Cote de Pablo surprised NCIS fans by reappearing in the final minutes of the season 16 finale. She returned as a recurring character in season 17 as fan favorite Ziva David for four episodes and retconned her supposed off-screen d3ath. De Pablo’s reappearance, on the other hand, was brief. And she’s virtually disappeared since she left NCIS for the second time.
Cote de Pablo was not a founding member of the ‘NCIS’ cast.
NCIS, now in its 20th season, began in 2003 with the introduction of Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon), Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), Dr. Ducky Mallard (David McCallum), and Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette) as members of a Naval Cr1minal Investigative Service team on the series JAG.
NCIS debuted as its own series a few months later. Instead of keeping Agent Vivian Blackadder (Robin Lively) on the team, Sasha Alexander’s Caitlin Todd took her place. Fans didn’t meet de Pablo’s Ziva David, an Israeli Mossad agent working with NCIS, until season 3 — after Agent Todd’s shocking d3ath in the season 2 finale.
She quickly rose to popularity among fans. And they couldn’t get enough of her flirtatious banter with DiNozzo, her mentor/mentee relationship with Gibbs, and the drama and danger surrounding her family for eight seasons.
She virtually vanished when she left ‘NCIS’ for the second time.
De Pablo left the role of Ziva in 2013, after only two episodes of Season 11. She was later allegedly murd3red. And her d3ath prompted Weatherly to leave the series, as DiNozzo left for Paris to care for his and Ziva’s daughter.
Fans couldn’t believe it when de Pablo reappeared in the final moments of season 16 and was standing on the stairs in Gibbs’ basement. When Season 17 premiered the following fall, they were eager for a new Ziva storyline and hoped she would be back for good.
The return, however, was brief. De Pablo appeared in four episodes of Season 17 before her storyline concluded and Ziva moved to Paris to join Tony and her daughter. De Pablo has virtually disappeared from Hollywood since his appearance on NCIS.
Cote de Pablo is a ‘extremely private’ individual.
When she left NCIS for the first time, de Pablo cited politics and poor scripts as reasons for her departure. During a rare public Q&A, the Chilean-born actress expressed dissatisfaction with the character’s development.
“Look, I really like this character. “I worked on Ziva for eight years and felt she wasn’t being treated with the respect she deserved,” de Pablo said.
When she returned to the role in seasons 16 and 17, de Pablo stated that her remarks had been taken out of context. According to Hello!, she didn’t leave because she wanted to, because she was ready, or because she was tired. She claims she didn’t “really have an option.”
Whatever the reason for her first exit, when she walked away the second time, it appeared she was leaving the television industry. De Pablo stated during an interview for the Build Series YouTube channel about her brief return to NCIS that she is “an incredibly private person.”
She has no credits on IMDB since her NCIS Season 17 appearance, and no projects are listed that she is working on.
Fans can relive her time as Ziva David by watching classic NCIS episodes on Paramount+.
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