NCIS just killed off a predominant character within the five hundredth episode — and the forged member opened up about the way it “was not” their selection to go away the show.
Through the Tuesday, March 24, episode of the hit CBS series, Rocky Carroll‘s character, Leon Vance, was shot by a CID agent. Initially, it looked like Vance was wearing a vest but he ultimately bled out from the fatal gunshot wounds.
“No, it was not my selection,” Carroll, who has been on NCIS since 2008, told TV Insider. “It was mainly presented to me that the studio and the network desired to do something really spectacular, really big, and something that will really send shockwaves through the NCIS fan base and the community.”
Carroll recalled executive producer Steven D. Binder breaking down the vision.
“Well, the agency, NCIS, as we understand it, is in deep peril and is in peril of becoming extinct, of folding over into one other agency because there’s a nefarious character working behind the scenes to sabotage the agency. And Director Vance figures out who it’s,” he explained. “And within the strategy of saving the agency, he loses his life. It’s an incredible story. You desire to hear more? And I believed, ‘Wait, let’s return a minute. Back as much as the part where you say in saving the agency, he loses his life.’”
The actor was capable of understand what led to the choice, adding, “I assume the dramaturge and the director in me, after 23 years, you’ve just about told every story, and loads of them you’ve told greater than once. So, when it was laid all out, and after they did tell me the entire plot line and the story, my first thought, completely candidly, was, ‘It’s actually a terrific story.’”
While reflecting on his time on NCIS, Carroll said he didn’t expect to play Vance for nearly twenty years.
“It’s been quite a run. And I used to be so happy with the episode,” he added. “There’s an excessive amount of good to be depressed about it.”
NCIS sent Vance out on a high with a montage of him through the years with Gibbs (Mark Harmon), Tony (Michael Weatherly), Ziva (Cote de Pablo), Ducky (David McCallum), McGee, Abby (Pauley Perrette), Bishop (Emily Wickersham) and the present NCIS team.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Well, you’re emotional, but you may’t be that way for the episode,’” Carroll continued. “If this had happened in my third season as Director Vance, it could’ve been a much different feeling. But after 18, after my character’s lived two lifetimes mainly in TV world, and I said, ‘To play a personality for 18 seasons on considered one of the most-watched TV shows on this planet is the comparable to having lived to be 105.’ In my world, it’s like in the event you go to a memorial service for someone who lived to be 105, your thought is, yeah, I’m sorry he’s gone, but I mean, geez, he lived to be 105. That’s form of how I feel about my character.”
Binder also weighed in on the shocking shakeup.
“There have all the time been real stakes,” he told the outlet. “It isn’t easy to say goodbye to any of our characters, but we desired to honor Rocky and his legacy on the show as best as we could — on this case, giving his life so his agency could live.”
Looking ahead, Binder promised that the team “will probably be grieving,” saying, “But we felt it essential that, at the tip of the episode, the team is just as focused on Vance’s sacrifice as they’re on their loss. Vance died to guard all of them. And they’ll honor that by putting one foot in front of the opposite, and just continuing on their mission to guard and safeguard their country.”
NCIS airs on CBS Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.