"NCIS" Says Goodbye to Tony DiNozzo with Shocking Twist

by Julian Spivey
I shouldn’t be surprised that Ziva David factored into the choice of NCIS Special Agent Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) to leave his position for a new life, but the way in which it all came about is something that was truly surprising. In fact, it was so surprising I’m not completely sure what to think of it.

When it was announced midway through the 13th season that Michael Weatherly would be leaving “NCIS” at the end of the season I knew it would be a moment worth dreading. Weatherly always seemed, to me at least, to be one of two “must-have” characters on the series, along with Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs. It’s understandable that an actor would want to go on to different projects after 13 years of playing a supporting character on one show, even if it’s still the most watched drama on television. And it seems Weatherly has already found his next role as a lead in the recently picked up CBS series “Bull,” in which he will play a character based on Dr. Phil McGraw.

I seem to be the only “NCIS” fan who never really got behind the DiNozzo/Ziva “will-they-or-won’t-they” that ended abruptly a couple of years ago when Cote de Pablo decided to leave the show. I’m certainly not against characters developing a relationship with each other on television shows, but this one never seemed to sit right with me – perhaps because it took so long to develop or just seemed like the easy thing to do.

But, it was clear DiNozzo had a thing for Ziva, even after the character was written out of the show by returning home to Israel. This is why it didn’t come as a surprise that she would factor in his farewell.

At the very end of last week’s penultimate episode, we saw footage of the farmhouse in Tel Aviv in which Ziva was living on fire after a terrorist attack. The finale opens with Tony set to fly to Tel Aviv to get answers before he’s given the horrible news that Ziva died in the attack. Weatherly’s distraught performance in the next scene ended up being one of his best acting performances in his entire run on the series.

One would think that Ziva’s death would be the big surprise from the finale, but what happened next was truly jaw-dropping, and I can’t figure out if it’s really in a good way either.
It turns out that Ziva had a daughter, who conveniently survived the massive fire that killed her mother, and the daughter is, of course, DiNozzo’s offspring. Ziva didn’t want to mess with Tony’s career at NCIS so she never told him about their daughter.

Fans of the show, me included, didn’t want DiNozzo to be killed off in the finale. “NCIS” has already killed off multiple characters in its long run, plus our relationship with DiNozzo was too long and important to the fan-base to have him go out in that tragic manner. Those in charge of the series must have agreed leaving writers searching for ways to write the character out without killing him. This is certainly one way, but it doesn’t necessarily seem right that the two would’ve had a child together and especially the fact that Ziva wouldn’t have told Tony about it. It seemed a little too convenient on the part of the show.

That being said, by the time the finale ended I didn’t really have as big of a problem with it as I did in the moment of the big reveal. Maybe this means it wasn’t such a bad plot point or maybe I just wanted to enjoy Weatherly’s farewell so much that I quickly forgave it.

By the end of the episode our favorite NCIS agents had solved the case that took place during the show’s last four episodes and killed Ziva’s murderer and Tony said his goodbyes to his friends and left to raise his daughter.

Now that one of the show’s original characters is on to his new life it’ll be interesting to see where the show goes from here. Some people decided they could no longer watch the show when de Pablo decided to leave. I think this could be magnified quite a bit with Weatherly’s departure. I’ve been with the show since day one and will stick with it no matter what. I thought the addition of Emily Wickersham’s Ellie Bishop when Ziva left the show was terrific and the show went on without missing a beat. That likely won’t happen as easy with DiNozzo leaving, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

“NCIS” has already introduced us to the two new cast members that will be staying on full time in season 14 next fall. Duane Henry’s MI6 agent Clayton Reeves is already very likable with his wit and all around charm and could make Weatherly’s departure from the show a little less painful. Sarah Clarke’s FBI agent Tess Monroe doesn’t yet seem necessary to the show and will need a little bit of character development early on in season 14 to entice fans to care about her.

Weatherly’s run on “NCIS” was incredibly entertaining and believe it or not the character matured over those 13 seasons maybe more than just about any other television character I’ve ever seen. Tony DiNozzo is definitely going to be missed. 

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