NCIS Season 7 Episode 1: "Truth or Consequences" Recap & Review

NCIS Special Agent Tony DiNozzo's Master Plan to Rescue Ziva David is a Bit of a Trojan Horse

Episode Recap: Season Six of NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) hung viewers on the cliff with Mossad Liaison Officer Ziva David having left the team, deciding to stay in Israel as a result of "creative differences" with DiNozzo (a.k.a. Tony being forced to kill Ziva's Mossad Officer-slash-boyfriend Michael Rivkin after incriminating evidence pointed to either him or Ziva as withholding evidence vital to U.S. national security).

Ziva went on an "Aliyah"—a rite of forgiveness—in order to take down a larger terrorist cell Rivkin had been investigating (via Israeli Mossad Director Eli David's orders, which are illegal under foreign diplomacy). Presumably, she went undercover and the last scene from season six showed her captured, about to be tortured for information on NCIS by an English speaking terrorist somewhere in Somalia.

The new season begins with the story of how Ziva is freed from capture, although surprisingly at the beginning of the episode we find Tony in the very same dungeon and in just as horrible condition as Ziva was oh so many months ago. Ziva is nowhere to be found, but the very same terrorist is and dopes up Tony with a variation on the old "Truth Serum" gimmick. Tony is a tough fighter, providing snappy repartee even in this terrible situation, but even he can't resist the compelling chemicals for too long. Under a lengthy series of questions he begins to reveal the five W's and 1 H about his arrival in Somalia and his purpose there.

The mission is revealed through flashbacks during the entirety of this episode, one for every month between May and August (i.e. the "summer break" between seasons—Tony slyly hints towards it when he asks Ziva (still bound and horribly disheveled) what she's been doing all summer.