NCIS: Tony And Ziva Finally Brought Tali Back, And Now I Have A Theory On How She Factored Into Her Parents Breaking Up

Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS: Tony & Ziva episode “We’ve Got Company” are ahead!

Last year, Michael Weatherly, who both stars in and executive produces NCIS: Tony & Ziva alongside Cote de Pablo, said that Tali, Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David’s daughter, would play an important role in the story. Although the younger Tali has been a frequent presence in the show’s flashbacks, we haven’t spent much time with Isla Gie’s present day version of the character since the first episode. That changed with the premiere of “We’ve Got Company” to Paramount+ subscription-holders on the 2025 TV schedule, and now I suspect I know how she factored into her parents breaking up.

Present-Day Tali And Sophie Ended Up In Danger

With Tony and Ziva being forced to travel around Europe to clear their name, Tali has been looked after by Sophie, her nanny who used to be an MI6 agent. The cabin where they stayed didn’t have a Wifi connection, and Sophie didn’t allow her to use a phone for fear that this could lead to the bad guys tracking them down. Eventually the tablet Tali used to play an offline game ran of power, and while finding ways to cope with the boredom, she found a smartwatch her father left behind during the family’s last visit to the cabin (more on that later).

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Unfortunately, Tali merely turning on the watch to play a different offline game connected it to the phone network, and it didn’t take long for goons working for Martine and Jonah Markham (whom we now know is a villain) to find her and Sophie. These two endured a lot from there, including Sophie nearly dying from a hornet sting (there was a nest near the house) and them being forced to flee from the panic room, but ultimately they came out of this intact. Sophie dispatched most of these goons with her combat training, Tali managed to neutralize one of them using a taser she grabbed from a safe room, and Claudette arrived just in the nick of time to shoot the man who was about to kill her girlfriend.

Tony and Ziva pulled up to the cabin soon after, and with the safe house no longer, well, safe, Tali and Claudette are now with them and the rest of the gang. While Ziva believes that Tali will now be safer if she stays with them, Tony, who’s grappling with the death of his friend Henry, doesn’t agree. I think we can safely assume Tali’s not going to get killed off too, but I also doubt this is the last time she’ll be in danger.

Flashback Tali Had A Close Call With A Gun

The flashback storyline in “We’ve Got Company” showed Tony and Ziva taking Tali to the cabin for the first time in August 2020. Upon entering the vacation getaway by herself, Tali discovered a gun stuck underneath one of the tables and started examining it. Tony and Ziva understandably panicked once they came in and snatched the firearm away from her. It turned out this was one of Ziva’s old safe houses, and she’d forgotten to take away the gun during her last sweep.

With tensions running high in that moment, Tony and Ziva got into an argument about what happened, as they’d previously agreed they didn’t want their daughter to have the same kind of upbringing that Ziva did. Ziva later explained to Tali that although she keeps guns around the house to feel safe, she didn’t want Tali to have the same mindset. Still, I can’t help wondering if that close call with the gun played into Tony and Ziva’s decision to end their engagement years back.

I’m not saying Tali herself was responsible for her parents separating. Rather, I wonder if Ziva still dealing with the trauma she experienced over her life, plus her complicated relationship with Tony, made her realize that she wasn’t in the right headspace to make it work with him in a romantic way. Let’s also not forget that Tony wasn’t being honest with Ziva during the therapy getaway with Dr. Lang, meaning there was a foundation of lies in her relationship.

Of course, with Tony and Ziva having kissed each other a few weeks back in the present day, perhaps these two crazy kids are finally on their way to getting back together. I know Tali would like that, and Cote de Pablo did request that her and Michael Weatherly’s characters get a “happy something” before agreeing to join NCIS: Tony & Ziva. Still, I look forward to learning exactly where things went wrong with the title characters as new episodes drop on Paramount+.