‘NCIS’ Franchise 1,000th Episode Brings Back Vance’s Son & Past Enemy (PHOTOS)

One thousand episodes is an impressive feat for a franchise. (“By the way, I’m pointing out that almost 500 of those are just us,” NCIS star Sean Murray told TV Insider.) With the April 15 episode of NCIS, that’s the milestone that franchise (also consisting of Los Angeles, New Orleans, Hawai’i, and Sydney, with two series still to come) hits.

CBS has now revealed details and photos (which you can see below) for the episode, titled “A Thousand Yards” and featuring special appearances from LA‘s Daniela Ruah (who directed an episode of NCIS already this season) and Hawai’i‘s Vanessa Lachey. Joe Spano also returns as Fornell. According to the official description of the episode, “NCIS comes under attack by a mysterious enemy from the past. Also, Vance tries to mend fences with his estranged son [Spence D. Moore II] by explaining why, despite the ongoing dangers of his job, he still chooses to stay at NCIS.”

As for that aforementioned enemy from the past, “we’ve heard this baddie’s name before,” exec producer Steven D. Binder told us. “As in some of our better episodes, our people risk their lives for each other. We pay homage to the O.G. NCIS and the other series.”

Murray also shared that his “favorite thing of what we’ve done in the 1,000th episode is we have got little Easter eggs and things hidden all through the episode—and not even just hidden. We call back to a lot of things, but it’s a little hard to describe. It’s a great show for the people that are just tuning in for the first time or new fans. For the people that have been with us for a long time, it’s really something special because you’re going to see, like I said, Easter eggs of things. You’re going to see things that tip-off to old episodes, famous episodes that we did. Little moments. We have characters come back that we haven’t seen in a very long time.”

Scroll down to check out the photos from the episode.

NCIS, Franchise’s 1000th Episode, Monday, April 15, 9/8c, CBS