Throughout its 23-season run, NCIS has had a lot of surprising moments. And that probably won’t stop with Season 24 on the 2026 TV schedule, especially with the way Season 23 ended. One of the most surprising moments, however, happened during the show’s early years when it killed off Sasha Alexander’s Caitlin Todd. For Michael Weatherly, though, filming the scene had an unexpected side effect.
Alexander starred in the first two seasons of NCIS as NCIS Special Agent Caitlin Todd before the character was killed off in the final seconds of the Season 2 finale. She was shot in the head at the hands of Mossad double-agent Ari Haswari, who fans later learn was Ziva David’s half-brother. The death came pretty quickly, with the bullet and blood coming instantly. Special effects supervisor Dan Gaspar Jr. shared on the NCIS: Partners & Probies podcast just how they pulled it off:
That was in the back of her head. We put a pack on the back of her head.
That one filming choice may have looked cool on camera, but it had an impact on Michael Weatherly due to the blood that would soon splatter on his face. The scene in question has Caitlin, Tony, and Gibbs standing on a rooftop together and talking, with Tony standing directly behind Caitlin. When she was killed, it came as both a surprise and not too much of a surprise for those who watched Weatherly closely, as star and podcast co-host Brian Dietzen shared:
Talk about a memorable moment. I mean, that, like, that shocked absolutely everybody. Season two, everybody's safe, right? Because it's pretty much a new show. And then she gets killed…. I'm sure you've watched that back plenty of times. But the take that they used was the second take. So Mike Weatherly is standing behind Sasha Alexander…. And he goes, "Yeah, over my dead body, Tony." And you see Michael Weatherly go like this [flinches], kind of flinch away before the squib hit. Because then the bullet comes, and he gets sprayed. But he'd already gotten a taste of that from the previous take.
Of course, when you first watch the Season 2 finale and that scene, you don’t think anything of it because you’re thinking that everyone’s safe. The finale is almost over; Caitlin was shot, but her vest protected her. And then she gets shot in the head. It was a surprising moment, but when you look back at the scene, it's an amusing Easter Egg as you can very clearly and hilariously see Weatherly bracing himself for the impact. And to hear another side of what happened is pretty great.
Weatherly previously shared his side of the story about filming the scene, revealing he was waiting for the blood pack at the back of Alexander’s head to explode and he could see the special effects coordinator right in front of him. So he was just waiting for it to splatter all over his face, which is why he flinched just seconds before Caitlin was shot.
I do wonder if there are any other moments throughout NCIS, or even any other show, where an actor is anticipating a death, explosion, or anything similar before it happens because they know what’s going to happen and what’s going to be going on their faces. The fact that Weatherly’s flinch is still a topic of conversation 21 years after the episode aired is hilarious. And fans can rewatch it with a Paramount+ subscription along with all 23 seasons of NCIS now.
