‘NCIS’: Wilmer Valderrama Breaks Down That Shocking Gibbs Ending (VIDEO)

Don’t mess with NCIS. The penultimate episode of Season 23, airing on Tuesday, May 5, proves just that. After all, they sometimes go outside the lines … and even call upon an old friend to help. TV Insider spoke with Wilmer Valderrama about the major moments of the episode. Warning: Spoilers for NCIS Season 23 Episode 19 ahead!

Former Army CID director Rogers (J. Paul Boehmer), charged with arms trafficking, conspiracy, and more, and also whose agent killed Vance (Rocky Carroll), is on trial, but the team ends up having to protect him when shots are fired at the courthouse. Things, of course, go awry, and Rogers escapes. Though he’s taken back into custody and then sent into witness protection, thanks to a deal he made with the intel he had, Parker (Gary Cole), who’s understandably upset about one of the people responsible for his friend’s death getting away with it, does things the “Gibbs way,” with help from the former agent himself, apparently.

As is revealed in the final scene between Parker and his sister Harriet (Nancy Travis), Rogers’ transport broke down just like someone’s did from their childhood, and he was taken out by a sniper from 4500 feet away. Very few people could make that shot, and Parker just so happens to have salmon, fresh from Alaska… Yes, Gibbs and Parker just avenged Vance’s death! (Mark Harmon does not appear.)

Robert Voets/CBS

It’s a move that Torres liked, Valderrama told TV Insider when he recently stopped by our office.

“I think Torres has had such an interesting ongoing frustration with how we do things on NCIS. Since he got there, now 10 years ago, he’s had to kind of really assimilate to how they do things, the rules, the protocols, how they’re going to go about it. So, needless to say that he was thrilled to see that we were drawing outside the lines,” he said in the video interview above. “That’s really where he thrives the most. That’s really where he wants to live. For Torres, you’re going to see that being a common theme in the next season as well. We’re building towards something pretty big with this character.”

While it seems like Parker may have been the one to make that happen, Valderrama only said, “I don’t know who called Gibbs, but definitely someone who knows him. I’ll tell you that.”

Before Rogers is taken into custody, however, Torres is the one to find him on the ship he was trying to use to flee — and the other man was on the phone with the Department of Justice. If he hadn’t been, would Torres have shot him? Valderrama is very quick to say yes.

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“He would have taken the shot. I think there’s a part of the new Torres that held him back, but the old Torres would have just not missed the opportunity to get the job done,” he explained. “Even if that means that he loses the badge. For him, I think ‘justice at all costs necessary’ is really who he is.”

Watch the full video interview above for more from Wilmer Valderrama about the penultimate episode, the finale (his 200th!), and Torres’ complicated relationships with Knight (Katrina Law) and Bishop (Emily Wickersham).

NCIS, Tuesdays, 8/7c, CBS