NCIS: Who survived the explosion?

By finale’s end, it looked as though everyone’s lives were in danger after a bomb detonated at NCIS headquarters — even Ducky’s (David McCallum), and he was a thousand miles away on a beach in Florida! What gives? “I’m not gonna massage it,” says exec producer Gary Glasberg. “David signed a contract to come back. The goal is to give him an opportunity to play something different. We talked about Ducky’s heart attack for a long time.” And although several cast members (including Pauley Perrette and Michael Weatherly) are still in negotiation for Season 10, it looks like the rest of the team will make it through as well. There won’t be a new set, either: “You’ll see caution tape and repairs, but the building survived.” That’s not to say the blast won’t have its repercussions. Tony (Weatherly) and Ziva (Cote de Pablo) will find themselves in an interesting position when the show returns. “It wasn’t an accident to put them in the elevator [at the end],” says Glasberg. —Chris Willman

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TNT’s forthcoming Closer spinoff, Major Crimes, has collared its first high-profile guest star: Michael Weatherly.

The NCIS vet will appear in an early Season 1 episode as Arthur “Thorn” Woodson, a charming con artist who currently works as an ”intuitive life strategist” for a group of Israeli mob wives (all of whom he is bedding). Described as a “Peter Pan with an A.D.D. problem,” Thorn previously held down jobs as a hand model, a ventriloquist and a black jack dealer. His dream is to someday land his own show on Oprah Winfrey’s fledgling cable net OWN.

“Arvin Brown is directing [the episode] — he’s done many NCIS episodes,” Weatherly tweeted of the gig.

Major Crimes is set to premiere on Monday, Aug. 13 at 10/9c immediately following the series finale of The Closer.

The news comes as Weatherly continues to negotiate a new contract to continue playing Tony on NCIS. His current deal expired at the end of the just-wrapped ninth season. (His co-stars, Pauley Perrette and Sean Murray, are also hammering out new pacts.)

Earlier this month, NCIS exec producer Gary Glasberg expressed confidence that “it will all work out.”

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Is NCIS getting new digs next year? — Jennifer, via Twitter
ADAM: Not really, but the cleanup of the team that will be more significant, says executive producer Gary Glasberg “There are psychological ramifications that will carry over,” he says, in particular Ducky’s heart attack. “How will that affect his character as a medical examiner and his approach to dealing with the dead? How might it change him and the way he views things?” he asks.

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NCIS | As I was hopping on the horn with showrunner Gary Glasberg, one of y’all tweeted me to ask about the “Abby’s brother” storyline touched on early in Season 9. “I can tell you that we are far from done with Abby’s brother,” Glasberg assured. “That’s something we will definitely be touching on in Season 10.” And though the show boss was a tad less committal to the matter of McGee’s never-seen, estranged father, he did allow that that storyline “may very well be something we revisit, too.”

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Last night’s NCIS season finale was an explosive end to the season — because there was an actual explosion. And in the end, 18.7 million viewers were left wondering what would come of the team in season 10.

EW hopped on the phone with executive producer Gary Glasberg to chat about the big season ender — including what might come as a result of that big cliffhanger with longtime medical examiner Ducky, who had a heart attack in the final minutes of the episode. Read on for more:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I’m so glad that we spoke beforehand or else I would have been a wreck last night. Tell me about the decision to leave us off on this note.
GARY GLASBERG: NCIS has historically, we’ve done these end arcs or established a villain that carries through for a few episodes, and this one is really no different in that respect. The one difference in the approach in this season was we wanted to deliver a true cliffhanger. [It’s] not the kind of thing you can do every year, but in this instance, we thought it was right and appropriate. We’ll pick things up with him at the beginning of season 10 and wrap it up pretty quickly — we’ve done that before as well. It’ll probably get wrapped up in the first episode. And then we’ll get into a series of self-contained storylines after that.

