The world may have just been reintroduced to Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) via Tony & Ziva, but the eponymous couple are already on the run.
(Warning: Spoilers ahead!)
The NCIS-spinoff premiered Sept. 4 on Paramount+ with three episodes, which dropped fans in the middle of an international gambit where Tony and Ziva are criss-crossing the European continent to clear their names after they are framed by a mysterious network of cyber terrorists.
The series is even more action-heavy than the flagship, with Tony and Ziva dodging bombs and AI-driven automobiles set to kill. So it may have been a surprise to fans that Tony & Ziva starts with a wedding. Unfortunately, they learn too soon that it is not the wedding they probably hoped for. That is entirely by design.
“John [McNamara, showrunner] credits Cote with the idea of starting with a wedding, and everyone thinks that it is Tony and Ziva’s wedding, but it’s not that wedding. It’s a fake wedding,” Weatherly says of the head fake. “The show is an unreliable narrator. The show is all about, ‘Do you trust me? Come here, trust me,’ and then it pulls the rug from under you. It’s the same thing that Tony and Ziva are experiencing with each other. It’s the core of the show between Tony and Ziva, but also with the audience and the show.”
Fans have been rooting for Tony and Ziva to settle down together for almost two decades now, but the new series shows there’s still some work to do before these two can finally put down their armor. Getting together is the ultimate goal, but McNamara knew the series couldn’t just skip to the good part without making the dysfunctional duo work for that happy ending.
“They both carry a lot of trauma. They don’t wear it lightly. Ziva was ‘dead’ for four years and on the run. I didn’t think that was something we could ignore,” he tells The Daily Beast’s Obsessed. “That’s why I wanted to spend some time in 2020 and 2021 to really see how they were both affected by circumstances out of their control, and how they would probably carry some resentment. They would carry some anger and some fear. The story in 2025 is what brings them together, but prior to that, they have a lot of small and large emotional issues that have torn them apart.”
They are so far apart that Ziva says in the pilot episode that there’s no chance of them ever getting back together. It’s obvious by the end of the third episode that Ziva is in denial about lingering feelings, but Weatherly says that 2025 Tony isn’t super eager to jump back into the relationship either.
“He knows intellectually that she’s not available to him. He knows that she is not to be trusted. He knows that the universe has put her there for whatever reason, and she is his greatest teacher in all the painful ways that a teacher can show you the truth about yourself,” Weatherly says.
But the actor did not want to dissect what Ziva meant by them never getting back together. “I really want the audience to paint their own preconceptions and biases and their own idea of what Tony or Ziva meant by any certain line. It’s like explaining the lyrics of a song too much. I know what I was thinking when I made it, but who cares? You’re going to be more creative than me.”
The goal of the show’s dual timeline structure is to fill in the gaps between 2020, when we last saw the pair on NCIS, and their current mission. We get a glimpse at their initial failed attempt to jump back into a romantic relationship, but McNamara there’s still much more to be revealed, but fans will have all the information by the close of the season.
“Hopefully, by the time you get to Episodes 4, 5, and 6, and then Episode 9, it blows the doors off emotionally. You’ll see why it didn’t work back then. It’s because they just weren’t ready,” McNamara reveals.
This new mission is about proving they’re better prepared for a romantic relationship and the trust that requires. “They’re ready now. Part of how they know they’re ready is how well they’re parenting together, even though bullets are flying. It’s how well they’ve been working together, saving each other’s lives and having each other’s backs,” the producer promises.
There are still many episodes and hijinks before that emotional pay off, but McNamara teases there will be a lot of fun along the way.
“They have to break someone out of a super max prison, which is super fun,” he says when asked what he’s most excited for the fans to see in the upcoming season. “In that same episode, we flash back to them in a couple boot camp, which is pretty interesting.”
And of course, there are many more twists and turns before Tony and Ziva get to the bottom of the espionage plot that’s trying to blow them up, or at least put them both in prison.
“I am very excited for the audience to finally figure out with us who the real villains are, because it’s probably not who you think,” McNamara continues. “I can’t wait for the fans to come with us to the Canary Islands in Spain, where the last two episodes take place. It’s gorgeous and there’s no place like it on Earth. It’s a really, really, amazing place.”
The first three episodes of Tony & Ziva are now available to stream on Paramount+. New episodes will be released every Thursday until the finale on Oct. 23.
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