This NCIS Character Had To Die For Ziva To Join The Team (No, Not Kate)

An NCIS character had to die for Ziva to join Gibbs’s Major Case Response Team, and it’s not Caitlin Todd. Kate Todd experienced a shocking death in NCIS season 2, leaving the team down a member and everyone brokenhearted. Kate was seemingly impossible to replace, but then Ziva David entered the narrative. Cote de Pablo quickly stole the show as the Mossad liaison officer, skillfully replacing Sasha Alexander’s character. The transition between the female agents was early in the show’s development and needed success.

As such, dramatic and meaningful events had to unfold, and that’s precisely what happened in “Kill Ari Part II.” In one of the best episodes of NCIS, the team mourns the loss of their fallen mate, and Ziva is introduced as she initially advocates for Ari. The team is originally skeptical of Ziva, and it’s understandable since her intentions are initially unclear. While she immediately clicked with the team, she didn’t have their trust, with one character death required for that trust to be developed with Gibbs, Tony, McGee, Abby, and Ducky.