'NCIS: Tony & Ziva' Stars Talk Episode 4 Flashback Bombshell and the 'Really Good' Ride Ahead

This week on NCIS: Tony & Ziva, a tiny bit of Tali flashback drama led to the asking of a huge question, while the present-day plot to trap Martine steered #Tiva into an overdue, romantic turn.

'AM I DOING THIS WRONG?'

Episode 4, titled "Wedding Crashers," featured a flashback to June 2020, in which Tony and Ziva one night rushed into a distraught Tali's room to discover that their daughter had a bed-wetting nightmare. In the aftermath, Ziva fretted that she hasn't been there for her daughter, having chosen to live separate from Tali and Tony while she works through her PTSD issues.

"I don't want to disappear on my daughter again," as she first did when Tali was age 2, Ziva said.

"Then don't," Tony responded, sliding a family ring off his left ring finger and lowering himself to a bended knee. "Ziva, will you marry me?"

A moved Ziva knelt down to meet him on the floor and deliver an easy "Yes!" answer, after which the two kissed.

WHY THE DIS-ENGAGEMENT?

But wait – if Ziva agreed to marry Tony back in June 2020, what happened that in the present timeline (October 2025), they are living apart and clearly not husband and wife...?

NCIS: Tony & Ziva viewers can expect to have that mystery solved across "Episode 9, and 10," series lead Cote de Pablo told me last week. Those final two episodes of the season "will answer a lot of [lingering] questions," she avowed.

THE BRIDE WORE... COMBAT BOOTS

Meanwhile in the present-day timeline... #Tiva & Co. set their trap for Martine, by luring the dirty Interpol agent to the site of Boris and Fruzsi's nearly postponed wedding. The faux nuptials hit a first hitch when (fake) cops showed up to arrest the bride-to-be for outstanding shoplifting warrants; in actuality, Fruzsi was being abducted by the bad guys, to serve as leverage if needed.

The ceremony eventually began, though, with Ziva posing as the bride, hiding beneath one of the most ornate headpieces ever constructed. When Claudette struggled to hack Martine's phone from the balcony, Tony bought time by texting their target as Interpol boss "Henry." Martine kept her phone out to engage with "Henry" and his crisis, but the jig went belly-up when the real Henry crashed the wedding with Interpol officers in tow, to grab Boris.

A melee ensued, with Henry realizing that both Tony and Ziva were also on-site. Tony chased after Martine, but wound up squaring off with her henchman – whom the NCIS vet sent toppling out a window, into the Danube below. Ziva meanwhile managed to fend off/whale on Henry whilst clad in her wedding dress (beneath which she had on combat boots).

Martine got away, but Claudette later shared with everyone on their "escape boat" that she'd managed to pull from Martine's phone evidence that Henry's mysteriously disappeared Interpol boss, Jonah, was being held in a prison under a false name.

Series lead Michael Weatherly affirmed for me that next week's Episode 5 is a bit of a "prison break" movie, kicking off what de Pablo in turn enthused are some "really good episodes."

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS

Elsewhere on the getaway boat, we had a charged moment where Tony helped Ziva with the buttons on the back of the wedding dress. As Tony popped them open one by one, he was moved to say something – he clearly was launching into an deeply felt overture – but a walls-up Ziva cut him short.

Tony returned topside, where Claudette clocked that he was frustrated. "Words.... When you need 'em most!" he grumbled.

"Talk's cheap, anyway," Claudette said, nudging Tony to return below deck. There, no words were exchanged, instead, the two gravitated towards each other for a passionate kiss.

'THIS GOES RIGHT AFTER YOUR HEART'

Surveying the NCIS spinoff's structure, Weatherly observed that "the ride that this show takes you on... it takes a minute, because it's a different."

Weatherly, who is also a musician, noted, "most songs have a little intro and then first verse, and then pre-chorus, chorus, second verse... pre-chorus, chorus, bridge...."

NCIS: Tony & Ziva, however, "is more like a Pink Floyd song!" he suggested with a laugh.

"This goes right after your heart in the beginning," Weatherly said. "The first four episodes are there to fill you up, because you're gonna need it for what comes in [Episodes] 5, 6 and 7 and 8. And by the time you get into the washout of 9 and 10, you're exhausted.

"But then it will be time to go and watch Episode 1 again," he quipped. "So you'll be happy."

Watch my final TVLine video Q&A, with de Pablo and Weatherly, below: