1000th NCIS episode. Given its long run-time, and myriad character exits, some characters are bound to have more tragic endings than others. Even so, there's one major player who deserved so much better.

Over the past two decades, NCIS has created intense season finales to write characters off the show. Given its dramatic and police procedural nature, it makes sense to move characters around to keep the show exciting. However, some characters receive more upsetting endings than others. NCIS featured a particularly tragic ending to one of its characters in season 5, 16 years prior to the NCIS season 22. After all this time, her ending still rankles.

Jenny Shepard Was An Underrated NCIS Character

Jenny's Appearances Were Small But Long-Lasting

Jenny Shepard, played by Lauren Holly, was the NCIS director from season 3 to season 5. She acquired this post after Thomas Morrow's resignation following Caitlin Todd's death in the NCIS season 2 finale. While Jenny was only the director for three seasons, her effect on the show has been long-lasting. For one thing, she was the first and only female director of NCIS and her relationship with Gibbs went a long way into revealing his character and personality.

Jenny was an ambitious and highly skilled NCIS agent, which gave her the drive she needed to be successful. Her obsession with catching René Benoit for his alleged involvement in the murder of her father also added to her intrigue and made her an impressive character. Her obsessive nature was largely a result of Jenny being driven by grief and revenge following her father's death, and it gave her character a slight edge that separated her from the other NCIS team . These qualities made Jenny a great NCIS character – which is why her death still hurts, 16 years on.

Jenny's Story Ended Abruptly

Jenny's Impulsiveness Led To Her Demise

Jenny was a great director but her time on NCIS was cut short when she was killed in a shootout in the season 5 finale, "Judgment Day Part 1." Season 4 of NCIS set up Jenny's death by showing the extent of her obsession with René, and it was that fixation with catching him that eventually led to her death. While pursuing René, Jenny was assigned to kill the fiancé of a Russian arms dealer in an undercover operation. Her failure to complete her mission and be honest with her teammates is what eventually killed her in 2008.

However, even without her violent death, Jenny would still have left the show in another way. Season 5 revealed that Jenny was sick, but it was not until Ducky was about to begin Jenny's autopsy in season 5 that he revealed to Gibbs that she had been diagnosed with a debilitating terminal illness. Jenny's exit from the show would have been abrupt either way. She is one of the many NCIS characters who left the show, but in a way, Jenny's death was on her own .

After Jenny was diagnosed, she seemed to have gotten more impulsive, putting the safety of her teammates at risk.

But Jenny did not need a terminal illness in the first place. She could have been written out of the show through a career change from the stress of the job. She also could have left having achieved satisfaction that René was dead. After Jenny was diagnosed, she seemed to have gotten more impulsive, putting the safety of her teammates at risk. She deserved a better ending because she had worked so hard to get to where she was and to have it taken from her so quickly was disappointing.

Why Lauren Holly Left As Jenny Shepard NCIS In Season 5

Holly Wanted To Leave The CBS Show

Many reasons can for actor exits from TV series, from wanting to pursue other projects to creative decisions that the writers and producers made for the betterment of the said series. In Lauren Holly's case, it was apparently a combination of both. According to NCIS show on her official website in 2009, one year after she left. Based on the actress' comments, it seems as if Jenny's death was a result of Holly's boredom with playing the character and the writers wanting to move on from Jenny's story. Holly wrote:

"To be honest, now that the work bug had bitten me again, I got bored with my part of the 'Director.' Then the decision was made to kill me, and boy did they. About five different ways!

So, it sounds like the decision to kill Jenny in the first TV show in the NCIS shared universe was mutual between the writers/producers and Holly. The actress just wanted out so that she could explore other avenues in her acting career. Meanwhile, the writers thought the perfect way to send her character out was to kill her during a shoot-out in NCIS season 5, episode 18, the first part of the season 5 finale. Holly ultimately chose to leave NCIS, ing the numerous actors who have exited the military police procedural series over the course of its 22 seasons on CBS.

Jenny Could Come Back In NCIS: Origins

The Prequel Is Jenny's Only Hope

Even though Jenny died 16 years ago, she could appear in the new NCIS prequel, NCIS: Origins, which will take place during the beginning of NCIS' Jethro Gibbs' career. NCIS has already established Jenny as both an NCIS special agent and Gibb's former partner, so it would make sense for her to appear. It would also be exciting to see how Jenny and Gibbs' relationship started, since most of it happened off-screen and before NCIS.

Jenny is one of the many dead NCIS characters who could appear in NCIS: Origins. Her past with Gibbs gives her even more potential to appear, since her pursuit to catch René overlapped with her time with Gibbs. Jenny's story in NCIS: Origins would likely focus on their time together in the undercover operation in Paris regarding the Russian arms dealer and his fiancée. Since Jenny died 16 years ago, her only hope to reappear in the NCIS franchise is through the prequel.

What Lauren Holly Has Done Since NCIS

Holly Has Continued Working In Movies And Television

Lauren Holly had a long career in Hollywood before becoming Jenny Shepard in NCIS, including memorable parts in Dumb and Dumber, Beautiful Girls, and Turbulence. Not surprisingly, after leaving NCIS, she continued to get big roles in films and television with her career still going strong more than a decade after leaving the hit series.

The former NCIS actress starred in the Netflix TV show Tiny Pretty Things in 2020 and has also had guest-starring roles in a number of series, from Lucifer to Designated Survivor to Alphas. Holly also began working more frequently on Canadian television, taking roles in the police procedure Motive as well as the legal drama Family Law. She also appeared in the horror film The Blackcoat's Daughter. Holly will next be seen in the Netflix holiday comedy Hot Frosty, starring Lacey Chabert, Craig Robinson, and Dustin Milligan.

Source: Digital Spy