NCIS Star Rocky Carroll Breaks Down Episode 500's Shocking Twist: 'I Couldn't Have Asked For More'

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Tuesday's 500th episode of "NCIS." 

"NCIS" hit 500 episodes this week... but the celebration turned out to be a memorial.

In Tuesday's milestone installment, the NCIS team was stunned when their agency was shut down by the Department of Defense. But Rocky Carroll's Director Vance fiercely defended his team as they raced to prove the innocence of a petty officer accused of murder — who was the sister, incidentally, of a kid Gibbs helped way back in the show's second episode ever. Vance eventually helped clear the petty officer's name and got NCIS restored to its former glory... but he paid with his life, shot dead by a corrupt agent. 

It was a stunning twist for fans who've watched Carroll lead the way as Vance for the past 18 years. (He joined "NCIS" back in 2008, midway through Season 5.) So naturally, TVLine had to reach out to Carroll to get the inside story behind Vance's shocking death — it was the producers' idea, not his — and what it meant to have Ducky be the one to lead Vance into the afterlife. (Plus, here's some good news, "NCIS" fans: Carroll will be back behind the camera to direct more episodes in the future.)  

TVLINE | My condolences on the passing of Leon Vance. How did this storyline come about? Did you ask to leave the show? Or did the writers approach you with this idea?
I was not the catalyst for this happening. I also don't think at the beginning of the season that it was planned. Because we shot this episode at the end of November, the beginning of December, and I think I found out two episodes before we shot it.

TVLINE | Wow.
Our executive producer Steven D. Binder came into my trailer and said, "Hey, we've got an idea for the 500th episode. We want to do something that really sends shockwaves through the TV community and the fan base, and your character is central to the storyline." I was like, "I'm interested." So he proceeds to tell me the storyline that the agency comes under fire, and it's on the verge of being dismantled and folded into another agency, and... Director Vance saves the agency, and in the process of saving the agency, he loses his life. "It's a great story. It's gonna be really huge." And my first thought was, "Back up to the part again: He saves the agency and loses his life?"

So after having a bit of an out-of-body experience with that, the creative side of me, the director in me, the storyteller in me... After 23 seasons, we've told a lot of stories, and we've told a lot of them more than once. So, as odd as this may sound, my first thought was: "That's a great story." [Laughs] Nobody's gonna see it coming. So the part of me that's the team player was instantly like, "That's a hell of a storyline. I think that's going to be really great."

I say this in all sincerity: 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. Because I've been playing this character for 18 seasons. 18 seasons is a lot. I feel like being a series regular on a hit show for 18 years is such an anomaly to begin with. The show is on for 23 years, with a 24th season already promised. I never thought that I would be doing this show and playing this character for 18 consecutive seasons. When I started, the show was already five years in. It was towards the end of the fifth season when my character was introduced, and I literally thought when I joined the series that I was coming in probably on the tail end. If it went seven or eight seasons, it would have been a great run. I think 'The Sopranos' ran for six seasons. One of the most critically acclaimed shows in history was less than 10 years. We're now past decade number two.

And yes, 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. But after 18 seasons, I couldn't have asked for more. If somebody had told me 18 years ago, you're gonna do this show for nearly two decades, I would have bet the farm against that. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized if there's ever a time to write a story where your character is a central figure of it, and there's closure... I don't know what the end of "NCIS" will ultimately be, but at least I feel like my character really kind of came full circle. With the 500th episode, Steve Binder said his objective was, "I want this to be a tribute and a love letter to your character." And I think that's what we accomplished.

TVLINE | Vance goes out swinging, too. He's defending his team's actions while taking questions from this unknown authority figure. This is the most passionate we've seen Vance in a while. What kind of emotions do you think were running through his mind when he's having this intense interrogation?
I think the great thing, the way it was structured, was that, you know, for those who don't remember, before Vance became director of NCIS, he was also an agent. He was also an investigator. So the Grim Reaper basically says, "I want you to use all your investigative skills, and all your skills as an agent and investigator, to piece together your story here, so that before you walk toward the light, you have an understanding not only of what happened to you, but also the one thing we don't get in real life." You don't get to see the ripple effect of your life. Once you're gone, you don't get this. You know, the great thing about dying in the make-believe world is now I get to see the aftermath of what effect you had on people and what effect your character had. Tonight, I'm going to be a Screen Actors Guild screening, and we're going to watch the show at 8 o'clock, like the rest of the world is going to watch it in real time. And then we're going to do a Q&A. It's like I'm going to be at my own funeral. [Laughs] That's the one great upside about dying as a character. I get to stick around for my own memorial.

