‘NCIS: Tony & Ziva’ Finally Gives Us What We’ve Asked For All Season | Finale Recap

Tony (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva’s (Cote de Pablo) days as fugitives come to an end in the satisfying finale of NCIS: Tony & Ziva. The show erred on the side of caution, leaving practically no loose ends that would demand a second season to answer, though it is not off the table yet. By the end of the penultimate episode, the two are officially hopelessly in love, but their bubble is popped by the news about their daughter Tali (Isla Gie) getting kidnapped by Jonah (Julian Ovenden).

So, at the start of the finale, they strike up a plan to rescue her from the clutches of the revenge-minded man who had taken up the mantle at Aaron Graves’ (Sean Pertwee) compound. His former partner, Martine (Nassima Benchicou), joins Tony and Ziva’s group, and even though they distrust her, they need her insight into Jonah’s plans and mind. The group is divided into pairs, and they all separate to set the plan into action, making up most of the finale.

‘NCIS: Tony & Ziva’s Finale Kicks Off With a Rescue Mission

Tony and Ziva pair up and go directly to the source: Jonah. They arrive at Graves’ compound and are immediately taken in by Jonah, hoping to distract him while the others stage Tali’s breakout. Jonah is busy trying to crack into Graves’ fault, who died in the previous episode, taking the vault’s access code with him. But Tony and Ziva’s part in Jonah’s plan was to take the fall for all his crimes spanning the entire season, from that first Interpol robbery to Henry’s (James D’Arcy) murder.

While they are being held, Boris (Maximilian Osinski) and Claudette (Amita Suman) work in the background to infiltrate 9.4. They go to Dejan’s (Velibor Topić) high-tech lair in the middle of a desert-like part of the island (which is as random as it sounds, but visually appealing), and call Dejan. He tells them that 9.4 has one fatal flaw, much to Boris’ chagrin, since he wrote the code, and that it was vulnerable to hacking. As such, they worked on hacking the device and installing a virus, so when Jonah inserted it into Reigning Fire’s servers to access the military drones, the target would be overridden and replaced with Jonah.

Meanwhile, Martine and Sophie (Lara Rossi) work together to save Tali. Martine knows where she is being held hostage and tricks one of the guards into giving her access to the building. Once they’ve infiltrated the tower and eliminated the security guards, they safely escort Tali out of the building. But when they return to Dejan’s lair to reunite with Boris and Claudette, Jonah’s drones and men also reach the destination, leaving them in trouble again.

Jonah’s Real Plans Are Revealed in the ‘NCIS: Tony & Ziva’ Finale

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When the security guards inform Jonah that Tali has escaped, Tony and Ziva conduct their own successful escape from the compound. They are running through Graves’ gardens when Ziva stops and claims she has to kill Jonah, otherwise the family would never be safe. On the other hand, Tony is fine with living life on the run as long as they are together. As they argue, they wander into Graves’ statue garden, which has a meditation throne that faces an array of art installations made from mementos of Reigning Fire’s previous weaponry and attacks — as if Graves could not get more repulsively despicable.

I’m not sure if the next part is convoluted or clever, but the couple suddenly realizes that the number of art installations in each row corresponds with the code for Graves’ vault. Either way, they are on the same page and decide to use the code to return to and manipulate Jonah. Just as they are about to unlock the vault under Jonah’s watchful eye, his guards return with Martine, Claudette, and Sophie, whom they had captured at Dejan’s lair. Tali and Boris managed to escape via the underground tunnels that honeycombed the island and were heading towards the compound upon Tali’s insistence to save her parents.

When the code works, the vault opens up to an impressive server room that provides access to all of Reigning Fire’s drones. Finally, Jonah reveals his grand plan to dominate every warlord in the world using Reigning Fire’s weaponry. Idealistically, it sounds like a noble goal, but Martine points out the fatal flaw. In doing so, Jonah would become a warlord and inevitably do what Graves did to him, starting the cycle over again. It wasn’t a fix, simply another gear in human history. But Jonah ignores her and proceeds with his plan.

‘NCIS: Tony & Ziva’s True Villain Is Taken Down in the Finale

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Jonah is briefly interrupted when the cameras pick up Tali and Boris in the tunnels, so he sends his goons after them. Then, when he inserts 9.4 into the servers, he is met with the nasty surprise Claudette and Boris cooked up for him using the virus. Suddenly, a wave of drones arrives with him as the target. Jonah flees into the tunnels, with Tony and Ziva hot on his heels, while Claudette and Sophie fight against one of his goons, trying to prevent him from taking out 9.4. Funnily enough, Jonah takes the jeep that Tali was hiding in, leading to a frantic car chase throughout the tunnels.

Boris manages to enter the server room and, amid the chaos, informs them that 9,4 needs to be taken out, lest Tali and Tony become collateral damage. Just in the nick of time, they managed to incapacitate the goon and take out 9.4, timing it perfectly, so Jonah was cornered and could be arrested (well, after Tali gave him a quick beating). The espionage storyline wraps up perhaps a tad too neatly as Boris decides to destroy 9.4, and Jonah is succinctly taken away at gunpoint by Martine. Though after everything Tony and Ziva have gone through, maybe they deserve this happy ending.

‘NCIS: Tony & Ziva’ Finale Ends With Hope For the Future

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After all the chaos in the Tony & Ziva finale, we get a heart-warming collection of scenes to give us hope for everyone’s future — almost. Tony and Ziva are relieved to find out Tali is resilient and strong enough to bounce back through a child psychologist. Martine is promoted to the new Secretary General of Interpol after faking her report about going on an undercover mission to expose Jonah’s crimes. Dejan is reunited with his estranged son in a teary scene. And Jonah meets his permanent demise through suicide in prison, though Martine’s reaction to the news strongly suggests she was behind it.

Boris also receives some disheartening news; his fiancée, Fruzsi (Anne-Marie Waldeck), had run away after stealing all his money and assets, which she gained access to via their marriage. We knew she would be a wild card in the series, but the fact that her name and accent weren’t even real is shocking — are we mad at her for betraying Boris, or is she kind of iconic? But Tony alleviates some of Boris’ worries by offering him a job at their now-running security company.

Finally, we return to the series’ close-knit family and romance. Tony and Ziva tell Tali that they are dating again, and Tali takes the roundabout, Tony-inspired approach to warn them to take it slow and be sure about it this time, stealing the words right out of our mouths. Afterward, Ziva gives Tony a homecoming present, a framed picture of Henry and Tali. It’s a sweet, heartfelt moment that turns into an even more saccharine montage of all the Tiva highlights in the spin-off. Yet, a toothache is exactly what we needed to end this season.