For all of our criticism of the NCIS show producers, they did right by Michael Weatherly in the show they wrote for his final appearance. Very well done. Finally the producers have admitted the power of the faithful fans of Cote de Pablo. If anything overshadowed Michael Weatherly’s departing episode, it was the dominance of a character that has not been on the set since Season 11, Episode 2 (Past, Present, and Future).
Michael Weatherly’s loss to the NCIS family will be felt in Season 14, especially after his powerful portrayal that had him rising from the ashes of despair. Tony’s grief morphed into extreme anger after receiving terrible news that Ziva was killed in Israel. In a jaw-dropping twist, Tony grows into a loving and concerned father to the daughter he never knew Ziva had after she returned to Israel.
Past clips of Ziva’s good-bye to Tony, and other scenes with her make it hard to believe so much time as elapsed since Cote left the show. Every character had their moment to send Tony off with love, including his TV father Robert Wagner. And so let us take this moment to say our good-byes Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. We could say much about the investigation to catch Kort, and how great it was to see Fornell being revived.
After such an emotional show, which Michael described as a “powder keg”, we choose to sign off this critique with our desire for each one of us to tell someone we care about that we love them. That’s our takeaway from the final episode. Tony lived for years without knowing Ziva loved him. Okay, we get it that these are TV characters. The point is, they have become family to many viewers. Let’s learn from their mistakes and foibles.
We always knew one day Tony would become Leroy Jethro Gibbs andtonight he has. Gibbs has always been the father to the team and now Tony is a father to his daughter. With the four agents remaining, Gibbs called them all together to “grab their gear”. They will all be back in the fall, we think.
Be Blessed, Diane and David Munson
I would have never guessed this direction the finale was going to go, nor how they were going to pull Very Special agent Tony DiNozzo off the show. But it was very well done, happy, sad and heart warming. Thanks Michael and thanks NCIS!
I started watching NCIS in season one because I liked the action without the mass killings and gruesomeness of so many current shows. The last season or two the show has become a bit of a ‘Hallmark Channel’ type of entertainment with too much personal lives involvement and little actual action. I can get that on many other shows/channels that I choose not to watch. I would like to see NCIS return to the type of show it was in the first years of it’s existence. Maybe next year with a new team member?
Very nice wrap up the Tony / Ziva relationship. I’m not sure I want to see Weatherly’s new show (sorry, not a fan of Dr. Phil). But at least Tony went out maturely instead of like the adolescent they’d been writing him as for the last couple of years.
Certainly a different turn than I expected. Then they left open a tiny door that she may not be dead, there was no body found. Why was Tony going to Israel to check things out then france because Ziva was fond of the place. Was there an agreement to meet there if something happened? Looks like they left open some openings for guest appearances. It was a nice send off for sure.
I’m sorry to say I will most likely not be watching Michaels new show. I just can’t see him in a comedy. All CBS comedy’s tend to fall off the liberal deep end.
https://twitter.com/M_Weatherly/status/732743706781028352/photo/1
There are a couple pictures of Cote and Michael watching the final episode together at the link.
John. Thanks for sharing this link with the rest of us. Nice to see Michael and Cote together.