‘NCIS’s Tony & Ziva: Their Top 13 ‘Tiva’ Moments So Far
Sam and Diane. Ross and Rachel. Scully and Mulder. The question of “Will they or won’t they?” has driven some of TV’s greatest relationships and kept hopeful fans glued to their screens. But few pairs have been shipped harder (or longer, for that matter) than NCIS’s Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva David (Cote de Pablo). Since their first meeting at the start of the third season, the chemistry between “Tiva,” as fans dubbed the duo, was obvious.
Tony’s relentless energy and freewheeling charm meshed effortlessly with Ziva’s flirtatious teasing and aloof detachment. They kept each other on their toes with playful banter but also maintained the emotional distance required of those who regularly deal with tragedy. Behind all of their bluster and despite their very different backgrounds, there was always a mutual respect. And behind that was something more.
Tony and Ziva’s opposites-attract, love-hate dynamic was actually rooted in the real-life bond of the actors. “Michael and I clicked immediately,” de Pablo has said. “We sort of hated each other immediately, and loved each other immediately…. We realized we’re so drastically different and so much alike that there was an immediate attraction.”
Of course, unrequited feelings between partners was nothing new in the world of police procedurals, even back in 2005 (take Brennan and Booth in Bones, for instance), and today’s most prominent example is Benson and Stabler in the Law & Order universe (Bensler!). It was the (extremely) slow burn of Ziva and Tony’s relationship that helped create viewers’ own passion for the pairing over the years. So much so that, in 2010, TV Guide Magazine concluded that “many fans have become obsessed with the romantic tension.” Did Tiva shippers finally get what they were looking for before Weatherly and de Pablo left the show? Let’s roll back the tape on some of Tony and Ziva’s greatest moments so far to find out as viewers prepare to dive into NCIS: Tony & Ziva.
NCIS: Tony & Ziva, Series Premiere, Thursday, September 4 (three episodes), Paramount+
For a deep-dive into all things Tony, Ziva, and NCIS, from exclusive interviews to retrospectives and must-see photos, pick up a copy of TV Guide Magazine’s NCIS: Tony & Ziva special issue, available for purchase online at TIVA.tvgm2025.com and on newsstands August 22.
'Kill Ari Part I' (Season 3, Episode 1)
When Tony and Ziva’s daughter asks how her parents met, she might not get the whole truth. “I walked in on your father as he was fantasizing aloud about his just-murdered partner in a schoolgirl outfit. Oh, and my half brother was the one who killed her.” Not exactly a fairy-tale romance fit for a bedtime story, is it? But damn if it wasn’t the perfect introduction for Tony and Ziva’s relationship. Forget the meet-cute. This was a meet-hot.
In the Season 3 premiere, the NCIS team are on the hunt for Ari Haswari after the rogue Israeli operative assassinated Special Agent Caitlin Todd (Sasha Alexander). Ari’s Mossad control officer Ziva arrives to convince NCIS he isn’t the real killer. She’s looking for Gibbs but, to the joy of millions of future Tiva shippers, finds Tony engaged in that naughty daydream instead. “Look, I’m not the only man who does it,” he protests.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Ziva bats her eyes and counters. “Oh, women do it too…”—cue the first of many long, charged pauses between them—“…with handsome men.”
Flirtatious banter, sexual tension and simmering—or rather, sizzling—romantic chemistry. It’s all there in their very first scene. Thus “Tiva,” the shipping fans’ name for the duo, was born. Tony’s a perpetual man-child, cracking jokes and lusting after women. Ziva’s a detached assassin with a past as mysterious as her true feelings. Both wield wit and sexuality to mask their own vulnerabilities, and as weapons to disarm the other. They’ll bring each other’s barriers down eventually…after more than a decade of keeping fans salivating for more.
'Kill Ari Part II' (Season 3, Episode 2)
In the second half of Ziva’s introduction, DiNozzo is tasked with tailing the Israeli femme fatale to learn if she’s friend or foe. Keeping eyes on Ziva is an assignment he doesn’t mind, especially when she heads to the hotel pool for a few laps. As he watches her swim, Tony’s imaginary version of Caitlin returns to ask why he’s not fantasizing about Ziva instead. Her theory? Ziva intimidates him.
Tony denies it, but he’s given good reason to be wary when he discovers Ziva, convinced of Ari Haswari’s innocence, handing off a phony passport to help him slip out of the country. Even worse—or maybe better?—Ziva’s known he was following her from the start and has come to offer him conciliatory espresso. Sheltered from the rain, they share a slice of pizza, as Ziva opens up about her younger sister, who was killed in a suicide bombing at 16. All she wanted was revenge, not unlike Gibbs in his single-minded pursuit of Ari.
Unfortunately, Gibbs is proven right when Ziva agrees to bait a trap to see where Ari’s true allegiances lie. When he shows up to kill Gibbs, Ziva puts him down first, without hesitation. A heavy burden to bear, as she reveals that she wasn’t just Ari’s control agent but also his half sister.
Almost 20 years since it first aired, the two-parter “Kill Ari” remains a major event in NCIS history. It represented both the tragic end of the partnership of Tony DiNozzo and Caitlin Todd and the hopeful beginning of the partnership—and more—of Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David.
'Under Covers' (Season 3, Episode 8)
Under Covers (Season 3, Episode 8)
This cold open just got hot! After seven long episodes of will-they-or-won’t-they, Tony and Ziva finally kissing! Right? Nope! It’s all an act, performed—quite believably—for the benefit of prying eyes. “In our minds, we thought the characters weren’t faking anything,” de Pablo said in 2009.“They just got carried away. Then all of a sudden after that, they saw each other in a different light.”
They certainly had us fooled. Us, and the pair of mystery voyeurs—who we later learn are actuallyFBI agents—watching them have incredibly convincing sex via thermal vision. Actually, Tony and Ziva are undercover as two married (and recently deceased) assassins. Their mission? Discover who the pair’s target was and make sure no one else finishes the job. Turns out the real targets are the assassins Tony and Ziva are playing! Captured together (for the first time, but far from the last), the duo are rescued with some help from NCIS and the FBI.
De Pablo stressed in a 2010 TV Guide Magazine cover story that she and Weatherly “both have different views on what actually happened. It’s like the book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus! Later, on their NCIS rewatch podcast Off Duty in July 2024, Weatherly asked de Pablo about the significance of “Under Covers.” “Do you feel like that was the moment where the audience was able to plug into the whole ‘Tiva’ of it all? Where they saw something more than the sum of its parts or whatever that alchemy is?”
“I think it’s the first time you see hunger in both of these characters,” she answered. Ziva ends thinking that “he’s a little bit of a fool, but…he’s a yummy fool.”
'Boxed In' (Season 3, Episode 12)
When we said we were “shipping” Tony and Ziva, we didn’t mean locking them in a shipping container! But that’s exactly where Tony and Ziva get “boxed in,” trapped with smuggled cargo after a gunfight at the docks. The container’s steel walls might keep them safe from bullets, but not from each other. They were already bickering after Tony found out Ziva invited everyone but him over for dinner. Awkward. And that was before they were tripping over each other in a tiny metal box! “I like tight, dark spaces,” Tony muses. “Unless, of course, they insist on some kind of commitment,” Ziva parries.
With nowhere to go, their only option is to talk about their favorite sexy movies and debate the difference between “screwed” and “bolted.” They also manage to investigate the crates they’re locked in with. Not the ones with the Bollywood DVDs. We mean the hidden ones labeled “explosive” and “Death to America.”
“Your life would’ve had more meaning if you’d slept with me,” Tony jokes, prying open the crate and waiting for their imminent demise. “If you had anything else on your mind, perhaps I would have,” Ziva replies.
The crates are actually full of millions of counterfeit dollars, and the only thing “explosive” in the storage container is the pair’s chemistry. Is it getting hot in here? No, that’s just the wads of phony money Tony burns to make a smoke signal. Then the crate starts moving, and Ziva comes up with a harebrained scheme of her own: leaving a trail of fake cash! Gibbs manages to “follow the money,” and Tony and Ziva are rescued at the eleventh hour.
'Truth Or Consequences' (Season 7, Episode 1)
In TV Guide Magazine’s very first cover story on de Pablo and Weatherly, circa May 2009, as Season 6 was ending, executive producer Shane Brennan discussed the high expectations around the pairing. “We realize we can’t keep doing this indefinitely. Now, that doesn’t mean we bring them together or bust them apart. It means we take it to another level.”
