Ziva David

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Officer Ziva David (pronounced "da-veed") is a fictional character in the TV series NCIS played by Cote de Pablo. The character joined the series at the start of its third season in the fall of 2005.

[edit] Character

A Jew and an Israeli citizen, Ziva is a Mossad agent assigned to the NCIS following the murder of Special Agent Caitlin Todd by a rogue Mossad operative named Ari Haswari. It is revealed in the first episode of season 3 that Ziva is Ari's control officer. Lead NCIS agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs does not agree with the assignment at first but comes to accept Ziva as one of his team. Soon after her assignment to NCIS, she kills Haswari in order to save Gibbs' life; it is revealed afterwards that she is Ari's half-sister and Gibbs falsifies his report to indicate that he, not Ziva, killed Ari. In the first episode of season 4 the team talk openly about Ziva being Ari's half-sister, which means that Jenny, Gibbs and Ziva are not the only ones that know. It remains to be seen whether it is only Gibbs and Ziva who know the truth about Ari's death.

Ziva's father is the Director of Mossad (in season three, he was the deputy director, but has apparently been promoted to full director). She is an expert marksman and carries two firearms and a knife at all times. She is seen as a type of an assassin by Timothy McGee. In fact, Ziva was trained as an assassin by the Mossad; however, it is not clear whether she ever operated in this capacity (despite her allusions to the contrary). She is not adverse to using deadly force, often threatening same during interrogations (leading to at least one incident in which she is accused of killing a suspect in custody). She frequently brags of her abilities as a Mossad agent (such as rappelling down a cliff without safety ropes, and swimming three miles in freezing water at night.) She particularly taunts Anthony DiNozzo in much the same way Caitlin Todd did before she was killed (and some parts of Ziva's personality disturb him, like the fact that she sleeps with a gun in her hand). As a result, Ziva being of a higher rank than Tony, their relationship mimics that of a cat and mouse with an unspoken attraction between them. On several occasions Tony has indicated he finds Ziva physically attractive. In McGee's novel Deep Six he writes that Ziva has feelings for Tony. In Season 4's episode Driven Ziva licks Tony's neck during a sexual harassment program. Though this was only meant for fun it is an inication of their close friendship.

When Ziva first comes to NCIS she believes that resident lab tech Abby does not like her, and is partially correct in this assumption. However, Abby comes to accept Ziva as one of the team. Nonetheless, when Gibbs is critically injured in the third season episode "Hiatus", Ziva and Abby come to blows when Abby accuses Ziva of not caring about Gibbs' condition; afterwards, Ziva is shown regretting her apparent inability to show the same level of concern as the others. In the following episode it's revealed that Ziva has harbored regret at having killed her half-brother when she experiences an emotional breakdown while trying to help restore Gibbs' memory (her breakdown actually assists Gibbs in regaining it). In season 4 though Ziva and Abby seem to have become close. Ziva chooses to confide in Abby often.

Ziva has a close relationship with Dr Donald Mallard the NCIS ME. She is shown confiding into him over a cup of coffee and he offers her comfort when she needs it. Ziva is particularly close to NCIS Director Jenny Shepard, with whom she has worked in the past. Ziva worked with Director Shepard since 2001 in Israel on Anti-Terrorist operatives (first episode of season 3), and on numerous occasions has been shown confiding in Shepard, particularly if she is upset by one of Gibbs' tactics. In the first episode of season 4 Jenny mentions that she and Ziva travelled together around Eastern Europe.

One ongoing idiosyncrasy Ziva possesses is her tendency to misuse English idioms, much to the amusement of her teammates. Those malapropisms are sometimes referred to as Ziva-isms by fans of the TV series. Occasionally Ziva will get an idiom correct, much to her satisfaction (though on at least one occasion DiNozzo has teased her by making her think she'd gotten it wrong).

In the first episode of the 2006-2007 season Ziva learns that Mossad, apparently on her father's orders, has been conducting surveillance on her for several months; the surveillance reveals that Tony has been visiting her at her apartment on an almost nightly basis, leading to suggestions that the two have become intimate. She does not confirm nor deny the implication in the episode and it remains to be seen whether the surveillance portrays the actual circumstances of the visits. The third episode of the season sees Ziva questioning Tony about an unidentified girlfriend, suggesting the surveillance might have been inaccurate; subsequent episodes have established that Tony is building a relationship with a medical student and no apparent romantic link exists between him and Ziva; nonetheless it was suggested in several episodes that Ziva might be jealous until the episode "Driven" revealed that Ziva was in fact unaware of Tony's romance, and has been misreading some of his secrecy. Due to Tony's frequent clandestine visits to a hospital (where his girlfriend works) and his claim that he's undergoing tests, Ziva indicates to Gibbs that she is worried that he might be having a medical problem related to his exposure to a plague-like virus in the second season episode "SWAK".

[edit] Trivia

• Ziva speaks at least 5 languages fluently: Arabic, English, Hebrew, Spanish, and Turkish. She's also able to speak basic French, German, Italian, and Russian.
• Her younger sister, Tali, was killed in a Hamas suicide bombing. Ziva was already a Mossad operative at the time. However Ziva's exact words were "I was Mossad long before that." This could be an allusion to the fact that Ziva had always known she was going to join Mossad as her father was the Deputy Director. In other words, the death of Tali wasn't what prompted her to join Mossad, as she had made that decision a long time ago.
• The name Ziva means splendour in Hebrew.
• Ziva keeps Kosher. This is known because in season 3 when McGee buys the team dinner, Tony tells her not to worry because the food is Kosher.
• In McGee's Fiction novel Deep Six, the continuing adventures of L.J. Tibbs, Ziva is 'Lisa, the sultry and emotionally distant Mossad officer'.

NCIS
Main Page | Episode List | Official website Naval Criminal Investigative Service
Current Characters
Leroy Gibbs | Tony DiNozzo | Ziva David | Timothy McGee | Abby Sciuto | Ducky Mallard | Jenny Shepard
Former Characters
Caitlin Todd | Ari Haswari | Chip Sterling