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On October 4, 2017, Perrette announced that she would be departing the show at the conclusion of season 15. CBS aired her final episode on May 8, 2018.Abby has shown a tendency to become very agitated, to the point of near-panic, if any of the team is seriously hurt. When Gibbs was admitted to the hospital, Abby ended up on the verge of a nervous breakdown, pacing back and forth while delivering a rambling, disjointed stream-of-consciousness plea that explained (among other things) how close Gibbs and she were, the reason she was arriving after visiting hours, how she felt about Gibbs being injured, and how important it was to her that Gibbs not die from his injuries.

C. Coville from Cracked criticized the choice to describe Abby’s age as “late twenties” in her 2009 guest appearance on NCIS: Los Angeles, finding it unbelievable for someone who “has still somehow picked up a PhD in chemistry, bachelor’s degrees in sociology, criminology, and psychology, and good knowledge of hacking and computer forensic science”.

Prior to taking up a career in acting, Pauley Perrette had studied at John Jay School of Criminal Science in New York, having previously aspired “to work with animals, be in a rock ‘n’ roll band, or be an FBI agent.” She eventually began acting, later saying, “There’s no drug that I ever did that worked as well as being an actor. What you’re looking for with substance abuse is escape. But with acting, you can escape into 1,000 different things without almost killing yourself doing it. Acting is a total drug!” Abigail is a forensic scientist at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service headquarters at the Washington Navy Yard, with expertise in ballistics, digital forensics, and DNA analysis. In the first episode of the seventh season, “Truth or Consequences”, DiNozzo, while under the influence of a truth serum, describes her as “a paradox wrapped in an oxymoron smothered in contradictions in terms. Sleeps in a coffin. Really, the happiest Goth you’ll ever meet.” The character’s gothic style of dress and her interest in death and the supernatural contrast with her generally hyperactive demeanor and enthusiasm about her work. She appears well-versed in her field of study; she is rarely stumped by the puzzles that Gibbs’ team presents to her. Abby has been shown to have skills in traditional forensics, computer forensics, and hacking. She has implied that she has a PhD in chemistry. It has been shown that she does all the work on the evidence herself. In season three, when she was given an assistant, Charles “Chip” Sterling, she revolted, but eventually learned to put up with him. However, their working partnership did not last long, as Abby later discovered Sterling had framed DiNozzo for murder. Exposed, Chip threatened her with a knife; she promptly subdued him, hog-tied him with duct tape, and insisted on being allowed to work alone from then on, something to which then-Director Jenny Shepard agreed.

In the NCIS: Los Angeles episode “Random on Purpose”, Abby, having been previously seen on video conference or talking to someone from her lab in Washington, DC, arrived in Los Angeles to meet the Office of Special Projects (OSP) team as she informed them she was investigating a serial killer called the Phantom who had murdered 15 people all over the country and had also left no DNA or even physical evidence at the scenes.Before her death in the line of duty, Special Agent Caitlin “Kate” Todd was a close friend of Abby’s. They often hung out after work, and Abby is one of the few characters on the show to know what Kate’s tattoo actually is.

Sometimes, that protectiveness extends from the rest of the team, as well. For example, in the episode “Spider and the Fly”, Alejandro Rivera came to NCIS and began to threaten Abby for not sending in a report about the murder of Pedro Hernandez, Rivera’s father, whom Gibbs had killed 20 years previously in revenge for Hernandez killing Gibbs’ first wife, Shannon, and young daughter, Kelly. The entire team, including Ducky and Vance, ordered him to leave her alone and to not harass her, or to be escorted forcibly from NCIS Headquarters. Rivera eventually left of his own accord, but was later arrested for attempting to kill Gibbs and his father at a safehouse, and accidentally killing his sister, Paloma.

Abby was later kidnapped by the Phantom, later revealed to be a law firm receptionist named Tom Smith, who sought to kill her to keep his identity a secret, as he hoped to go around killing more people, having developed something of a taste for it. Although Vance mentioned that Gibbs and the NCIS Major Case Response Team were en route to Los Angeles to rescue her, Abby was saved due to the efforts of the OSP team and was later seen telling Gibbs and McGee on a video-conferencing link that she was okay.Having already formed a strong friendship with Eric Beale, Abby developed friendships with the OSP team, including G. Callen (Chris O’Donnell), Sam Hanna (LL Cool J), and most notably the operations manager Hetty Lange (Linda Hunt), who commented that Abby is “the first NCIS employee [she] has ever met with a sense of style”. Kensi Blye, another NCIS Special Agent, who is an expert in forensics, praised Abby for her high levels of thinking, stating that she lived up to the hype.

Later in the show’s run, reception continued to be mostly positive, with some critics regarding her as “easily the most outgoing and affectionate member of the group”. In 2009, David Martingale of Star-Telegram wrote, “Abby Sciuto, a forensics scientist who, with her caffeine-fueled high energy and kooky Goth/cheerleader wardrobe, is one of a kind”. June Thomas from Slate Magazine noted in November 2011 that, “Abby may look like a freak, but she’s a church-going patriot.” She has been described as “spacy” and “a witty, lovable personality with forensic skills that are even greater than her charm.”

Abby’s relationship with Tony is a friendly one, with the two making friendly, non-hostile jibes at each other, and squabbling about various topics, such as movies and personal possessions. Abby is perhaps the only member of the NCIS cast who displays a love and knowledge of movies that even comes close to matching Tony’s. In “Twilight”, after Tony narrowly avoids being part of an explosion on his first day back from sick leave after getting pneumonic plague, she runs at him and hugs him so hard he nearly falls over. In the episode, “Frame-Up”, she almost single-handedly unravels the forensic evidence used to frame Tony of murder to clear his name, then subdues the killer – her assistant Chip Sterling – when he threatens her with a knife. The explosion of Tony’s car in “Bury Your Dead” causes her to become increasingly obsessed with her work, to prevent thoughts of his possible death. In “Reunion”, after Tony, McGee, and Gibbs rescue Ziva from Somalia, Abby starts with a rant criticizing Ziva for her continuing mistrust of Tony, which, in trademarked Abby fashion, ends with her saying how worried she was about Ziva, and hugging her. This then sparks a confrontation between Tony and Ziva that causes their relationship to be restored to normal. Tony would sometimes join Abby in her lab and act like Gibbs when he was absent. When Abby was in a coma, Tony was shown to be very worried about her, to the point he did not call McGee by any last name joke.Abby developed a fondness for Butch, a Navy sniffer dog, in the season five episode “Dog Tags”. She renamed it “Jethro” in honor of Gibbs, because it was “handsome and quiet” like him. The dog was framed for the murder of a petty officer, as the dog was found at the murder victim’s house, but Abby proved Jethro’s innocence. Afterwards, Abby forced McGee to adopt the dog, much to his dismay (as Jethro had attacked him earlier in the episode). Abby would have preferred to adopt Jethro herself, but her landlord did not allow tenants to have pets.

Later in the episode “Gone”, the two bonded more when Ziva took in a teenaged girl who witnessed her father’s murder and best friend’s kidnapping as they both tried to help the girl feel at ease throughout the ongoing investigation.Abby drives a candy-apple red 1930/31 Ford Model A coupe bearing a Washington, DC, personalized vanity plate “4NS CHIK” which is prominently featured in season five’s “Dog Tags”. She previously drove a hearse (mentioned in “Hiatus, Part I”), which ran poorly and had bald tires.

Their flirtation became less prominent in later seasons, and TV Guide Senior Critic Matt Roush suggested this was due to the producers’ apprehension about using romance within the series to an excess. He reasoned, “pairing up all four members of Gibbs’ team romantically might seem like overkill, and the Tony-Ziva dynamic (even if not exactly acted upon) is so integral to the show’s core that I’m not surprised they’ve kept McGee and Abby on more of a loving-sibling level.” He further opined that he “wouldn’t expect it to change”.Like Gibbs, Abby enjoys caffeine, primarily in the form of large cups of a fictional drink called “Caf-Pow”. At times, when she is worried about the caffeine interfering with her sleep, she drinks “No-Caf-Pow” instead. (According to Perrette, the cups were originally filled with Hawaiian Punch, but when she stopped eating and drinking refined sugar, unsweetened cranberry juice was used in its place.) When changing the artwork in her lab during “Hung Out to Dry”, she states that she has a “Chagall feeling”, a reference to Marc Chagall, a Jewish Belarusian artist whose main works came from fantasy and dreams. Her favorite term for something out of the ordinary is “hinky”. It is also shown that she enjoys attending concerts, but her failure to wear earplugs at one of them left her with temporary hearing loss the next day, forcing her to ask DiNozzo for help analyzing some audio evidence.

Child actress Brighton Sharbino was cast to portray 10-year-old Abby for the season 10 episode “Hit and Run”, which featured several flashbacks to a young Abby. Sharbino, who strongly resembled Perrette, reportedly spent time with the latter “in part to pick up on the NCIS vet’s mannerisms and such.”Abby eventually came around, and she and Ziva became good friends. This was solidified in the episode “Capitol Offense” when Ziva bought Abby a “chocoholic’s choice” cupcake in gratitude for giving her a place to stay while her home was being fumigated for termites. After the cupcake unexpectedly vanished, Abby used her knowledge of forensics to prove McGee had stolen it, angering the rest of the team. Ziva flinched away from Abby’s hugs at first, not understanding why she did so, but eventually came to accept them with more ease. Abby is a hearing child adopted by deaf parents and likes her music loud. In the episode “Seadog”, Gibbs tells Tony that Abby knows how to use sign language because both of her parents were deaf. Abby has stated that she dreams of visiting the Galápagos Islands, Dollywood, and Israel before she dies. Abby graduated with full honors from Louisiana State University with a triple major in sociology, criminology, and psychology. She earned her master’s degree from Georgia State University in criminology and forensic science. Sciuto’s interest in forensics came from living near a wrecking yard and being intrigued by the cause and effect of the wrecks. The season nine episode “Enemy on the Hill” revealed that Abby has another brother, Kyle (played by Daniel Louis Rivas), who is her biological brother, as it is revealed that Abby is in fact adopted. Sciuto is portrayed as having a happy, normal childhood. Her younger brother, Luca, was first mentioned by name in the season-nine episode “Enemy on the Hill”. He appears in season 10 in a flashback. Luca was portrayed by Tyler Ritter in Season 13 NCIS: New Orleans crossover episodes “Sister City (Part I)” and “Sister City (Part II)”. She also mentioned that she has a niece and that her grandmother was an Olympic swimmer who won a silver medal. She has mentioned several uncles, including one named Teddy who owned a bar, one named Horace whom she referred to as Horace “the Haggler” during an episode, and one named Larry who apparently wore knee-high socks and fanny packs. Both her parents are deceased, although when they passed is never mentioned.To date, Abby has not returned to Los Angeles nor has she reappeared in any video-conference calls which strongly suggests that her appearances in season one were just one-offs. Gibbs is depicted as having a close (father/daughter-like) relationship with Abby, who is initially one of only two characters (the other one being Ducky) to have no fear of him. Gibbs is often seen giving Abby kisses on the cheek, and hugging her, especially when she does good work on her cases. He often brings her a fresh Caf-Pow when he arrives at the lab for information on a case, whether or not she has called him down to tell him about it. Gibbs generally tolerates Abby’s goth dress style, knowing that she does a great job in her work, but often has to ask her to get to the point when she starts rambling. Abby sometimes turns to Gibbs when she needs to talk about something personal that is bothering her and he helps by listening to her. Both Gibbs and Abby are proficient with American Sign Language, as Abby grew up with deaf parents. On several occasions, Abby has been described as “the favorite”, a fact that does not escape the rest of the team, but they do not begrudge her for it. Abby is portrayed as having a gothic style of dress, including black dresses and T-shirts, miniskirts, and goth jewelry, including anklets and toe rings. She wears pigtailed dyed hair (due to Perrette’s hair being dyed as she is a natural blonde) and has at least nine tattoos on her neck, arms, back, ankle, and other places. Her neck choker appears to be one of her favorite pieces of jewelry. While some of the tattoos are Perrette’s and real, others are makeup, such as the large cross on her back applied on occasions when Perrette shows her bare back on camera. The spider web on her neck is not real, either, as producer Bellisario wanted the character to have a tattoo that would be visible (almost) all the time. However, Perrette has expressed dislike for the spider tattoo, saying, “It only takes a few minutes to do, but it feels like old chewing gum,” and had wished for an episode where her character Abby would have it removed. Other character quirks include Abby having a stuffed hippo named “Bert” that makes flatulent/farting noises when squeezed, which has been used for comic effect when Abby is upset. She decorates some of the areas in her lab with toys such as “Bleeding Edge Goth” dolls and “Teddy Scares”. The Teddy Scare ‘Rita Mortis’ can be seen sitting next to her computer monitor. Abby’s biggest pet peeve, as revealed in season five’s “Lost and Found” by Timothy McGee, is people who claim to be vegetarians, but still eat chicken; her second-biggest pet peeve is people who mishandle evidence.

Abby is portrayed as cold to Ziva David upon her arrival at NCIS as she, like the rest of the team, was still grieving over Kate Todd’s death and the fact that Ziva was Ari Haswari’s half-sister. Abby would scribble over pictures of Ziva and frequently mispronounce her surname to annoy her. Later, upset by Ziva’s calm response to Gibbs being injured in a bombing, Abby slapped her.

Gibbs is also very protective of Abby, especially when she is in very serious danger. For example, in the episode “Bloodbath”, she was threatened by a hit man hired by a defendant in a case in which she was testifying, which was also complicated by an ex-boyfriend, Mikel Mawher (guest star, Vincent Young), against whom she had a restraining order, but who then called her in violation of the order. When Gibbs found out about this, he pointedly told Mikel, “The only reason you’re still able to walk is because I never heard about you until today!”

Abigail “Abby” Beethoven Sciuto /ˈʃuːtoʊ/ is a fictional character from the NCIS television series on CBS Television, and is portrayed by Pauley Perrette. In a season 10 episode entitled “Hit and Run”, a young Abby was played by Brighton Sharbino in flashbacks. The character of Abby was introduced in the episodes “Ice Queen” and “Meltdown” of the television show JAG (which together served as the backdoor pilot for NCIS), and, up until May 2018, appeared in every episode of NCIS, in addition to being featured on the show’s spin-offs, NCIS: Los Angeles (two episodes) and NCIS: New Orleans (two episodes). The role made Perrette one of 2011’s most popular actresses on U.S. primetime television, according to Q Score. Abby is called Abigail by Ducky, who addresses her by her full first name often. Though in the episode “Faking It”, he thanked her and called her by using the name “Abby” instead of “Abigail”. Abby used to have a fear of autopsy tables, which she shares with Ducky in episode 16 of season one, “Bête Noire” when Ducky and Kate are held hostage. In the Season 15 episodes “One Step Forward” and “Two Steps Back,” the character of Clayton Reeves, an MI6 agent, dies protecting Abby from a hitman hired to kill her. Abby is severely wounded in the attempt, but recovers and tracks down the man who arranged the hit―a black-ops expert whom she had encountered several years earlier. She tricks him into believing that she has spiked his coffee with a fatal dose of cyanide, then offers to give him the antidote in exchange for his confession; the ploy succeeds and he is quickly arrested by the agents. Abby subsequently resigns from NCIS to accompany Reeves’ body back to England and start a charity in honor of Reeves and his mother to help the homeless.Perrette was cast for the role of Abby Sciuto in 2003. On the subject of her character’s creation and its purpose, she said “[NCIS creator] Don Bellisario told me that when he created Magnum, P.I. he wanted to introduce a Vietnam vet who defied the negative stereotype. So with Abby, he wanted to take an alternative-style person with tattoos and make her someone who is happy, totally put together and successful. All the script said about her was: black hair, caffeinated and smart…She’s completely unaware that anybody thinks she looks weird. She thinks she looks pretty and never calls herself anything other than happy. And I fight for that.”

