‘NCIS’ season 11, episode 1 review: Ziva in danger; Tony’s concern; Abby’s jealousy

This has clearly been a long, tumultuous summer for “NCIS” thanks to headlines over Cote de Pablo’s exit, so you can imagine that there were expectations that were very high about Monday night’s episode.

So were they met? Well … that’s a little bit of a mixed bag. We know that if you were hoping to see a ton of Cote de Pablo, you’re feeling right now like someone let the air out of your tires. Ziva was a part of the story throughout, as Tony was hoping to travel to Israel to see her, only to later find out that she was a target to be killed. There is a new terrorist cell that is running amok, and the team back in the United States is trying to figure out just how to properly diffuse this situation. Unfortunately, Cote herself did not make an appearance here at all.

At the end of the episode, we finally started to uncover what could be very well considered to be the evil lair for our current killer, who seems to be hot on the pulse of taking down one agent after the next. We do at least know that Ziva is alive, but that is unfortunately just about all we know right now; she is somewhere in Israel, and it is up to Tony to try and figure out just where she is.

On a different sort of romance front, it feels like we are on to something interesting here with Abby, McGee, and his new girlfriend Delilah. Margo Harshman of “The Big Bang Theory” is a good choice for the role, and she has just enough arrogance to drive Abby up the wall. We expect this to be a good story over the next several weeks, as we need something lighter to go along with the heavy drama.

Overall, did this “NCIS” premiere deliver what you were hoping for? We’re going to have a full preview soon for next week’s all-important “Past, Present, Future” episode, so stay tuned for more about that.  Click here to see a preview!

Photo: CBS