NCIS Boss Explains [Spoiler]’s Return From the Dead in Season 23 Finale

The NCIS Season 23 finale may have ended on a massive cliffhanger, but the episode was a special one for long-term fans as it featured the comeback of a beloved character. With the former NCIS director Leon Vance’s (Rocky Carroll) return from the dead for a flashback sequence, showrunner Steven D. Binder has broken down the fan-favorite character’s unexpected reappearance in the police procedural series’ latest episode.

Steven D. Binder talks Vance’s return in NCIS Season 23 finale

In a recent interview, the veteran producer revealed that they had always intended to bring back Vance after killing him off in the show’s milestone 500th episode.

“I wouldn’t say a plan, just a clear understanding that after what happened to him in [Episode] 500 that we would see him again,” Steven D. Binder noted to TVLine. “We’ve done this before with other characters, and there was no way we weren’t going to do it with this character. We were going to see him either in flashbacks, or in people’s heads like Jiminy Cricket. So it was always the plan. The timing wasn’t necessarily planned out, but it quickly became apparent to us that we needed to see him again.”

The NCIS Season 23 finale sees Rocky Carroll’s Leon Vance return to the setting in a flashback scene. He counsels his daughter Kayla (Naomi Grace) following a series of bombings. The episode features the father-daughter duo engaging in a tussle regarding her future, only for Vance to settle the matter by leaving an emotional note from beyond the grave, encouraging her to forge her own path.

Furthermore, the NCIS boss addressed how Kayla’s return led to Vance’s comeback. He shared, “We needed to bring her in, and when you bring her in, it just seemed like, ‘Let’s see a daughter and her father together.’ How do you not do that?”

Talking about the possibilities of Vance returning for future NCIS installments, Steven D. Binder expressed a sense of skepticism. He stated, “We’re going to, as we often do, let figuring out the best stories guide us in that. We don’t have checklists of things we necessarily want to hit.”

Moreover, Binder provided the example of Diane coming back as a projection of Gibbs’ mind in the Season 16 finale. He stated that “the idea of seeing Vance be that guy seems too juicy. Because when he’s the [NCIS] director, there’s a certain level of decorum. But when he’s just the guy in your ear, you know, the gloves are off.”

Meanwhile, CBS has already renewed NCIS for Season 24.