I really liked the team and family feel of this episode, like when the team gave their gifts to Jimmy before taking off to wedding. Tell me about that.
Having this team work together as a family is really important to us and it’s really important to the fans. And I wanted to make sure that that moment was there — I didn’t want to rob people of the chance to experience some of the wedding, even though we weren’t going to see our people attending it. So the thought was to create that little moment in the squad room where we could see them interact as family members. And I hope it was successful. It was a nice little moment for everybody and the gifts were hopefully indicative of who they are. So I’m glad it came through.

Moving on to Jamie Lee Curtis’ character, Dr. Ryan. I’ve enjoyed her arc next season, are we in for more?
We started playing around with this mysterious background of her ex-husband, from the get go in season nine. We’ll have to see where it takes us and how it unfolds. The beauty of NCIS is that we can step away from a character for a very long time and revisit it down the road. That was very much a goodbye that happened between Ryan and Gibbs, and we’ll have to see how things unfold when we might be able to see her again. But having her on the show has been just fantastic and she and Mark [Harmon] are good friends. And I think that really came through in their relationship and how they played off each other. I think we were really lucky to have her.

On to the cliffhanger. Next season, are we going to pick up not too far after that?
Yeah, I think so. I’ve been playing with this idea of picking up a few hours after we left off. And then somewhere around the middle of the episode of the season opener [jump ahead] and get us back into real time. This show has always sort of played itself in real time, so we’ll have to figure out a way for us to get us there, and I think I’ve come up with something.

What I enjoyed about that explosion was how it served as a great send-off to Scott Wolf as Jonathan Cole.
Wasn’t he great? I was really pleased with the way that character’s arc progressed, and it was done in a way that only someone like Scott could pull off. He started off as sort of the standard villain and just kind of developed all kinds of complexity as the season went on into this fantastic moment of redemption for himself. And I really think that Scott managed to deliver a terrific performance, and I was just thrilled to have him.

Now, let’s talk about Ducky. You warned me something would happen with him back in March, so I knew something was coming in regard to that character. But tell me what he’s facing next season.
Well, that’ll give you a sense about how long we’ve been talking about this. David [Mccallum] and I have been talking about it for months, and he’s been preparing for it. And he was absolutely 100 percent willing to play along, and we wanted to be very secretive about it and keep it under wraps, and it’s really going to give his character a new perspective on life coming back from what he experienced. I’m not going to play games with people. People know he signed a new contract and he is coming back to see us, so it’ll be more about the way the character evolves and the fact that he’s got Palmer there to help him when he comes back. And as a medical examiner who deals with the dead, and deals with death on a daily basis, to have an experience like that is significant. And we’ll play that throughout the season.

You also told me earlier this episode would see hints of personal progression between Tony and Ziva — that we’d get a sense of what they want from the future. What’s next?
That was fun, I wanted to make sure there was at least one Tony/Ziva moment in the finale and I think that it provided that. The only other thing I’ll say is that it was no accident to put them in the elevator together in the end. So, we’ll have to see where that picks up with them in the season opener.

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Will the Season 9 finale of CBS’ NCIS (airing Tuesday at 8/7c) feature a wedding and a funeral? Or one or the other, or neither? With the hunt for the newest member of the NCIS Most Wanted Wall, CEO-turned-terrorist Harper Dearing, rolling to a boil, TVLine spoke with showrunner Gary Glasberg about what to expect.

TVLINE | I wanted to start off by saying I think it’s interesting what you’re doing with Richard Schiff (The West Wing) as the villain. He’s not some ex-Mossad extremist, he’s not some homegrown militia nutjob….
Thank you. The intention with the Harper Dearing character was to always go with sort of the opposite of what you would expect, someone more intellectual and mild-mannered, and yet have this really interesting complex backstory of what’s driving him. Having Richard do it was a real treat for us because he brings such complexity and nuance to his work. The subtlety and the twists and turns of who we wanted Harper Derring to be is something Richard handles beautifully.