At first, people were sort of hesitant of the fact that it was such a sudden and final change. Vance wasn't going off to the Caribbean fishing boat, or he mysteriously disappeared, only to show up again six episodes later, or something like that. We've had a lot of characters who've come and gone from the show. Cote de Pablo, Michael Weatherly, Mark Harmon. As far as we know, Gibbs is still fishing in Alaska. So we could have taken the route to say, "Vance's plane is missing somewhere over the Andes mountains somewhere," and three episodes later, we find him. But I think what we really wanted to do is not give a soft landing with regard to this character, and really kind of bring it full circle.

The most macabre compliment, I guess, to my work on the show was when an executive producer said, "The thought of killing off Director Vance has existed for more than 10 years as a possible plot, but because of what you brought to the character, and because of the chemistry with Mark Harmon and everyone else, every time we thought about it, we're like, 'No, we can't do that.'" But when you're 23 seasons in, if you're not going to do it, are you going to do it in Season 30? If you're going to do something this impactful, you better do it now, because there's no guarantee that there's another five years on, for a show that's in its 23rd season. So it all made sense to me. As an actor, most of my friends who do what I do have spent the last 18 years looking for work. I spent the last 18 years on one of the most beloved shows on the planet.

TVLINE | There was a reflective tone to this whole episode, with NCIS being shut down, and Vance saying, "I was always hoping I was building something that would outlast me." Were you feeling reflective on set, knowing that this was your final episode?
I was. But honestly, a month later, after we shot the episode, I was back in the director's chair directing an episode. As soon as this episode was laid out and introduced to me, it was followed up with, "We'd still love for you to come back and direct more episodes." So it didn't feel as final. And you know, we've also cornered the market on bringing characters back in flashbacks. We call them "ghost stars." We have more ghost stars on our show than anybody. If one of the writers next season needs somebody with sage advice somewhere, you can always have a flashback where [Vance] is talking to somebody. I might be more busy as a ghost than in real life.

TVLINE | It's good to hear that you'll be back as a director. I know that you've directed almost 30 episodes now, so you're still part of the family behind the camera.
Yeah, which also helped. Even when we shot the last scene, it was very emotional, the camera, cast, and crew, because these are people that I've been working with for almost two decades now. We watched each other's kids grow up. My daughter was six years old when I started on "NCIS." She'll be 25 in May. So it's the only job she's known me to have. I tell her, for an actor to work one job, one character, on a hit series for 18 seasons, it's an anomaly. To me, it's the equivalent of living to be 105. My joke is, you go to a memorial service for somebody who lived to be 105, there's kind of a dual sense of, "Yeah, it's too bad he's gone. But I mean, jeez, he lived to be 105." So I kind of feel that way with this character. He had a great run.

TVLINE | When Vance realized he's dead, this interrogator that he'd been speaking to turned out to be Ducky, played in his younger form by Adam Campbell. Was he kind of the perfect person to help guide Vance into the afterlife?
Absolutely. And I think, you know, were David McCallum still with us, it would have been him. But what I thought was a brilliant piece of writing is that, because David McCallum is no longer with us, and Young Ducky was a character, we didn't create it just for this episode. It made perfect sense, because he embodied the past and the present. He embodied the spirit life, and [was] also one of the most beloved characters. Having the honor to work with David McCallum was one of those things that you just say with so much pride. The real fun part about this was Adam Campbell has done several episodes as Young Ducky, but Young Ducky and Vance were never in any scenes together, because that was Gibbs' past. So this was actually the first time that we found a way for these two people to be in the same room together.

TVLINE | And we did get to hear Vance say hi to Jackie and reunite with his late wife, which was a really sweet touch. Was that the last scene you shot, actually, walking through those doors?
It was. Walking into the light was the last thing we shot, literally being in Vance's office and kind of coming to terms with it. It was the last thing we shot on the last day of the episode. So you didn't have to manufacture any emotion. It was all right there.

TVLINE | You've been on "NCIS" for 18 years now. When you look back on your time on the show, what stands out to you the most, in terms of what you'll take with you?
Well, I've said this before, but Charles Barkley always talks about his career as a basketball player and says, "I've never worked a day in my life." I've been able to do the thing that I love. Most people don't do the thing that they love for a living. They work a job so they can do the thing that they love on the side. And for me, it's been the opposite. Also, as an actor, for 18 seasons, and with all the changes in the landscape of the entertainment industry, for this show to still remain constant, it's been a real gift. I think that's the thing that I could take away from it.

I knew going into this, having had a relationship with Mark Harmon before "NCIS," because we were on "Chicago Hope" together, and having been a series regular on other CBS shows, and just being part of the CBS family, this was sort of the second time that the executives at the network said, "Hey, we want you to be a part of one of our signature shows." And my takeaway is I still feel connected to it. I still feel part of the CBS family. And you know, it's been a great run. Look, what I love best about what I do for a living as an actor, unlike being an athlete, unlike Charles Barkley, you can't play in the NBA at 60 years old. I can actually look around and think about the future and creative endeavors with the same energy I had 25 years ago. So it's a real gift.