The Ziva David captivity storyline refers to a series of episodes from the American police procedural NCIS, surrounding the imprisonment of protagonist Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) in a Somali terrorist training camp and its aftermath. Originally created by then-executive producer Shane Brennan, the story arc first aired in 2009 during the sixth season of the show and continued into the seventh season. Episodes followed the events that originally led to Ziva being taken hostage by an Islamic terrorist and the later effects of the event: her relationship with Michael Rivkin, the collapse of her relationship with Tony DiNozzo, Rivkin's death at the hands of Tony and the loss of trust between Ziva and the NCIS team as a result, her leaving NCIS to rejoin Mossad, her captivity and eventual rescue, and the ramifications of the abuse she suffered.
Elements of prisoner abuse and torture were used for the storyline, though most of the violence perpetrated against the character takes place off screen; producers avoided depicting explicit torture scenes like those commonly associated with the TV series 24.
The portrayal of Ziva's divided loyalties to the United States and Israel during this period attracted attention from several Jewish critics and columnists, who discussed its implications. Specifically, the actions of Ziva's father, Eli David (Michael Nouri), drew widespread debate, and his seeming nonchalant attitude towards his daughter's abuse garnered much criticism for the character. Within the series, it led to her decision to resign from Mossad and apply to become an NCIS agent and an American citizen.
Background The character of Ziva David was introduced by series creator Donald P. Bellisario in 2005 during the third season of NCIS, which follows a team of government agents who work for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Chilean-American actress Cote de Pablo was cast to portray the character, who underwent a number of revisions before ultimately being scripted as an Israeli Mossad officer assigned as a liaison to the NCIS team. She is portrayed as having a vibrant personality despite her background as an assassin and being "an extremely skilled interrogator, nearly impossible to break".
Initially rejected by most of the other characters, she is eventually accepted as a member of the NCIS team and as a surrogate daughter figure to team leader Gibbs (Mark Harmon). She also serves as a foil for Special Agent Tony DiNozzo, a former Baltimore homicide cop and "wannabe playboy" played by Michael Weatherly. From early in Ziva's time on the show producers began to toy with the idea of pairing them romantically, but continued to place a number of obstacles in their way (namely difficult circumstances and other love interests).
Ziva's upbringing is alluded in her first few seasons. She is depicted as having a somewhat troubled background with a difficult family history. Her younger sister was killed in a terrorist attack against Israel, and her half-brother Ari Haswari became a Hamas terrorist; she eventually kills him onscreen to prevent him from killing Gibbs.
Shane Brennan replaced Bellisario as executive producer in 2007, and in the sixth-season premiere, he simultaneously introduced Ziva's father, Mossad Director Eli David (Michael Nouri), and Mossad Officer Michael Rivkin (Merik Tadros). Their appearances catalyzed the events that lead to Ziva being taken hostage later in the season.
Development
NCIS writers introduced Merik Tadros' character, Mossad Officer Michael Rivkin, as a potential love interest for Ziva in the sixth-season premiere, "Last Man Standing". After initial trepidation over how to move forward with the character, and an aborted idea of revising him as a relative of Ziva, executive producer Shane Brennan decided to script what he considered to be a love triangle between Ziva, Tony, and Rivkin for the latter half of the season. The story arc, which was planned to end in a "tragic" fashion, was set to cover the last four episodes of the year.
Brennan began the arc by writing the two-part episode "Legend" which served as a backdoor pilot episode for the spin-off series, "NCIS: Los Angeles" featuring the hunt for a terrorist; when Special Agents Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) fly to Los Angeles to work with the NCIS Office of Special Projects — Los Angeles team to solve the murder of a marine, they discover that the killing is linked to members of a sleeper cell. Rivkin becomes involved and, rather than working with NCIS to apprehend the terrorists, kills the suspects, frustrating the other agents.
Back in Washington D.C., Tony starts to question Ziva's loyalty when she defends Rivkin's actions. In a confrontation between the two over Ziva's reluctance to tell Gibbs about her connection to Rivkin, Ziva asks if Tony's suspicions of Rivkin are fuelled by jealousy. It is made evident that Ziva is in a romantic relationship with Rivkin in the closing moments of Part II as the two are seen in bed together.
The nature of Ziva's romance with Rivkin became a subject of debate among viewers, and some speculated that it could have been arranged by her father against her will. Tadros opined that "Rivkin loves Ziva" regardless of the circumstances and acted accordingly from that perspective. Despite this, the relationship becomes more ambiguous in the last two episodes of the season as a security breach at the SECNAV's residence leads to the death of an ICE agent and evidence points to Rivkin. After going to Ziva's apartment to speak to her Tony ends up confronting a drunken Rivkin, resulting in a vicious brawl between them that culminates with Tony being forced to shoot Rivkin in self-defense when Rivkin attempts to stab Tony with a piece of glass. Despite Ziva's efforts, Rivkin ultimately succumbs to his wounds and dies.