That level? A lethal brawl between DiNozzo and Ziva’s Mossad boyfriend Michael Rivkin. Tony killed Rivkin in self-defense, but the damage was done. Ziva chose to leave NCIS to rejoin Mossad. But in the shocking final moments of Season 6, we learn that she’s been taken prisoner in Somalia by terrorist Saleem Ulman.
Fast-forward to the Season 7 opener, and the only one more worried about Ziva than NCIS fans is Tony. He digs for answers after months of no word from his ex-partner. Believing she was killed at sea, Tony sets out for revenge against Ulman and ends up captured. He’s shocked when he finds himself sitting across from a very alive Ziva. “How was your summer?” he quips.
“Tony, why are you here?” Ziva asks, displeased he’d forfeited his life for her. “I couldn’t live without you, I guess,” he answers. Sarcasm? Not likely—Tony’s under the influence of truth serum. He reveals another truth to Ulman: He got himself captured on purpose. Gibbs puts a sniper round into Ulman’s head, then leads a raid to rescue his people from the compound. Ziva returns with the team to the U.S., assured that Tony would always have her back.
'Jet Lag' (Season 7, Episode 13)
Tony and Ziva’s mission is to escort a high-value whistleblower from Paris to D.C. Though we never see what happened during their night together in the City of Light, we do get some rather suggestive hints. Tony’s in an unusually pleasant mood the next morning: “I slept well last night. Why, didn’t you? You certainly looked comfy enough.”
Aboard the plane, we learn that they did indeed have to share a hotel room. When the whistleblower, Nora, presses them on their relationship, they invoke Gibbs’ Rule No. 12: “Never date a coworker.” But at some point, each claims to have taken the couch. So which one is lying? Or is it both?
De Pablo played coy when asked what really went down during an NCIS panel at 2010’s PaleyFest. “Michael has his views of what happened in Paris. I have mine. We haven’t discussed it. But all I can say is it was good.”
Tony and Ziva had “a tremendous amount of fun,” Weatherly added wryly. “Ziva had more fun with Tony than she thought she was going to have, which maybe shocked her a little bit.”
If something did happen between them, Tony and Ziva certainly didn’t follow it up by joining the mile-high club on the flight home. The only thing going on in that airplane’s bathroom is the murder of the flight’s air marshal. With a killer after their whistleblower at 30,000 feet, the agents have to figure out who aboard is a hitman gunning for a
deadly $500,000 payday.
'Extreme Prejudice' (Season 10, Episode 1)
Tony and Ziva are trapped in another metal box! This time it’s an elevator, stuck in the wake of Harper Dearing’s (Richard Schiff) bombing at NCIS headquarters. We find Ziva on DiNozzo’s shoulders, banging on the ceiling in vain. It won’t budge, and DiNozzo is about to pass out—Ziva’s legs are choking him. “Keep pushing, thigh master,” he quips. “I’m starting to enjoy this.”
The lights flash, and the elevator creaks and shudders. “We slipped,” Ziva says. “Did we?” Tony asks. “I thought the earth moved.” Several steamy (literally) hours later, they’re both getting a little “ripe” when Abby shows up to free them. They then get back on Dearing’s trail with the help of Gibbs’ pal, FBI agent Tobias Fornell (Joe Spano, above, with de Pablo and Weatherly).
It was de Pablo and Weatherly’s elevator scenes that convinced showrunner Gary Glasberg to go all in on Tiva for Season 10. “The consensus was to do more of that this season,” he said. “To peel back some layers and find little moments—and [ever since then] we’re finding opportunities I think the Tony and Ziva fans will really enjoy.”
“They’ve been through extraordinary circumstances together,” Weathery added, “so it doesn’t necessarily require the explosion. There’s a real, plainspoken, straight read between them, so they don’t have to jump through hoops. When she watches Tony do his stuff or he watches her hide behind that barricade of an Israeli assassin princess mentality, they both clock it, they know it and they can move around each other. It’s a great relationship.”
'Shabbat Shalom' (Season 10, Episode 11)
Ziva’s father, Mossad Director Eli David (Michael Nouri, above, with de Pablo), turns up in D.C., hoping to reconnect with his daughter after not seeing her for two years and repair their strained relationship. Ever the master spy, Eli’s good intentions are riddled with ulterior motives. His real mission is a meeting with his Iranian counterpart to try to make peace between Israel and Iran. Eli hopes this meeting will be the first step toward redemption in his daughter’s eyes.
