NCIS: Tony & Ziva season 1 episode 8 finds the team preparing to seek justice for Henry’s murder and clear their names by grabbing the data from Aaron Graves’ Reigning Fire Expo server rooms. It’s not as straightforward as they were hoping. Claudette reveals that the Expo is being held at the Le Corail Convention Centre, where Freda, a woman she competed against to be the best during their college years, runs the company.
Along with getting around that awkward reunion, the good guys are running a mission at the same time as the criminals. Jonah, Martine, and Lazar run their mission to take out Aaron Graves for everything he’s done to Jonah’s family. The tables quickly turn when Jonah programs a pup robot weapon to start shooting on the stage. Graves isn’t the target. Tony, Ziva, Claudette, and Boris are the four targets Jonah’s surveillance is searching for in the Expo building.
Despite their disguises, Jonah found them in the camera footage and is drawing them out. Luckily, Claudette and Boris stay hidden while Ziva links up with Claudette, and Tony follows Jonah.
On stage, Jonah acts like the good guy as he ushers Graves backstage and to a safe location. He double-crosses everyone by blaming the system takeover on them all, except himself. He turns his back on Martine and leaves her, proving he’s the man Lazar warned her he was. A man who only looks out for himself, even if that means crossing his partner. Martine doesn’t take it well. As Martine and Lazar face off in the server room after he comes to from being knocked out, Claudette and Ziva hurry out of the Expo with no word from Tony.
NCIS Tony & Ziva season 1 episode 9 reveals TIVA wedding breakup
It’s Tony and Ziva’s wedding in a flashback to November 2021 in Barbados, and everything that can go wrong is going wrong. Not enough lilacs, and there’s flooding due to a hurricane. Tony rushes to find Ziva; she seems okay as she does a bit of kickboxing. All the flights are cancelled, so his father can’t make it. They agree to wait, if necessary, so his father can attend their wedding. They’ve lost Tali, she wondered out of Tony’s room, eating chocolate after showing him her flower girl dress. Everyone gets around the security footage, except Ziva, who they locate her from almost an hour ago. Tony doesn’t want to worry Ziva, but a room service waiter ruins that by sending Ziva into a panic.
She runs to Tony, where they're setting up for their wedding. He assures her that Tali hasn’t left the property and that they found her on the cameras, but that doesn’t calm Ziva down. When Ziva refers to her as her daughter instead of their daughter, Tony throws it back in her face that Tali was his daughter for four years, and he handled everything.
It’s an immediate mental slap to the face of Ziva. As Tony and Ziva are bickering about Ziva knowing Tony didn’t like that she disappeared all those years ago, Sophie and Claudette show up with Tali. She was picking petals in the garden.
All their struggles stem from Ziva not telling Tony about Tali and then disappearing on them for years. So, when Tony proposed without a ring after Tali’s nightmares, Ziva said yes because she didn’t want to lose them, not again, not ever. They’re all she has. After Ziva confesses she made the biggest mistake of her life, leaving them, Tony admits he doesn’t trust her sometimes because of the pain that still lingers. They come to the sad conclusion that they can’t have a marriage with no trust.
As simple as the ending of their pending marriage may seem, it’s obvious that trust is just as important to them as their love, but it needs to be equal to make it work. Hearing their fears voiced after so many years from when their fears started during their NCIS days crushes me. Their flashbacks show how far they have come four years later in the present day.
Tony’s location breadcrumbs
Ziva and Claudette need to get a lock on Jonah’s location to find Tony, but all they know is that Jonah and Graves are headed for the airport. We know by the end of episode 8 that Ziva was confident they’d find Tony, despite not having access to tracking his phone due to the Expo chaos electronic outage. Her confidence hardly ever steers her wrong. They’ve been a team for 20 years, so she easily locates his online trail and dials the number on the post.
In true Tony fashion, it was a movie reference to them watching Forrest Gump. Tony immediately apologizes for leaving her at the Expo without a word. The trust they have in each other remains as strong as it was during their NCIS days.
Tony followed Jonah and Graves, and still has his eyes on them. They land on the money-winning answer when they discover that Jonah wanted 9.4 to take down Graves, meaning he’s the one who has it. 9.4 is AI that stores history so that it could have the data they didn’t get from the Expo. The plan is to meet up as Tony goes to scope out Graves’ compound in Isla Zafira, Spain.
As Claudette says she’ll book flights under their alias, she mentions that she hopes Boris wasn’t picked up by law enforcement after the Expo, since he wasn’t showing up on any databases. While she’s talking about what she thinks of him, he walks up to greet them, no longer missing. Boris didn’t join his wife on their honeymoon because he knows that as long as Jonah, Martine, and 9.4 are out in the world, they aren’t safe.
