The great part of being on a long running prime time series is the money.

The bad part is also the money.

As a show ages, budgets constrict. The network is paying less as ratings decline. Ask all the people who’ve been sent to early deaths on “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Such is the case for “NCIS Los Angeles,” starring Chris O’Donnell, LLCoolJ, and Linda Hunt. They’re the principal players. Everyone else has a target on their backs.

And so say goodbye to Renee Felice Smith and Barrett Foa. The latter actor has been there all 12 seasons, the former came in Season 2. Last night their characters rode off into the sunset together. They will meet up with three “Grey’s” actors who were let go this spring, and numerous others. Ellen Pompeo will serve them all martinis at her imaginary Malibu brunch spot.

Showrunner Scott Gemmill rationalized the actors’ finale to TVLine:  “Both Renée and Barrett have been on the show a long time, and they’re both very ambitious individuals who have projects that they want to do on their own — and we’ve been giving them time off to do so,” Gemmill said. “It seemed like a natural time to let them go off and do some other things, and give [their characters] what is a happy, hopefully, ending.”

Look, at least weren’t killed in an explosion. Be happy for little things.

Any good news? Linda Hunt returned to the show physically in last night’s episode. It’s hoped she’ll be on full time next season. Seeing her in those syndicated reruns is always a pleasure. But go look at her in “The Year of Living Dangerously.” Still great cinema.

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Do we now know Erin’s killer? “Mare of Easttown” gave us a confession tonight. It also gave us a big red herring.

We are led to believe that Billy, the sad sack brother of Mare’s brother in law, John, did the deed. John extruded a confession from him under duress. Then he took him on fishing trip. We know he’s got a gun.

But we can surmise Billy is too pathetic to have done it. So it would seem that Mare is about to walk in on John killing Billy and framing him for Erin’s murder. John, then, would be the real killer.

Maybe he is. But if he is, why did HBO hire Guy Pearce to play Mare’s boyfriend, Richard, a seemingly nice guy who’s just hanging around in Easttown? Pearce is a movie star, he costs a lot, and wasn’t just bored at home.

More red herrings.

So something’s up. Unless this show fizzles like The Undoing in its last act, Richard the writer is going to play into the final episode. I still think he’s related to dead Colin and the mother, but maybe that’s too much plot. Maybe Guy Pearce is playing his character from “Memento” and has forgotten everything.

Anyway, we’ll be said to see these people go. But something tells the survivors are ready to shoot Season 2. And we’ll be waiting!