The Los Angeles and Pearl Harbor offices will be represented when CBS’ well-watched NCIS franchise airs its 1,000th episode in a few weeks.
TVLine has learned exclusively that both Daniela Ruah, who played Special Agent Kensi Blye-Deeks throughout NCIS: Los Angeles‘ 14-season run, and Vanessa Lachey, who currently leads the NCIS: Hawai’i team as Special Agent in Charge Jane Tennant, will appear during that milestone hour, which will air as the Monday, April 15 episode of NCIS
Though neither Kensi nor Jane will appear “in person” alongside the D.C.-based NCIS team, I am hearing the characters’ appearances will nonetheless be quite fun.
Also appearing during the episode — as first reported by TVLine’s Inside Line column — will be Director Leon Vance’s son Jared, to be played this time around by Spence Moore II (All American, Superman & Lois).
Previewing the franchise’s 1,000th installment, NCIS co-showrunner David North told TVLine during our recent set visit, “One of our own beloved characters is going to end up in grave danger, and you’re go to see all of the different franchises brought into this in a little bit of a different way.”
Added co-showrunner Steven D. Binder, “There’ll be a personal storyline, and this one will circle around Director Vance,” played by NCIS vet Rocky Carroll.
Along the way, fans can be assured, “We’re going to play plenty of homage to the past,” said North, and scatter “some Easter eggs for longtime fans of the show,” Binder added.
“If you’re watching it in 4K, you might have to blow somethings things up,” the EP quipped, “but they’re going to be there.”
Ruah has not strayed far from the NCIS-verse since filming her final scenes as NCIS: LA‘s Kensi a little over a year ago. Most recently, she directed the March 4 episode of NCIS and the April 15 NCIS: Hawai’i (aka the franchise’s 1,001st episode, titled, ha, “The Next Thousand”).
“If I get asked [to play Kensi again], I will certainly figure it out at the time,” Ruah told TVLine toward the end of NCIS: LA‘s run. “If it makes sense, why not, right?” (Ruah’s NCIS: LA co-star LL Cool J of course is currently reprising his role as Sam Hanna on NCIS: Hawai’i.)
Lachey’s Tennant meanwhile has popped up on the NCIS mothership thrice before — as part of a pair of two-show crossovers (in March and then September 2022), and in the January 2023 three-show crossover event that also folded in NCIS: LA.
