This story contains spoilers for the March 24th episode of NCIS.
NCIS fans will appreciate your privacy during this difficult time.
Director Leon Vance (played by Rocky Carroll) was killed off during the long-running crime procedural’s 500th episode on March 24th.
In a shocking twist, Carroll’s character, who appeared during Season 5 of the CBS drama in 2008, was killed in a shootout with a corrupt investigator and then welcomed into heaven by young chief medical examiner Donald “Ducky” Mallard (Adam Campbell).
And while fans may have been caught off guard by Vance’s death, Carroll was proud that his emotional farewell to his on-screen alter ego remained a surprise until the milestone episode aired.
“My biggest concern is, with the advent of social media, can you keep a secret like this,” the 62-year-old told Variety in an interview published March 24, “Sometimes it gets leaked from the most dubious of sources. So the fact that this hasn’t been widely reported online, or that the majority of people outside of CBS and some people still don’t know about this, is pretty amazing.”
