We thought we’d never see Tony and Ziva onscreen together again after their NCIS departures, but the franchise had other plans. Paramount+ ordered the NCIS spinoff in February 2024, which would include 10 episodes with Michael Weatherly (Tony DiNozzo) and Cote de Pablo (Ziva David) reprising their roles. The wait finally ended on September 4, 2025, when Paramount+ dropped the first three episodes of NCIS: Tony and Ziva.
The first episode blew the dust off a 20-year working relationship as it rolled a montage clip from the NCIS archives from 2005 to 2016, along with new clips from the missing years. Tony and Ziva finally fall into the step of co-parenting when an Interpol mole starts surveilling their daughter and framing Tony’s security company for stolen money. They easily slip into old ways by flashing their outdated NCIS badges. Instead of solving the case and putting their minds at ease, they land on Interpol's Red Notice. After everything they’ve endured, they send their daughter, Tali, on an adventure with her highly trained Nanny, Sophie. In the meantime, Tony refers to Ziva as his safehouse roomie.
NCIS: Tony & Ziva season 1 episode 1 timeline
I didn’t expect my heart to melt the second the first episode started, but I wasn’t expecting an NCIS archival montage either. The memories didn’t disappoint. From their very first meeting to their ending, NCIS: Tony & Ziva set out to destory us in the first few minutes. Not only did we see the archives, but a January 2020 clip when Tony, Ziva, and Tali reunite. Although the memory turns sour for Ziva, we later find out it’s the day Ziva decided to seek therapy for her trauma. Five years later, Tony and Ziva are former NCIS agents, running their own companies in Paris, France. Tony runs Salus Mondiale Security Services, while Ziva is over the School for International Languages. They co-parent easily with the help of Tali’s Nanny, Sophie.
We catch up with the former crime-fighting duo in October 2025 as Tony slides into a church window in Budapest, Hungary. After hitting his head on a Jesus statue, he cracks a very on-brand Tony joke before running to another room to find his tux. In those few minutes, it’s as if he never left our screens. And then, he tops it by seeing Ziva in a wedding dress. But it’s not their wedding, unfortunately. Trust me, I was bummed, too.
I finally understand they’re on a case for the show to flashback to tell us how they ended up in wedding attire at someone else’s wedding. It took a few scenes, but the plot grew intense as a man posing as a Lieutentant threated Tali and Sophie by showing Tony a surveillance feed of them walking on the streets of Paris. The fake Lieutentant’s threat sents us straight into the plot.
Where does Tony and Ziva’s relationship stand?
Ziva’s therapist is asking her questions about her life, work, co-parents, and then he simply asks about Tony. She says, Tony is a wonderful father partially because he’s a child himself. It doesn’t help his case when the scene flashes to Tony and Tali in public as he embarasses his daughter. He’s playing a game she loved when she was nine. When he returns to Ziva she says he’s a child because he’s self-centered, big-hearted, and oblivious. Although he has a big heart, it seems his lower qualities overpower his personality. This leads Ziva to confirm their relationship status: on-and-off again, with currently being never again in present day.
It’s not the relationship status NCIS fans were dreaming of, but it was the one the characters needed. In hindsight, it may be the best verison of them. Their connection allows them to not only be comfortable joking around with each other, but also working together fighting crime and cco-parenting their twelve-year-old daughter. At the end of the day, I’d rather see Tony and Ziva happy than struggling to make a romantic relationship work when that isn’t between them at this point in time. Honestly, I’m still holding out a little hope considering how they look at each other.
Tony’s framed (again?)
After the mysterious woman and fake Lieutenant successfully steal money from a Paris bank and hospital, Claudette, Chief Technical Officer for Tony’s company, calls him with some upsetting news. They wired the stolen euros into Tony’s company’s corporate bank account. This sends a mass of red flags to Interpol, even his close friend, Henry. Tony tries to plead his case over the phone, but Henry reminds him that the criminals didn’t make him and Ziva pose as NCIS agents, Tony held an employee at gunpoint to get him out of the data center, and let the criminals steal the money. Yet, had they not let them drain the account, patients on life support would have died when the criminals cut the power. Instead, Ziva let them drain it and saved the hospital staff and patients. Sadly, Henry had Interpol put them under a Red Notice, causing them to go to Ziva’s safehouse and send off Tali with Sophie.
As soon as Tony found out he was being framed, I had a flashback to when the FBI accused Tony of murdering someone. It seems like Tony always has bad luck. In all the years since he left NCIS, his bad luck seems to follow him. Hopefully episode 2 sheds some more light on what the heck is going on with these criminals who wanted a flashdrive called 9.4 that can easily crash the national economy. What could go wrong?
The Wedding Scene
Their investigation leads them to Italy where the coder for 9.4 lives. On their way there, Claudette informs them that Boris Peskvo is getting married soon. They arrive and Tony flashes his gun on his belt to let Boris know they mean business.
Boris sits infront of his computer, with a grim look on his face. His news aren’t happy, but they confirm that someone was after 9.4. The mysterious woman from the bank and church are one in the same, and they don’t know her name. But, they assume she’s an Interpol mole and someone that knows too much about Tony and Ziva. Back at the hospital she told Tony that his daughter was only under surveillance until Tony unleashed Ziva. Well that can’t be good.
NCIS: Tony & Ziva airs on Thursdays on Paramount+.