NCIS: Tony & Ziva season 1 episode 9 brought Tony and Ziva a bit closer to clearing their names, but it came with a cost. Jonah revealed that he was the mastermind behind the takedown of the Reigning Fire Expo. Graves laughed in his face when it was revealed that even his security guard had it out for him. Before either of them could end him or unlock the server room, Martine killed Graves in cold blood to stop Jonah from killing innocent children after blowing up Graves’ compound. She runs out of the tunnels, calling Lazar to confirm she didn’t kill him at the Expo and that they’re double-crossed Jonah because he can’t be trusted.
Tony falls through the compound floor and into the tunnels, where luckily the team finds him unharmed and alive on top of rubble. They safely exit the tunnels, but their high spirits are interrupted by a panicked call from Sophie. The men from the airport took Tali. Again, Tony and Ziva are in a race to save the one person they love the most: their daughter.
NCIS: Tony & Ziva season 1 episode 10 reveals Tali’s fate
The finale episode picks up with the team trying to understand what happened at the airport. Before Claudette and Boris can get a track on Tali on CCTV footage, Ziva receives a FaceTime call from Jonah, who is still in the Graves’ compound tunnel media room. He wants Ziva to do precisely what he says, starting with Tony joining the call. Unfortunately, he knows Tony survived the explosion. He has their daughter locked in a room as shown on the surveillance screen.
Martine quietly walks up, revealing Jonah speaking on her phone. She bugged his phone before she killed Graves and escaped the tunnels. Tony doesn’t care what happens, he just wants his daughter back. Martine promises to help rescue Tali if they help her take down Jonah. It’s a messy plan, but Tony and Ziva will do anything to save their daughter, even if it means working with one of their enemies to take out the most significant threat.
Boris finds footage where the kidnappers took Tali. It’s by a lighthouse that’s near one of Jonah’s prison locations that Martine knows about. She wants to take them there and help them because Ziva opened her eyes to who Jonah really is. She reveals she only killed Graves to slow Jonah down from accessing the server room that is connected to all Reigning Fire weapon systems. 9.4 was designed to take control of the systems, but Lazar discovered that it could also be exploited by Martine and him, making it their Trojan horse.
They split up to save Tali
They make a plan to save Tali. Sophie and Martine are partnered together with Sophie instructed to take her out if she turns on them. Ziva and Tony get into their car to head to the compound to distract Jonah, and he wonders how they’ll know Tali is safe. Sophie shows them a signal they’ll use once Martine is calling Jonah, and to get out of there.
Martine reveals that Boris put Lazar in the hospital, and he’s not very happy with him. But he’s willing to help, and it’ll be Boris’ honor to call Lazar. Tells Boris that Lazar found a flaw in 9.4 while at the Expo. Martine gives Claudette something to get them into Lazar’s fortress, while she and Sophie go to extract Tali.
Claudette and Boris arrive at Lazar’s fortress, where they step into his hacker mind through his computer setup. As Claudette turns on her lights, she discovers a door that leads to the tunnel system under the island. Boris facetimes Lazar, he sits in a wheelchair outside the hospital with a bandage on his head from where Boris hit him to knock him out. He sincerely apologizes for hurting his beautiful brain, as he is still a fanboy of Lazar’s work.
Lazar accepts his apology so they can discuss the flaw he found in 9.4. He does compliment it, saying it works perfectly and learns as it goes, but this creates a flaw that allows other systems to invade it easily. It could easily be reprogrammed by the next system it enters, which is why they need to get it into Graves’ servers. Once they do that, they create a virus so they can go through a back door Lazar created in 9.4’s system functions.
Jonah’s videos of lies
Jonah doesn’t waste any time running the show when Ziva and Tony arrive at the compound. He takes them down to the tunnel control room, showing them the vault that holds the server room that they can’t access since Graves is dead, and he never told anyone the combination. Jonah reveals that it’s not their only problem. He hands them devices with their greatest hits.
All the crimes he’s framing them for on video, fabricated to look like they were behind everything. They need to memorize it so their statements are airtight when he brings them to the local authorities tomorrow. He throws in that something will happen to Tali unless they follow his rules. If they want her to grow up, they have to confess to everything: the stolen Interpol money, hospital takedown, killer cars, Reigning Fire drone explosion, and Reigning Fire Expo mission.
As Jonah and Ruben pull up documents trying to figure out Graves’ server room combination, Tony and Ziva study the lies Jonah crafted. They quietly discuss a plan to get out of Jonah’s claws and back with their daughter. Ziva is becoming more and more angry watching the lies play out on the screen. She only wants their daughter back. Tony reminds her that at least they can see the video on the screen that shows Tali is okay. For now, that’ll have to hold them together.
