NCIS: The Return is Ziva David??

The story line this episode is about a cold case that was originally caught by NCIS but then turned over to the state police by Ziva back in the day. The case was of a missing woman who signed up to serve in the Navy but never made it to her first day of training. Police believe the woman dies in a crash, however, it seems Ziva beloved she may have been murdered and always regretted giving up the case.

The case is reopened because a little girl is found matching the blood type of the missing woman. She speaks of a man who holds she and her mother hostage his basement for years. Ellie is intent on solving this case. Somehow she believes working the case will bring her closer to Ziva.

Ellie discovers that Ziva had been investigating the case long after she officially handed it over to the state police. Another more intriguing discovery is that Ziva kept and apartment no one knew about, no even Gibbs, where she journaled about all of her cases.

You can tell Gibbs is a little hurt and confused about Ziva keeping her apartment a secret. When he basically tells Ellie she will end up dead if she chooses not to follow rule #10 and get personally involved in this case, she could end up dead like Ziva, we know he is still dealing with Ziva’s death.

The missing woman is eventually found but the main story here for any NCIS fan is ZIVA! Ziva leaves a letter from the girl’s mother before she died to read to her kidnapper. Ellie has Ziva’s journal with the letter in it but somehow before she can read it, the kidnapper says a woman was already in his room. Ellie opens the journal and discovers a page missing.

Ellie comes in, “There is something I need to read to you and you’re going to listen, it’s a letter from Morgan’s (the kidnapped woman) mother.”

The kidnapper comes back with, “yea I got it. Somebody already came here and read it to me. She told me she was gonna haunt my dreams.”

Ellie returns to Ziva’s apartment to find what looks like one of Ziva’s old scarves and a note reading:

“Eleanor Bishop, For the safety of my family, Please keep my secret.”

This leads us to believe Ziva may still be alive just based on the note itself, but the handwriting also looks very similar to the writing in the journal. Knowing Ziva this is possible but do the fans really want this?

I would love to have Ziva back but why tease us if we know it isn’t going to happen? I am a DAY ONE NCIS fan and I don’t believe Ziva and Tony are coming back. They could make an appearance but Tony (played by actor Michael Weatherly) has is own show now, and I think it’s unlikely.

The episode is interesting but the Ellie, Ziva story line definitely threw me off. Ellie didn’t know Ziva and is a great agent herself. I didn’t understand at all what made the writers make that connection. Ziva is a beloved character so I think they could have worked her into this story differently, other than using Ellie as an outlet. I am wondering if the writers will pick up on this story line again.