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Director Leon Vance has left the “NCIS” building, literally, for heaven.

The long-running CBS crime procedural’s March 24 500th episode (now streaming on Paramount+) delivered a divine jolt by killing NCIS boss Vance, played by classically trained actor and “Chicago Hope” star Rocky Carroll for 18 seasons and 392 episodes.

The powerful episode features the fatal shooting of the beloved leader and a surreal, imagined reunion between Vance and the young version of his former colleague, the late Chief Medical Examiner Donald “Ducky” Mallard (Adam Campbell).

Bow-tied Mallard even eases Vance into heaven, which lights up ethereally behind the door of what is normally the NCIS director’s adjoining assistant’s office.

Carroll, 62, tells USA TODAY that he had a seemingly disembodied experience when he learned about Vance’s fate on the “NCIS” set in November, when showrunner Steven D. Binder knocked on his trailer door after a day of shooting to discuss the 500th episode.

CBS and show producers wanted to bring some bang to the milestone, Binder explained. The planned episode would feature Vance battling a nefarious rival CID agency plot to shutter NCIS.

“It seems like all hope is gone. But fortunately, Director Vance is able to get to the bottom of this plan and save the agency,” Carroll recalls Binder telling him. “And in the process of saving the agency, he loses his life.”

Stunned, Carroll asked for a quick rewind on the “loses his life” section.

“I said, ‘Repeat that last part again,'” Carroll recalls. “I’m sitting there having this out-of-body experience because I’ve been told we’re going to have this episode basically centered around the death of this character. It dawned on me that we’ve just finally come to that road.”

What happens in the ‘NCIS’ 500th episode? Who dies?

Vance says that Binder “achieved the mission” that he promised in the trailer talk – that the 500th episode would not only rock the NCIS-verse, it would also be a “love letter” to fallen Vance and “a real send-off.”

Mission accomplished there. In the episode titled, “All Good Things,” Vance makes peace with his work-strained friend, Supervisory Special Agent Alden Parker (Gary Cole), defuses a bomb in the NCIS evidence locker (pulling the red wire!) and realizes that CID Agent Dolan Thompson (Matt Cook) is a double-crosser. The discovery comes too late as Thompson pulls out his gun and fires three times into Vance’s chest before being shot dead by arriving agents Parker and Timothy McGee (Sean Murray).

At first, Vance seems to have been saved by his bulletproof vest. But Vance’s in-office interrogation by a mysterious agent reveals the bureaucrat wasn’t wearing a vest. And he’s actually dead. The mystery agent reveals himself to be youthful Ducky, one of the original “NCIS” characters, played during Vance’s tenure by Scottish actor David McCallum, who died in September 2023.

Campbell, who has played Young Ducky on “NCIS: Origins,” explains that one of the “perks” of being in heaven is the younger appearance.

Before disappearing, Ducky points out that Vance’s next destination is the light coming through his assistant’s door. There’s a tear-inducing montage of past “NCIS” moments before Vance makes the move into the light, solo. He hears his dearly departed wife Jackie (Paula Newsome), who was assassinated in Season 6, calling “Hey, baby” to her arriving husband. Vance’s death even saves the NCIS agency, which reopens with Parker returning from retirement. A final victory.

Filming the episode was “bittersweet,” says Carroll, who left his emotions for the performance. “Once the cameras started rolling, it was like, ‘We’ve got a job to do,'” he says.

With months to process the decision, Carroll is at peace with leaving after his long “NCIS” run that started in 2008.

“I’ve had time to come to terms, I found out about this in November,” says Carroll, grateful for the rare experience of being on a long‑running show. “If this had happened in my third season, it would have been devastating. But 18 seasons is rarefied air. If someone offered a role on ‘NCIS,’ and said something bad is going to happen in Season 18, there’s not an actor on the planet who wouldn’t say, ‘Where do I sign?’ It’s the equivalent of living until you’re 105.”

Carroll, who has directed 25 “NCIS” episodes, will return to direct an upcoming Season 24 episode.

“We’ve lasted over two decades. But this version of the show relationship has come to an end,” Carroll says. “When the smoke clears, I come back in a month to direct an episode. It’s not as final as it might feel.”

Carroll’s plans for the episode involved watching it live in a private screening for unsuspecting Screen Actors Guild members.

“The house lights will go up and I will be doing a Q&A with 150 stunned faces,” Carroll says. “They’ll be probably saying, ‘What the hell happened?’ I’m very proud of the episode. It’s a celebration of nearly two decades of working on one of the most beloved shows in television history.”

The actor will appear on “CBS Mornings” with Gayle King on March 25.

“The fun thing about dying on TV is that in the real world you can come back on TV to talk about it the next day,” Carroll says.