'NCIS' Season 17 fall finale establishes 'Tony never stopped looking for Ziva' and fans can't keep calm
This article contains spoilers for Season 17 Episode 10 'The North Pole'
On tonight's fall finale of NCIS' Season 17, we get the epic Ziva return we have been aching for, ever since Cote De Pablo made her exciting return to the franchise after almost five years. And of course, like Ziva's return, there was ample mention of Tony and Tali. Though there wasn' the Tiva reunion we were praying for, the finale episode titled 'The North Pole' did manage to tug at our heartstrings when Ziva said Tony never stopped looking for her when she was 'missing in action' (MIA) and assumed dead for good.
As the official synopsis of the episode revealed, we saw “Gibbs and the team assist Ziva with “the one thing” she said she would need to take care of before returning to her family.” It was rescuing Adam, but soon it ended up becoming a mission to hunt down the real Sahar, who was still alive somehow.
A must-watch night of TV; starting with Ziva's epic return to #NCIS at 8/7c on CBS. pic.twitter.com/wFYfXhTEJm
— CBS (@CBS) December 17, 2019
In the process of all of this, as Ziva has her second reunion with Gibbs this season, we came super close to getting the bi reunion with Tony that fans have looked forward to, for about four years now. Ziva has only mentioned Tony and their daughter Tali on this season so far, with flashbacks of the two thrown in sparingly. We did get a flashback of her seeing Tali for the last time before she had to go MIA, but the most heartwarming revelation in all of this was finding out that Tony knew she was alive. In that, he too had assumed she was probably gon for good, but that didn't stop him from looking for her to the best of his ability and if that's not classic Tiva, then what is!
True, the reunion wasn't gifted this time; not yet. But as fans wait for the show to return from its mid-season hiatus in 2020, most of them are taking comfort in knowing that things are mostly positive on the Tiva arc. Taking to Twitter, emotional fans shared: "Would it be cool if y’all maybe... like... brought Tony down to maybe like... come see Ziva... please?"
Another one found solace in something else, as they exclaimed: "I know it's not going to happen but I just want a Tony and Ziva reunion on ncis to happen already."
Criticism poured in, too, for the reunion that was teased but ultimately denied to fans in the fall finale.
"Great, just nothing but awesome tonight, how much I wish Ziva and Tony would come back in differently," shared a fan, while another tweeted: "Ugh we need tony and ziva happy ever after!!!! Please for the love of everything PLEASE give us tony and ziva happy ever after!!!!"
But Tony and Ziva isn't the only reunion we're looking forward too, as a fan rightly claimed: "After seeing the separation, I’m so ready for the Ziva-Tali reunion now! I need that to heal my broken heart from that scene."