There’s a carousel, like the ones you see at a fairground, in vibrant red and vibrant yellow, with intricate designs carved into every curve, with bright lights constantly beaming, where the horses jump from floor to ceiling, bound by the metal ropes, that hold them to the floor.
They can only go so far.
You ride the carousel, spinning faster and faster and faster and faster, your knuckles white as you hold on desperately, gripping for dear life, but you never slow down.
Yes! That’s right – you heard me! Tony and Ziva are getting their own spinoff and I am practically vibrating with excitement! I know that if you’re reading this, the news has been out for a while – almost two months, but truthfully, it has taken me this long to process it; to gather my words into coherent sentences to explain exactly how I feel about this… and even then, I feel like the words that I write here cannot do justice to how overwhelmingly elated I am.
If you read my post back in January about my preliminary thoughts on NCIS: Origins, you’ll know that I have been a long time lover of the mothership for almost as long as it has been airing. For a large portion of my adolescence and teens, it was my favourite show, and I would sit down religiously every single week to witness my favourite crime-fighting, ass-kicking team in action. That was, until, the departure of Ziva David (Cote De Pablo), in season 11.
When Cote left NCIS, I was heartbroken. I had never been so deeply devastated by something before in my entire life, and I can only describe the depth of the despair and sadness I felt as something akin to grief. It’s hard when you build a sentimental and emotional attachment to a character, to have them suddenly ripped from your grasp, because it genuinely feels as though you’re saying goodbye to a friend or family member for the last time. You invite these characters into your homes for years, and the moment they are not there anymore, you certainly notice their absence. And this was the hardest television goodbye I had ever had to go through.
But, it wasn’t just Ziva David I was saying goodbye to. It also meant saying a very heavy farewell to the ‘ship’ called “Tiva” [Tony + Ziva]. If you’ve been a long-time fan of NCIS, then you’re probably very familiar with this duo and their magnetic energy, the sexual tension, longing looks from across the bullpen, jealousy, fights, and the two of them constantly teetering on the line of being just friends and something more. It’s a ship that I hopped on board with before I even knew that the term ‘shipping’ meant, and it’s one that I sailed, through hell and high water, for almost a decade. And the heartbreak of letting them go was equally as devastating.
As fans, all we ever wanted throughout the course of their run on the show together was for Tiva to be together, and by season 10 we were incredibly close to finally having our dreams come true. But, as anybody in the Tiva fandom will tell you: it felt like the writers hated us, and hated this ship. They couldn’t even consider the possibility of the two of them actually being together, and so just as they dangled the carrot, it was brutally ripped from our grasp. We were teased time and time again with these small moments of Tiva being in love but never truly admitting their feelings for one another… and just when we thought they would and the writers would finally allow them to cross that line, they did a complete 180.
[Note: The writers have claimed in the past that if Cote had stayed, Tiva would have happened eventually and that we ‘were not that far off from having it happen’, but truthfully, as a fandom, we found (and still find) this very hard to believe in. Our trauma and trust issues with these writers run deep.]
Then, of course, our dreams seemed entirely impossible. Because how can these two characters even get together when Ziva is no longer there? They gave us some heartbreakingly beautiful moments in “Past, Present, and Future,” and yet, after having waited eight years for this to happen, it just didn’t feel like enough. There was no true love confession. There was simply a kiss in the poorest lighting, to commemorate this moment.
Skip forward two years later, to the end of season 13. Michael Weatherly is leaving the show. The ‘Tony’ of Tiva was going for good… but of course, being Tiva fans, we held onto the small inch of hope that our dreams could still come true. And in some ways, they did. Tony and Ziva ended up with a daughter, Tali – confirmation that what we had always wanted to happen, happened! But, remember when I said that the writers hated us and hated the ship? Of course they had to add in a big screw you, by killing the character of Ziva (off-screen), to make the event of a reunion between Tony and Ziva virtually impossible. (But even impossible things come true sometimes…)
But still, though it seemed like the ship had sunk to the very bottom of the ocean, we held out the tiny wavering thread of possibility that someday, somehow, it might still happen. We dived deep into the plot holes, pulling apart everything that could possibly signal that they hadn’t completely betrayed us and the character. ‘Ziva loves Paris.’ (Emphasis on the present tense). No body, no crime. And most of all: Ziva would not have been that reckless. (If you’re a Ziva or Tiva fan, you know…)
And while this was somewhat remedied during Ziva’s return arc in season 17 – as it turns out she was in fact alive and in hiding, and not dead like most people had previously believed (everyone except us Tiva fans!), and ended with her reuniting off screen with Tony and Tali in Paris, we just wish there had been so much more. Because knowing is one thing. But seeing it with your own eyes, is another.
This yet-to-be-titled show is all we, as Tiva fans, have ever wanted and more. It has been eleven years since we last saw them on screen together, and we have ached for this moment ever since. Even in January’s post, I mentioned how if I had things my way, Tiva would get a spinoff of their own! (I’m actually sitting here cackling with laughter, because little did I know what was going to be announced just over two months later… am I clairvoyant? Was it my Gibbs’ gut?)
To outsiders, this spinoff may seem unnecessary, or as though we are overly invested in it, but when two characters and their (at times, tragic), love story have been a part of you and shaped your life for nearly two decades, is there any other way to be? The purpose of this spinoff is not about the money. It’s not about being ‘relevant’ (but, for us Tiva fans, they always are…). It’s for the fans who have spent their lives loving and adoring this couple from the moment they appeared on screen, yearning for them to be together. (And the fact that it will be airing on Paramount+ rather than on prime time television also bodes extremely well for us, because of the greater possibilities they now have content-wise… spicy scenes and swearing? Is that on the horizon?!)
It doesn’t matter if others don’t understand how monumental of a moment this is for us. We know.
But, the thing that makes me vibrate with excitement even more than the idea of the spinoff, is the fact that it will be run by the captains of the ship – Michael Weatherly and Cote De Pablo. They are at the helm of the boat, steering Tiva’s journey out of the harbour. And, unlike the mothership writers, we have complete faith and trust in them and in the voyage upon which we are about to embark. They love the characters of Tony and Ziva as much as we do, and we have never been more certain that Tiva’s love story is in safe hands.
Ship: to take an interest in or hope for a romantic relationship between (fictional characters or famous people), whether or not the romance actually exists.
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