Michael Weatherly’s ‘NCIS’ Return Needs Cote de Pablo, Period

We loved NCIS: Tony & Ziva. Getting the resolution to a love story we saw start on our screens so many years ago was cathartic. And the show was so well done, too. All the characters worked, and of course, the chemistry between Michael Weatherly and Cote De Pablo was still very much there. The show then ended about as happily as it could. And we weren’t happy to see it end, but at least the characters got the ending they deserved.

It just turns out it’s not an ending. And that, well, that has us feeling a tad conflicted; we’re not gonna lie.

That’s right, in a very unsurprising move, NCIS has announced that Michael Weatherly will return to the show for Season 24. We always figured this could be the case, as the show ended in a way that made the return very easy, and CBS & Paramount have continued to have a good relationship with Weatherly, despite the sexual harassment settlement on the set of Bull. The question then became: Is Cote de Pablo also returning? And will we get to see more of Tony and Ziva’s daughter, Tali?

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We now have an answer for that, and it’s not what we wanted to hear.  “He had a private security firm in ‘Tony & Ziva’ called Salus Mondiale,” showrunner Steven D. Binder explains, and now “his daughter has come to the United States and is in boarding school, and he’s opening a satellite office of his private security firm in D.C.” That’s when “he gets word of something happening with NCIS, and he’s interested about it,” and “that’s how his world crosses paths with ours,” showrunner Steven D. Binder told TVLine.

Tony is in D.C. “so he can be closer to his daughter,” he explained, but added that we won’t see Cote de Pablo as Ziva or Isla Gie as Tali this season. “They’re off a couple hours away,” Binder said. “The way we address it is Ziva’s hanging out in the town where her daughter is, doing a little helicopter parenting, and Tony’s helicopter parenting in D.C.”

It’s extremely disappointing because NCIS: Tony & Ziva ended with enough hints at what could be coming next in their story that it would have been really easy to pick that storyline back up and tie it to whatever’s happening on NCIS this season. Not to mention, Tony’s happy ending always has and always will include Ziva. And for us fans who have followed their story since the beginning, the return of Tony, particularly for such a long arc, needed Ziva too.

NCIS showrunner Steven D. Binder told EW about the return: “Having Michael Weatherly back in the NCIS family is one of those things a writer can only dream about,” showrunner Steven D. Binder tells EW. “We’re beyond excited to have him return. Tony DiNozzo has always had a way of changing the temperature of every scene he’s in, and watching the newer members of the team encounter the legend they’ve only heard stories about is exactly as fun as it sounds.”

The magazine also gave us our first look at Tony in the upcoming Season 24 of NCIS.

Weatherly had previously teased his appearance during a fan convention, saying, “I just know that it’s going to be an exciting return,” according to TV Insider. “I have really enjoyed watching what the show has done over the last 10 years since I left, but it’s a different show now. So I’m very much about respecting the show I’m coming into and being aware that they’ve built an extraordinarily successful tenure… but that doesn’t mean that what we did isn’t going to be able to live alongside and inside that show.” 

De Pablo was with him, and she didn’t say anything about possibly returning.

“I can tell you this: There is a definite connection between [‘Tony & Ziva’] and the canon that that created… There’s not going to be retconning of, like, oh, ‘Tony & Ziva’ never happened,” Weatherly promised.

“So it’s not going to be a dream sequence?” de Pablo joked.

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Binder explained how Tony’s storyline follows that of NCIS: Tony & Ziva.

“When we meet Tony this season, he’s back in Washington expanding his private security company, Salus Mondiale, and finds himself drawn into a case that feels right at home in the NCIS universe,” Binder also told EW. “What made his return especially rewarding was exploring how he’s evolved. He’s still the charismatic, quick-witted DiNozzo fans know and love, but now he’s also a parent navigating life with a daughter, which has given him a little more perspective, maturity, and emotional depth.”

The snopsis for the first episode of the season, titled “Wayward Son,” pretty much confirms all of this. It reads: “While dealing with the fallout from the shooting involving McGee’s son, the team investigates a mysterious new threat to the Secretary of the Navy and receives help from an unexpected source: Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), newly arrived in D.C. to open a satellite office of his private security firm.

The problem, of course, is that Weatherly isn’t just coming back for a cameo. He’s coming back for a season-long arc. SEASON-LONG ARC. A short appearance, we would have understood, but we’re going to be honest: a long arc means Ziva is needed. This is where the show went wrong all those years ago, when Ziva was written out before Tony. Then, they needed to course-correct. And yet here we are, again, without Ziva.

And sure, they’re both “close,” but how believable is it that if they’re close, Ziva will never stop by to see the team? Especially McGee? And that’s on top of the fact that, at this point, we just don’t want Tony going on adventures by himself. He’s got a partner, in all the ways that word can be used. It’s Ziva.

So, basically, this is a bittersweet return. Sure, we got our happy ending for Tiva already, but everyone knows that in procedural land, there’s no such thing as an ending. So, we’re greedy. We still want more.

Season 24 of NCIS will air Tuesdays at 8/7C this fall on CBS and will stream on Paramount+.