Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS: Tony & Ziva episode “Wedding Crashers” are ahead!
Although NCIS: Tony & Ziva’s flashback storyline has been showing its title characters getting quite intimate with each other, last month, showrunner John McNamara informed CinemaBlend that the reason they weren’t romantically paired when the present day storyline started is because he “didn’t see enough conflict in that.” Well, that may be changing thanks to the events of “Wedding Crashers.” The newest episode of the Paramount+ series to air on the 2025 TV schedule ended with Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo’s characters kissing, and the actors/executive producers and McNamara told me what this big shakeup means for the rest of the season.
The plan to apprehend Martine and clear their names with that faux wedding operation may not have ended the way they wanted, but Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David did manage to steal her phone and evade INTERPOL. Then, after Ziva had changed out her wedding dress on the boat they were fleeing on, she and Tony (who suffered a massive heartbreak just days earlier) started passionately kissing, only to be interrupted by Fruzsi. However, Tony was shown putting his suit jacket around Ziva in the episode’s final moments, so where do things go from here with their relationship? Here’s what Michael Weatherly told me when I asked about that:
I guess the best thing I can say is, just when you think everything's ok is when you should be most wary. Because there are many twists and turns that you will not see coming.
Cote de Pablo requested that Tony and Ziva get a “happy something” by the time this debut season of their NCIS spinoff ends (no word yet on if Season 2 is a possibility). So at the bare minimum, we shouldn’t have to worry about tragedy striking these two when this 10-episode run wraps up. That said, Michael Weatherly is making it sound like just because these two locked lips again doesn’t meant mean it will suddenly be smooth sailing for them.
De Pablo echoed that sentiment when I posed the same question to her, as well as noted how amazing it is for Tony and Ziva to reconnect in each other in this way amidst all the adversity they’re facing. As she put it:
I will say this: you can acknowledge an emotion. You can acknowledge a feeling, but it doesn't mean that it's not gonna come wrapped in a world of challenge. And I think that's what happens. There's an acknowledgement of something that is very much happening between them, and it's certainly the beginning of something. It's the promise of something. But where it goes, it's something that I think is even surprising to them because they're met with just challenge after challenge, and I think that's the beauty of it, is that they keep fighting.
As for John McNamara, when I asked if the kiss on the boat meant that Tony and Ziva were officially back together or if this just another stepping stone in their continued complicated relationship, he answered:
I would say Episodes 5, 6 and 7 deliver the answer to that question. It's a very good question, but I really want the audience to discover that on their own.
Next week’s NCIS: Tony & Ziva episode, titled “To Be Determined” will follow Tony and Ziva working with their allies to free Jonah Markham, the Secretary General of INTERPOL, from a supermax prison in Austria. It’ll be their riskiest operation yet, as the facility has security measures like biometric checkpoints, magnetic locks and every prisoner being tracked 24/7, not to mention we don’t know why Markham was suddenly thrown in there. Yet during this intense operation, and in the following two episodes, time will be carved out to clarify where things stand with Tony and Ziva.
Whatever happens, we know that these two will always be in each other’s lives to co-parent their daughter Tali. For now though, I’m going to stay optimistic and believe that they’ll get their happily ever after by the time NCIS: Tony & Ziva’s debut season is over. We also learned in “Wedding Crashers” that Ziva agreed to Tony’s proposal several years back, so I’m curious to see what went wrong there.
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