page_title: Ziva David captivity storyline
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Ziva David captivity storyline / Development
caption_attribution_description: NCIS Filming
context_page_description: The Ziva David captivity storyline refers to a series of episodes from the American police procedural drama NCIS surrounding the imprisonment of protagonist Ziva David in a Somali terrorist training camp and its aftermath. Originally created by then-executive producer Shane Brennan, the story arc first aired in 2009 during the sixth season of the show and continued into the seventh season. Episodes followed the events that originally led to Ziva's being taken hostage by an Islamic terrorist and the later effects of the event: her relationship with Michael Rivkin, the collapse of her relationship with Tony DiNozzo, Rivkin's death at the hands of Tony and the loss of trust between Ziva and the NCIS team as a result, her leaving NCIS to rejoin Mossad, her captivity and eventual rescue, and the ramifications of the abuse she suffered.
  Elements of prisoner abuse and torture were used for the storyline, though most of the violence perpetrated against the character takes place off screen; producers avoided depicting explicit torture scenes like those commonly associated with the TV series 24.
context_section_description: NCIS writers introduced Merik Tadros' character, Mossad Officer Michael Rivkin, as a potential love interest for Ziva in the sixth-season premiere, "Last Man Standing". After initial trepidation over how to move forward with the character, and an aborted idea of revising him as a relative of Ziva, executive producer Shane Brennan decided to script what he considered to be a love triangle between Ziva, Tony, and Rivkin for the latter half of the season. The story arc, which was planned to end in a "tragic" fashion, was set to cover the last four episodes of the year.
  Brennan began the arc by writing the two-part episode "Legend" which served as a backdoor pilot episode for the spin-off series, "NCIS: Los Angeles" featuring the hunt for a terrorist; when Special Agents Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) fly to Los Angeles to work with the NCIS Office of Special Projects — Los Angeles team to solve the murder of a marine, they discover that the killing is linked to members of a sleeper cell. Rivkin becomes involved and, rather than working with NCIS to apprehend the terrorists, kills the suspects, frustrating the other agents.
  Back in Washington D.C., Tony starts to question Ziva's loyalty when she defends Rivkin's actions. In a confrontation between the two over Ziva's reluctance to tell Gibbs about her connection to Rivkin, Ziva asks if Tony's suspicions of Rivkin are fuelled by jealousy. It is made evident that Ziva is in a romantic relationship with Rivkin in the closing moments of Part II as the two are seen in bed together.
  The nature of Ziva's romance with Rivkin became a subject of debate among viewers, and some speculated that it could have been arranged by her father against her will. Tadros opined that "Rivkin loves Ziva" regardless of the circumstances and acted accordingly from that perspective. Despite this, the relationship becomes more ambiguous in the last two episodes of the season as a security breach at the SECNAV's residence leads to the death of an ICE agent and evidence points to Rivkin. After going to Ziva's apartment to speak to her Tony ends up confronting a drunken Rivkin, resulting in a vicious brawl between them that culminates with Tony being forced to shoot Rivkin in self-defense when Rivkin attempts to stab Tony with a piece of glass. Despite Ziva's efforts, Rivkin ultimately succumbs to his wounds and dies.
  The killing, and the ensuing events, generated some controversy among viewers. On screen, it causes a rift between Tony and Ziva, as well as a violent confrontation between the two in the season finale. Cote de Pablo described Tony's actions as "almost unforgivable" from her character's perspective despite their being in self-defense and stated, "I think sometimes when people make mistakes, they can be impulsive and judge someone on one particular thing. Ziva isn't overreacting—Tony did kill someone who was a big part of her life—but, at the time, she couldn't see clearly."
  NCIS Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) agrees to a request from Eli and brings the involved parties to Israel. Eli interrogates Tony and accuses him of killing Rivkin out of jealously, a motivation that Michael Weatherly voiced to have been plausible. Tony, in turn, accuses him of ordering Rivkin to seduce Ziva in order to keep an eye on her, which he does not deny. Eli confronts Ziva about her divided loyalties between NCIS and Mossad, and after telling Gibbs that she no longer trusts Tony and feels unable to work with him, Ziva stays in Israel and returns to the Mossad as a full-time operative. She takes Rivkin's place on the Kidon Unit, embarking a mission to assassinate Saleem Ulman (Omid Abtahi), the leader of a terrorist training camp in Somalia. With Ziva back at Mossad, her position at NCIS is terminated and the Major Case Response Team is reduced to three active members: Gibbs, DiNozzo and McGee. Gibbs confronts Vance about the turn of events, insisting that he still trusts Ziva because of her choice to save him by killing her brother four years earlier. In response, Vance claim
caption: Filming of "Legend"
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