NCIS S13E24 - Family First
I am positively obsessed with this episode. I watched it with my mother-in-law last night, like I always do. I watched it on my DVR when I got home from her house, and I watched it three times at work today, in addition to watching the clips that ChasingScenes put on YouTube this morning multiple times each.
And after all that, I think I'm finally ready to say something. Okay, several somethings.
1. There's a very real bittersweet joy to having your OTP made canon. The sweetness starts to dominate when one member of that OTP - who has spent the past 10 years denying having feelings for the other - very openly, in a moment of weakness, admits to what he feels. It's even more rewarding/awesome/amazing when every other character on the show also makes it clear that they've known about said OTP all along. Then throw on top of that the boss - the very strict (loosening somewhat lately), rule-making boss who has a specific rule against dating coworkers - is the first one to acknowledge said OTP and imply that he's known about it all along, and ... just ... forget about it.
Truly, when Tony was staring at that screen, and the report of the survivor came on, and he just said, "If that's Ziva, I can't stay here. I have to go," and he was so broken and so vulnerable and so open and honest, it just ... God. That was the first time among many that I realized that Michael Weatherly is fucking amazing. And then to have Gibbs just say, "We know. McGee, get him a plane," and Tim to say, "It's already booked," just ... God.
They knew. I mean, of course Tim knew. How could he have possibly spent 8 years sitting six feet from them and not know. But Gibbs? For him to admit that he knew, and give the implication that he'd not only known for years, but he was perfectly fine with it and just accepted it as the way things are. All those times that I fanwanked and read between the lines, all those times that I imagined in my little fangirl brain that he was giving Tony his blessing to break Rule 12 ... I was right. He was doing that. He was telling Tony to stop screwing around and tell Ziva he loved her.
Fangirl heaven, right? OTP made canon with the other characters' knowledge/blessing? OMG!
2. There's nothing more heartbreaking for a fangirl than to have your OTP made canon at the expense of the life of one of its members (and, incidentally, still your third favorite character even after having been gone from the show for 2 years).
Just like Tony, the report of a survivor gave me hope. For the first few minutes of the episode, I actually thought Tony was going to get his happy ending, Ziva was going to get her peace, and they were going to get each other, like they'd wanted for so long. And then Vance came into the bullpen, and asked Gibbs where Tony was (and mark off the last person who might have been in the dark about their feelings for each other), and then started crying, my heart just shattered. And listening to Tony and Senior talk, and how Tony really thought she was alive, and then Tim and Abby walked in, and immediately ... BOOM! Tony looked down, and he blinked, and when he looked back up, he was completely shattered and he'd aged about ten years in 10 seconds.
Second time I realized that Michael Weatherly is fucking amazing.
3. Random observation: I know it's really none of my business, but Marina Sirtis was absolutely fucking gorgeous. The eye/facelift was completely unnecessary.
4. It took me entirely too long to figure out who Tali was just from Orli talking about her. The second that door opened, I knew, of course. Everyone did, I imagine. Gibbs absolutely did. And so did Tony. Vance was kind of slow on the uptake.
5. Tony's fear of children disappeared without a trace the second he laid eyes on his daughter. He was afraid that she didn't know him, and he was upset that he didn't know her, and he was mad at Ziva, but at the same time, he was mourning the woman he loved, and holy shit, have I mentioned how fucking amazing Michael Weatherly is?
6. In case anyone missed it, what the doctor was trying to get Gibbs to say was that Tony was going through almost the same thing he did. Tony just lost his Shannon, but he got to keep his Kelly. And there's a brilliant bit of character development here. Gibbs losing Shannon and Kelly drove him to NCIS, because he had no one but himself anymore; Tony losing Ziva but gaining Tali is what drove him away from it, because he had someone other than himself for the first time.
Astoundingly subtle, beautifully acted by Mark Harmon and Michael Weatherly both.
7. The Ima ... Abba scene made me bawl like a baby. No, Ziva didn't tell Tony about his daughter, but she had spent the last year and a half telling Tali about her Daddy. God, I'm tearing up just thinking about it.
8. I think Tony knew all along how much Ziva loved him, because he felt the same way about her. It was her love for him that sent him back to the US without her, because just as she needed to live her life, she loved him enough to let him go live his instead of hers. He was willing to give it all up for her, because he loved her so much he just wanted to be where she was, but she loved him enough to set him free.
9. Did Ziva know she was pregnant when he left? That's a tough one. They never do say how old Tali is, but she can walk, she's potty-trained, and she's saying basic words (in Hebrew, of course). That would put her at somewhere between 16 months and 2 years old. Tony left Ziva in Israel in July 2014 (if I'm remembering the time stamps on Past and Present right). The finale and the premier both took place in early May, and Tony was gone for 3 months. Did he find her faster than that? Had he just found her when Gibbs called, or had he been with her for the almost entire time? I kind of think he'd just gotten there the night before, because he recounted to her all the times he'd almost caught up with her, and if he'd been there for a while, I think they'd have had that conversation before. But I do think he stayed with her a while - at least a week, maybe two - before she convinced him to leave. The olive orchard scene, I've always thought (because of his beard growth), was at least a week after the call with Gibbs.
So, if Ziva got pregnant the first night he found her (the earliest she could have, if she got pregnant in Israel), around the middle of July, then Tali was born in May of 2015. That would mean she's just turned 1, and that was not a one-year-old. So we have to go back further. Let's say, to the end of April 2014. Then she'd have been born in February 2015, and she's 15 months old, and that's a whole lot closer.
Ziva got pregnant in Berlin.
Yes, she knew she was pregnant when he left. I think she maybe knew she was pregnant when she left in May, or at least, not very long after that. I think that's why she wanted him to come to Israel - before Parsa tried to have her killed. I think she was going to tell him when he got off the plane. I think maybe it was Dina Bashir who told her she was pregnant, after she treated her. I think, "Stop this for him," had nothing to do with Gibbs. I think she was stopping it for her baby (because she wouldn't have know the sex yet). I think she wanted very, very badly to tell Tony when he found her, but she knew he'd stay, and she couldn't let him, because she loved him too much.
10. Tony and Gibbs' last scene was a duplicate of their first. Gibbs is in the basement, sanding a boat, and Tony comes down the stairs. He wanders around a bit before he tells Gibbs what he's there to say. And it threw me back to Yankee White like you wouldn't believe. I started bawling long, long before Gibbs pulled him into the hug and faked the headslap to pull him in closer.
Also, that smile on Gibbs' face when Tony says, "I've never been anyone's everything before." So knowing, so wonderful, so ... Gibbs. So many words he didn't say in that smile.
Yes, Tony had been someone's everything. He'd been Ziva's. For ten years.
Overall, I loved it, obviously. But I hated it at the same time. To find out I was right about Tony and Ziva made me so happy, and then to lose her destroyed me, and then to gain their daughter just ... Ducky put it very well when he said you could pull a muscle trying to process it all.
Also, I've been writing this story since October, with a few differences. It's a definite AU now, but I think I'll go ahead and finish it.
This episode jumped to the top of my list of favorite episodes the second it ended. So many things could and should have gone wrong. OTP made canon? Tiva is real? Everyone knows about them? She dies, and Tony is left to raise their daughter alone? It's everything that bad ship fic is. (NOTE: I'm not talking about mine. I don't write "bad" ship fic. :D)
But it worked. And it fascinates me how.
And Michael Weatherly is fucking amazing.