“NCIS” Season 16 did not bring back Cote de Pablo, but they still managed to make episode 13 all about Ziva. The hour revealed Ziva is alive, and fans are delighted.

“NCIS” fans took to Twitter to express their excitement after Tuesday night’s episode.

“NCIS” originally killed Ziva in 2016 when DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) exited. He left to take care of their daughter, who Ziva kept secret from him. Fans were not pleased with the plot twist.

The undoing of Ziva’s death came in Season 16, episode 13 when the team ends up working on a case that Ziva investigated before her death after they find a malnourished girl, Lily (Sunnie Pelant). They discover her mother is Morgan Burke, whose death was ruled a suicide years ago.

However, they learn that Ziva kept investigating for years. Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) and Bishop (Emily Wickersham) decide not to tell Gibbs (Mark Harmon) this information. Ziva’s files take them to Morgan’s old boyfriend and the father of the child. He leads them to Ziva’s private office, which was paid up through 2020, so everything is as she left it.

NCIS Ziva alive
Ziva (Cote de Pablo) was not in "NCIS" Season 16, episode 13, but she was revealed to be alive. Sonja Flemming/CBS

They find Ziva’s journals and they finally fill in Gibbs. He, Torres and McGee (Sean Murray) arrive. They find a journal entry that references when Ziva was held captive and DiNozzo got himself captured to save her. “My heart saw him as if for the first time, and I knew I could not live with him,” she wrote.

Bishop finds a letter in the journals from Morgan’s dying mother, which Ziva wanted to read to Morgan’s murderer. Bishop wants to fulfill Ziva’s wish.

However, Morgan hasn’t been murdered. She was living in captivity with her daughter all this time. Lily escaped by hiding in a carpet they were throwing out.

The team tracks down Morgan, and they arrest her captor, Robert (Matt Lasky). He has a heart attack, so Bishop goes to the hospital to read the letter that Ziva wanted him to hear. Except when Bishop arrives, Robert reveals that someone already read the letter. He says the woman said she’d haunt him in his dreams.

Bishop goes back to Ziva’s office to find a scarf and jacket that were there suddenly missing. There’s a note that reads: “Eleanor Bishop, for the safety of my family, please keep my secret.”

Ziva is alive and well, but her friends and family don’t know that.

“NCIS” airs Tuesdays on CBS.

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