A decade ago, the NCIS franchise got its third TV series with NCIS: New Orleans, starring Scott Bakula as Special Agent Dwayne Pride.
More than 17 million people watched the CBS procedural’s series premiere on September 23, 2014, as Pride and his team investigated the murder of one of his former mentees.
But the twists and turns were just getting started. In our picks for the show’s most shocking moments, the good times definitely weren’t rolling in the Big Easy.
Season 1, Episode 21: Baitfish kills Savannah
The first season’s “You’ll Do” ends with a gut punch for NCIS Senior Field Agent Christopher LaSalle (Lucas Black). Savannah Kelly (Gillian Alexy) — his childhood sweetheart, with whom he reconnected after she became his brother’s therapist — is gunned down by the criminal Baitfish a.k.a. Paul Jenks (John Livingston), who’s hoping to send a message to Pride.
Season 1, Episode 22: Baitfish dies
Baitfish, who’s trying to take over New Orleans’ criminal underground, dies an episode later when a sniper takes him out just as he’s trying to give Pride’s team a warning. That sniper turns out to be New Orleans police captain Jim Messier (Dylan Walsh), who’d taken a turn for the criminal.
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Season 2, Episode 19: Laurel is attacked
Laurel (Shanley Caswell), Pride’s daughter, is attacked twice in the span of one episode, Season 2’s “Means to an End.” First, an unknown assailant ambushes her while she’s jogging, though she fends him off. Then attorney Anita Karr (Kathleen Munroe), the mastermind behind the kidnapping plot, tries to shoot Laurel dead, and again, Laurel gets the upper hand.
Season 2, Episode 23: Russo turns out to be the mole
The second-season search for the Department of Homeland Security mole ends with a reveal in “The Third Man” that the big bad is DHS Agent John Russo (Ivan Sergei), who has been leading the investigation while dating NCIS Special Agent Meredith Brody (Zoe McLellan, pictured with Black below). Brody wises up in the following episode when she sees Russo using a burner phone.
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Season 4, Episode 23: Carl dies by car bomb
In Season 4, Pride & Co. go up against U.S. Associate Attorney General Eric Barlow (Doug Savant), who isn’t above framing Pride to further his own political ambitions. Caught in the proverbial crossfire is Carl Estes (Matt Servitto), a New Orleans police captain and ally of the team, who falls victim to a car bomb in “Checkmate, Part 1.”
Season 4, Episode 24: Pride is almost shot to death
The team bests Barlow, but Amelia Parsons (Ellen Hollman), his tech security chief, gets the better of them. She has her own axe to grind with Pride, since he killed her husband in self-defense. And so, in the closing moments of “Checkmate, Part 2,” she finds him at his apartment and shoots him three times in the chest. (He survives the attempted murder, as Season 5 reveals.)
Season 5, Episode 10: Amelia kills Cassius
Pride’s charismatic con man father, played by Stacy Keach, meets his maker in Season 5’s “Tick Tock.” Amelia once again tries to kill Pride — as he and Cassius free hostages taken by the nefarious spy organization Apollyon — and so Cassius steps in front of Amelia’s gun and takes the bullets for his son.
Season 6, Episode 4: Cade is killed
LaSalle loses his older brother, Cade (previously played by Clayne Crawford) in Season 6’s “Overlooked.” Knowing that Cade was trying to take down a drug ring in which his girlfriend’s son was implicated, LaSalle tracks his brother to Mobile, Alabama. Unfortunately, a body turns up, burned beyond recognition, and a dental test reveals it’s Cade’s.
Season 6, Episode 6: LaSalle dies
Two episodes later, in “Matthew 5:9,” LaSalle dies in his investigations into Cade’s death, coming under gunfire from cult leader Eddie Barrett (Eddie Cahill). He initially survives that shootout but later dies of his injuries in the hospital while seeing visions of his late brother.
Season 7: CBS cancels the show
In perhaps the cruelest twist for NCIS: New Orleans fans, CBS canceled the show midway through its seventh season. TV Insider’s Matt Roush attributed NCIS: New Orleans’ sudden demise to its production costs, its relatively low ratings, and a reported lack of syndication interest.
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