‘Tony & Ziva’ Kills Off ‘NCIS’ Star

Spoilers ahead for Episode 5 of NCIS: Tony & Ziva (“To Be Determined”)

Thursday’s episode of NCIS: Tony & Ziva included a shocking death.

In the fifth episode of the NCIS spinoff, “To Be Determined,” James D’Arcy’s Interpol agent Henry Rayner-Hunt was revealed to be the good guy and not the bad, as was suspected.

It had been assumed that Henry was a rat, feeding intel to rogue Interpol agent Martine (Nassima Benchicou). However, to everyone’s pleasant surprise, Henry was actually revealed to be on Tony and Ziva’s side and helped them escape after being caught at an Austrian maximum security prison. It was discovered that Julian Ovenden’s Secretary General of Interpol Jonah was the true mastermind, fooling Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo’s titular characters.

Just as Tony, Ziva, and Henry drive away, they are stopped by Jonah, Martine, and hacker Dejan Lazar (Velibor Topic). Henry stays behind to deal with them and urges Tony and Ziva to flee to be with their daughter. While they drive away, Henry is stabbed by Jonah with a pocket knife he had hidden, and Jonah takes Henry’s gun and shoots him.

D’Arcy told USA Today that when director and executive producer John McNamara asked him to do the series, he told him, “‘You’re going to die in Episode 5.’ I was like, ‘Do we want to rethink this?’ And [McNamara] was like, ‘You’re not only going to die, you’re going to die twice – stabbed and then shot.’ I was like, ‘Wow, that is definitely dead.’”

Not only was D’Arcy killed twice, but he was killed twice by his best friend. “I was the best man at Julian’s wedding,” the Agent Carter star says of Ovenden. “I’m the godparent to one of his children. He’s the godparent to one of mine. And the glee on his face as he stabbed me and then shot me was sheer unadulterated joy. He even begged for another take. It kind of ruined my day.”

Considering Henry was a friend, and Ziva wanted to go back to help, but they had to think of Tali, it can be assumed that his death will not be taken lightly. It will likely play a big part in the remainder of the season as one of the many things that Tony and Ziva have to deal with. For D’Arcy, he wants the story to continue from beyond the grave.

“My hope is that Tony and Ziva are so haunted by this that Henry returns, literally, to haunt them through all of Season 2 as a series regular,” he explained. “I can’t speculate if that will happen. Once you’re killed on a television program, they stop sending you the scripts.”

NCIS: Tony & Ziva has not yet been renewed for Season 2, but with an 88% approval rating and 85% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, it would be shocking if Paramount+ didn’t eventually give it the greenlight. For now, fans can watch the first five episodes now. New episodes drop on Thursdays on Paramount+.