But just as she’s starting to believe in him again, Ziva discovers Eli is responsible for the death of a journalist NCIS has been investigating. She decides she’ll never be able to forgive him for everything he’s done, telling him, “Your sins are too great.” A devastated Eli asks if she’ll sit across the dinner table from him one last time, and Ziva agrees to attend Shabbat at the home of Director Vance (Rocky Carroll). She’s outside when gunfire breaks out, riddling the house with bullets. By the time Ziva returns from pursuing the unknown attacker, who kills himself with a cyanide cigarette, it’s too late. Tony’s uncharacteristic silence tells the whole story. Eli David is dead. In a gut-wrenching goodbye, Ziva cries out “Abba!” as she cradles her father’s body.
“Even with the complexity of what existed between Ziva and Eli,” showrunner Glasberg said, “at the end of the day, he was her father and she loved him…. There are good memories that go with the bad. It weighs on her. When anyone loses someone, you think about what they meant to you and what part of them you continue to carry.” It will be up to Tony to help her through this.
'Shiva' (Season 10, Episode 12)
After her father’s assassination, Tony finds Ziva in a temple, praying for a sign not to lose hope. “What can I do?” he asks. “What do you need?” Her answer: “Revenge.” All Ziva wants is to pursue Eli’s killer, but she’s not allowed on the case, nor is it safe for her to return home. Tony lets her stay at his apartment and even invites her friend Shmeil to comfort her. Tony and Gibbs think she might be the next assassination target.
“He’s there as a friend and as a coworker, and you’ll see Tony be there for her and support her and emotionally be strong for her,” Glasberg previewed at the time. “It’s all the things I hope that people who enjoy the Tony-Ziva relationship will look for.”
Tony knows she needs to open up and talk, but Ziva has shut down emotionally. He wakes her when she’s having a nightmare, but she insists she’s fine and asks to be left alone. Ziva’s furious when she learns her father’s Mossad protégé Ilan Bodnar (Oded Fehr) is allowed to work the case in her stead. But she’s not Mossad anymore, Tony says. “And now you’re the daughter of a dead man. Why don’t you let yourself act like one?”
The team discovers too late that Bodnar is behind Eli’s death. He’s already in the wind. But Ziva, at least, is safe to return her father’s body to Israel. Tony meets her on the tarmac and advises her not to take revenge on her own. She finally allows herself a moment to grieve. As she wraps Tony in an embrace, he whispers “Aht to leh-vahd”—Hebrew for “You are not alone.” “I know,” Ziva says.
'Past, Present And Future' (Season 11, Episode 2)
In a shock to fans everywhere, Cote de Pablo announced in the summer of 2013 that she would exit NCIS later that year, at the beginning of Season 11. Which meant it was the series’ last chance (for the moment) to give the audience—and the characters—at least some closure on Tony and Ziva’s relationship. The hunt for her father’s killer has taken a toll on Ziva, and after avenging his death, she decides to step away from NCIS and return to Israel.
After a threat to Ziva’s life sends her off the grid, Tony heads to Israel to search for her. Following months of being just steps behind, Tony finally tracks her to the house where she grew up. He asks Ziva to come back to D.C. with him, but she decides she needs a fresh start. Tony has to respect her wish to begin a new life, even if it’s one without him in it. At the airport, Ziva says goodbye as Tony prepares to leave. “Tony, you are so—” He interrupts. “Handsome? Funny? What?”
“Loved,” Ziva says, tears in her eyes. Then they finally kiss. And unlike their first kiss nearly a decade earlier, they aren’t undercover. This is the real thing. But Tony still has to leave, alone, for home.
“My first scene ever in the bullpen was with Michael, and my goodbye scene was with Michael,” de Pablo told TV Guide Magazine. “I feel like that was a beautiful way of ending—for now, certainly—a beautiful chapter between these two.”
'Family First' (Season 13, Episode 24)
The lack of Tony and Ziva chemistry for nearly three seasons left a hole in NCIS—one that wasn’t felt only by the fandom. In a May 2016 cover story, reporting on Michael Weatherly‘s final episodes, he cited Ziva’s absence as one of the reasons hen decided to leave the series at the end of Season 13. Weatherly missed “their great dynamic, the badinage and sparring and flirting between those two characters and how they would swing from siblings to near lovers and back to buddies.”