In the episode “Crescent City”, she is shown to have a relationship with Senior Special Agent Dwayne Cassius Pride, who runs the New Orleans NCIS office.

The character of Abby gets along well with all the rest of the team. She is very fond of Ducky, who uses her full name, Abigail. She is called Abby or Abs by almost everyone else, except Director Leon Vance, who calls her Ms. Sciuto. Abby is fiercely loyal to the team, and considers them family, which is shown by her distress when one or more of them is in serious danger. Likewise, the team are generally fond of her and describe her as “the favorite”.Gibbs’ concern for Abby’s safety is such that he will even drop his trademark cup of coffee if she is in serious danger. Twice this occurred: in the episode “Kill Ari” when Ari shot at her while she was in her lab, the other time was in the episode “Driven” when she was trapped inside an experimental Humvee, which had been rigged to fill with exhaust fumes and suffocate its occupants.On July 10, 2013, CBS announced that Cote de Pablo would leave the series during the eleventh season of NCIS for undisclosed reasons. The network released the following statement: “We respect Cote’s decision, thank her for being an important part of the ‘NCIS’ team, and for eight terrific years playing Ziva David. Cote and CBS share a great respect for the ‘NCIS’ audience, and we look forward to working with her and the producers on appropriate closure in this chapter of Ziva’s story.” De Pablo, who agreed to appear in part of the season, commented, “I’ve had 8 great years with NCIS and Ziva David. I have huge respect and affection for Mark, Gary, Michael, David, Rocky, Pauley, Brian, Sean, all of the team and CBS. I look forward to finishing Ziva’s story.”

The following week, “Shiva” drew 22.86 million viewers and became the most watched episode in the series. It focuses on the immediate aftermath of the killings and establishes Ziva’s desire to seek revenge. Throughout the episode, both she and Vance attempt to participate in the investigation despite being prohibited due to their connections with the deceased. Eventually, it is revealed that Eli was killed by his protégé, Ilan Bodnar (Oded Fehr), who Ziva had known since they were children. Bodner found out about the secret discussions between his boss and the Iranian official, and believes that David’s actions could seriously threaten Israel’s security. After a failed attempt to kill Ziva, he escapes and disappears.An exception was made for the premiere episode of the sixth season, during which Ziva goes undercover as a bar singer. De Pablo opposed the idea at first and did not want to sing on the show, believing it would be out of character for Ziva. Despite this, she agreed to after executive producer Shane Brennan described the scene. For the opening of the episode, she was dressed in a blue, backless dress that, according to NCIS Costume Supervisor Rachel Good, was made by the show’s wardrobe department. “We decided we wanted something sexy but long that revealed a lot but wasn’t short or vulgar in any way,” said de Pablo. “It had to be sexy and provocative, but in a long, sexy, sleek way.”

When Ziva learns that her boyfriend who had proposed to her was the murderer of a Navy petty officer, Gibbs is the only one to accompany her when she confronts him and he tries to comfort Ziva very much as a father would afterwards.Gibbs’ relationship with Ziva has been called that of a surrogate father figure by executive producer Gary Glasberg, a tendency that intensified after she severed contact with Eli David following her return from Somalia. Cote de Pablo explained, “[Ziva’s] got what I think you could call anger issues. She thinks she’s been betrayed by her family, particularly her father. That’s a big deal to her. Which would also explain her love and relationship with somebody like Leroy Jethro Gibbs.” Ziva seems to be more willing to show her vulnerability to Gibbs than to most of the other characters, and Michael Weatherly suggested in 2012 that she might have become something of a “hellcat” without Gibbs’ guidance. Additionally, Ziva and Gibbs share several characteristics: they both rarely show emotion, speak several languages, and are extremely skilled at what they do. Though she often finds it difficult to follow his orders due to the autonomy she had as a Mossad control officer, Ziva looks up to Gibbs as a leader and often restrains herself from resorting to her assassin background in situations where he would not approve. He often uses this background to their advantage, however, by choosing her to interrogate certain suspects.

Season 3’s “Hiatus” shows how much Ziva is affected when Gibbs is critically injured in an explosion and awakes with memory loss. In “Hiatus Part 1”, Ducky unintentionally chastises Ziva for not asking which hospital Gibbs was taken to after the explosion; upsetting her when he implies that Ziva does not care for Gibbs like the rest of the team does. She also finds herself being slapped by Abby when she comments about Gibbs’ possible death scenario. Ziva appears in the bathroom following this, extremely upset by the fact that they think that she does not care. In the second part of this episode, Ziva visits Gibbs at the hospital in the night and begs him to remember. When he becomes angry, Ziva uses his hand to slap the back of her head, causing Gibbs to remember himself within his team. He remembers that Ziva saved his life and that she had killed her brother to do it while Ziva breaks down and cries into his arms. He remarks that he owes her at the end of the episode, something that would become true when he returns to the US during “Shalom” to help in clearing her name after being framed for murder and a terrorist bombing by Iranian Intelligence.

Ziva regards these events as a betrayal and states, “Eli is all but dead to me,” implying that she no longer wants to be a part of his life. Shortly after her being rescued from Somalia, she sends an email to her father formally resigning from Mossad and applies to become an official NCIS agent. Eli attempts to prevent her from leaving Mossad by having her former team leader Malachi Ben-Gidon accuse her of killing a marine who had been among those who died on the Damocles. Later, when the NCIS team proves that Ziva was not responsible for the marine’s death, Gibbs angrily tells Ben-Gidon to tell Eli that Ziva was “off limits”.The character’s cultural impact was enhanced when she became popular among viewers, as she “[represents] the whole Israeli security establishment, if not Israeli society in general” for the audience. Rabbi Gertel and Harvard preceptor Eitan Kensky agreed that Ziva affected viewers’ opinions of Israel, with the latter stating that she helped to increase understanding of Israeli culture. Slate magazine’s June Thomas wrote that Ziva is particularly appealing to conservative Americans: “David represents those aspects of the Israeli character that most appeal to middle America: She’s disciplined, self-
reliant, good with guns, and skilled in hand-to-hand combat.” The character has also been compared to the heroines of early kibbutz dramas, as well as prominent Israeli politicians in the way she interacts with her American colleagues. Steven L. Spiegel, Director of the Center for Middle East Development and Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), likened her to Israeli president Shimon Peres and prime ministers Ehud Olmert and Yitzhak Rabin, while Honig satirically remarked that she would make a better prime minister than Yesh Atid candidate, Yair Lapid.

Shane Brennan, the show’s producer at the time, elaborated on Ziva’s role in action scenes and explained, “We try to deliver that, but we try to be credible about it. You’ll never see her leap in the air and do the splits and kick two guys at the same time. Save that for the John Woo movie.” Cote de Pablo has said, “I love all of the fighting, using knives and guns and all of that. And my favorite thing in the world is doing stunts! I am surprisingly good at picking up fighting sequences. It’s so much fun as a girl to go out there and pin guys against walls, knee them and punch them and kick some butt. Not a lot of women on TV get a chance to do that.”

