To be quite honest, after watching this episode of “NCIS,” I was not at all sure what to write. I must have sat still, staring at my screen for a few minutes. It left me confused for a number of reasons and also, I hate to say, disappointed.
I was dreading this episode because it would be the last episode with Cote de Pablo, who plays Ziva David. I knew that Ziva’s ‘goodbye episode’ was going to be about her and Tony, and so I knew that it was going to be very emotional. Especially for those who have been fans of their relationship for the eight years that Ziva was around.
However, I’d let myself feel reassured by what Gary Glasberg has been telling us; the scenes with Tony and Ziva were going to be really beautiful and heartbreaking, and it would be everything that the fans had hoped for. Was it beautiful? Yes. Was it heartbreaking? Yes. Was it everything that I, as a fan, had hoped for? Definitely not. And if you ask me if the storyline makes sense, well … no, not completely.
Firstly, I want to say that I can’t blame Glasberg and the other writers. I know they had scripts for season 11 finished and then had maybe about a week to change everything and come up with this after Cote’s sudden departure (for which I don’t blame her either). I am sure they did their best, and they did a pretty good job, but I am still disappointed.
Even when I try to look at this as objectively as possible, I feel that this was by no means enough. And not only because we were promised two final episodes with Ziva and ended up seeing her for about half an episode. Ok, so we finally got a kiss. We also got an indirect “I love you.” But basically, that’s it.
Of course, it was beautiful to see how much Tony cares about Ziva, but there’s nothing new there. We barely got anything more than what we’ve been getting since halfway through season nine. I would love to hear how others feel about this. For me, it was certainly not everything I’d hoped for, and I think it was mostly the performances of Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo that still made it very beautiful and memorable.
I was going to say it was their great acting, but I felt that wasn’t right, because the emotion we saw in that last scene was not acting, that was real, which made me cry ten times harder.
The bit about Ziva no longer wanting to be an agent was alright. I felt that it was in character because we’d seen her falling apart before, doubting that she could continue to live this kind of life. First comes to mind the end of season eight, when Ziva was very emotional after Mike Franks died and literally said to Tony that she wasn’t sure how much more she could take.
The part where she wants to stay in Israel, however, I did not understand. She says that Gibbs taught her to follow her heart. I’m pretty sure that her heart is with Tony and with her family in D.C. Naturally, she will always be tied to Israel, since she was born there, has memories there, and her relatives are buried there, but she has nothing left to live for in that country. It would have made more sense to me if she’d just come back to D.C. and found another job.
Now, on to the case. Still not solved. I said in my recap last week that we’d have to wait one more week to see how it all works out, but it turns out I was wrong. I’m not going to say anything like that now because for all I know, it might take until January.
It seems to me like little progress was made with the investigation. Captain Wayne tells Gibbs that he was not contacted from Arizona, but from Florida. Next, Gibbs is ambushed by a guy who also receives orders through texts and was being paid to kill Gibbs. Thank goodness he did not succeed.
McGee is able to trace the texts to Mendes, who turns out to be a bad guy. A terrorist on the board of an anti- terrorist organization. Don’t you hate it when that happens?
It’s confusing that Mendes was apparently the one giving orders to people like Captain Wayne and Vernon Dale, the guy who attacked Gibbs in this episode, while Parsa is supposed to be the man in charge. I also remember that Mendes was on one of the pictures in that barn in Arizona. The people on those pictures were targets. So unless Mendes put his own picture up there, something is going on with this too.
The team is also looking for Henry Coldwell, the man who shot at Tony in last week’s episode. Abby found his fingerprints in May and now, in October, he still hasn’t been found. Coldwell has either found a great place to hide or he’s dead.
Oh, one last thing. Last week, after seeing the picture of the man who is supposedly Parsa, I thought it might be Adam. I no longer think that.
Still a lot to find out. I’m excited to see this case solved! As for Ziva, who else will be counting the days until she, hopefully, comes back?
Your thoughts on this episode of “NCIS”? Leave comments below.
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