Jonah fools Graves
Graves’ compound sits on the top of a cliff overlooking the water, with trees surrounding it. Jonah continues to lie through his teeth that Interpol couldn’t stop the attack on Graves and that Tony and Ziva are known terrorists.
Although Graves seems like a wise man, he’s taking Jonah at his word even though they barely know each other. Jonah’s badge may get him far, but his manipulation of situations seals the deal. Yet, his mask cracks a bit when he sees the grenade that was used to murder his family. It’s sat like a trophy among other famous Reigning Fire weapons in a little patio area at Graves’ compound. Graves wants to take down Tony and Ziva, and he thinks that’s the only plan Jonah has in mind on delivering on. But, from Jonah’s express, his plan to avenge his family isn’t over.
Graves and Jonah take an elevator down to an underground tunnel system area, where his security pats Jonah down before getting into a yellow Reigning Fire Jeep. Despite lying, Jonah passes the security check and enters further into Graves’ compound, where only the security guard can witness if something happens. They enter his surveillance room, where Graves continues questioning Jonah about Tony and Ziva's intentions for him. He pushes forward, saying they must have something against him from the past, or he’d already be taken care of. 9.4 malware has access to any system, which is how “they” gained access to all of this. But, really, the "they" is actually Jonah.
He’s the mastermind behind taking control of Graves’ weapons for revenge against something in his past. In his sneaky way, he gets Jonah to reveal that the system is linked to all of Reigning Fire’s weapons in the world.
They spot Tony on the surveillance screen as the computer announces “security breach.” Tony uses binoculars to spy on Graves’ property. Even though he’s already been caught by the camera, after he sends off a text, he notices the camera, tugs his ballcap down, and walks away.
Tali’s in danger
Before Ziva leaves for Spain, she quickly checks in with Sophie and Tali. The house in Italy was put back on the market, so they snuck out and parked on the side of the road. Ziva tells them to stay with Sophie’s parents in Barbados while she and Tony take care of a few things. Tali is visibly upset and tired of being left behind. She hangs up the FaceTime in a frustrated huff, leaving Sophie and Ziva shocked.
As Tali and Sophie are flying to Barbados to stay with Sophie’s parents, the pilot announces that the weather isn’t clear to land, so they’ll be landing in Isla Zafira. Although that’s where Tali’s parents are, she quickly realizes that this new landing plan could be the bad guys trying to capture her. Sophie walks her through how to stay clear of them and get out of the airport without being taken. But I have a feeling that won’t be as easy as Sophie makes it sound.
Tali walks into the airport with a family, as Sophie instructed her to. As a man starts stalking towards her, Sophie tackles him to the ground, seemingly flying out of thin air. While Tali easily chats with a kid her age, she spots Sophie and another guy spying on them. Sophie takes him down with ease; no one messes with her and the child she’s caring for.
As Sophie is fighting on the ground, a third guy grabs Tali’s wrist, and she screams for her. But the second guy puts up a hefty fight. Tali impressively stomps and elbows the third man, then runs off into a drone trap, where two men take her by surprise. Sophie doesn’t finish with the second guy in time as the drones swarm the airport.
Failure to stay hidden
Ziva receives the text as they’re walking through the airport, but she turns from happy to concerned as she sees two security men coming up the escalators. They run away, and the men follow them. I could argue all day long that we need a Ziva fight scene in every episode, as there have been some in a few, and they never disappoint. She takes out the men with her purse and a soda can. She’s impressive.
Tony’s text says to meet at Duke’s garden, but Ziva’s text about there being CCTV everywhere isn’t going through to him. They are in a blind spot on a heavily monitored island, waiting to be safe to find Tony and take down Graves and Jonah. Boris hacks into the island’s system and multiples their biometric tags, making them harder to track. Claudette discovers that Graves has a tunnel system running under the island.
Someone sends Tony the camera footage from the airport knockdown, claiming to have captured Ziva. We all know she beat those goons up and escaped, but sadly, Tony doesn’t know that. To make matters worse, the team hasn’t shown up to meet him at Duke’s Garden yet when that text comes through. His love for Ziva sends him right back into the lion's den as he hides from drones. By pure dumb luck, he chiseled through a stone wall and walks onto Graves’ compound property.
Martine and Lazar team up
Martine arrives in Isla Zafira and calls Jonah, who’s not surprised by her. She’s disappointed he didn’t share his whole plan of accessing Graves’ server room with her, since they’re still partners. Her support seems as manipulative as he was to her. She has Lazar’s laptop to offer more valuable data to Jonah, so he bites, especially when she confirms Lazar won’t be needing it anymore. Jonah may have double-crossed everyone, but Martine doesn’t let go easily. She's determined to see this mission through, even if it means bribing Jonah.