Believed to be dead in the first episode of season 7, “Truth or Consequences”, Ziva is nonetheless found alive later in the episode, rescued by DiNozzo and McGee, with Gibbs killing her captor himself. Following her rescue, she resigns from Mossad and applies to become a full-fledged NCIS agent and an American citizen. Ziva receives mandatory psych evaluations and therapy but refuses to discuss with anyone what had happened to her in Saleem’s camp. However, it is made clear that she suffered extensive abuse and torture and it is implied that she was raped as well while in captivity. Cote de Pablo briefly addressed this, confirming that, “Bad things happened to Ziva in Africa when she was captured.”Ziva David (/ˈziːvə dəˈviːd/; Hebrew: זיוה דוד, pronounced [ˈziva daˈvid], feminine form of Ziv: “Radiance”; birth date November 12, 1982, Beersheba in the Negev desert of southern Israel) is a fictional character from the CBS television series NCIS, portrayed by actress Cote de Pablo. Ziva first appeared in the season 3 premiere episode, “Kill Ari (Part 1)”, and became a regular cast member from the episode “Silver War”. She replaced Caitlin “Kate” Todd (Sasha Alexander), who was killed at the hands of Ziva’s half-brother, Ari Haswari (Rudolf Martin), in the season 2 finale. Following the onscreen death of the character’s father in season 10, Gabi Coccio recurrently portrayed a young Ziva in flashbacks.

Ziva is scripted as someone who “has had to do awful things and watch awful things in her life”; she has “seen 12-year-old suicide bombers in Israel” and gone hungry long enough to resort to eating maggots. In the third season, she recounts an incident in which one of her friends from Mossad had been beheaded after infiltrating a Hamas cell in Ramallah; Hamas terrorists sent his head back on the overnight express, leading her to view captivity as worse than death. Ducky later told Gibbs that, “Agent David has been through things you and I can’t even imagine” and suggested that she was the only one who could relate to a suspect who had been abused.Prior to the season thirteen finale, Ziva builds a strong friendship with her father’s successor – Director Orli Elbaz – who later informs DiNozzo of the difficulty Ziva had faced while deciding whether to inform him of the birth of their daughter which Tony is given care of after Ziva is presumably killed. During the episode “Kill Ari (Part 2)”, NCIS Special Agent Gibbs finds himself cornered by an armed Ari, but Ziva emerges at the last minute and kills Ari with a single gunshot wound to the forehead, similarly to the way Ari had shot Agent Kate Todd in the season 2 finale, “Twilight”. After Ari’s death, she asks to be assigned as a liaison for Mossad at NCIS, where she subsequently joins Special Agent Gibbs’ team in the episode “Silver War”, permanently replacing the deceased Agent Todd. De Pablo later said that the character was simply described as a generic eastern European woman and that she had used a Czech accent when auditioning. Over 50 actresses reportedly auditioned for the role, and another actress with a longer résumé had initially been the frontrunner. During a screen test, de Pablo and other actresses were paired with Michael Weatherly, who went offscript by brushing her hair back and commenting, “You remind me of Salma Hayek.” De Pablo described her response as follows: “I dismissed him completely. My primary thought was, ‘Don’t let this guy get physically close to you.’ And, at that moment, everybody in the room started laughing and thought it was the funniest thing in the world because the chemistry between the two characters was perfect.” Co-executive producer Charles Floyd Johnson remarked that de Pablo won the role of Ziva for her reaction to Weatherly’s departure from the script, saying, “When you get actors who really listen and respond organically in the moment to what they’re hearing, sometimes magic happens. They really seemed to get that immediately, and that doesn’t always happen.” Ziva speaks about her desire to return “home” to Tony and their daughter Tali, who she has been watching from afar during her time hidden. Her separation from her daughter since her fake death has taken its toll on Ziva, who now takes medication for an anxiety disorder. After taking down Sahar in the second episode “Into the Light”, Ziva prepares to leave, telling Gibbs she has one more thing to do before she puts it all behind her. Tony calls Gibbs and Ziva assures Gibbs that Tony will be hearing from her before she leaves. In the episode “The North Pole,” the real Sahar (who had been posing as Gibbs’ new neighbor “Sarah”) tortures and kills Ziva’s childhood friend Adam Eshel, and traps Ziva under a heavy plumbing pipe, planning to kill first her and then Tali, but is instead shot dead by Gibbs, leaving her son Phineas motherless. It’s revealed that Tony knew that Ziva was alive and had tracked her down years ago, and that they both agreed to lay low until Sahar was dealt with for the sake of Tali. According to one critic, “the first time we really see Ziva’s soft side is during season 4”, when she develops a short but intense friendship with Lt. Roy Sanders (Matthew Marsden), who had been intentionally exposed to radiation by a coworker, in “Dead Man Walking”. Ziva knew him from her daily run, during which they always passed by each other running in opposite directions. This elicits concern from Tony and others when it becomes clear that she is “falling in love with a dying man”. Roy later asks if she would have noticed him if he had just stopped running, expressing regret that they had never been able to “run together”. Ziva assures him that she will never forget him, and after his death, she is shown frequently wearing the orange beanie that Lt. Sanders wore when he went running.Ziva has been called “one of the strongest women on TV”. Mike Hale from The New York Times used the character as a principal example while analyzing the portrayal of female characters on live action television shows, saying, “With her credible combination (by prime-time standards) of physical domination and quiet cool, Ziva David is one of the most appealing of a growing group of female action heroes who are infiltrating cop shows, spy shows, science-fiction shows and other genres where men once did the lion’s share of the enforcing.” Lilly J. Goren, a professor of politics and global studies at Carroll University, and Justin S. Vaughn, an assistant professor of political science at Boise State University, expressed similar views in their co-authored book, Women in the White House: Gender, Popular Culture, and Presidential Politics. They focused on the fact that the lead female agent “was acknowledged to be tougher and physically stronger than most men on the show”. Columnist Mark Vogl added, “John Wayne and Clint Eastwood probably couldn’t get away with their reliance on brute force today. But feminists love to see a small, thin woman kick a big guy’s butt.” Ziva, and Cote de Pablo’s depiction of her, has been analyzed and commented upon by a number of critics, opinion columnists, and academics. She is credited as being the only Israeli regular on mainstream American television as well as the “most prominent televisual Israeli”. Sarah Honig, an Israeli journalist and opinion columnist, wrote that Ziva is “quite possibly the only Jewish regular on American TV who’s unapologetic, complex-free, and not comically dysfunctional” as well as “the only positive Israeli sort on the screen anywhere” in The Jerusalem Post. Jewish commentators gave the character favorable reviews, with Jewcy’s Abe Fried-Tanzer stating, “Linguistic difficulties aside, Ziva is the show’s most stable and dependable character, as steadfast as Harmon’s Gibbs. Upon her arrival in Washington, D.C., Ziva proves her loyalty time and again, first saving the life of her future mentor Gibbs by shooting her murderous half-brother who was threatening him. That selfless, endearing act is representative of the kind of behavior that Ziva later exhibits over the seasons as she bends over backward to defend her teammates amid, and in spite of, the jokes her foreigner status frequently elicits. Ziva’s portrayer, Cote de Pablo, is not Israeli, nor is she Jewish. Though the Catholic-born Chilean actress’ pronunciation of the name of her character’s home country leaves something to be desired, she does capture a certain Israeli toughness and no-nonsense attitude.” Rabbi Elliot B. Gertel agreed that Ziva’s sympathetic portrayal allowed the series to fairly show the security concerns of the Israeli government and the measures it takes to defend its citizens while still maintaining its role as a “good and helpful ally” to the United States. Ziva David, a principle [sic] character in NCIS, has really altered my view of the Jewish people and Israel’s plight. I know stereotypes are politically incorrect, but it does not mean they don’t exist, and it also doesn’t mean there isn’t something to them. Somehow I just don’t think Ziva is what people think of when they think of Jewish women. Given the staying power of NCIS, and the impact of Ziva, maybe that stereotype of Jewish women has been reset. … The character and actress’ success may be an unexpected bonus. Ziva, played by Cote de Pablo, is a beautiful, sexy woman with a great smile and terrific eyes. She is funny, easy to like, professional
, and believable. But she is also extremely smart, a strong contributor to the team, and lethal with weapons and martial arts. … One very wise mentor of mine told me that he thought Ziva might represent a subtle shift within the Jewish world. It was his observation that in past years the woman played a secondary role in much of Jewish life. He felt that Ziva’s ascendancy marked a change in Jewish culture. He went so far as to point out the camaraderie between Ziva and her father. Who knows, this observation might be accurate. I am totally unfamiliar with the traditions of the Hebrew people. However, I do believe Ziva has been an excellent representative of the Jewish people.Named for Ziva’s deceased sister, Talia David-Dinozzo is the daughter of Ziva and Tony. In 2016, Tali survives a mortar attack that presumably kills Ziva, and is introduced to her father shortly thereafter at the behest of Mossad Director Orli Elbaz. Tony bonds with Tali and leaves with her for Israel and Paris to look for answers. Ziva is sometimes considered a “haunted” figure; she is a skilled assassin and is able to take life without hesitation or remorse when the situation requires, something that has not changed with her new affiliation with NCIS. In spite of this, Ziva is capable of displaying playfulness, nearly childishness at times, such as in “Heartland” when she gleefully races McGee to be the first to tell Tony and Abby about meeting Gibbs’ father. She is particularly empathetic towards children, as demonstrated in episodes such as “Dagger” and “Outlaws and In-Laws”. Like the rest of her colleagues, Ziva initially resents Vance for breaking up Gibbs’ team. After this is resolved, she doesn’t appear to hold a grudge against her boss, and they seem to enjoy each other’s company. According to NCIS writer Christopher Waild, as a result of the murders of her father and Vance’s wife in the same attack, “the tragedy of Ziva and Eli now also extends into the Vance family.” Vance, aware that he cannot do so on his own for his children’s sake, looks the other way while Ziva pursues revenge against the killer and continues to support her despite drawing ire from other agencies.

