The news of the cancellation of NCIS: Tony & Ziva wasn’t wholly surprising, even if it was very sad. Fans of NCIS had been waiting for these two characters to get closure for over two decades. I kid you not, Tony and Ziva’s first meeting on screen aired in 2005. It is now 2025. And in NCIS: Tony & Ziva, they got their happy ending.
And the thing about the show is that it never felt like it was too little, too late. It never felt like the show was just checking boxes—even while they delivered the kind of closure fans had been dreaming about for way too long. Happily ever after isn’t just handed to Tony and Ziva; they work for it, and they earn it. That is a gift not all fans (or shippers) get.
The actors involved recognized what it meant to return to bring this story to a satisfying conclusion, and the passion of fans that made it possible.
But the fact that Season 1 gave us both a Ziva who put in the work to become the kind of mother and kind of partner Tony and Tali deserved, and a Tony that finally shed his walls and allowed himself to be honest and vulnerable, means that even if this feels like the perfect ending, we didn’t want it to be the end. We wanted more. There were so many more stories to tell. I know, John McNamara told me so before the show’s finale!
Alas, it is not to be. And that part is bittersweet. Because yes, we loved what we got. We wouldn’t trade it for the world. That final shot of the characters will be something we’ll forever cherish, especially considering how long we had to wait for it. But it didn’t have to be the end of their story on screen.
Does that mean we won’t see them ever again? Who knows? The mothership is still chugging along, and if NCIS: Origins brought back Gibbs recently, and NCIS brought back Ellie Bishop, I think it’s important to never say never. But for now, the goodbye, as sad as it is, feels much better than it did when Ziva and then Tony first left us.
Cote de Pablo said it best when she posted, “May Tony and Ziva walk into their forever. Thank you all for your love and support.”
Enjoy your happily ever after, Tony and Ziva. And, if you want to pay a visit to the mothership at some point, we won’t say no.
Not completely surprised, the show always had a limited series feel to it, where would it go in another Season without potentially changing everything good about the first? And IMO, the writing just wasn’t that great, and if anything, the spy feel to it just made me miss Hetty more then I already do.
The number 1 thing to know about this franchise is, there’s ALWAYS a chance for someone to return! As long as the main show keeps running, and as long as CBS keeps finding ways to expand the franchise, there will always be a chance somewhere for a return! And with these 2, the options are definitely out there!
This ain’t the last we’ve seen of them, I feel. It’s just a ‘so long for now’. (which ironically, was the same I felt after LA’s final episode. And we definitely haven’t stopped receiving updates on that show!)