All through NCIS’ 22-season run, some finales have been much more memorabl than others, with the Season 22 finale protecting followers in suspense when it hit the 2025 TV schedule Some haved killed off characters large and small, or put them proper at dying’s door, and maybe essentially the most memorable finale dying got here again in Season 2 when Sasha Alexander’s Kate Todd was shot within the head. Whereas it was shocking to viewers on the time, Michael Weatherly truly identified an amusing easter egg that made me immdiately return to observe and spot it.
Within the Season 2 finale, “Twilight,” the workforce tries to go after rogue agent Ari Haswari, who’s working for Hamas and is the chief of an Al-Qaeda cell in D.C. who’d beforehand infiltrated the NCIS morgue. Within the last seconds of the episode, he shoots and kills Kate on the roof of a constructing after every thing appeared to be calm and superb. It was a reasonably stunning dying, particularly so early on within the sequence.
Nonetheless, whereas beforehand talking to Alexander throughout an episode of his and Cote de Pablo’s podcast, Off Obligation: An NCIS Rewatch, Weatherly admitted that eagle-eyed followers might have technically predicted the dying simply earlier than it occurred:
While you acquired that shot to the pinnacle, I used to be standing behind you. And if you happen to watch the scene in gradual movement, it is a little Easter egg for the individuals at dwelling. For those who watch simply earlier than the dot seems that they digitally put there, however there is a blood pack on the again of your head that Larry Fuentes or whoever exploded, and blood goes throughout my face. However Larry was in entrance of me. So I flinch proper earlier than the blood.
Anybody who has been in a state of affairs the place you’re anticipating one thing to occur and you may’t assist however flinch in anticipation know what Weatherly was going via. Take the annoying puff of air that has to go proper in your eye at a watch appointment, for instance. You understand it’s coming, however you don’t know when, and your physique prepares you regardless of how early.
It seems like that’s what occurred with Weatherly, and contemplating he was anticipating some pretend blood to shoot out at him, I don’t blame him for flinching early. It’s humorous {that a} very stunning scene might virtually be predicted because of Weatherly, however fortunately, it’s a kind of “blind and also you’ll miss it” eventualities. And the dying to this present day stays a shock, regardless of what number of occasions you replay it.
For individuals who cannot instantly watch it with a Paramount+ subscription like I did, here is Weatherly’s face within the prompt earlier than the gunshot sounds and the blood hits him.
This does make me surprise if another deaths on NCIS have been by chance spoiled earlier than they occurred, however that’s what’s going to make rewatching the present even higher. Particularly since NCIS received’t be returning for one more few months. The wait will probably be value it, although, assuming there aren’t any extra main deaths for some time.
In the meantime, Kate’s dying modified the course of NCIS shifting ahead. The sequence introduced in de Pablo’s Ziva David, Ari’s sister, as a Mossad liaison officer turned NCIS Particular Agent. She caught round till Season 11, and regardless of Ziva’s supposed dying in Season 13, she got here again for a small arc in Season 16 and 17. Now, she and Weatherly are coming again to the franchise for their very own spinoff, NCIS : Tony & Ziva, streaming within the impending future on Paramount+. Simply suppose: if not for Kate’s dying, none of this is able to have occurred.