NCIS needs to let go of Ziva David and move on
Could a blast from the past be coming back to NCIS?
That was the question fans were asking after a recent episode of the long-running series seemed to suggest that, contrary to all we’d been told over the past few years, special agent Ziva David – as played by Cote de Pablo – did not die in a mortar attack in Israel after all.
Ziva's alive! But does the show still need her? And would her resurrection work?
Digital Spy readers certainly seem to think that she should return – in a poll held shortly after the episode aired in the US, a whopping 96% of you said you wanted her back.
'She' – the episode that revealed she was still alive – made for an unusual hour of the series, with multiple revelations about the way in which Ziva had kept investigating a cold case, even after everyone else on the team had let it drop, and then left a note for Ellie Bishop (Emily Wickersham) which suggested she was still out there.
There’s obvious potential now for Ziva to pop up like a rabbit out of a magician’s hat to assist the team – potentially clandestinely, off the books. Certainly, following the retirement of David McCallum’s character Dr Ducky Mallard from the show, de Pablo’s return to the set might not be as problematic as it once could've been. (McCallum went on the record about his anger and disappointment over the abrupt nature of her original exit.)
Alternatively, she could be moved over to one of the other NCIS teams featured in the spin-off shows – the New Orleans branch in particular has a high turnover of female personnel and Ziva doesn’t have history, good or bad, with any of the members of that team.
But the idea of Ziva David simply stepping back into the Navy Yard and continuing to work as a Special Agent as part of Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ elite unit? That’s not very likely.
Put simply, this branch of NCIS has moved on. After Ziva’s abrupt decision to go to Israel, her lover and colleague senior special agent Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) stuck around for a bit but then went to Paris to look after a daughter that he was unaware that he had conceived with Ziva.
New agents have come on board since to join Gibbs’ team – Eleanor Bishop arrived from the NSA directly replacing Ziva (even sitting at the same desk – something that has apparently preyed on Gibbs’ mind in the intervening period).
The rest of the team was in flux for a couple of years. Special Agent Nick Torres is the only other member to remain from that time alongside Gibbs, Bishop and the team’s resident geek, senior special agent Tim McGee, and they’ve now developed their own highly effective rhythm.
Ziva would be starting from scratch with half the team, and she wouldn’t even have her previous strong relationship with their forensic expert, Abby Sciuto to fall back on – Abby (Pauley Perrette) has gone off to do good works around the world, and Ziva has had no contact whatsoever with her replacement.
There would be no possibility either that, within the framework of the show, the team’s boss Leon Vance would countenance Ziva simply slipping back into her old role – there are far too many questions left as a result of her 'death' for that ever to the case. Remember, Vance’s wife was killed in the same attack that killed Ziva’s father, and while he has tried to rebuild his life, she sought revenge.
Ziva’s apparent demise hit the team hard, and the chances of her being able to recreate the level of trust that has to be there are slim to none. Lying to Gibbs is one of the cardinal sins as far as the former gunnery sergeant is concerned. They’ve had other losses too – the terrorist attack at the end of season 12 killed Agent Ned Dorneget, while seconded British operative Clayton Reeves gave his life to save Abby. How would the team feel about someone who’s manipulated their feelings by claiming to be dead?
So those are the problems within the fiction of the series. What about the real world? Would Cote de Pablo fit in with those who are now in charge of NCIS? Five years ago, a lot of money was offered to her to remain for season 11, but she turned down everything CBS laid in front of her.
The writing staff and then-showrunner Gary Glasberg (who passed away in 2016) had a huge amount of reworking to do very rapidly in order to resolve the cliffhanger of season 10 and give some form of satisfactory ending to a popular character.
Even if there's no bad feeling on their part, De Pablo has previously said she "chose not to" return to NCIS because of the "scripts not being good enough", so the odds of a long-term return are probably slim anyway.
Ziva was a key part of NCIS once but as they say, you can’t reheat a soufflé – and her return today really wouldn’t benefit either the character or the show.
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