Leon Vance's 5 Best NCIS Episodes, Ranked

The recent passing of Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) in the 500th episode of "NCIS" has left audiences looking back on his history with the show and thinking about the highlights and lowlights of his career. Vance definitely took his time integrating into the team — brought into their midst during Episode 14 of Season 5, he first presents himself as an antagonist. He even splits up the whole team while trying to investigate Jenny Shepherd's (Lauren Holly) death. And yet, over time, he manages to make a name for himself and become a beloved, valued team player, although his murder will definitely continue to hurt and haunt his colleagues for years. 

There are five episodes that stand the test of time and feed into the character's mystique and reputation. These outings dive deep into who Leon Vance was as a man, and who he became as a director. They show you the depth of his professionalism, his caring ways, and his toughness and grace while under fire. Each segment centers Vance in a way that makes you understand how he managed to rule the roost as NCIS director for a towering 18-season run. Decided via a combination of authorial opinion and IMDb ratings, here are the five best episodes about Vance, ranked in ascending order.

Audiences watch Kayla Vance (Naomi Grace) grow up for decades during her father's time on "NCIS." In Season 19, she's now an adult and ready to be trained as an agent — resulting in protective papa Leon doing everything he can to make sure she survives her first time in the field. Vance puts Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) on Kayla duty, assigning them what ought to be an easy case.

Unfortunately for Nick and Kayla alike, what looks like a simple heart attack death in an operating room turns out to be a poisoning. The team digs deep into the past of the doctor in question and figures out that his passing isn't a simple act of revenge: The case is related to El Santo, a drug lord who has been a recurrent thorn in the side of NCIS. When Kayla's taken hostage by Pedro Rodriguez (Antonio Jaramillo), one of El Santo's lieutenants, the whole squad goes on high alert and prepares to do anything necessary to get the young agent back.

Vance has always been a protective pop, so naturally he does everything he can to save Kayla's life. The episode is notable for both the lesson Vance learns about letting his kid follow her dreams and how the whole NCIS team manages to form an unbeatable community. Fans on IMDb are more mixed in their views, giving this a 6.9 and helping to land it on the bottom of the list.

A little more than halfway through Leon Vance's second season as part of the NCIS team, "Knockout" is the first episode to take a real glimpse into his past. While his skills as a boxer will eventually play a part in several combat scenes to come, here audiences learn that the buttoned-up and well-dressed director had a surprisingly complicated youth, and strong ties to his life back in Chicago.

When a boxer named Tyler is killed in Vance's hometown, he involves himself in the case immediately and has the body shipped down for an autopsy, much to the consternation of Gibbs (Mark Harmon). Gibbs doesn't want Vance using his team and resources in an independent investigation, and the two men clash over the situation, with Gibbs insisting that Vance is overstepping his bounds. Vance's wife, Jackie (Paula Newsome), forces the men to talk like civil adults over dinner when Gibbs shows up to confront Vance, and the ice is finally broken between them.

We learn over the course of the episode that Vance was once a lost, directionless kid, that he and Tyler were very close, and that boxing saved Vance's life. We also glimpse the lovely family he's made with his wife, which will make her death in Season 10 all the more poignant. At the time, fans weren't interested in the episode for being too Vance-centric. Years later, it mixes the spiky energy and humor of the show's earlier seasons with a fresh plot that lets us look into Vance's soul. It's a 7.0 out of 10 on IMDb, making it a rock-solid starting point for fans of the character. 

A group of three sailors are on leave in Baltimore. Their night on the town results in one of them being shot to death. For Vance this is no ordinary case — the suspect picked up by the Baltimore Police Department is none other than Vance's brother-in-law, a mechanic named Michael Thomas (Jocko Sims). 

Michael swears he's never seen the victim in his life, and Vance has to recuse himself from the case due to his closeness to the suspect. Things get even hairier when another sailor from the same vessel fails to make it back to the ship. It's up to a surprise member of the team to exonerate Michael and put the real criminal behind bars.

Vance is stuck on the sidelines here, but his intensity and his quest for justice set this one apart from the others. The mystery is filled with lots of unexpected twists and turns, and there's plenty of focus on Vance family dynamics, making this an important episode. It sits at a solid 7.6 on IMDb.

As noted above, Leon Vance knows how to fight, so when a group of criminals breaks into his house, he singlehandedly takes them down with some well-thrown punches. Vance wins the day, but he quickly learns that he's broken the neck of one of his assailants. Agent Alden Parker (Gary Cole), who takes over the team when Gibbs exits, becomes Vance's temporary security detail and Vance must cope with having a babysitter as he attends an Interpol conference in Berlin. 

Meanwhile, the team tries to figure out if the incident at Vance's house stems from a set of neighborhood break-ins, or if someone was targeting him for a nefarious reason. When Parker and Vance find German federal agent Lena Paulson (Marem Hassler), whom Vance had been squiring at the conference, unconscious and bloody on the floor of her room, the danger becomes even more clear. 

After being widowed so violently, Vance was finally starting to date again — but instead of finding romance, death stalks him. The episode generally avoids sinking into mawkish sentiment, interestingly enough — Parker and Vance get plenty of time to hang out together and solve the case, while Vance gets to express his vulnerability in a way that lets Parker be supportive. There's also plenty of cute interplay as Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) and Jessica Knight's (Katrina Law) heartbreaking romance continues apace. Fans on IMDb put this at a 7.8, near the top of the pack.

Every hero needs their own personal villain to obsess over, and it turns out that Leon Vance's nemesis is a North Korean assassin named Lee Wuan Kai (Kelly Hu, Leilani from "Finding 'Ohana"). He's been chasing her for almost 20 years leading up to the events of "Endgame." Back in the day, Vance was part of a UN peacekeeping force assigned to Yugoslavia when he first encountered Kai, who nearly killed him at the time and shot and murdered his partner. Vance has been chasing her ever since.

To him, it's immediately clear that Kai is in Washington D.C. — and he thinks she's involved in the death of a Navy midshipman found stuffed in his car on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Academy, thanks to her signature style. Kai sets up a teasing cat-and-mouse game with Vance, sending him to an uncertain place where his professionalism won't save him from her bullets. Her manner is seductive and dangerous, and Vance has to do some fancy footwork to protect his family.

The episode's plotline begins in "Killshot," but you won't need to watch it to understand the turmoil Vance is going through here — nor to get the general overarching plotline. We see Vance trying to manage a vibrant home life, his obsession with Kai, and his total belief that Kai is in town and stalking him. Watching Vance work through his anxiety and anger and confusion is quite a treat; "NCIS" fans agree and give this one an 8.1 as of this writing, which takes it to the top of our list.