WARNING: This article contains spoilers for NCIS season 17 that may influence your enjoyment in discovering the plotlines. Read at your own risk.
Cote de Pablo has been having a busy week lately as she makes the press rounds ahead of the premiere of NCIS season 17. Now that the cat's out of the bag that she will be back on the show, de Pablo finally shared some details about her return, including how many episodes she'll be on and what made her agree to reprise her role as Ziva David.
Speaking in an interview with WTKR, de Pablo shared that she will be in five episodes of NCIS season 17. For now, that's all they have agreed with the show's producers.
"It will be fun for the character to get her feet wet again," de Pablo said.
The actress also hinted that this might not be the last fans should see of Ziva on NCIS season 17. She and the writers had a lot of discussions about her character's storyline, and some of it has not yet been written in the scripts.
De Pablo shared, in another interview with Build, that one of the reasons why she agreed to be back in NCIS season 17 was because of the fans. Having traveled a lot around the U.S. and abroad to touch base with friends and family, de Pablo said that people would always come up to her to ask one question.
"Everywhere I went there was a lot of love for the character and every single time I always get asked this same question -- Are you ever coming back?" the actress shared. "There came a point where I thought, 'Wow, the fans would really love to see her!' and then the greatest thing happened."
The actress then went on to say that she was having a casual conversation with a friend and writer for NCIS season 17, who picked her brains about where her character must be in the present day. De Pablo said that it was all too easy to ease back into imagining Ziva that everything came together well when they finally agreed on bringing her back.
She revealed what viewers might expect from NCIS season 17 with Ziva working with Gibbs again. It will be quite a complex, tense, and stormy relationship since they haven't seen each other for a long time.
Ziva has been working undercover since she supposedly "died" a few seasons back on NCIS. She has been away from her daughter and her daughter's father, Tony.
NCIS season 17 will begin its run on Tuesday, Sept. 24, on CBS.
