NCIS season 17 spoilers: Why did Ziva come out of hiding?

Why is Ziva out of hiding for the NCIS season 17 premiere? There are so many questions we have leading into the first episode, but this is the primary one on our mind. It would take something pretty terrifying for someone like Ziva to go into hiding in the first place, and now to bring her out from where she’s been the states have to be high – it may not be solely because Gibbs is in danger. Think about it — this is not the first time that he’s been in danger over the past several years! He’s constantly found himself in various states of peril and Ziva was MIA for most of those.

With that in mind, it’s fair to assume that there is a larger reason for her presence now — Gibbs may be in danger (as she said in the closing minutes of the season 16 finale), but we have to imagine that she also is in danger too. That does seem to be linked somewhat to her appearance, judging from the new quote that executive producer Frank Cardea offered up to TVLine: “[The storyline ahead] harkens back to Ziva’s death and why she went into hiding.”

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There are a couple of big takeaways here. For starters, we can go ahead and throw the theory that Ziva is a hallucination out the window. That’s not what is going on here. Meanwhile, her appearance doesn’t have to do with some of the drug-trade storyline that was going on in the season 16 finale entitled “Daughters.” There is still a chance that we’ll see some of that play a role on the up coming season eventually, but it may not be a top priority right away.

Cardea has mirrored what we’ve been hoping to see in the premiere – a story revolving around Ziva’s “death” and why she went into hiding. While there’s a lot more that we want to know about Ziva down the road (what’s going on with Tali and Tony), this is the number one question that has been on our minds for right now. Ziva never really had a proper ending to her story and we wanted the premiere to pull back the curtain on that. After hearing Cardea’s comment we are hopeful that our wish is going to be fulfilled. We know that we don’t have a lot of time with Ziva at the moment with her arc being so short, so it’s understandable that some want everything put into the premiere, but we feel that with this door being opened that there is now room for more Ziva returns and more story to unfold. We want to take this ride into Ziva Town nice and slow and enjoy it like a fine wine. There’s no need to rush.

We know that Cote de Pablo has already been on set filming the premiere episode, and we’re hoping that a social-media post with Wilmer Valderrama and Emily Wickersham is evidence that the three of them are going to get to work together. We of course want some reunions with Ziva and some other established characters, but after the events of “She” it would be really nice to see Ziva and Bishop together since this was the first step to bringing her back to the show for this storyline.

Brace yourselves for more scoop, as we’re sure there is a whole lot more coming before the NCIS season 17 premiere airs on CBS next month.

What are you the most excited to see with Ziva’s NCIS season 17 return?

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This article was written by Jessica Carter. Be sure to follow her on Twitter. (Photo: CBS.)