19 Years Later, NCIS' Darkest Ziva Episode Hits 5x as Hard

Article excerpt

Nearly two decades after its original air date, NCIS's Season 4 episode "Dead Man Walking" continues to resonate as one of the show's darkest moments for the character Ziva David. The episode subverted the show's typical formula by having the team investigate a murder before the victim actually died, a premise that hit Cote de Pablo's character particularly hard. The emotional weight of that singular twist has only deepened with time, cementing the episode's place among the most impactful Ziva-centric stories the long-running series has produced.