Taste is subjective, but it’s hard to deny that Ziva David is one of the more popular characters in the history of “NCIS.” After all, three of the current top five highest-rated episodes on IMDB involve major Ziva moments. The former Mossad agent arrived on the show in Season 3 and brought with her storylines involving high-intensity international espionage, deep inter-family drama, and, of course, her “will they or won’t they” romance with Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly).
Popularity with the fandom aside, Ziva also brings something unique to the NCIS team. As an agent of Mossad, Israel’s version of the CIA, she has a background in espionage, which is displayed on missions like the time she went undercover as a married couple with DiNozzo. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that fans 100% buy her super-spy credentials.
During a recent discussion on Reddit, fans dug into the show to examine how good of a secret agent Ziva actually is. While many may love the character, there are some who think she could have maybe done a few extra semesters at spy school before joining the team.
Ziva missed a few obvious clues in her time on NCIS
CBS
Reddit user u/azulamazing had some thoughts to get off their chest. In a recent thread, they announced that they were watching the series for the first time and needed to share their opinions on Ziva’s innate espionage abilities. If you were curious about exactly how they felt about the subject, the title of their thread — “Ziva seems to not be a very good spy …” — should give you a pretty significant clue.
They used their opening message to point out a few places in Season 4 where Ziva seemed to totally drop the ball. “She’s just now let a pretty obvious suspect charm her into complacency (the cabbie in Trojan Horse),” they wrote. This refers to the time Ziva let cab driver Joe Kelly (Michael Patrick McGill) talk her into releasing him from custody, despite the fact that he ended up being involved in the murder being investigated in the episode “Trojan Horse.”
They also pointed out that Ziva was clueless about Tony’s mission to get close to Dr. Jeanne Benoit (Scottie Thompson), despite some very obvious signs that he was up to something secretive.
Although u/azulamazing made compelling points, other users were open to cutting Ziva some slack. User u/jayt00212 wrote, “I see your point but it never seemed to me like she was this spy master or billed to be one. Her training was in many areas.” Meanwhile, u/hpspnmag speculated, “I always felt that she was a bit like Kate in terms of having a more bureaucratic/desk duty position.”
Considering she goes on to successfully fake her own death, it seems that regardless if she had the chops in Season 4, she learned a thing or two along the way.
