4x03 - "Singled Out" (Behind The Scene)
4x03 - "Singled Out" (What if?)
As I mentioned in my review of S3E18, I have long thought that a spin-off centered on Tony, leading his own NCIS team in Europe, could have been a particularly interesting direction for the franchise.
The ideal moment would probably have been after Season 10, when Tony and Ziva were finally beginning to open up to each other.
I imagine a different ending where nobody resigns, Parsons is sent on another assignment, and Vance offers Tony his own team, directly echoing Director Shepard’s proposal in Season 4.
With Tony and Ziva at its heart, such a spin-off could have offered a fresh take on the NCIS universe while allowing their relationship to evolve in an entirely new setting. NCIS: Los Angeles (2009–2023) had already shown that the franchise could successfully expand around different teams, locations, and dynamics. A Tiva spin-off could have explored another side of the franchise, with a new location and a new team.
For Tony, this opportunity would have been an essential step in his evolution. Away from Gibbs’s shadow and the structure he had always worked within, he would finally have been able to make his own decisions and take responsibility for them. He could have developed his own leadership style, becoming more serious and composed without ever losing what made him special: his wit and playful spirit.
For Ziva, leaving Washington and everything that city represented would have been much more than a change of scenery. It would have given her the opportunity to move beyond the identity shaped by her past, her losses, and the events that had defined so much of her life.
She would no longer have had to question where she belonged. She would have had the chance to build something of her own: a place to grow, a team she could call her own, and a life with Tony by her side.
Professionally, their relationship would have been based on a clear hierarchy: Tony would have been her superior, and Ziva one of his agents. Outside of work, however, they would finally have been a couple.
The classic will they / won’t they dynamic would have disappeared, making room for something new: a relationship grounded in trust, complicity, mutual support, and the life they would create together.
That would not mean their relationship would have been perfect. They would have disagreed, both in their personal lives and at work. Tony and Ziva would have continued to challenge and frustrate each other at times, approaching situations from different perspectives.
But whenever a mission was at stake and lives depended on them, they would have been able to put their differences aside and work together without hesitation. At their core, they would have shared the same priority: protecting others and doing what needed to be done.
SOURCE PHOTOS: Screenshots S10E06
A stable relationship with Ziva would also have allowed Tony to mature emotionally. He would still have used humor and charm to navigate difficult situations, but he would no longer have felt the same need to flirt or seek attention. Commenting on an attractive woman or making a joke about a television host could still have happened, but it would no longer have been such a central part of his behavior.
Tony would have continued teasing Ziva, and she would have continued challenging him. They could even have retained much of their Season 3 dynamic: challenging each other, trading sarcastic remarks, provoking one another, and sometimes saying everything with a single look.
I can also easily imagine Tony continuing to use his charm during an investigation. A woman could have openly flirted with him and, true to form, he would have played along just long enough to get the information they needed before ending the conversation.
Ziva would have noticed immediately. She would have been annoyed, but her irritation would not have come from fear of losing Tony or uncertainty about his feelings. She would simply have reacted as Ziva always had when faced with Tony’s flirtatious nature.
What would have mattered was what happened when that woman tried to take things further. Tony would have ended the situation himself.
- Sorry, but I already have someone in my life. Someone very important to me.
Hearing him choose her without hesitation would have shown Ziva she no longer needed to look for proof of what she meant to him, question the place she held in his life, or wonder whether she was enough.
After years of hiding what she felt, Ziva would finally have chosen to acknowledge it openly. In a moment when they would no longer have been Tony, her superior, and Ziva, his agent, but simply two people who had known each other for years, she could have stepped closer and kissed him, leaving Tony momentarily speechless.
Another element that would have made this spin-off even more special would have been the possibility of occasional appearances from their former colleagues in Washington: Gibbs, McGee, Vance, or Ducky.
Those appearances would have maintained a connection with the original series while showing how far Tony and Ziva had come. But what would have truly given the spin-off its own identity would have been exploring their everyday life in Europe, beyond the cases and missions.
I imagine a rooftop becoming a shared refuge for the entire team, a place where everyone could take a moment to breathe after a mission.
Over time, it could have become a place where Tony and his team gathered after a difficult case, during a quiet evening, or whenever they needed to step away from the intensity of their work. Away from the office, the rooftop would give them a chance to relax, talk, and get to know one another beyond their roles as agents.
