Tony & Ziva Episode 7’s Markham Story Shows Why It’s Hard To Care About It

Warning! SPOILERS about NCIS: Tony & Ziva episode 7 ahead.

The deep dive of NCIS: Tony & Ziva episode 7 on Jonah Markham perfectly elucidates why it’s difficult to get invested in the NCIS spinoff story. Tony & Ziva episode 7 sees an attack plan from the titular duo against the rogue Interpol agents begin to take form, with Tony and Ziva’s surveillance of Markham’s apartment overshadowing everything else.

The focus on Markham, Aranow, and Lazar emphasizes how little they trust one another, attempting to offer a backstory that would explain Markham and Aranow’s relationship and campaign against Graves. While hinting at Martine’s potential betrayal of Markham, Tony & Ziva season 1, episode 7 doesn’t nevertheless give convincing information about what drives Markham, nor his objectives.

Markham’s Vague Motives Cement What Doesn’t Work With Tony & Ziva

Julian Ovenden as Jonah Markham looking smug in NCIS: Tony & Ziva episode 7.

Unlike the episodes before, Tony & Ziva episode 7 carefully focuses almost exclusively on Markham and Aranow’s backstory, going back to show how they got close to one another in their disdain for Graves’ modus operandi. However, despite giving the villains a big platform, Tony & Ziva episode 7’s ending isn’t any closer to revealing Markham’s reasons than its beginning.

The message of Tony & Ziva episode 7 could be confidently summarized as Markham is a dangerous villain by the episode’s ending, without any bigger insight than Archie’s analysis and his conclusion that Markham is likely a “dark empath.” Markham’s backstory not being believable thus highlights how shallow a villain Markham feels, a problem noticeable all over Tony & Ziva.

NCIS: Tony & Ziva releases new episodes on Paramount+ every Thursday.

Even Henry’s death shares the same problematic quality. Fascinatingly, Tony & Ziva episode 6’s fallout drew parallels with NCIS by showing how alone Tony feels in the aftermath of Henry’s death, which didn’t happen for similar deaths in NCIS, but Tony & Ziva never really shows why Henry’s death affects Tony that heavily, nor does it focus on their friendship.

What Tony & Ziva said about anything, it being the case at the heart of the story, Tony and Henry’s bond, or what drives Markham, isn’t really justified by what the crime drama shows. This highlights how its most important developments are built on shaky ground, which inevitably negatively affects Tony & Ziva’s believability.

Tony & Ziva Episode 7 Not Fleshing Out Markham Betrays The Spinoff’s Unique Advantage

Cote de Pablo & Michael Weatherly in NCIS Tony & Ziva

Tony & Ziva episode 7 points out the show’s biggest problem precisely because its aim to explain what motivates Markham is glaringly unmet, even with the episode primarily featuring his team. While the NCIS spinoff perfectly illustrates Tony and Ziva’s relationship problems and their difficulties in maintaining one, it isn’t as thorough as it could be with its other storylines.

This highlights Tony & Ziva’s wasted potential because of its unique advantage over the mothership show. Indeed, Tony & Ziva’s move to streaming after their story overwhelmingly developed on network TV gave the NCIS spinoff the chance to focus on the details, which needed to be meted out over seasons due to the innate constraints of a procedural TV show.

Tony & Ziva makes good use of the attention to detail and flexibility associated with streaming when the titular duo is involved. However, it doesn’t do the same with the secondary characters, the villains, and even the case putting Tony and Ziva at the center of a continent-wide conspiracy that forces them to be on the run.

With the amount of time and attention that could be devoted to other aspects of Tony & Ziva that aren’t the titular duo and Tali, it feels like a missed opportunity. This is especially true in the context of NCIS doing the opposite due to its network TV nature compared to NCIS: Tony & Ziva, which chooses such a feature.

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