NCIS 10x21

Berlin

“Berlin” is the 21st episode of the tenth season of the American police procedural drama NCIS, and the 231st episode overall. It originally aired on CBS in the United States on April 23, 2013. The episode is written by Scott Williams and Gina Lucita Monreal and directed by Terrence O’Hara, and was seen by 17.33 million viewers.

According to executive producer Gary Glasberg, “‘Berlin’ functions as both a significant part of the [Bodnar] story and has a tremendous Tony/Ziva personal story line that goes along with it.” It carries the storyline surrounding the deaths of Ziva’s father, Mossad Director Eli David, and Vance’s wife, Jackie, who were both killed off in the January episode “Shabbat Shalom”. Ziva continues to pursue revenge against Eli’s killer, Ilan Bodnar, and Vance continues to endorse her actions despite orders from Homeland Security to rein them in.

“Berlin” introduced the new Mossad director, Orli Elbaz, portrayed by Marina Sirtis. Several actors reprised their roles from previous episodes, including Gabi Coccio as young Ziva, Ben Morrison as young Eli, and Oded Fehr as Ilan Bodnar.

The installment was generally well-received, with the ratings being up from the previous week and critics giving it favorable reviews. The network and producers advertised the reported development of Ziva’s relationship with Tony within the episode. Particularly, a scene in which the characters dance together while in Berlin was heavily promoted and received favorable commentary from reviewers.