The ongoing wedding scene finally starts to make sense as NCIS: Tony & Ziva episode 3 takes the audience to five days before the day. I thought seeing Ziva in a wedding dress was the most significant plot shock; I’m happy to be wrong. Tony receives some bad news as he and Ziva seek a place to lie low, and what happens next leaves me stunned.
Sexual tension aside, Tony and Ziva are Interpol fugitives in the last three-episode premiere day release. Circumstances continue to test them and turn their emotions into knots. As much as they’ve both endured, they won’t be broken from the pain.
An explosion derails their plans in NCIS: Tony and Ziva season 1 episode 3
Nothing can go right for Tony and Ziva as they desperately try to clear their names, convince Tony’s best friend they are being framed, and safely return to their daughter. The evidence continues to stack against them with no solution in sight.
Ziva feels like they are back on the job and need to call McGee to handle this mess they’re in. I loved the McGee mention, but I also loved that Tony still calls him Probie as he talks about how that call would go. I agree with him. What can McGee do from D.C. when they are in a different time zone and 9.4 is rapidly creating murder cars and killing people? Unfortunately, even McGee can’t erase the Red Notice on their heads and save them from this killer device.
As they are trying to dig for answers from Aaron Graves’ company, Graves is unavailable, and while they are talking to his communications person, Riley, a building explodes. To no one’s surprise, Graves brings the camera footage of Tony and Ziva walking into his building to Henry and excuses the attack on them. Apparently, being in the same area relates to being guilty of an attack these days. Tony and Ziva can’t catch a break! To make matters worse, military drones were being assembled in the building that exploded and then it’s revealed it was a distraction for some bigger plan.
Tony’s married girlfriend
Claudette and Boris, an unlikely team, work around the clock to keep Interpol off Tony and Ziva’s scent. But they can only do so much when they aren’t aware that Graves has the camera footage and shares it with Henry. While Tony and Ziva are very much in the dark, they hide out at Tony’s kinda serious girlfriend’s cabin to lay low from cameras.
After Tony and Ziva clear the air about him having a girlfriend, Nicole walks into the cabin and introduces her husband, Max. Nicole calls Ziva Tony’s lovely wife. Awkward, much? Very. At this point, I want to run for the hills, and I’m not the one experiencing this shock first-hand. First, Henry betrays Tony, and now his girlfriend. My heart breaks for Tony as he fakes being married to Ziva so Max, a border enforcement cop, doesn’t sniff out their lies.
Claudette finally sends a text saying, “Digital ID tags have been altered. You are invisible to CCTV.” Unfortunately, that’s the same time that Tony has to keep Max from seeing the news reporting on the red notices and the Graves’ camera footage. Tony successfully plays it off, and Ziva’s recon actions set in. The cabin’s power cuts off, and Ziva and Tony walk into the kitchen to see Max and Nicole fighting in German. Ziva gathers that Max is upset that Nicole didn’t share Tony, apparently, he knows about his wife’s little affair. As Ziva jokes with Tony about not being full of himself, the Red Notice alert sounds on Max’s phone.
Red Notice: Ziva David and Tony DiNizzo, Former NCIS Agents. Chargers: Attempted murder, cybercrime, grand theft…(and more unlisted crimes they are framed for).
They spring into action, destroying Max and Nicole’s phones and trying to outrun them. Tony knocks out Max, and then they handcuff a closet door and frame to lock Nicole in. Tony’s emotions are everywhere as the gravity of the night hits him. Yet again, he’s betrayed by someone and must keep moving.
The wedding is a trap!
Claudette and Boris discover that the pixels were altered in the explosion video to cover up the true plan. A drone is missing, but they can’t report it, or Interpol and Graves will pin it on Tony and Ziva. It seems that Tony and Ziva are to blame for everything going wrong and it makes me wonder if Henry and Martine want to run them out of France for some mysterious reason. They are going to a lot of trouble to accuse them.
As they drive off, Ziva worries that Tali will be hurt from this derailment in the case. Tony assures her that the drone target can’t be a remote cabin in Germany, and they’ll call Tali in the morning to check on her. Right there is where I see how much Tony has grown as a man since becoming a father. Ziva has too, even though she’s worried all the time and tries not to use survival mode to stay safe. They both have their flaws, but somehow it works.
The articles about the Red Notice spark an idea for them as they stay away from people and continue to drive. Tony wants to set a trap for Martine to figure out who she’s working with and the drone plans. He tells Claudette to make sure Boris and Fruzi still have the wedding on time.
Back to the present day, the wedding scene, Boris and Ziva hold hands at the altar to make sure Martine buys their act. For right now, Martine doesn’t know a fake bride is at the altar and hopefully they can keep her fooled for long. But then the scene flashes to someone dragging an unknown person in a body bag in another building. The captiver is whispering in Martine’s earpiece as she looks concerned in the church. The scene cuts out and we’re left to wonder what’s going on. With the preview for episode four playing after the final scene, I have a feeling we’ll like the outcome of the story buildup from the first three episodes of the season.
NCIS: Tony & Ziva episode 4 drops on Paramount+ on Thursday, September 11, 2025.