When Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) walked down the steps into Gibbs’ (Mark Harmon) basement in the NCIS season 16 finale, it wasn’t clear whether she was real or another one of Gibbs’ hallucinations. But now we can confirm that not only is Ziva back for real, but she will be returning for more than the two episodes previously announced.
“There will be four episodes in this season, two early on and two fall/winter,” executive producer Frank Cardea told Parade.com in this special interview.
Spoiler Alert: NCIS Season 16 Finale Shocking Guest Star!
Ziva returns because Gibbs’ life is in danger and she wants to make sure that he survives. It won’t be the first time she saved his life. Longtime fans will remember she killed her half-brother Ari Haswari (Rudolf Martin) the first time around. But this time, she may be putting her own life in danger by returning to help save his.
“If you look at the things we know; we know she had a daughter, and the daughter was sent to live with Tony,” executive producer/showrunner Steven Binder says. “It’s unknown whether or not she’s been involved with Tony or not. But, certainly, if she has, Tony hasn’t called the team up and said she’s alive. So, there would have to be something very serious hanging over her own head, not just Gibbs’. Just from the available facts, you can add up the idea that there’s someone out there that’s so bad, that’s so dangerous, that she had to go undercover and leave her daughter behind, at least for a period of time.”
First Look: The NCIS Cast Gets Together For the First Table Read of Season 17
With that said, it becomes clear that the danger to both Ziva and Gibbs is not from someone or something new, but rather an element from their shared past.
“One of the things that we wanted to do was not just create something out of whole cloth where you’re like ‘huh?,’” Binder continues. “So when we came up with this backstory, we laid a little pipe ourselves once we knew we had Cote, but the initial genesis of this story was — and this is a clue — it’s something that has been part of the fabric of the show, her character and the introduction of her character from the very beginning. So, we’re playing with the DNA of Ziva David in terms of this jeopardy. This isn’t some newly created arch nemesis conspiracy theory or conspiracy that she’s tried to get out from beneath. This will tie into the lore and history of the show.”
It was this idea that intrigued de Pablo enough to agree to return. In years past, she had said that if there was a storyline worthy of Ziva’s return, she would consider it. And Cardea and Binder managed to make her an offer she couldn’t refuse.
“We came up with the idea and we approached Cote,” Cardea says. “She wanted to know what the storyline was going to be, and we basically pitched her the arc of her episodes. She came out and had a meeting with Steve, me, the writer and Mark Harmon and she loved it, and here she is.”
Obviously, the reason behind Ziva’s faked death has to be a huge one because the parental bond is a strong one and she had to leave her daughter behind in order to make it appear as if she really were dead. She couldn’t just disappear and take Tali with her.
“The bond of the parent-child is huge. So, the thing that pulls you apart has to be equally to the task,” Binder points out. “We gave a lot of thought to what we want to see and what we think people will want to see. I think we’re going to hit all the checkboxes.”
Happy Birthday, Mark Harmon: 50 Photos From His 15 Years on NCIS
When season 17 begins, Bishop (Emily Wickersham) is the only one — other than Gibbs — who knows that Ziva is alive, but since Bishop was Ziva’s replacement, she only knows her through stories and through the notes that Ziva left in the cottage she had rented before her departure.
“Certainly, the characters who were there when Ziva was part of the NCIS team had very close relationships with her, they’re going to react,” Cardea says. “We have a couple of new characters, like Bishop, Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) and Kasie (Diona Reasonover), who didn’t really know her, and they’ll have their own take on her return.”
“It’s not like someone went away on a cruise ship for six years and came back and says, ‘Hey, how great to see you.’ Everyone has got their own questions,” Binder points out.
“They thought she was dead. There’s the shock of all that,” Cardea adds.
As for whether or not Ziva’s return for episodes three and four continue the story of the first two episodes, or whether she comes back the second time for another reason, Binder says, “The answer is both. If you’re looking at the episodes, individually, it will seem perhaps like it’s a different reason, but when it’s all said and done, you’ll realize this is all tied together into one large, large story. But each segment will have its closure.”
Mark Harmon Dishes on NCIS, Football and Life as a Family Man
What is incredible about de Pablo’s return is the fact that it was one of the best kept secrets of 2019, because it didn’t leak out on social media.
“That night was very magical,” Cardea recalls. “We shot the scene at 2:30 in the morning, and the majority of our crew did not know what would happen. A lot of our crew was shocked. We got calls from people on the crew saying, ‘When did that happen?’ Literally we called wrap. We were shooting late that night because we had night scenes, so, the select crew members who knew about it and had signed nondisclosure agreements, pretended to go home and came back like a half hour later and then we brought Cote in.”
But to keep everyone in the dark, an alternate ending had been shot that never got used, which Binder says “was sad not to use because it felt so good.”
NCIS returns on Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
