Why did Rocky leave NCIS? Carroll says the decision was never his

The reason wasn't a contract, a feud, or a plan of Carroll's own.

It was the studio and the network's call. Carroll told TV Insider after the episode aired that leaving was not his choice, and that showrunner Steven D. Binder came to his trailer to pitch him a 500th-episode story in which Vance saves NCIS and dies doing it. Carroll had played Vance since season 5 in 2008 — roughly 392 episodes.

"No, it was not my choice," Carroll told TV Insider in March 2026.

What happens to Vance

The season-23 arc had NCIS absorbed into Army CID and facing extinction, with somebody inside sabotaging the agency. Vance works out who.

• The bomb — he finds an explosive planted in the NCIS evidence garage, meant to destroy incriminating evidence, and defuses it.
• The shot — corrupt CID agent Dolan Thompson (Matt Cook) shoots him. He's wearing a vest.
• The bleed-out — the vest isn't enough. McGee, Palmer, and Parker can't stop it.
• The send-off — as he dies, Vance sees a young Ducky Mallard, played by Adam Campbell, standing in for David McCallum, who died in 2023.

What Carroll has said about it

He's been consistent that he had no say and equally consistent that he liked the episode. Describing Binder's pitch to USA Today, he recalled the line that stopped him: "And in the process of saving the agency, he loses his life." He told Variety he's proud of the send-off, and pointed out the arithmetic — one character, one show, 18 seasons, which he reckons is the television equivalent of living to 105.

Is Vance definitely dead?

Yes. There's no ambiguity in the staging: the vest, the vision, the body. The 500th episode was built to shock the fanbase, which was the studio's stated brief.

For the record: Carroll didn't only act on NCIS. He directed for it regularly, and remains one of the franchise's more prolific behind-camera hands.