No word from Tony, Ziva stands on the opposite side of Duke’s Garden from Boris and Claudette. As they’re confirming all their messages to Tony bounce back, Boris sees Martine walk up behind Ziva. She hasn’t done anything to Tony; instead, she was tracking their phones, hoping she’d find them both. She confesses that they were right about Jonah, but I agree with Boris that I don’t trust her.
She reveals Jonah has plans to execute a power grab that will destabilize global military power. Despite everything, she confesses she can’t stop Jonah’s plan on her own and needs Ziva’s help. Although Ziva thinks Martine killed Lazar, she denies it, and her reasonings for trying to kill Graves, who is a sociopath. They find Tony’s location, Ziva turns to leave, and Martine grabs her, begging for help. Ziva clarifies, however, that Jonah has Tony, and he’s her priority, not Martine’s plan to stop Jonah. It’s all very twisty and complicated. I love seeing Ziva go all in for Tony, even if it means ignoring the bad guys’ evil plans. I assume they’ll get both accomplished one way or another.
Confessions and explosions
Tony proceeds to walk into the lion’s den, seemingly unaware of the trap he’s walking into, as the house begins to go into lockdown mode. He turns his flashlight to the camera and speaks directly into it.
We see Graves and Jonah in the control room as Tony calls them out by name, as Graves says he knew Tony would fall for that text. Tony tells Graves to ask his buddy Jonah about his childhood in the Balkans and how he holds Graves responsible for his family.
Before Tony can do any more damage, Jonah shuts off the footage. Jonah removes a chain from his neck that Graves thinks is rubbish. This comment disappoints Jonah as he hands it to Graves to take a closer look, considering his sculpture garden where the grenade is from the Balkans. The chain contains a little bit of shrapnel courtesy of a grenade launched from one of Graves’ Havoc MGLs in the Balkans. He gets right to the point, saying it could be the same one he has in the sculpture garden that murdered Jonah’s family. Graves doesn’t take it well and requests his security guard, Ruben, to remove him.
In a plot twist I didn’t see coming, Ruben isn’t on Graves’ side. Reigning Fire mercenaries killed Ruben’s grandparents as they slept in their house in Bogotá. Yet, Graves doesn’t seem concerned at all; he simply wants to know what they want.
When they tell him they want access to the server room, Graves laughs because it’s never going to happen. Jonah doesn’t want to solve this with money. He finally confesses that 9.4 tearing through Graves’ businesses is his doing, as he slipped it to Ruben during the pat down. It’s already infiltrated the island’s security systems, giving Jonah complete control. To prove he’s in control, he blows up the compound. It’s confirmed by Ziva, Claudette, and Boris driving towards it to find Tony’s last location.
The explosion aftermath
Martine enters the surveillance room as Jonah confirms he was expecting her. Ruben gives her a quick pat down before they walk out of the room, leaving Ruben to watch Graves. Jonah continues to stick to the reassuring act and falsely apologizes for not being more upfront with her while assuming she wouldn’t be on board.
Still, he bases his decision to withhold plans on what he thinks she would do, rather than asking her. His reasoning wins her over, and she hands over Lazar’s laptop, even though she worries he’s becoming a monster as he has to act like one to get what he wants from Graves. He threatens to kill Graves’ family. Martine tries to stop him, but he doesn’t listen to her. She doesn’t want him to kill innocent children, but she shoots Graves in cold blood before running out of the room, leaving Jonah and Ruben no way to access the server room.
Martine FaceTimes Lazar, who’s in the hospital, as she tells him Jonah is precisely who he said he was, Graves is dead, and Jonah thinks Lazar is dead, too. Lazar knew Jonah would love the chance to take his laptop. He tells her that when uploading 9.4 at the expo, he found a flaw that they should be able to manipulate.
Ziva, Claudette, and Boris enter the tunnels under the island in search of Tony. Claudette marks the walk with chalk so they can find their way back. They see him on top of a rumble pile with soot covering his face. He went into the house alone because he thought they had her, and he had to get her back. They confess their love and kiss.
Although he was stupid for almost becoming ashes, there’s no denying she’ll always love his heroic acts for her. Thankfully, they escaped the tunnels in one piece. Sophie’s panicked call interrupts Tony and Ziva’s few seconds of peace while they wait for Claudette and Boris to find them a car. They connect the plane landing to Jonah, using 9.4 to gain control of the island. Before they can go after Jonah, they have to find Tali.
NCIS: Tony and Ziva airs on Paramount+ on Thursdays.