Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS are ahead for the 500th episode of NCIS on CBS in the 2026 TV schedule, called "All Good Things" and available streaming with a Paramount+ subscription.
NCIS had a major milestone to celebrate in the latest episode of Season 23, but fans probably weren't exactly cheering by the time the final credits rolled with Director Leon Vance no longer among the living. Yes, the long-running drama killed off Vance in the 500th episode, which could lead to the biggest shift in the series since Mark Harmon left as Gibbs. As it turns out, actor Rocky Carroll didn't have much time to prepare, and his knee-jerk reaction is pretty understandable.
In the 500th episode that one star had already teased to be "atypical" for NCIS, Vance went all-out to save the agency after it was being shut down. He was in more action than he's typically needed for as the director, but alas, Vance was betrayed and shot. The episode did give the character just about as nice a sendoff as possible within the time constraints, using young Ducky (played by Adam Campbell) to more or less usher him to the afterlife.
Vance is gone, but surely not forgotten as the agency gets back up and running for the rest of Season 23. Rocky Carroll spoke with Variety about the game-changer and the brief window of time he had to prepare for the death of his longtime character:
All this happened pretty quickly. I was told in November that ‘two episodes from now, we’re shooting this episode where your character meets his demise.’ And I was like, ‘this is happening in two episodes? So I’ve got basically about four weeks to get ready to do this.’
Considering that the cast was celebrating the 500th episode with an on-set party back in early December, Rocky Carroll not only had a limited amount of time to prepare himself, but has also had to keep the secret for several months now. While he seems to be on board with the storytelling choice by this point in the spring, fans are likely going to be able to relate to his "knee-jerk response" to getting the news back in November. He went on:
I had this kind of knee-jerk response, 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 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?' So, yeah, that was my rebuttal.
Why indeed?! Carroll certainly makes a good point. NCIS found a way to write out Gibbs (Mark Harmon) without killing him off back in 2021. Coté de Pablo and Michael Weatherly got their own spinoff with NCIS: Tony & Ziva, although it was cancelled after one season. Emily Wickersham even reprised her role as Bishop just weeks before the 500th episode. Why did Vance have to die, while so many others were just written off alive and well?
Well, the EPs had an answer for Rocky Carroll after that knee-jerk rebuttal, and it was enough to convince the actor/director that Vance dying was a good choice. Noting that Vance comfortably retiring "absolutely" wouldn't have had the same impact as dying in the line of duty, Carroll said:
And again, it’s 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.’
"Spectacular" doesn't have to mean "happy," as is clearly the case now with the sudden death of Vance. I do have to give credit to the show for actually delivering such a shocker, since NCIS agents have a knack of surviving the seemingly unsurvivable during cases of the week. The fact that it wasn't spoiled ahead of time is even more impressive, and Carroll explained why he came around to the storyline in the end:
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. And I would say the great thing about dying on camera is that weeks later, you get to sit and do an interview and talk about it.
Considering that Rocky Carroll has directed nearly thirty episodes of NCIS over the past decade, it's no surprise that he could look at Vance's death from a wider story perspective instead of just mourning his own character. In fact, according to TVLine, Carroll was already back on the NCIS set to direct an episode just a month after they filmed the 500th episode, so the end of his time as Vance doesn't mean the end of his work in the franchise.
Based on the promo, it looks like Episode 501 will take a moment to honor Vance before getting back to business as usual. Take a look:
See what's next for the team in the wake of Vance's demise (and Parker's return) with new episodes of NCIS on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, followed by NCIS: Origins at 9 p.m. ET and then NCIS: Sydney at 10 p.m. ET. You can also revisit earlier episodes streaming now via Paramount+.
