NCIS: Tony & Ziva Episode 4 Review: The Best From The Spinoff So Far

After NCIS: Tony & Ziva episode 4, I’m fully convinced of the importance of Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo’s spinoff. The NCIS franchise’s latest installment reunites its most famous couple away from the Major Care Response Team. In their new offshoot, they’re raising their daughter, Tali, in Paris, when a major crisis hit Tony’s security firm.

During the last couple of years, there has been a shift in the CBS institution. Instead of launching branches of the agency, it has started giving specific characters their own offshoots. It started with NCIS: Origins‘ story, which tackles Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ earliest years in the NIS. Now, Tony & Ziva get their time under the spotlight.

In NCIS: Tony & Ziva premiere, it’s established that the pair is not together as a couple. Despite that, they’re co-parenting Tali. Things are going as smooth as possible for the family of three, until their lives are put in danger when Tony is framed for a crime that he didn’t commit.

NCIS: Tony & Ziva’s Flashback Scenes Are Finally Justified In Episode 4

The first 3 episodes of NCIS: Tony & Ziva laid out the show’s premise effectively, all while the show figures out a way to best tell its story. With all the world-building done, NCIS: Tony & Ziva episode 4 is able to move its narrative forward — both in terms of the pair’s personal relationship and what’s going on in their lives.

Admittedly, I wasn’t the biggest fan of NCIS: Tony & Ziva going back-and-forth in time during its 3-episode premiere. The number of times we went back in time distracted in establishing what’s going on in the present time, which I thought was more interesting. Still, I understood what the Paramount+ series was going for.

By episode 4, I’m convinced that this is the best way to tell NCIS: Tony & Ziva‘s story. Breaking up the couple is a bold move to start a spinoff that promises to deliver on their long-awaited romantic pay-off. Because the flashbacks not only gradually reveal the reason for their split, but also how much they’ve tried to make things work.

Tony and Ziva weren’t an outwardly romantic couple in NCIS. They flirted through banter and revealed their feelings via secret looks and off-screen meetings. Seeing them being openly in love with each other in NCIS: Tony & Ziva‘s flashback scenes feels like an organic extension of their days in Israel — only this time, Tali is in the mix.

NCIS: Tony & Ziva Episode 4 Is The Best Outing In The Spinoff Thus Far

NCIS: TONY & ZIVA, from left: Michael Weatherly, Max Osinski, Cote de Pablo, ‘No Country is Safe’, (Season 1, ep. 101, aired Sept. 4, 2025). photo: Marcell Piti / ©Paramount+/CBS Studios / Courtesy Everett Collection

Impressively, NCIS: Tony & Ziva episode 4 has also made its current crisis compelling — even beyond how it impacts its titular characters. Roping Boris and Fruzsi into the drama allows the series to subtly keep the romance alive in the present day, even though Tony and Ziva are not even remotely interested in being together — not because they don’t love each other.

Now, Boris and Fruzsi force Tali’s parents to re-evaluate their relationship and their feelings for each other, as they watch their counterparts fight for the chance to be together. It makes Tony and Ziva’s way back to each other more layered and interesting — something that has already been confirmed will happen in NCIS: Tony & Ziva. It’s just a matter of when it actually goes down.

While I still want to see NCIS: Tony & Ziva to be tied to NCIS season 23 at some point, episode 4 convinces me that the show will be fine without any cameo from their Navy Yard allies. Tim McGee getting somehow involved will be a treat, but as the spinoff now stands on solid ground, there’s no doubt that Weatherly and de Pablo are able to carry the show on their own until the end.