NCIS Kills Off Major Character After 18 Years
NCIS said goodbye to a longtime character on the March 24 episode. Here’s what actor Rocky Carroll said about the shocking death in the series’ 500th episode.
NCIS Kills Off Major Character After 18 Years
NCIS said goodbye to a longtime character on the March 24 episode. Here’s what actor Rocky Carroll said about the shocking death in the series’ 500th episode.
NCIS Kills Off Major Character After 18 Years
NCIS said goodbye to a longtime character on the March 24 episode. Here’s what actor Rocky Carroll said about the shocking death in the series’ 500th episode.
This story contains spoilers from the March 24 episode of NCIS.
NCIS is giving a farewell salute to a beloved character.
The crime procedural said goodbye to Director Leon Vance (played by Rocky Carroll) on the March 24 episode, 18 years after the leader’s debut in season five. During the 500th episode, Vance was killed in a shooting with a corrupt agent and welcomed to heaven by late Chief Medical Examiner Donald “Ducky” Mallard (played by Adam Campbell).
So, how does Carroll feel about leaving the show? Well, he’s had a few months to process his departure since filming the final scene last year.
“I’ve been able to wrap my mind around it and come to terms with it because I’ve known about this since November, when I was first told about what was going to happen,” he told Variety in an interview published March 24. “And the last scene, where Director Vance realizes that he’s been talking to basically the grim reaper, the angel of death, and walks toward the light, that was shot on Dec. 11.”
At this point, the 62-year-old feels he’s been able to “come full circle with it.”
“I really think it’s a great episode,” Carroll continued. “I’m not just saying this to be a team player, but if you’ve gotta send a character off, what a way to go.”
And he credits executive producer Steven D. Binder with writing a meaningful ending for Vance, calling the episode “a real love letter to the character that really summarized his journey and his impact on the show.”
Still, Carroll admitted that he initially questioned why Vance had to be killed off instead of written off another way.
“I had this kind of knee-jerk response,” he noted, “where I remember one of the first things I was saying to our executive producers was: ‘We lose characters all the time, but we sent Gibbs off to Alaska. Tony and Ziva, Bishop, all these characters, they were all able to kind of go on their own free will, always with the thought that they’re gone, but not dead. So if you wanted this character to go, why are we being so final about it, when everybody else just gets sent off to another country?'”
Bill Inoshita/CBS via Getty ImagesBut after sharing his “rebuttal,” the producers told the actor they wanted a big moment for the 500th episode.
“The studio, the network, everybody involved said, ‘We don’t have to put this show on the map—it’s on the map—but we have to remind people why it is one of the most watched shows in the world and has been on as long as it has. Let’s do something spectacular for the 500th episode. And this is what we’ve come up with,'” Carroll recalled. “Once the creative in me and the director in me read the script and got a real good gist of it, I was like, ‘It actually is a great idea.’ It’s a terrific storyline. And you know, actors love dying on camera anyway.”
However, Carroll isn’t completely leaving the NCIS family, as he confirmed he’s coming back to direct.
