Ziva David's Entire NCIS Backstory Explained

Ever since she was introduced in season three of NCIS as a Mossad agent with killer instincts, Ziva David has been a crucial part of the team. Though Leroy Jethro Gibbs and other NCIS agents are initially hesitant to trust Ziva, she eventually proves her loyalty and becomes a beloved member of the team. Among audiences, Ziva quickly became a fan favorite, due to her physical prowess, compelling storylines, and inability to remember American idioms. Ziva's personal life often bleeds into her professional one, whether it be her tenuous relationship with her family or her will-they-won't-they romance with coworker Anthony DiNozzo, which lasts more than a decade. She's incredibly good at what she does, but she's also only human — and that's why fans, and her colleagues, love her.

Ziva's upbringing in Israel is also explored over the course of her time as an NCIS mainstay, including the ways in which growing up in the thorny center of the Israel-Palestine conflict has shaped her worldview. Unlike many other characters who first see violence as a part of their work, Ziva has been acquainted with war and loss from a very young age. Indeed, she's been affected by violence since long before she signed up to be a Mossad agent, let alone joined NCIS. Altogether, Ziva David has the one of the most elaborate and thoroughly fleshed-out backstories of any character in NCIS. We're here to break it down, from beginning to end.

Ziva's father's involvement in Mossad shaped much of Ziva's childhood. In the season three episode "Ravenous," Ziva mentions doing ballet as a child, noting that her father never came to any of her performances. Her father did spend some time with her, however, albeit entirely on his own terms: He trained her and her siblings in espionage and combat from a very young age. One instance of Ziva's survival training involved Eli blindfolding his two daughters and bringing them into a forest, then telling them to find their way out alone. As a result of Eli's training, Ziva is an expert combatant. Though her relationship with her father is complex, she is grateful for the worldview he imposed upon her. Eli made it clear to her that one "can never truly know a person or their secrets," a lesson she has taken to heart.

All of this makes it easy to see why Ziva is regarded as a bit of a tomboy in adulthood. When her character was first introduced in 2005, there weren't many shows that depicted women like Ziva: Smart, competent law enforcement agents who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty. In fact, in 2011, New York Times critic Mike Hale wrote that Cote de Pablo's portrayal of Ziva is part of a "growing group of female action heroes who are infiltrating cop shows, spy shows, science-fiction shows and other genres where men once did the lion's share of the enforcing."

The violent conflict between Israel and Palestine was ever-present in Ziva David's upbringing. Despite her father's work in Mossad and the fact that she's witnessed attacks firsthand, Ziva doesn't hold prejudiced feelings towards Muslims in general. She is, however, patriotic and pro-Israel, and her views on Hamas are heavily influenced by her witnessing their acts of violence. In fact, Ziva has been intimately affected by the conflict in her homeland from a very young age. In the season five episode "Tribes," Ziva says her childhood best friend was a Muslim girl who was killed in an Israeli airstrike when she was 12. Additionally, her younger sister Tali was killed in a Hamas suicide bombing when Ziva was a young Mossad agent. These deaths haunt Ziva throughout her adulthood, her sister's death particularly affecting her sense of justice.

Violence wasn't the only difficult aspect of Ziva's life growing up. Though she had some normal childhood hobbies like dancing and sports, she mentions facing severe adversity early on. In season four's "Friends and Lovers," Ziva recollects experiencing hunger as a child, even going so far as eating maggots to survive. Ziva's early experiences with grief, deprivation, and trauma gave her a much different childhood than the other NCIS team members, who grew up in the United States. As she says during one conversation with Anthony DiNozzo, "In my world, you grow up fast. You have no choice."

Ziva David is first introduced to the NCIS universe as Ari Haswari's Mossad control officer. Her character is a replacement for Special Agent Kate Todd, whom Ari had killed at the end of season two. Little does the team know at the time, she is also his half-sister. Though they did not grow up together, Ziva appears to have a close enough relationship with Ari that she's willing to look out for him.

While Gibbs and his team frantically search for Ari and process Kate's death, Ziva maintains Ari's innocence and alliance with Mossad. Throughout the season three opener, "Kill Ari," Ziva's connection to Ari is explored in greater depth. Their father, Eli, raised Ari much like his siblings: He was subjected to military training, imbued with a cynical worldview, and drilled in combat. Uniquely, however, Eli raised him to become a mole within Hamas. Instead, Ari became embittered towards his father and his cause, and became a double agent for his father's enemies.

Despite Gibbs' insistence that Ari is targeting the NCIS team, Ziva plans to help Ari escape by giving him falsified travel documents. Later, however, she is present in Gibbs' house when Ari corners him in his basement and confesses to killing Kate and being involved in terrorism. Before Ari can kill Gibbs,  Ziva shoots him dead. It is a turning point for her character on every possible level, and haunts her through the rest of the series.

Not much is known about Ziva's time in Mossad, before she came to work with the NCIS team. Every so often, however, she tells her coworkers gruesome stories from her previous missions. At one point, she recalls how one of her Mossad coworkers was beheaded after infiltrating a Hamas cell. After this incident, Ziva comes to believe that being captured is a fate far worse than death. In season six, Ziva's worst nightmare comes true when she rejoins Mossad and is taken captive by terrorists in Somalia. During her time in captivity, she is assaulted and interrogated for information. Her ordeal is horrific, encompassing a nightmarish range of abuse. After she's rescued and returned to the NCIS team, her demeanor is noticeably different. While she doesn't talk with her co-workers about the specifics of what happened to her while she was held captive, it's clear that it was a traumatic experience for Ziva, and that she is forever changed by it. Given how steely violence and trauma had already made her, that's seriously saying something.

Many other experiences haunt Ziva, especially the loss of her sister, Tali. She says her sister was "the best of us," referring to herself, Tali, and her half-sibling Ari. Initially, she wanted fierce revenge, and indeed, a more angry, dangerous side of Ziva can be glimpsed when she talks about Tali's death. She eventually names her daughter Tali after her late sister.

Over the years, Ziva develops deep bonds with her NCIS teammates. These relationships are often influenced by people from Ziva's past, in a wide variety of ways. Initially, Ziva is hesitant to truly trust anyone outside the confines of work, given her background in espionage and her militaristic upbringing. Plus, being betrayed by family members kind of has a way of keeping someone from forming tight bonds. Little by little, however, that changes, and Ziva is able to develop some truly meaningful ties.

The trust between Gibbs and Ziva begins when she shoots and kills Ari to save Gibbs' life. Throughout later seasons, Ziva treats Gibbs like a father figure, despite her father's presence in her life as a member (and eventually director) of Mossad. Her relationship with her father is always emotionally distant, however, as Eli is wholly dedicated to his work. After Ziva is captured and tortured in Somalia, she holds her father responsible. She attempts to leave Mossad and join NCIS permanently, but her father attempts to prevent her from leaving by framing her for a murder. Though Ziva is able to clear her name, she fully renounces Eli and completely severs ties with him. This changes her bond with Gibbs too, as their surrogate father-daughter relationship grows bigger, to fill the new void in Ziva's life. She often calls upon Gibbs when she needs help, and he regularly refers to her as "kid."