NCIS just killed off a main character in the 500th episode, and the cast member talked about how it “wasn’t” his decision to leave the show.
During the Tuesday, March 24 episode of the hit CBS series, rocky carrollLeon Vance’s character was shot by a CID agent. Initially, it appeared that Vance was wearing a vest, but he eventually bled out from fatal gunshot wounds.
“No, it wasn’t my choice,” said Carroll, who has been in NCIS since 2008, he said Television Insider. “Basically it was presented to me that the studio and the network wanted to do something really spectacular, really big, and something that would really shock the NCIS fan base and the community.”
Carroll recalled that executive producer Steven D. Binder discussed the vision.
“Well, the NCIS agency as we know it is in grave danger and in danger of going extinct, of merging with another agency because there is a nefarious character working behind the scenes to sabotage the agency. And Director Vance finds out who it is,” he explained. “And in the process of saving the agency, he loses his life. It’s a great story. Do you want to hear more? And I thought, ‘Wait, let’s back up a minute. Let’s go back to the part where you say that in saving the agency, he loses his life.'”
The actor could understand what led to the decision, adding: “I guess the playwright and director in me, after 23 years, you’ve told pretty much every story, and many of them you’ve told more than once. So when it was all laid out, and when they told me the whole plot and the story, my first thought, quite frankly, was, ‘Actually, it’s a fantastic story.'”
As he reflects on his time in NCISCarroll said he didn’t expect to play Vance for nearly two decades.
“It was a great race. And I was very proud of the episode,” he added. “There is too much good to be depressed about it.”
NCIS sent Vance over the top with a montage of him through the years with Gibbs (Marcos Harmon), tony (Michael Weatherly), Ziva (Paul Coasto), duckling (David McCallum), McGee, Abby (Pauley Perrette), bishop (Emily Wickersham) and the current NCIS equipment.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Well, you’re excited, but you can’t be like that during the episode,’” Carroll continued. “If this had happened in my third season as director Vance, it would have been a very different feeling. But after I was 18, after my character lived basically two lives in the television world, I said, ‘Playing a character for 18 seasons on one of the most watched television shows in the world is the equivalent of having lived to be 105.’ In my world, it’s like you go to a memorial service for someone who lived to be 105 and your thought is, yeah, I’m sorry he’s gone, but I mean, geez, he lived to be 105. That’s how I feel about my character.”
Binder also weighed in on the shocking restructuring.
“The stakes have always been high,” he told the outlet. “It’s never easy to say goodbye to any of our characters, but we wanted to honor Rocky and his legacy on the show as best we could – in this case, giving his life so his agency could live on.”
Looking ahead, Binder promised that the team will “grieve,” saying, “But we felt it was important that, at the end of the episode, the team was as focused on Vance’s sacrifice as they were on his loss. Vance died to protect them all. And they’re going to honor that by putting one foot in front of the other and just continuing their mission to protect and safeguard their country.”
NCIS airs on CBS on Tuesdays at 8 pm ET.