‘NCIS’ Shocker As Veteran Cast Member Exits In Series’ 500th Episode

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains details about the NCIS 500th episode that aired on Tuesday, March 24.

NCIS celebrated a milestone on CBS, airing its 500th episode, and it killed off one of the beloved characters from the long-running military police procedural.

The latest episode of the series saw Rocky Carroll‘s Director Leon Vance defend the NCIS team as the agency was shut down by the Department of Defense. Leon was able to restore NCIS, but the twist that shocked viewers was when he was shot to death by a corrupt agent.

In an interview with TVLine, Carroll clarified that he “was not the catalyst for this happening,” adding, “I also don’t think at the beginning of the season that it was planned.”

Carroll joined the show in Season 5 in a recurring role before getting bumped to series regular in Season 6. The actor noted that the episode was shot at the end of November and beginning of December, and he found out his character was dying “two episodes before we shot it.”

The idea to kill off Director Vance came from executive producer Steven D. Binder, who ran the idea by Carroll, telling him they wanted to send “shockwaves through the TV community and the fan base” with the landmark episode.

From a viewer’s perspective, Carroll quickly said it was “a great story,” but said that “The only thing that surprised me more than being told what the story was and how it was going to impact my character was how quickly I was able to kind of come to terms with it.”

Carroll had been playing the character for 18 seasons and never imagined he would be on the show for as long as he was.

“I would have loved to have been one of the characters who was there for the very last episode, when they board up the windows, and when they officially do say, ‘All right, it’s time for everybody to turn off the lights and go home.’ You’d like to be one of the last men standing,” he added. “But after 18 seasons, I couldn’t have asked for more.”

Carroll said that he felt his “character really kind of came full circle,” and according to Binder, the 500th episode was “a tribute and a love letter” to his character, which will now live in TV history.