Martine and Sophie rescue Tali
Martine flashes her Interpol badge and says Jonah sent her to reboot the CCTV cameras that were messed with. Once inside, she acts like she’s fixing the nonexistence issue and then whips around to take the guard by surprise. Meanwhile, Sophie opens the trunk from the inside and crawls out of the car. She passes by Martine as she calls Boris.
They connected Martine’s phone to the security cameras. Sophie throws the guard outside Tali’s room down the stairs and bursts into the room. Martine smiles and points a gun, and for a second, I think she’s turning on them. Then, she shoots the man behind Sophie and Tali. Sophie wants to keep Tali from knowing the man is dead, while Martine says there is blood everywhere which is why she can’t look. I know it’s a stressful time, but it was a funny interaction.
They successfully loop the camera footage to show Tali still sitting on the bed looking around the room. Jonah still thinks everything is okay on his end, while the good guys are getting ahead. He and Ruben point a gun at an old man to make him open Graves’ vault. Tony is right to have a bad feeling about this; the vault wheelhandle electrocutes the man. As Jonah gets annoyed by how over-the-top Graves was with his tech, he receives a call that signals that Tali is safe. It’s time for them to create a distraction and hightail it out of the tunnel media room.
Tony and Ziva’s first escape
Tony sets a fire, and the alarms go off, distracting Jonah while Ziva and Tony run out of the control room. Jonah realizes that the cameras are on a loop and Tali is gone. He calls the guard, who tells him a French woman claiming to work with Jonah got her. Listening into the call, Martine tells Sophie and Tali not to get comfortable because Jonah knows she’s behind it.
Ziva and Tony exit the tunnels into Graves’ sculpture garden while Jonah tries to rewire Boris’ handy work on the CCTV footage to stop doubling their tracker tags. Jonah sets Martine as a target in the system, while Tony covers the cameras in the sculpture garden with banana leaves. As Boris sneaks in the system’s backdoor to hook up 9.4 to its new target, Martine pulls up to Lazar’s fortress with Sophie and Tali in tow.
Drones start attacking them, and they send Tali inside to hide while they shoot at them. Before she can hide, Tali warns Boris that someone is driving towards them in the yellow jeep. Boris lifts Tali onto his shoulder and carries her into the tunnels as the women fight the drones and bad guys. Claudette runs outside and covers Sophie with her body. They slowly stand, put down their weapons, and surrender. The bad guys and drones have them surrounded.
Returning to the Lion’s Den
Tali tells Boris that Sophie said to follow the cables to the compound, but Boris says they need to head away from the compound. She stands her ground that she’s going to do what she can for her parents, Sophie, Claudette, and even Martine, whether he comes with her or not. He worries who will kill him first when they find out he let Tali go straight into the lion’s den. Tali confirms it will be her mom who kills him. I couldn’t agree more. I love how confident Tali is in herself and her parents’ skills.
As Tali and Boris are in the underground tunnels, Tony and Ziva are above ground knocking and shooting people out of their way. We’re used to seeing Ziva punch someone, but seeing Tony knock someone out was very satisfying. You can tell how determined they both are to reach their daughter, which is why Tali doesn’t seem scared to run back into danger. She knows her parents would do it in a heartbeat, as they are now.
Ziva decides she must kill Jonah and disagrees with Tony about going to find Tali. They argue back and forth about it being a dumb decision and not putting Tali first. But Ziva disagrees because if she doesn’t eliminate Jonah for good, they’ll be on the run forever. Maybe they’ll be together, but Tali will be a fugitive along with her parents. Ziva doesn’t want that, even if it means not crossing a line. Yet, all their disagreements lead them back to Graves’ sculpture garden. The only location without cameras holds the server room's combination and, hopefully, keeps Ziva from having to end Jonah to end the fight. They figure out all but one number of the possible combinations and get caught so that they can reveal their findings to Jonah. Hopefully, Claudette and Boris come through with their plan for 9.4’s takedown.
50/50 chance of succeeding
Tony and Ziva offer themselves up to either get into the server room or be electrocuted like the old man. As Tony said, with the combination, they have a 50/50 chance of succeeding or losing. They make sure to say they want Tali and Sophie to be safe, and Jonah agrees since he has nothing to lose. As Tony and Ziva wait to turn the vault door wheel handle, the men who took the women walk in, drones flying overhead. They successfully open the vault door without being hurt because they trusted their abilities and each other.
Jonah reveals that a whole industry took out his family, and now he’s wanting to control their weapons. The endgame wasn’t revenge but control. Martine tries and fails to stop him from making a mistake that will have those people coming after him, as if he had gone after Graves. But Jonah is too power hungry and tired of wasting years on learning what happened to his family and many others at the hands of Reigning Fire weapon systems.
As he’s about to plug 9.4 in, the alarm system goes off, announcing Tali and Boris’ arrival. Tali hides under a blanket in the yellow jeep while Boris stays out of sight. In the server room, Claudette holds her breath as Jonah taps on the iPad with 9.4 plugged into the systems. Thankfully, their plans worked, and the system says that Jonah is the new target. The drones fly into the server room and surround Jonah as they acquire their target.
