigated why Mateo had taken classified information from NCIS. According to the episode recap, criminals had used Mateo to get access to the Secretary of the Navy’s daughter and kidnap her. The team rescued her, found Mateo and determined who had pressured him to steal the information. LaRoche, played by Seamus Dever, had benched McGee and Torres while overseeing the team. At the end of the episode, Armenante approached Tony about leading NCIS, having previously offered him a deputy director position that he declined. With LaRoche fired, she pressed him to take the director role. Showrunner Steven D.