NCIS Writer Says He Fought This Character’s Season 8 Death

Published: July 7, 2026

pexels-kat-wilcox-329096-923681 — Photo from Kat Wilcox on Pexels

By Movieguide® Staff

Long before NCIS: ORIGINS brought Jethro Gibbs’ world back into focus, one NCIS writer tried to save a beloved mentor from a brutal exit.

“He said, ‘We’re going to kill Mike Franks,’” writer Jesse Stern recalled on the “Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch” podcast, according to TVLine. “And I was just like, ‘Are you kidding? We’re going to bring the guy in just to kill him off?’”

Mike Franks, played by Muse Watson, served as a mentor to Leroy Jethro Gibbs, played by Mark Harmon. NCIS killed Franks in the Season 8 episode “Swan Song” when serial killer Jonas Cobb stabbed him.

Stern said the late executive producer Gary Glasberg had already decided Franks would die, but Stern argued the choice felt too obvious. “Everyone’s going to see it coming. It’s not the way to do it,” Stern remembered telling him.

The writer lost that argument, but he still shaped the ending with one eye on the future. Stern said “Swan Song” became his final script for the series, and he wanted to give Watson a path back into the story.

“If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it in a swan song,” Stern said. “I’m going to do it in a way you don’t see coming and I’m going to do it in a way where the actor can come back.”

That decision paid off for longtime fans. Watson returned after Franks’ death through flashbacks and appearances that treated the character as a continued influence on Gibbs rather than a forgotten casualty.

TVLine noted that Franks appeared from Season 9 through Season 15 and even returned in a spiritual form to help Gibbs wrestle with cases and hard choices. Watson also appeared in NCIS: ORIGINS in 2025 during a sequence that connected the younger and older versions of Franks.

Television deaths often chase shock value, especially in long-running dramas that need fresh stakes. Stern’s comments show a better instinct: if a story takes a character away, the loss should still serve the people and themes viewers have followed for years.

Franks worked because he did more than deliver information. He gave Gibbs a moral shadow and a personal history, reminding viewers that even the toughest leaders learn from someone who came before them.

That kind of storytelling helps explain why the franchise can keep revisiting the character without cheapening his death. The series treated memory as part of the drama, not just a convenient device to bring back a familiar face.

For viewers who invested in Gibbs for years, Franks represented more than nostalgia. He embodied the kind of hard-earned guidance that can steady a hero when the case of the week turns personal.

For Movieguide® readers, the Franks story also points to why mentor characters matter. A good mentor reminds audiences that wisdom, loyalty and sacrificial courage can outlive one dramatic episode.

NCIS has built much of its staying power on team loyalty and chosen-family bonds. Stern may not have saved Mike Franks’ life, but he helped preserve the character’s influence in a way fans could still feel after the credits rolled.

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