In season 7, she becomes a probationary NCIS agent pending U.S. citizenship, becoming a United States citizen in the season finale after successfully passing her exams. Her probationary period officially ends in the season 9 premiere.

Ziva’s “will they/won’t they” relationship with Tony DiNozzo, dubbed “Tiva” by viewers, became a prominent subject of interest. Maureen Ryan from Chicago Tribune commented that their “love-hate banter gives the show extra zip” during de Pablo’s first year with the series. Due to being drawn out over several years, the development has been called a “slow burn”, with Tony and Ziva being included in TV Tango’s “Top 10 Romantically Challenged TV Couples”. Entertainment Weekly described them as a “power couple” in 2013 and contributor Sandra Gonzalez noted that “it’s tough to deny the chemistry the two actors (Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo) share” after “Housekeeping” aired.In a network television landscape where it is difficult to find many unashamedly Jewish characters (let alone an Israeli) we have a soft spot for Ziva David.

[Ziva]’s like a little prodigy when it comes to languages and that’s what makes the character fun to play. And it obviously presents a huge challenge to me because whenever they throw something else at me I just have to sort of tackle it and go with it.Aspects of Israeli culture are occasionally utilized within the series. For example, Ziva has been known to pick up falafel for lunch when she has to drive the van somewhere, and she appears to like music by Israeli hip-hop/funk band Hadag Nahash. She tends to drive very fast in an erratic manner, which she claims is the best way to avoid ambushes and roadside bombs, though her coworkers point out that neither are likely in the U.S. Despite having lost friends and family to radical Islamic terrorist groups like Hamas, she does not resent Muslims in general.

By Season 4, their friendship has grown and Ziva is accepted by the rest of the team, as shown in the season’s premiere, “Shalom”, where Tony and the rest of the team put their careers on the line and vow to prove Ziva’s innocence before she is apprehended by the FBI for a crime she did not commit, knowing that their involvement could land them in prison. By the fifth and sixth seasons, Abby and Ziva are firm friends. When Ziva first appeared, she would flinch whenever Abby would hug her; however, by Season 6, Ziva overcomes her discomfort, and now accepts and returns the hugs.

A running gag in the series, referred to by fans as “Ziva-isms”, is Ziva frequently misusing, misunderstanding or just completely mangling American slang, cultural references, colloquialisms, and idioms. For example: In “Silver War”, she said she felt like a “donkey’s butt” when she meant “horse’s ass”. In another episode, she says “You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few legs” instead of ‘eggs’.In the season sixteen episode “She”, NCIS reopens a ten-year-old cold case when they find the starving daughter of a woman who has been missing for ten years. While digging into the case files, Special Agents Eleanor Bishop and Nick Torres find that Ziva had kept notes on and had been secretly investigating the case after her departure from NCIS. While interviewing the girl’s father and woman’s boyfriend, he points them to a backyard building that Ziva had rented for years as a private office to write private journals as she coped with her job and life in America, though it hasn’t been touched since her apparent death. Bishop tells Gibbs about this, who admits he suspected but warns her not to get personally involved in the case as it could get her killed. After finding the woman alive and arresting her kidnapper, Bishop goes to read a vengeful note from the woman’s mother that Ziva had intended to read to the kidnapper, only to find that someone had already read it to him before she arrived. Realizing that Ziva is alive, Bishop runs to her private office only to find a note from Ziva asking her not to reveal her secret for the safety of her family. At the end of the season sixteen finale, “Daughters”, Ziva shows up in Gibbs’ basement to inform him that he is in danger.

Outside of fiction, the cultural impact of Ziva became a subject of discussion among various critics, with academics and rabbis weighing in on the matter. Newspapers such as The Jerusalem Post cited her as the only full-time Israeli character on an American mainstream network television show, and Harvard preceptor Eitan Kensky identified her as the “most prominent televisual Israeli” in the United States. Her depiction was generally praised for exposing the Western public to Israeli society and culture, its positive portrayal of an Israeli, and its “cheerleading for American ties to Israel”. The role made de Pablo the second most popular actress on U.S. primetime television in 2013, according to Q Score, and a 2013 study by E-Poll Market Research listed her among the top 10 most appealing celebrities in America. McGee, Abby, and Ducky all support Ziva as she prepares to become an American citizen in the seventh season, with McGee even quizzing her for the citizenship exam. In the finale, they are all present at her swearing in ceremony. According to de Pablo, Ziva had grown closer to her coworkers at NCIS than to what remained of her blood family by this point in the series. DiNozzo describes his relationship with Ziva as “a connection”. The two later have a daughter named Tali, who is the reason Tony resigns from NCIS after learning Ziva had presumably died in a mortar attack (though Ziva had faked her death to escape from Sahar, a woman who had worked alongside Ziva’s dead half-brother Ari).Ziva and her father, Mossad Director Eli David, often have a somewhat strained relationship, especially following the death of her half-brother Ari. She recalls him taking his children into the forest for “fun” blindfolded and making them find their own way back. When Ziva was a child her father told her that one “can never truly know a person or their secrets”. At the time, she had refused to believe him but later said that he had never been more honest with her. It is remarked upon several times that Eli “raised her to be a killer”, a fact that he does not deny and explains to Director Vance: “Every day is a fight to survive. It is my dream that my daughter will not have to make that decision with her sons and her daughters. I would like my grandchildren to be doctors and architects. To live a happy life. To grow fat and old.”Entertainment Weekly included Ziva in its compile of “29 Female TV Characters You’d Date”, placing her at number 17, and Postnoon included her in its list of “The sexiest cops on TV”. In December 2011, TVLine announced Ziva as the winner of its “Ultimate Female Law-Enforcement Crushes Bracket Tournament”. The tournament consisted of 64 nominated female characters from police procedural shows and several single-elimination rounds, garnering nearly one million votes by the end. Mary Edwards from the Reasons to be Beautiful Magazine published a list of “5 Great Female TV Characters of 2011” and wrote, “If any woman could have ended up a cold, emotionless killing machine, [Ziva]’d be a top candidate. But she’s not … She learns what it’s like to have compassion and loyalty. She grows up. As an immigrant, she faces prejudice and racism, but she handles it with poise.”

