‘NCIS’: Cote de Pablo’s Ziva Exits Series for Second Time, and Fans Are in Tears

NCIS fans are reeling from the series exit of Ziva Davis, a fan-favorite character played by Cote de Pablo. Tuesday night’s episode seemed to indicate a permanent goodbye for Ziva, and fans are mourning already. Here is what social media is saying about Ziva after Tuesday’s episode.

Warning! Spoilers ahead for NCIS Season 17, Episode 11: “In the Wind.”

Tuesday night marked the midseason premiere of NCIS, and it found the team frantically searching for a young boy on the run. Gibbs (Mark Harmon) takes the search personally, and Ziva sympathizes with him, joinig in.

Along the way, Ziva confronts her own PTSD from years of hiding, fearing that she will never outrun it and it will always impact her relationships, particularly with her former partner, Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) and their daughter, Tali.

“I can’t help but wonder if the living will have me back,” she said.

In the end, Ziva helps find the boy and then says goodbye to the entire team, including one melodramatic farewell to Gibbs. There was only a vague hint that she was going to reunite with Tony and Tali. To many fans, it read as a permanent farewell to the character, and they were heartbroken that there was no on-screen reunion for the broken family.

“I’m GLAD Ziva’s in a better place. I’m HAPPY that she’s finally on her way back to Tony and Tali,” one fan tweeted. “The reason I’m pissed is because they set it up for him to show up out of the blue perfectly, THEY EVEN HAD THEIR THEME AND THE ELEVATOR DING… and it amounted to nothing.”

“I had low expectations so part of me is not surprised, but I don’t understand how people who have loved/fought for Tony and Ziva for all this years can sit here and be content with no real closure or onscreen reunion,” added another. “We as fans and they as characters deserved better I’m sorry.”

Some fans acknowledged that the reunion may not have been possible due to logistical production constraints, but even this knowledge did not make them happier. They noted that Weatherly is currently starring in Bull and figured that he should still be reachable since he is on another CBS show.

“They managed to bring Ziva back from the dead but they couldn’t bring Michael over from the Bull set huh,” one person wrote, adding a GIF that said: “Everything is garbage.”

For those that don’t recall, all of this drama has been building for years on NCIS, going back to Ziva’s first exit from the series in Season 11. At the time, she was presumed dead, so getting her back this year was like whiplash for some fans. They learned that she has been in hiding from criminals for her own protection, and only with the help of NCIS could she get to a point where she could live a normal life again. While they were glad she got it, many were sad that they will not see it for themselves.

NCIS airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m ET on CBS.