Wilmer Valderrama teases big death in ‘NCIS’ season 22 finale

Remember to tell your special agents you love them, because you never know what day might be their last.

Wilmer Valderrama dropped a bombshell about the upcoming NCIS season 22 finale during an appearance on CBS Mornings Thursday. When asked by co-anchor Gayle King if Valderrama, who has starred on the CBS procedural since 2016, could “tell us if anyone dies,” he plainly answered, “Somebody does die.”

“Somebody dies, and it’s not the murder of the week,” the actor teased. “It’s somebody, unfortunately, very close to us, and it’s going to be very earth-shattering and really heartbreaking.”

Co-anchor Tony Dokoupil playfully asked Valderrama if his own character, Special Agent Nick Torres, is in any danger. “You know, I haven’t watched the episode, so I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said coyly.

While Valderrama, 45, wouldn’t give any clues as to the identity of the soon-to-be goner, he did preview how the death will impact the course the series takes into the next season. “It’s going to shake up the team, and I think probably really push us to go rogue in season 23,” he said. “The biggest idea was, ‘How do we disrupt a piece of season 22 and set up the tone for season 23?’ And this episode does that better than we’ve done in many years.”

Valderrama has starred on the show for nine seasons as Torres, a deep-cover agent with the titular Naval Criminal Investigative Service who’s eventually invited to join the special team led by Mark Harmon’s Supervisory Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

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A season has not gone by without Torres landing himself in some kind of scrape that could ultimately cost him his life, from season 17’s hit-and-run to season 21’s stabbing during a prison fight to being locked in a cage with his therapist in season 20. But fans are divided over who might get the axe in the season 22 finale, and Torres isn’t the clear frontrunner.

There’s NCIS Deputy Director Laroche (Seamus Dever), who’s been the subject of a strict investigation by Special Agent McGee (Sean Murray) and continues to act shiftier as revelations are brought to light. Then there’s NCIS Assistant Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll), who, by virtue of being the series’ longest-running remaining player, would certainly shake things up were he to die.

Last June, Valderrama speculated about his own character’s eventual death. “Like Denzel Washington in Training Day — just go out,” he joked. “Defending my family somehow, just in a storm of bullets, I just see a storm of bullets just washing over me, just dying heroically with violins in the background and the rain is pouring.”

It’s only a matter of days before fans find out: The NCIS season 22 finale will air Monday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS, and stream on Paramount+.