Ziva is introduced to the show as an Israeli citizen, an agent of the Kidon unit of the Mossad, a daughter of Mossad Director Eli David, and a friend of NCIS Director Jenny Shepard. She was assigned to NCIS as a liaison officer in an arrangement between Eli and Jenny, a position she held for four years until she returned to Mossad in the season 6 finale, “Aliyah”. After being captured by terrorists in Somalia while on assignment for Mossad and presumed dead, she was eventually saved by Gibbs, Tony, and McGee, who brought her back to America. These events led to her resigning from Mossad, applying to become an NCIS agent, and being sworn in as a U.S. citizen.

More details were fleshed out as the character continued to develop. Costume designers wanted to show her acclimation to life in the United States and in doing so made her wardrobe less militarily influenced. However, they maintained the same basic style, keeping her regularly dressed in cargo pants and boots. Rachel Good felt that she needed to always be wearing a gun but wanted it to be concealed; given the task of “making her look sexy while still covering a huge holster piece on her hip”, Good opted to have de Pablo frequently wear long coats while filming. These changes allowed Ziva to be “a hybrid of sorts” in terms of dress. Ziva seems to have a good relationship with Ducky. When she comes back to NCIS with Tony and McGee, Ducky is the only one who has solid faith in her. In “Silver War”, their friendship becomes more permanent when Ziva saves both of them from death at the hands of a murderer. Ducky is often seen sticking up for her when she has quarrels with Tony. She has also been seen going to him for advice and sharing a cup of tea with him. In Season 7, he persuaded her to briefly open up on the horrific series of events which led to her captivity in Somalia, culminating in her telling him that, “[He] should keep [his] distance [from her] … The ones who get too close always end up dead.” Overall they value each other a lot. Ziva becomes fixated on revenge as the season continues and ultimately kills Bodnar, albeit in self-defense. Executive producer Gary Glasberg divulged that the plot was designed to draw out aspects of the character’s personality that had been dormant for several years, saying, “People are going to see a Ziva David that they haven’t seen in a long time. There is a strength and a resolute determination.”

In July 2013, NCIS received an Emmy nomination for “Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Drama Series, Miniseries, or Movie” for the tenth season episode “Revenge”. The stunt performed in that episode involved an extended fight scene between de Pablo’s character and her father’s killer. When the NCIS cast was honored by the Red Cross at the Santa Monica Red Carpet in April of that year, co-star Brian Dietzen stated that de Pablo had worked on the scene throughout the previous night until six in the morning and, as a result, was unable to attend the event.

While the character was generally praised, storylines surrounding her relationship with her father, Eli David, drew controversy. Kensky questioned whether having “a trained assassin psychologically scarred by her father” was a reversal of the archetypical Jewish male who is weak and dominated by his mother.Producers cast child actress Gabi Coccio, then aged 13, to portray a young Ziva for a flashback in the tenth season episode “Shiva” in 2013. According to Coccio’s father, this was “her first national appearance and first on a show like this”. She reprised the role later that season in “Berlin”, this time appearing in several flashbacks. During the show’s summer hiatus, she confirmed via Twitter that she would appear again in the eleventh season.

Directly after high school, Ziva was in the Israeli army (Tzahal being Israel Defense Forces) for two years as is compulsory for all Israeli women. Contrary to speculation, she claims she volunteered to join Mossad as soon as she was eligible, and was not motivated by the desire to avenge the death of her sister. During her time at Mossad, Ziva was part of a special operations unit known as Kidon, which is part of the Metsada (which is now code named Komemiute). This unit specialized in assassinations, paramilitary operations, sabotage, and psychological warfare. Her position was control officer. As a result of early, intensive training, she is very skilled in hand-to-hand combat and shooting, later attempting to teach a class on knife throwing at NCIS.

In the fifth season finale, “Judgment Day (Part 2)”, Ziva’s liaison position is terminated under the orders of newly appointed Director Leon Vance following the death of Director Shepard. “Last Man Standing”, the sixth season premiere, picks up with her having resumed working as a Mossad field agent and undercover in Morocco. After Gibbs notices footage of an unconscious Ziva on the news following an explosion where she was working, it is soon revealed that Vance had deliberately sent Ziva back to Israel in order to help uncover a mole within NCIS itself
. She returns to the team at the conclusion of the episode.Her frequent misunderstanding of American idioms and slang has been described as “endearing” and is generally considered an appealing aspect of the show. Shortly after Ziva joined the series, Noel Holston from Sun Sentinel described her as “an exotically beautiful Israeli whose tendency toward malaprop English belies her investigative and interrogative experience”. In 2007, Jewish Exponent editor Michael Elkin commented, “All shook up? That’s the freshness she’s injected into [NCIS], which just wrapped its fourth season with military honors and where second-season de Pablo is de anti-pablum, a no-nonsense ninja of a nemesis for those nasty evil-doers who soon discover that the Israeli is for real.” In a 2012 publication of The Jewish Daily Forward, Lilit Marcus wrote, “Despite being unevenly written, Ziva was always compelling: She was tough, fearless and, often, tender.” C. Coville from Cracked magazine questioned the choice to script her as “an espionage expert who knows nine languages … all at age 28”, describing excessive multilingualism as a common problem in television dramas.

There is still tension, however, stemming both from NCIS director Jenny Shepard’s decision to add Ziva to the team without consulting him and Ziva’s habit of occasionally calling on Shepard, with whom she had a close relationship, to obtain key information in a case without going through regular channels (as seen in the Season 3 episode “Head Case”). However, this tension is lessened in the conclusion of the episode “Silver War” after Ziva saved Ducky’s life. Ducky later tells Gibbs, “You took to Ziva more quickly than to any other agent before her. Timothy, Caitlin, even DiNozzo. I’ve always sensed there’s a strong bond between the two of you. Something shared perhaps.”

Following her resignation from NCIS in season ten, Ziva returns to Israel. Following an explosion, and the subsequent death of Secretary Clayton Jarvis, the remaining members of Gibbs’ team are informed that Ziva’s life is in danger. DiNozzo travels to Israel in order to ensure her safety, and the two share a passionate kiss. In season thirteen, it is revealed that they also consummated their relationship, leading to Ziva becoming pregnant. Though DiNozzo was not informed of this, Ziva gave birth to a daughter named Tali. In season thirteen (“Family First”), Ziva’s farmhouse is destroyed in a mortar attack ordered by CIA Agent Trent Kort. Although Tali is found alive, the NCIS crew are informed that Ziva is dead, though her remains are not found at the house. DiNozzo subsequently departs NCIS in order to care for their daughter, and travel to both Israel (in search of answers), and Paris, in honor of Ziva’s love for Paris.Before joining the cast of NCIS, Cote de Pablo, who lived in New York at the time, had performed primarily in the theatre. She was intended to portray one of the lead female roles in a 2005 Broadway musical version of The Mambo Kings and had turned down other television roles to stay with it. However, the production was cancelled in June after a trial engagement in San Francisco and two days later de Pablo was asked to audition for a role on NCIS.