But Tony DiNozzo wouldn’t leave NCIS for just any reason. It had to be a big one, and it of course had to do with Ziva. In the Season 13 finale, the team is horrified to learn that Ziva was killed in an explosion in Israel. There was only one survivor: a little girl named Tali, Ziva’s daughter, named for her younger sister. She never told Tony he was a father.
Tony is overwhelmed, mourning Ziva but also questioning how she could keep Tali from him. Did he really know her at all? He loved her, but did she love him back? Ellie and McGee (above) and the team console Tony. Abby assures him she did, and a photo of them seems to confirm it. Tucked away with Tali’s things is a picture of Tony and Ziva from their time in Paris.
With his world suddenly changed, Tony tells Gibbs that it’s time for him to leave NCIS and raise his daughter. His father (Robert Wagner, top) reassures him that it’s the right thing to do. He’s going to take Tali back to Israel to bury her mother, then to Paris to grow up in the city Ziva loved. It’s a bittersweet ending to the story of Tiva…at least until the next chapter!
'The North Pole' (Season 17, Episode 10)
Ziva’s alive! After surviving the explosion, she’d faked her death and gone on the run to protect her loved ones from a terrorist named Sahar—ex-partner to Ziva’s half brother Ari Haswari. When Ziva killed Ari years earlier, their splinter group fell apart, costing Sahar everything. For the last three years, Ziva has been on the run, avoiding her wrath.
So, did Tony and Tali even know she was alive? Ziva later confirms that they did, having tracked her down in Cairo years earlier. They weren’t a big happy family, but at least Tony and Tali were safe. When Sahar set her sights on Gibbs, Ziva had to risk her secret to warn him. She appeared at the end of the Season 16 finale (a shocker for fans!) to alert him. Both Gibbs and Ziva go on the run in the Season 17 premiere, and in the next episode,
Ziva and the NCIS team kill Sahar and take down her entire network. Or so they think.
In “The North Pole,” Ziva still hasn’t returned to her family. Why? “In these two episodes, many of the loose ends Ziva thought were tied up are not,” de Pablo told TV Guide Magazine. “She’s still dealing with trust issues. Her past comes back to haunt her yet again.”
The loose end she’s referring to is friend Adam Eshel (Damon Dayoub), who helped keep her safe the past three years. When he’s captured, it’s revealed that the Sahar they’d killed was just a decoy. Ziva and Gibbs are too late to save Adam, but they discover the real Sahar has been Gibbs’ neighbor Sarah all along. In a poignant reminder of how Ziva saved Gibbs’ life by killing Ari years before, Gibbs saves Ziva by putting a single bullet in Sarah’s head.
'In The Wind' (Season 17, Episode 11)
When she learned Sahar was still alive, Ziva sent Tony and Tali into hiding. Now, with Sahar well and truly dead, she can tell them it’s safe. But Tony isn’t responding to her messages, leaving Ziva unsettled. Gibbs expects Ziva to return to Paris to meet her family, but it seems as if she’s stalling. When Sahar’s innocent son Phineas goes missing, Gibbs takes the case quite personally. (He did just kill his mother!) Ziva then insists on aiding in the investigation,
Gibbs presses her for the real reason she hasn’t gone home. Ziva admits that she’s afraid she’s “too damaged” to go back to who she was. That’s when Tony finally answers, with a video of Tali: “We love you, Imma. We miss you.” Gibbs assures her she’s ready to start living her life again.
After rescuing the kidnapped Phineas, Ziva says her goodbyes to the team. “We’re always here for you,” Gibbs promises. “Don’t make us come looking.” As the elevator closes, Ziva gives a playful wink. She’s headed to Europe, finally ready to reunite with Tony and Tali. It was a beautiful and moving ending that left us wondering…is that it? Would NCIS really never bring Tiva back together on camera?
Now, finally, five years after Ziva’s last appearance and 20 years since we saw their first scene together in September 2005 in the bullpen offices of Washington, D.C.’s Navy Yard, NCIS: Tony & Ziva is set to give us a real look at the David–DiNozzo family. There will be revealing flashbacks about how they really got together, but if their history has taught us anything, it’s that their reunion will be less happily-ever-after and more flirty bickering forever. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
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