The killing, and the ensuing events, generated some controversy among viewers. On screen, it causes a rift between Tony and Ziva, as well as a violent confrontation between the two in the season finale. Cote de Pablo described Tony's actions as "almost unforgivable" from her character's perspective despite their being in self-defense and stated, "I think sometimes when people make mistakes, they can be impulsive and judge someone on one particular thing. Ziva isn't overreacting—Tony did kill someone who was a big part of her life—but, at the time, she couldn't see clearly."
NCIS Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) agrees to a request from Eli and brings the involved parties to Israel. Eli interrogates Tony and accuses him of killing Rivkin out of jealously, a motivation that Michael Weatherly voiced to have been plausible. Tony, in turn, accuses him of ordering Rivkin to seduce Ziva in order to keep an eye on her, which he does not deny. Eli confronts Ziva about her divided loyalties between NCIS and Mossad, and after telling Gibbs that she no longer trusts Tony and feels unable to work with him, Ziva stays in Israel and returns to the Mossad as a full-time operative. She takes Rivkin's place on the Kidon Unit, embarking a mission to assassinate Saleem Ulman (Omid Abtahi), the leader of a terrorist training camp in Somalia. With Ziva back at Mossad, her position at NCIS is terminated and the Major Case Response Team is reduced to three active members: Gibbs, DiNozzo and McGee. Gibbs confronts Vance about the turn of events, insisting that he still trusts Ziva because of her choice to save him by killing her brother four years earlier. In response, Vance claims that she had only done so because her father had ordered to. The final moments of the episode show her to have been taken hostage and tortured by Saleem.
The search and rescue of Ziva was written into the seventh season premiere, but rather than show her in captivity, the writers decided to script the episode from Tony's point of view. This allowed them to shock the audience by opening the episode with Tony strapped to the interrogation chair, rather than Ziva, as well as keep viewers wondering about Ziva's fate. Brennan relayed, "You'll think you know what's going on, but then you'll go, 'Am I seeing things? What just happened?'" Within the episode, Tony, under the influence of truth serum, recounts to Saleem the events that occurred during the four months since Ziva's disappearance: the team at first attempted to replace Ziva without success. After becoming concerned about her continued lack of communication, they hacked into Mossad's database and learned that she had been put on the assignment to find and kill Saleem. Gibbs then informed them that the Damocles, the ship the Mossad team had taken, had sunk in a storm and that there were no survivors. Tony subsequently became despondent for some time until deciding that they needed to avenge Ziva's death by killing Saleem. This led to him and McGee intentionally being taken captive and interrogated upon locating the camp through the shipment of the fictional drink, "Caf-Pow!". In present day, he concludes that Ziva is "not replaceable".
An infuriated Saleem demands the locations and identities of all other NCIS operatives in the area, threatening to execute a hostage if they refuse to cooperate. To Tony's shock and relief, Saleem brings a bound Ziva into the cell, who is very much alive. Tension is still evident between Tony and Ziva after the events of their last meeting, even as Tony informs Ziva that he "couldn't live without her" (something that is later confirmed to have been reciprocated when Ziva's diaries are discovered in Season 16 episode 'She'). Tony tells a despondent Ziva that they have an escape plan, and Gibbs kills Saleem before he can harm either captive. The camp is then raided by Navy SEALs. In the closing moments of the episode, Ziva returns to NCIS with the team and is welcomed back in the office as Tony stares at her from across the room.
Subsequent episodes center on her recovery and integration back into the team. The other characters are at first uncertain of her allegiances, and Ziva herself suffers from the trauma of what was done to her during captivity. "Things are different for her with everyone," de Pablo explained. "When she returns, her loyalty is questioned - but, in this season, it will become very clear that she sees NCIS as her family and that her loyalty is really with this family, as opposed to her blood family in Israel."
McGee is perhaps the most welcoming of Ziva's return to the team, though he seems sceptical of Ziva's insistence that the past is behind her as she continually avoids speaking to Tony. She has a more difficult reunion with Abby, who (while happy to see Ziva) confronts her angrily about the breakdown of hers and Tony's relationship that led to her leaving NCIS and the accusations Tony faced about his motivations for killing Rivkin. After several awkward encounters, Ziva and Tony finally have a heart-to-heart in the men's bathroom where Ziva apologises for questioning his motives and thanks him for saving her life and the two tentatively repair their relationship. When confronted by Gibbs, Ziva assures him that she had in fact killed Ari to save his life. However, Gibbs continues to distance himself emotionally from her.
Producers used the storyline as an opportunity for Ziva to resign from Mossad and apply to become a full-time NCIS agent and American citizen.