Ziva might be sitting alone on the rooftop during a break when Tony would show up, pretending he had come up there for the view. She would immediately see through him, roll her eyes, and make room for him anyway. They would talk, argue over something completely insignificant, or simply sit together in silence before eventually heading back downstairs.Occasionally, when no one else was around, they could share a quiet moment together: A lingering look, a hand resting briefly on the other’s arm, a teasing smile, or a quick kiss.
Those moments away from investigations would have given the spin-off much of its depth. They would have shown what this new life truly meant: not simply a new NCIS team, but a new chapter in Tiva’s lives.
For years, Tony and Ziva had hidden their feelings, avoided difficult conversations, and acted as if their connection were just banter.
The difference would have been that their team would already have known. The question would no longer have been whether they were together, but how they could balance being partners in their personal lives and colleagues in the field. Their relationship would simply become part of their everyday life, rather than the focus of every episode.
Tony and Ziva’s arguments would eventually become such a familiar part of team life that I can easily imagine the team having a private WhatsApp group for moments like this. The messages might start with:
RED NOTICE. The lovebirds are at it again.
Within seconds, the messages would start coming in:
- Do we know what happened? - No. - How long do we think this one will last? - €20 says three hours. - I am putting €100 on five hours.
Imagine a new agent watching Tiva argue before finally asking:
- Are they fighting?
Someone from the team, without even looking up from their file:
- No. That is just how they flirt. Our lovebirds are cooing.
SOURCE GIFS: tonyandzivauk
One particularly emotional episode could have shown Ziva being seriously injured during a mission, with Tony discovering while she was in the hospital that she had been in the early stages of a pregnancy.
The loss of the baby would have brought a kind of pain they had never faced together before—a pain they could not solve by finding someone responsible or completing a difficult mission.
For both of them, it would have been a shock. They would have discovered the pregnancy only after the loss, leaving them to grieve the child they had never known and come to terms with what had happened.
At the hospital, there would have been nothing Tony could do except stay by her side. He would never have let go of Ziva’s hand, remaining there through every moment, unable to leave her alone.
A colleague would enter the room.
- You should try to get some sleep.
Tony would simply answer:
- I am fine.
And everyone would know he was lying.
Back at home, while Tony was away from the apartment, Ziva could find herself alone in the room they had started preparing for the baby. Paint samples would still be spread across a table, along with a few stuffed animals and the first things they had chosen together. The room would remain unfinished, as if everything had simply been left exactly where they had last seen it, still filled with traces of the life they had imagined.
She would stand there for a few moments, looking around. Her eyes would settle on the things they had chosen together, then on the room that would never be filled with the child they had imagined.
She would sit down in silence, surrounded by everything they had imagined for a future that would never come. She would try to hold herself together for a few moments before finally letting her tears fall.
They would have to learn to live with that loss. It would be a moment when they could stop trying to be strong all the time. Ziva would have to accept the pain of what she had lost, while Tony would have to accept that he could not protect her from every pain life could bring.
One evening, Ziva could find Tony sitting alone, his eyes glistening with tears as he struggled to hold himself together. She would understand that he was still trying to be strong for her, as he always had. She would simply sit beside him and take his hand—the same hand he had never let go of at the hospital. This time, she would be the one holding it, letting him know that he was allowed to finally let go.
This experience would not push them apart. On the contrary, it would show the strength of what they had built. After years of fearing they could lose each other and never admitting what they felt, they would have to face a pain together, without running away or hiding from it.
Not because they would have forgotten what happened, but because Tony and Ziva would never stop being themselves. They would still be able to laugh, to challenge each other. The difference would be that they would now know they could survive even the hardest moments together.
The biggest uncertainty would not have been the concept itself, but whether the actors would have wanted to commit to such a project.
Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo had already spent many years portraying Tony and Ziva and, after so many years with these beloved characters, it would have been completely understandable if they had wanted to explore new opportunities at that point in their careers.
But if they had both agreed to return, the potential to tell another side of the wider NCIS universe would have been enormous.
The appeal would not simply have been seeing Tony and Ziva finally together. It would have been discovering who these two people would become once they no longer had to hide from what they felt.
That is what would have made such a spin-off so special: showing that some stories do not end when the question Will they or will they not? finally receives an answer. It is where a new story begins.
I apologize for the length of this post, but this idea led me to explore many different possibilities.