CBS chief executive Les Moonves attempted to pacify fan outrage by claiming that de Pablo was offered “a lot of money” to stay on the show and that “the cast and the producers were aware with what was going on”. De Pablo herself stated that her departure was “overwhelmingly hard—at times terrifying” and that it had not been planned. However, she declined to explain the reason behind it.I’m not trying to play her as if I hope people like my character. I’m trying to make her as three dimensional as I can. I feel people are likable and not likable and I’m trying to find all those nooks and crannies in my character. Her early storylines center on her integration and attempts to be accepted by the other characters. Due to her relation to Ari, Ziva’s appearance and eventual assignment to Gibbs’ team draws fierce resentment from team member Anthony DiNozzo, forensic specialist Abby Sciuto, and even Gibbs himself when he learns that Director Shepard had assigned Ziva to his team without his knowledge. She later proves her worth in the same episode by using her training to save herself and Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard from Dr. Burns, a rogue member of the Smithsonian Anthropology Lab. This in turn causes the team to develop a newfound respect for her and sets the foundation for Ziva’s strong friendship with Ducky. In the episode “Aliyah”, Ziva is called home to Israel where her father says that he does not know if he can trust her and wants her to remain in Israel. She stays in Tel Aviv with her father and Mossad. The episode ends with a cliffhanger in which Ziva is being tortured at a terrorist camp in Somalia by Saleem. It is later revealed that her father sent her on this mission despite knowing that the risks made it a suicide mission. Gibbs holds Eli responsible for Ziva’s captivity and subsequent abuse by Saleem and his men, saying that Ziva did not have a choice and that “her father left her to die in a desert.”De Pablo herself has been to Israel, visiting in 2007 after she received an invitation from the Israeli government. Shortly after returning, she stated in an interview that “Someone from the Israeli department of tourism watched the show and saw that there was an Israeli character on the show, and they were very happy about that. So they offered to give me a full tour of Israel. … I’m still trying to digest everything. Everywhere you go, you’re surrounded by Muslims and Christians and Jews, you can feel the tension, and you can understand why that is going on, but at the same time, everywhere you walk is holy. I went to [the historic fort] Masada, I floated on the Dead Sea. … It was more of a trip for Ziva than for Cote. It absolutely informed my insights into her soul.” She concluded that she ultimately thought that Ziva was a fairly accurate representation of the Israeli public.

Ziva is an Israeli Jew, and was always seen wearing a Star of David pendant until her capture in Somalia, where her captor ripped it off her neck. Shortly before her captivity, she said that she “would sooner die than take this necklace off”. In early seasons, her Judaism is only alluded to, leading some commentators to identify her as a secular Israeli. She does not appear to follow Orthodox Jewish strictures, dating men who are not Jewish, though she celebrates Jewish holidays, observes Shabbat, and has been seen praying in Hebrew on several occasions. In the aftermath of her father’s death in Season 10, she is shown praying in a synagogue, visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem, and planting an olive tree. Ziva has made references to keeping kosher; however, in her second episode on the show, she is seen eating a slice of pepperoni pizza, which goes against kosher dietary laws. After being forced to fatally shoot her half-brother, Ari, to keep him from killing Gibbs, she quietly sings “El male rachamim” (“God, full of mercy”), an Ashkenazi Jewish mourning song, over Ari’s body.During the season seventeen premiere, “Out of the Darkness”, it is revealed that Ziva faked her death to protect her family from a woman named Sahar who wanted to kill her. Sahar was involved in a Hamas splinter group with Ziva’s brother Ari, and is seeking revenge for his death.

Ziva’s relationship with McGee develops to resemble one of a brother and sister. While Ziva teases McGee a great deal, often with Tony, they remain on friendly terms (Ziva’s teasing is far more playful than Tony’s, who takes a much more sadistic approach to the pranks he pulls on McGee) and continue to communicate when the team was disbanded between Seasons 5 and 6. He and Abby both urge Ziva to repair her friendship with Tony in the aftermath of their fallout in the sixth season finale. After Ziva is revealed to be alive, McGee outright states that Ziva is like a sister to him and he trusts and understands her enough that Ziva simply shaking her head at McGee from a distance is a request that he stand down that McGee follows.The subsequent episode “In The Wind” has Ziva trying to help Gibbs find Phineas, after he runs away from Gibbs’ house following Gibbs’ revelation about his mother’s death. During the course of their search, Ziva questions whether she can go back to her life with Tony and Tali. She states that she had texted Tony to let him know that it’s safe, but no response. Tony then responds with a video of Tali asking Ziva to come home, which Gibbs states is proof she’s ready to go home. With Phineas found and taken in by his aunt and uncle, Gibbs and the team say goodbye to Ziva before she leaves for Paris, to reunite with Tony and Tali.

As a child, Ziva took ballet, though her father never came to any of her performances. At some point, he also taught her how to play baseball. Since her early childhood, Eli trained her in combat tactics and espionage (according to Ziva, one of her earliest memories of childhood was her father leading her and her sister into a forest, blindfolded, then leaving them there to find their way out again). She commented in “Tribes” that her childhood best friend, a Muslim, was killed in a retaliatory Israeli air-strike when she was twelve. She explains her upbringing to Tony: “You and I come from two totally different places. In my world, you grow up fast. You have no choice.”

Over the course of the show, Ziva has been involved in numerous action and combat scenes. Cote de Pablo frequently did her own stunts, saying that she “liked the challenge of learning to fight and enjoyed the adrenaline rush”. She described some of the work as “intense” and “taxing on the body” but added, “Coming from the theater I love that. You get home and you’re exhausted, but you feel like you’ve really worked.” She sustained several injuries while filming—”I hurt myself a lot. I hurt my neck, I hurt my groin, my pelvis and I had a couple of injuries that were really hard to deal with.” After injuring her neck, de Pablo decided to partially stop doing stunt scenes during the tenth season and “let the pros do what they do best”.Cote de Pablo describes the character as someone who is “completely different from anyone else on the show” and that because “she’s been around men all her life; she’s used to men in authority. She’s not afraid of men.” She later stated that, “This woman is a soldier. She takes things to the extreme. She knows how to use all sorts of things—guns and knives—I would never imagine using. … She’s one tough woman, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that she’s still very sexy and playful and all of that. But, when it comes to work she means business.” Ziva is often portrayed as calmly aggressive and does not shy away from physical altercations with suspects, though it has been acknowledged that she has become “a little bit softer” and “more inclined to listen before acting out” since her arrival at NCIS. She is not easily intimidated or rattled. She approaches her job with zeal, appearing to truly believe in what she does. She is very committed to the ideals of the U.S., in particular the bounds that law places on all citizens including the government.NCIS costume designers initially had Ziva’s clothing style fluctuate; she is introduced wearing an IDF uniform jacket, cargo pants, and combat boots to illustrate “the Israeli military influence” on the character but afterwards is frequently dressed in high heels and skirts in a manner similar to her predecessor, Kate Todd. On realizing that the latter was impractical for an officer of the Mossad, designers settled on a more simple and low-maintenance style. Subsequently, “T-shirt, cargos, ponytail” became Ziva’s signature look. This allowed Cote de Pablo to typically be “in and out of hair and makeup in all of 20 minutes”. She explained, “From what I’ve been told, I’m one of the quickest girls in the business as far as getting ready everyday for NCIS. I put on my cargos, my T-Shirt, my microphone, my hair is usually up in a ponytail and I wear very little makeup.”

In the following episode, after it is revealed that Eli’s protégé Ilan Bodnar was behind his killing, he is buried in Israel and Ziva delivers his eulogy. Flashbacks expound on their relationship during her early adolescence as she pursues revenge against Bodnar in the latter half of the season. Though their interactions are depicted as affectionate and Eli is shown teaching a 13-year-old Ziva (Gabi Coccio) the Shabbat blessing in one scene, tensions result from his frequent absence due to his work and an affair with a female Mossad operative leads to the disintegration of his marriage to Ziva’s mother.Midway through the tenth season, Ziva’s estranged father, Eli, resurfaces in the episode “Shabbat Shalom” in the hope of healing their relationship. During his time in Washington, he is also secretly meeting with a Palestinian born Iranian (with an unclear connection to the Iranian government) whom he knows from childhood. Together, they hope to initiate the beginning of a peace agreement between Israel and Iran. At the end of the episode, while having a Shabbat dinner at Director Vance’s house, an unknown shooter opens fire on the house, killing Eli and fatally wounding Vance’s wife, who dies in the hospital. The shooter evades capture and then kills himself with cyanide in a cigarette, when Gibbs and David corner him. Upon discovering her father’s body, Ziva breaks down sobbing and praying in Hebrew. The CIA use these events to blow up the Iranian. Ensuring peace dies with them.I think probably the only person Ziva truly, truly trusts is Gibbs. I don’t think she’d put her life in anyone’s hands but Gibbs’. I mean, she loves everybody else. But she’s been able to explore different things with this person, and he’s sort of a father figure in many ways, so I think she feels safe with him, and I feel that he’s been the only one really who’s seen that level of vulnerability from her. That is their little secret, which is what I like about the relationship.Ziva is reunited with McGee and Ducky along with meeting new team members Bishop (who had protected her secret) and Torres. Her relationship with Gibbs is shown to be a little strained after his reaction to her supposed death in “Family First”, something which Tony had confronted Gibbs about at the time. Ziva acknowledges Gibbs as her father and he apologises to Ziva for not questioning her death or seeking to find answers. Even with the complexity of what existed between Ziva and Eli, at the end of the day, he was her father and she loved him. There are good memories that go with the bad … It absolutely weighs on her. When anyone loses someone, you think about what they meant to you and what part of them you continue to carry. Ziva speaks ten languages: English, Hebrew, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, French, Pashto, German, Italian, and Russian. Cote de Pablo is occasionally required to perform dialogues in Hebrew, Ziva’s native language. She said of the process, “When I learn it, I learn it like a prayer, chanting it for a while. I have a good ear for language and, truthfully, I picked up the language pretty fast.”The interactions of the NCIS team are often perceived as familial among viewers, and Cote de Pablo has commented, “I’ve always thought of Ziva as the adopted kid who comes in and has this really funny thing with one of the siblings, which is Tony.” Ziva’s arrival at NCIS initially draws mixed reactions from other characters. Both Ducky and McGee accept her immediately, with the latter living near her and assisting her in finding the best routes to work. Abby, by contrast, hates her at first glance, believing that Ziva was taking the place of her good friend, Special Agent Kate Todd, and resenting McGee’s fascination and admiration for Ziva. During the course of her hate, Abby scribbles over photographs of Ziva, deliberately mispronounces her surname, and becomes annoyed when Ziva is praised.Officer Ziva David first appears in the third season, having been sent to NCIS following the murder of Special Agent Todd by Ari Haswari. She is Ari’s control officer and half-sister due to the fact that they shared the same father, Mossad’s then Deputy Director, Eli David (Michael Nouri). Eli is later described as Director of Mossad.In the Season 7 episode “Reunion”, Gibbs confronts Ziva about Director Vance’s allegation that she had been ordered by Mossad Director David to gain his trust by killing Ari. She admits that she had been under orders to kill Ari when it became clear that he was out of control, but elucidates that she had never intended to go through with it, believing him to be innocent. She further confides to Gibbs her feelings on the subject of Ari’s death and her family: “I would have lied to you. He was my brother, and you were nothing. But I was wrong about Ari, and you … Now he is gone. Eli is all but dead to me and the closest thing I have to a father is accusing me …”. Ziva reveals that when she finally killed Ari, it was truly to save Gibbs and she was not following her orders, re-earning Gibbs’ trust. In the seventh season episode “Good Cop, Bad Cop”, the bodies aboard the Damocles are recovered and Mossad attempts to make Ziva the scapegoat for the death of Staff Sergeant Daniel Cryer, USMC, one of the passengers. After he persuades her to tell her version of the story and she is cleared, Gibbs whispers something to her and kisses her on the forehead, causing her to break down in tears of relief. Mark Harmon later disclosed that he had improvised the final moments of the scene, and when questioned about what Gibbs said, replied, “[De Pablo]’s not gonna tell you any more than I am—I don’t think. That’s our secret.” Following investigation into Ziva’s role in the events aboard the Damocles, Director Vance approves an exonerated Ziva’s application to join NCIS after initially rejecting it. Director Vance hands the approved application to Agent Gibbs, who in turn transmits it to Ziva, whom he calls “Probie”.

The character’s nationality was changed to Israeli after de Pablo was cast. She was also rewritten as a Mossad agent and Ari Haswari’s half-sister, with creators originally planning for her to be Interpol or Royal Australian Navy. De Pablo later added, “I was one of the last to audition, and I don’t think they had a clear idea of what they wanted. So I interpreted Ziva as a cool, competent woman, not the usual Hollywood sex symbol with big boobs, but [someone] who was comfortable in her own sexuality and used to working with men on an equal footing. It helped that by my looks, I could be taken for almost any nationality.” She has also said that Ziva is based on an Israeli woman that she had known prior to joining the series.

The realism of her depiction also became a subject of discussion, and de Pablo’s imitation of an Israeli accent and performances in Hebrew have been both praised and criticized. Anthony Frosh of Galus Australis suggested that her unrelentingly patriotic attitude did not reflect that of a typical Israeli, while Honig wrote that that trait helped Israeli viewers to identify with her more. Huffington Post critic William Bradley thought that the Chilean-born de Pablo was “surprisingly convincing” as a Mossad officer. Alex Joffe, a writer for Jewish Ideas Daily, added that when Mossad agents do appear on the American screen, it is often as “more extreme pictures of the general types and dilemmas”, using The Debt as a primary example. He believed that Ziva, “a one-woman army, full of secrets”, fell into this category but concluded that she was still “the most positive recurring Israeli character on American television”.Viewers sent “many e-mails, letters, notes, cards, posters, and so on to CBS headquarters and individuals at CBS” as well as cupcakes and M&Ms in protest. Many tucked paperclips into their letters, as they had become commonly associated with the character of Ziva following a Season 4 episode that featured her telling Tony, “I will kill you 18 different ways with this paper clip.” Television Critics Association member Jane Boursaw published a letter sent by Dutch fan Dianne Lodder on her website. Lodder later wrote an editorial that was published in The Huffington Post analyzing the reasoning behind viewers’ responses. Using writings by Blakey Vermeule, she explained, “Fiction allows us a rare insight into the minds and hearts of its characters, its people. An insight that we often wish for in real life.”

I confirm that I am over 18 years of age, and understand that this website contains material featuring nudity and/or sexually-explicit material and/or adult themes that are age-restricted, and I confirm that by entering this website I agree that I am not offended by viewing such material.Cote de Pablo, the Latina is a hot chick of Miami. Her alluring ass is everything you desire from a Latino. I have gathered some sexy pictures of Cote de Pablo here that’ll drive you crazy. Take a look at the half-nude pictures and thank me later.

Cote was then called for the audition of the series NCIS and she cracked the part there. She played the role of an Israeli intelligence officer and continued for the next 10 seasons. Cote’s role was then suddenly vanished but later made a comeback in the 16 season.