Rocky Carroll once again dons a second director hat for NCIS. The man who plays Director Leon Vance stepped behind the camera for the January 27 return — the 25th episode of the show he’s done so for.
In “Baker’s Man,” after NCIS learns that the owner of Parker’s (Gary Cole) favorite bakery (guest star Melina Kanakaredes) is being blackmailed, they hatch a plan to save her from the perpetrators. Also, tensions heighten when Torres’ (Wilmer Valderrama) secret romance is discovered. Carroll offers a preview.
This is the 25th episode of NCIS that you’ve directed, so congratulations on that number.
Rocky Carroll: Thank you.
What is it about NCIS that you like directing so much?
Well, I guess having an eight-year head start as an actor on the show is the one thing that most directors can’t say. By the time I started directing, I was, I guess, a firmly ensconced member of the family. So it wasn’t like, well, I need to brush up and find out who these characters are and look at some episodes. I knew all the players and I knew what made the engine that made our show run. And also I got so much support from everybody when I started. Michael Weatherly was still there, Cote de Pablo, Pauley Perrette, David McCallum. So having that core cast, the people who were there, who put that show on the map, were the ones who were so supportive and the ones who were like, “Yeah, we like when you do that, do another one, keep going,” to have that kind of support, I mean, it was incredible. And when I say it out loud, it still surprises me now that I’ve now done 25 episodes, and I think the first one was in Season 12 and I’m now in my 17th season as a cast member.
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What excited you about the script from a directing standpoint?
Well, I thought there were so many different angles to this. The budding romance between Parker and Eleni. Melina was sort of the perfect fit for that character. And Andrew Bartels, who wrote the episode, is evidently a pastry foodie himself, his love for it wasn’t that he just spent up all night researching it. It’s like this guy loves bakeries, pastries. You’ve got your romantic element of it. You’ve got the food element of it. You’ve got, of course, the case and the fact that Parker seems to find the person who apparently seems to be the perfect fit for him. But as the show progresses, you realize that all these things that have happened — there’s a crime, there’s a murder, there’s a drug war — and all the arrows are pointing toward her as being either directly or indirectly involved so that you finally think that Parker has finally found somebody who’s the perfect match for him, and [maybe] nothing could be further from the truth.
So the fun part about directing this is creating all those elements and creating that relationship that, why is Parker … We know he likes to go to bakeries and bring baked goods to the squad room every morning, but he keeps going to the same one. He’s been going to this one very regularly. What’s going on here? So we create that element where all the rest of the team is like, there’s something special about this place that you’re going to, who is she? And he finally confesses that he’s kind of got a thing for the woman that runs the Greek bakery, and then everything starts to unravel. And so creating all those elements and then creating the element between Parker and Eleni where there’s this genuine connection between them, but everything points toward hers as being somebody that she’s not and all of Parker’s instincts are saying to him that he’s torn because he really does have feelings for her, but he has to do what he has to do as an investigator.
This season, there’s a new deputy director in LaRoche (Seamus Dever) who’s a bit shady. What’s Vance’s take on him?
I think true to form, Vance believes that people will eventually reveal themselves. And I think there’s a little bit of a waiting game here, and we don’t know. I find it funny because I think the Vance character was sort of introduced almost in the same way, where NCIS fans were like, I don’t know about this guy. Is he a wolf in sheep’s clothing? Is there some ulterior motive? Is he going to turn on Gibbs [Mark Harmon]? Is something going to happen? So I think we’ve gone down this road before with other characters where they present themselves a certain way, but over time, we have to find out what their true intentions are. So I think Vance, because he does answer to the Secretary of the Navy, he does answer to higher powers, he’s going to do what he’s been appointed to do regard to LaRoche.
But I think he’s got his eye on him and what we will reveal about LaRoche remains to be seen. But I think Vance knows in the world that we’re in, sometimes you don’t know these people, but eventually they will reveal themselves.
McGee (Sean Murray) is the one who’s really leading that investigation. The McGee and Vance relationship has been great to watch evolve. Will we see more of that with this LaRoche investigation?
I hope so because I think McGee and Vance now, and with regard with the exception of Jimmy [Brian Dietzen], have the longest-tenured relationship there. So there is a little bit more of an affinity. McGee’s older now, he’s a father with twins, and he really wanted that position of deputy director. He finally convinced himself that he was worth it. And everybody around him was like, yeah, you should do this. And we had those episodes in the past where something would happen and McGee would have to sit in and he’d be in the director’s chair and was like, I can kind of get used to this. And so it was really fun. So he was really shattered when he found out — and by Vance — that he didn’t get the position. I think part of his reason for really kind of being out front and center on this investigation is he wants to make sure that this guy who had the job that he wanted really is right for the job.
Lena (Marem Hassler) returned earlier this season, and she and Vance took a step in their relationship moving from casual to exchanging keys. How is that relationship going?
Lena also has a bit of a past, Lena was an operative, she’s of the world. She knows the world of federal agencies. And even when she came back in the episode, she wasn’t completely transparent as to why she was there. So I think there’s still that element between Lena and Vance that he would like nothing more for this to be something more solid, something more permanent, but there’s still a side of her that … There are some loose ends that really haven’t been tied up with regard to who she is, but they had this long-distance relationship for a long time. I love the episode because I think Vance just realized that, you know what, at this point, life is too short and to sit around more and not doing anything about it is just a waste of time. So they took a step toward that. But I think in true NCIS form, when Lana returns, it won’t be all tied up with a ribbon on it. I’m sure there’ll be another element that she’ll bring, another aspect of her character or her history that we will uncover. And I think that’s what makes that relationship fun.
You said when she returns, so are we going to see her again soon?
As soon as I find out, I’ll let you know. [Laughs]
It seems like in that relationship, Vance has to just accept that he’s never going to know everything about her.
Right. And I think he’s trying to come to terms with that. So how do you get closer but still, to some degree, you have to be at arm’s length, and he understands because that’s kind of who she is. Those are the parameters. But at the end of the episode, she hands him a key to her apartment, so it is a step in the right direction.
Parker is in the middle of this Lily mystery, and one of the best dynamics on the show is the Parker and Vance one. Are we going to see Parker talking to Vance about what’s going on with Lily or Vance noticing things?
What seems to be happening right now is that, because these images and the visions that Parker’s seeing of this little girl, Lily, all happened when he and Knight [Katrina Law] were sort of in peril, in their life and death scenario, he seems to be confiding more in Knight than he is Vance about it right now. Because Knight is the one who’s saying to him, “You’ve been different since we went through that. What’s going on with you?” She’s a little more tuned into it. Kind of the same way Vance was able to talk to Parker about Lena, which I think was this great scene where Vance goes to his apartment and says, “I don’t really know what I want,” I’m hoping that we get to a point where, as this thing manifests itself, that Parker will be able to come to Vance and say, “This is something in my history. There are things that — I need clarity, I need some answers, I need closure or whatever.” But right now, I think Knight is the one who is the one who’s much more dialed in than anybody else on the team that there’s something going on, that something’s amiss with Parker.
NCIS, Midseason Premiere, Monday, January 27, 9/8c, CBS
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