The Worst Timothy McGee Storyline In NCIS

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https://www.looper.com/818025/the-wo...yline-in-ncis/

McGee didn't want Gibbs' job

In "NCIS" Season 19, Episode 4 ("Great Wide Open"), NCIS Special Agent in Charge Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) takes a much-deserved and semi-permanent vacation in Alaska, quickly necessitating the appointment of his replacement at NCIS. A quick review of the NCIS Major Case Response Team would prove that veteran NCIS Special Agent Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) is the senior-most agent. However, NCIS Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) appoints FBI Agent Alden Parker (Gary Cole) instead. Not only is this choice strange given Parker's unfamiliarity with the agency, but it would also seem to run counter to the history of the "NCIS" franchise.

Not only did McGee hold the position of team leader in the immediate aftermath of Gibbs' suspension in Season 18, this actually isn't even the first time that Gibbs has quit his job. In Season 3, Episode 24 ("Hiatus Part II"), Gibbs turns in his badge and moves to Mexico. Of course, his first retirement doesn't last long, but in the interim period, Gibbs' position is filled by NCIS Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), the agent then occupying the very same senior position that McGee holds at the time of Gibbs' second retirement.

McGee later explains that he didn't want the job because he doesn't want to turn out like Gibbs. Not only does this choice seem wildly out of character for a dedicated agent like McGee, but the justification also simply seems wrong. McGee says that the job became all consuming for Gibbs and he doesn't want that. Indeed, Gibbs' work life often seemed to fill the heartache left by the deaths of his wife and daughter. However, McGee is lucky enough to have a thriving family life at home. Therefore, it seems somewhat strange for him to turn down such a surely lucrative step forward in his career.