TVLINE | Are his motivations for sabotaging the Navy compelling? Is this about financial gain, a misguided cause…? A bit of both?
That’s all revealed as the final episodes unfold. But there is a deep-seeded emotional and psychological drive to why he feels he has to do this.

TVLINE | Gibbs seemed to have a real fire in his belly about this case. Would you say that it is affecting him in some unique way, different than others have?
It definitely connects, and anytime that we’re talking about an aggressor attacking the Navy and innocent military personnel, he is going to respond in an aggressive way back. And as the storyline unfolds, people will learn a little more about Gibbs’ position on this.

TVLINE | What can you say about how Scott Wolf, returning as Jonathan Cole, fits into the finale?
Scott has had this really fun arc for us throughout the season — I know he has been pleased with it — and I think everyone is going to be really surprised by how he fits into this. His involvement is really going to run the gamut.

TVLINE | How would you describe the finale’s action quotient? Some fans feel that the NCIS mothership has been a little “quiet” as of late.
I think that people are going to be shocked at what they get at the end of this season. I personally don’t mind mixing it up and pulling back periodically and mixing in “quieter” episodes, as you said, and then opposing those with moments that really push everyone’s buttons and are more explosive.

TVLINE | Will the finale leave any of the team members injured, or perhaps even close to death?
We’re definitely giving everyone a true cliffhanger at the end of the season, and absolutely putting people in dangerous situations that will leave everyone wondering what has happened.

TVLINE | With all you have going on in the finale, will there be time for Jimmy Palmer’s wedding?
There are elements of the wedding that people will get to see. You will get to see Jimmy and Breena, and there is lots of discussion and some really sweet wonderful moments that happen. Larry Miller will not be returning (as Breena’s father); I know he has been ill and we certainly wish him all the best. But there are some great little moments you will be getting.

TVLINE | Speaking of little moments, you know I must ask: Anything “Tiva” fans can look forward to?
There a couple of exchanges in the finale. But I think the characters are so focused on the case and what’s going on, it’s more about that and it’s less about any specific relationship moment between [Tony and Ziva].

TVLINE | And where will things stand with Jethro and Dr. Ryan (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) at the end of the season?
That sort of reaches a climax in the finale, and they have some really wonderful scenes together. I’m going to leave you with a big question mark and let people see how she sort of fits in to the Harper Dearing Story, and how that affects their relationship.

TVLINE | Are you feeling good about having everybody back for next season? [Michael Weatherly, Pauley Perrette and Sean Murray have yet to ink deals for Season 10.]
The studio handles the contractual aspects of it, while I and the writers handle the creative side of things. But I have no doubt that it will all work out.

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I know David McCallum just extended his contract with NCIS. Can we assume he’s safe in the season finale? — Carolyn
I’d say it’s a safe bet, but as EP Gary Glasberg told me, it doesn’t mean Ducky won’t face a whole other set of challenges in the season closer and beyond. “The fact that [McCallum] is committed to continuing on the show is wonderful for us, but it’s not going to keep us from trying things and surprising people. That’s true of any of the characters on the show,” he says. “We’re always interested in keeping things challenging and entertaining for them as actors, and we’re going to continue to push the envelope for them so they can continue to do some phenomenal work.”

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I feel like all the Tony-Ziva scenes on NCIS are building to something big in the finale. Am I right? — Mel
ADAM: I don’t want to burst your bubble… so I’ll let executive producer Gary Glasberg do it instead. “This finale is really about them being focused as a team,” he says. “Yes, there are emotional elements, as we always do, but I would say their primary focus is on the work.” But don’t give up! “[Tony’s] evolving and learning more about himself and what he wants from his life, and I think Ziva is the same way,” Glasberg says. “Those experiences will continue into Season 10.” That is, unless Tony and Ziva die in the finale… [Editor’s note: Please send all hate-tweets to @adam_bryant.]

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