Rocky Carroll Explains Why the NCIS Season 21 Finale is ‘Personal’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Rocky Carroll discussed the personal end to NCIS Season 21 and why he believes that this finale is set apart from previous ones.
The finale features Director Leon Vance, Carroll’s character, offering Agent Jessica Knight a position in a different leg of the agency, filling in a role—Special Agent-in-Charge of the NCIS Far East Field Office—that her father used to hold.
“It’s a legacy offer, her dad’s position that she was interested in at some point,” Carroll told TV Insider. “I also think Vance knows that Agent Knight is at a crossroads personally and professionally, and a change of venue, a change of scenery might do her good.”
“[Vance] knows that sometimes change of location allows you to clear your head,” he continued. “There’s a lot of things going on personally—her relationship with Jimmy [Palmer], her relationship with her dad…I think he’s thinking a fresh start might just be the thing for her.”
As with all NCIS season finales, the episode also promises an especially intense case with a cliffhanger and loose ends to be wrapped up in Season 22.
The episode, titled “Reef Madness,” sees Knight and Special Agent Alden Parker “discover three bodies aboard an old Navy ship that’s about to be sunk and turned into an artificial reef — and then are suddenly locked inside by a mysterious figure.”
However, despite the routine finish, Carroll believes Season 21’s finale offers something unique.
“[This is] a bit more personal [than previous ones]. A lot of times the other season finales or cliffhangers have been dealing specifically with a case or some global threat or something like that,” Carroll said. “But now you have one of our main characters who has to make a personal decision as well. So I think it stands alone in that aspect.”
Katrina Law, who plays Knight, told ET that “there is a lot of soul-searching that goes on during this episode.”
“It’s one of my favorite episodes that I read all season, actually the entire time that I’ve been on NCIS,” she added. “There’s some fundamental changes that are gonna happen to our characters.”
While NCIS has been renewed for Season 22, little has been revealed about what’s next. Carroll hopes to see his character more involved in the future and able to flex his investigative chops.
“Whenever we do our flashbacks, we realize that he spent his time in the field…I do like when we do episodes where you get to see Vance’s investigative skills put to use,” he said. “I’m hoping that we get to do a few more of that.”
“I like when we remind audiences, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s right. He understands. He can walk into a room and lay out forensically what happened,’” Carroll added. “I like when we get a chance to see him dust off those skills.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Carroll:
Rocky Carroll, who plays Director Vance on NCIS, explained why the cast’s approach to the show has allowed it to endure and how the 1,000th episode exemplified their work ethic.
“We know how rare the air that we’re in right now, we know how rare it is. When we have guest stars, and people come from the outside, and they talk to us, and they go, ‘Man, you guys have something really special here,” Carroll told PEOPLE.
“But we don’t spend a lot of time relishing or celebrating in the end zone because we got a work day to finish,” he continued. “I think that’s part of the reason why this show has been on for so long is because people come to work, and they’re like, ‘Hey, let’s make another episode,’ with the same energy they had 15, 20 seasons ago.”
Carroll believes this approach to the work was clearly seen in the 1,000th episode, which, although celebrated with the public, received little fanfare during filming.
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