Spoiler alert! We’re discussing the big death in Episode 5 of “NCIS: Tony & Ziva” (streaming now on Paramount+). If you haven’t seen it yet, brace yourself, stream it and come back.
For four “NCIS: Tony & Ziva” episodes, both Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) have suspected their Interpol pal Henry Rayner-Hunt (James D’Arcy) was secretly a villainous rat.
Even audiences have been left guessing whether stuffy Henry was the criminal puppet master to rogue Interpol agent Martine (Nassima Benchicou).
In Episode 5 of the “NCIS” spinoff, Tony, Ziva and the rest of the Tiva nation discover heartening news: Henry is a hero and not crooked after all!
On the downside, Henry gets stabbed and shot by the show’s newly revealed villain.
British actor D’Arcy, 50, confirms that his Henry is a shocking “Tony & Ziva” fatality in the episode directed by executive producer John McNamara.
“When John McNamara asked me to do the show, he said to me, ‘You’re going to die in Episode 5,’ ” D’Arcy tells USA TODAY. “I was like, ‘Do we want to rethink this?’ And (McNamara) was like, ‘You’re not only going to die, you’re going to die twice − stabbed and then shot. I was like, ‘Wow, that is definitely dead.’ “
Here’s why the knife twist, and gun shot, were especially painful for D’Arcy:
Henry gets killed by Interpol baddie Jonah, who is played by D’Arcy’s gloating best friend
Henry met up with Tony and Ziva at the Austrian maximum security prison where the Secretary General of Interpol Jonah (Julian Ovenden) was supposedly being held. But Jonah is revealed − at last − to be the show’s true villain, who tries to flee by car with his corrupt colleague Martine (Nassima Benchicou) and recruited hacker Dejan Lazar (Velibor Topic).
Gun-toting Henry halts the escaping car and holds the nefarious trio at gunpoint. Sure the situation is under control, Henry sends Tony and Ziva away to save their imperiled daughter Tali (Isla Gie).
But Henry gets distracted by a massive prison explosion, allowing Jonah to plunge a hidden knife into his chest. Jonah grabs Henry’s gun and shoots him coldly in the head.
To make Jonah’s deadly double-cross even more infuriating to D’Arcy, there’s a real-life connection.
“Jonah, who killed me twice, is played by my best friend Julian Ovenden,” D’arcy says of the “Bridgerton” and “Downton Abbey” star. “I was the best man at Julian’s wedding. I’m the godparent to one of his children. He’s godparent to one of mine. And the glee on his face as he stabbed me and then shot me was sheer unadulterated joy. He even begged for another take. It kind of ruined my day.”
Tony and Ziva drove away as Henry got shot
Tony and Ziva watched the stabbing from the safety of their escape car. Ziva, once Henry’s fiercest critic, suggested, “We have to go back!” But Tony said they had to save Tali. Then Jonah pointed the gun at Henry’s head and fired. Ziva squealed the tires pulling out.
D’Arcy defends the TV couple’s escape. “There’s no way they could have got back before Henry got killed,” he says.
But he’s not above using the guilt to get a “Tony & Ziva” continuation from beyond the grave.
“My hope is that Tony and Ziva are so haunted by this that Henry returns, literally, to haunt them through all of Season 2 as a series regular,” says D’Arcy. “I can’t speculate if that will happen. Once you’re killed on a television program, they stop sending you the scripts.”
Henry does get some punches, and a tea jab, in ‘Tony & Ziva’
Henry does have some action-star moments before dying − throwing punches and shooting off the rear-view mirror of a speeding car. Henry’s most cutting moment occurs when the warden asks the stuffy Brit how the prison tea is. “Appalling,” Henry hisses.
Annoyingly, the line was all McNamara, D’Arcy points out ruefully.
“My old friend John McNamara gave me the line reading for the word ‘appalling,’ ” says D’Arcy. “He said to say it exactly like I did. It’s galling to me that people are picking up on this line. Maybe John McNamara should have played the part.”