I agree that Jeanne came the closest to a loving, committed relationship that Tony has ever had – made all the more ironic by the fact that it was based on a lie. Ironic, and tragic.

IMO, that’s the heart of Tony’s character. Underneath the Teflon-coated, always smiling image he presents to the world, he yearns for the kind of love Gibbs once possessed, and has utterly failed at finding it – possibly because he was looking for it with Ziva?

It was the Rivkin debacle that soured me completely on the Tony/Ziva pairing. I just never bought that they could have fallen in love after that mess.

Oh, dear lord, no – she was never “Tony’s Shannon”, and I totally agree with you about how she treated Tony, even from the beginning. During her middle seasons, she wasn’t bad, though and I actually liked her. And yes, I could see them sleeping together, but never in a relationship, and definitely not after season 6/7 and the whole Rivkin debacle (which is when I started disliking her again).

I think the closest to a Shannon Tony had would have been Jeanne, and that was based on a lie – or perhaps more on the “true” Tony than he would like to admit. Too late for that now, though – too much water under the bridge, I think, for them to recover even if she did come back.

There were times that I kind of hated Ziva too. There’s a part of me that really balks at the idea of her being “Tony’s Shannon.” She treated him so abominably at times. I could have bought a wild, passionate affair between them, but a loving, committed relationship? Not so much.

For me, it wasn’t so much that I disliked her – which I did in her last few seasons, I will admit. It was that the writers made her irredeemable to me in season 10. I would have watched season 11 even if she was still there, as I really like the rest of the team, but I wasn’t overly upset she wasn’t there.

I agree. Those were all good stories. I also LOVED Once a Crook. I never disliked Ziva, but I have to admit I haven’t really missed her either. Just like when Kate left, the show goes on. Now if TONY left, I’d be outta here. LOL.

Really? Did you watch Shooter, or Alleged, or even The Admiral’s Daughter? Those seemed like pretty good stories to me.