With over 450 episodes and counting, “NCIS” has explored a vast array of subject ground. Even after more than 15 years after its debut, a Season 4 episode continues to be one of the show’s most moving moments.
In “NCIS” Season 4, Episode 16, titled “Dead Man Walking,” Naval Lieutenant Roy Sanders (Matthew Marsden) personally requests that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service identify his own murderer. Though he’s still alive at that point, he’s in the process of dying from radiation poisoning. As a motive, he suspects that someone wanted to keep him from his duties as an inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency and poisoned him. All the while, Special Agent Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) develops feelings for Sanders, so his eventual death becomes all the more tragic in spite of its inevitability. In future episodes, a detail some fans may not have noticed is that Ziva even wears an orange beanie in his memory.
On Reddit, user u/nodaybuttoday__ started a thread proposing that “Dead Man Walking” is one of the saddest episodes of “NCIS.” They sympathized with Sanders, in particular, and praised Marsden for his performance. User u/ptazdba, meanwhile, replied that Ziva is the episode’s standout. “It was the first episode where they showed the softer side of Ziva,” they wrote. “It was a great story and an exercise in the fruits of just human kindness.”
There are other Reddit threads devoted solely to the argument that “Dead Man Walking” is one of the most depressing “NCIS” episodes. For instance, user Shy_Moon_ contended in the thread’s top remark that neither Roy Sanders nor Ziva David deserved their respective outcomes. “I genuinely cried for ages, neither of them deserved that i agree,” was the original poster of the thread’s response.
“I am crying so hard,” is the first message on a Reddit thread that is similar to the episode and just shares the title. Sadly, Ziva. Then, two commenters said that because of the feelings it arouses in them, this episode is one of their favorites.
Such sentiment seems to be shared among “NCIS” fans across various social media platforms, from additional Reddit threads dedicated to the episode to posts on X, formerly known as Twitter. User @fake_morgs on the X platform, for instance, shared “Dead Man Walking” as an example of a TV episode that makes them more emotional than most others. User @REES1776 on the X platform, meanwhile, praised the episode in response to an unrelated post by Matthew Marsden. “One of my favorite episodes,” they wrote. “Great acting and hits right in the feels.”