Martine reveals to Jonah that 9.4 caught a nasty bug from the severs he wanted so badly. Now, they have new orders to bring Jonah to the authorities alive. Like a fool, he slides under the table, and the drones start shooting because they think their target is resisting arrest. Jonah shoots his way out of the server room, through the control room, and hops into his yellow jeep, where Tali is hiding.
She peeks up in time for Ziva to see her on the server room cameras. Sophie and Claudette wrestle Ruben to keep 9.4 out of his hands while Tony and Ziva run towards Tali and Jonah. Boris rushes to tell them, but they already know. She makes sure to ask him to keep 9.4 out of Ruben’s hand, or it’ll be collateral damage. Tony and Ziva drive off in another yellow Jeep because, of course, Graves had tons. Yet, Tali ended up in the one Jonah chose to drive off in.
Tony climbs onto the front of their Jeep, nearly faceplants the floor before regaining his balance and jumping into the back of Jonah’s Jeep. Ziva’s jeep spins off as Jonah’s drives through a boarded up exit. The drones display on the server room cameras as Boris yells that Tony and Tali are in the line of fire.
Tony and Tali jump out of the Jeep and are luckily unharmed as Jonah nearly goes over the small cliff. The drone has Jonah in its sights until Ruben unplugs 9.4. The systems shut down, drones fly off, but that’s not the end of it. Ziva drives into Jonah’s Jeep, knocking him over the small cliff. Tony knocks the gun away from Jonah, but before Jonah can get away, Tali runs down and starts kicking him. She tells him to leave their family alone. Holding his family close to him, Tony points a gun at Jonah. Boris grabs 9.4 and throws it on the ground of the server room and destroys it with one stomp. Martine drives out in a third Jeep and hauls Jonah to his feet and tells him it’s over.
Martine was uncover?
Lazar asks if Martine might even be in charge at Interpol as they walk through the building. She reveals that they may not have much choice since she went uncover for years to build a case against Jonah, making her somewhat undeniable. She has to wait and see what they think of her official report. In the meantime, Lazar is grateful that Martine dropped her original charges against him. Even though he doesn't think he’s innocent, she assures him that everyone carries some sin, and it is what we do with it that counts. She reunites him with his son.
Martine walks away happy as she receives a phone call from Rédoine Jordan, chief of security at the Lyonnet prison. Jonah hung himself with bedsheets in his prison cell and died. She reminds him that a high risk prisioner shouldn’t have had bedsheets, but doesn’t reveal how she knew that’s what he used.
The chaos settles
Archie and Tali sit together in Paris paying Jenga after all the chaos in Spain as ended. As they are moving the pieces, he gently lets her know that if she ever needs to talk about feelings she doesn’t understand, she can reach out to him. Although she’s been through a lot, she seems to be responding well to his gentle, easygoing approach. Ziva thanks Archie for making an exception to his housecall rules to ensure everyone was comfortable, especially Tali. He says their daughter is incredible, super smart, and resilient.
Tony and Claudette finally walk the halls at Salus Mondiale Security Services once again. Sophie walks up and they smile at each other, finally being open about everything. They’re going apartment hunting so they can move in together. Boris shows up to see Tony, he shows them a video of Fruzsi telling Boris goodbye and that she’ll always carry their adventure with her. She took more than memories.
Once they were married, Boris gave her access to everything, and she ran off with all his money. Her name wasn’t Fruzsi, nor was she Hungarian. Meaning he’s not actually married. Boris is left brokenhearted and fooled by a con woman. Tony doesn’t know what to say, except that Boris will always have a job at Salus Mondiale. He embraces Tony and Claudette as Claudette lets him know he can start Monday.
Ziva and Tony walk into the apartment kitchen where Tali is sitting at the counter. She instantly notices their faces look weird. They wanted to run it by her that they wanted to start dating. But if she wasn’t okay with it, Tony says he’ll dump her mom, which makes them laugh. Tali agrees that she’s fine with it as long as they agree that they’re sure. After everything Tali thinks they should live their lives how they want to. She and Sophie fake a boyfriend text to get her parents’ surprise reactions. As Tali confirms it is a joke, she seriously warns they that they better be sure this time because no one likes heart-ripping surprises. I love how they’re both dumbfounded by Tali’s joke and agree that it was something Tony would do.
Ziva accepts Tony’s date, but she has a homecoming gift for him first. Immediately, I’m sad for them all over again as he pulls out a framed photo of Henry and Tali. They prove again just how far their love goes for each other. Ziva may not trust easily like Tony does, but she loves big and loud when she feels safe. Finally, we get the ending we deserve: Tony and Ziva happily in love in Paris with their daughter.
All episode of NCIS: Tony & Ziva season 1 are now streaming on Paramount+.