And now… we, and Jethro, wait.

CBS’ NCIS sent 17 million jaws to the floor on Tuesday night, teeing up its imminent May sweeps run/dash for the finale with a devastating, made-you-jump-off-the-davenport car crash that slapped a question mark on the fates of both Tony and Ziva.

In this first-look photo from next Tuesday’s episode of TV’s most watched drama, titled “Revenge,” Gibbs is camped out at the hospital with Director Vance when McGee arrives to present new, critical intel on his phone.

How bad of shape are Tony and Ziva in? (Factoring in that Cote de Pablo is not yet signed for next season?) And will the episode’s titular revenge be attained? As showrunner Gary Glasberg previously told us, “I think people are going to be really blown away by how things unfold.”

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Warning: This article contains detailed plot information from tonight’s episode of NCIS. Proceed with caution.

Cote de Pablo knew fans were excited to see tonight’s episode of NCIS , which found Tony (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva (Cote de Pablo) heading to Berlin in order to track down her father’s killer. While there, the partners shared a number of moments that will likely go down as some of the best “Tiva” moments of all time. (More on that in a bit.) But meanwhile there was a cliffhanger fans didn’t see coming…That crash!

Yes, after sharing one of those unforgettable moments, Tony and Ziva were sideswiped by a black vehicle, and their status remains unknown. Also, Ilan Bodnar remains on the loose (but his brother, Yaniv, is in custody).

While we’re pretty sure they’ll both make it out alive (emphasis on: pretty sure), we asked de Pablo for a tease on what’s next. “We are one step closer to the killer who took away Eli David and Jackie Vance, so I think the audience wants some sort of resolution,” de Pablo said coyly. “I don’t know if we’re going to get to the actual unfolding of it completely [by the end of the season].”

It wouldn’t be unlike NCIS to let the mystery bleed into next season, but nevertheless, there are more shocking moments on the way, she said, including a few between Tony and Ziva, for whom she teased some “messy” times ahead.

But things were anything but rocky for them in this episode. They sorta held hands (darn that crash for breaking the moment), shared some deep words, and had a dance, which EW was the first to show you. The actress calls the latter one of her favorite scenes in the episode. “Michael and I crafted that scene,” she shares. “We felt the moment was very intimate, and we thought that just looking at each other was enough. And the director kept saying, ‘No, I want the moment to be longer,’ and we had to sort of fight the director. Finally, I had to say, ‘Listen, if there was any more time of staring into each other’s eyes, it would be like, cut to a hotel room.’…so finding the length of the moment became a topic.”

In the end, she says, “we certainly enjoyed it.” “I told [Tony] — without really realizing what I was saying and then I realized it came out the wrong way — I said, ‘God, I felt a little drunk when I was staring at you.’” she adds with a laugh. “I’m not sure if it was because by the end of the day we were both so tired or if it was because it was just such a magical moment.”

While de Pablo remains reluctant to define the pair’s relationship too clearly — she prefers to call it “complex” — she says the entire episode was a chance to see the characters show new sides of themselves to one another. “There is a level of vulnerability that’s being shared and, from Tony’s standpoint, you also see vulnerability. You also see him as a man Teddy Bear — like, a very sweet but manly man, a guy who’s really taking care of a situation and really wants to make it better, a guy who’s not looking for the joke or is uncomfortable staring at a woman or reaching out to hold her hand. To me, that’s a really interesting thing.” she says. “We usually see the woman from Ziva and the boy from Tony, and here we see the little girl in Ziva and the man from Tony.”

For more on NCIS, including some teases from executive producer Gary Glasberg, pick up this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly, on newsstands Friday.

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The countdown to the NCIS season finale begins now.

Now that Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and Vance (Rocky Carroll) have given Ziva (Cote de Pablo) permission to pursue her rogue investigation of Ilan Bodner, all of her actions — beginning with a Tony (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva trip to Berlin on Tuesday’s episode (8/7c, CBS) —will feed into the season’s ultimate conclusion.

“From this point on, all of these episodes connect and they all propel us toward the finale,” executive producer Gary Glasberg tells TVGuide.com. “‘Berlin’ functions as both a significant part of the Bodner story and has a tremendous Tony/Ziva personal story line that goes along with it. It’s primarily work-related, but there are little moments that give them an opportunity to connect and hopefully satisfy a lot of our Tiva fans.”

But before Tony and Ziva kick off their European jaunt/manhunt, Ziva will meet new Mossad Director Orli Elbaz (Star Trek: The Next Generation alum Marina Sirtis), the woman replacing Ziva’s murdered father. Naturally, their meeting will be fraught with various emotions, but perhaps for reasons other than the obvious. “There’s tremendous tension between these two women and there’s also a big reveal of what that relationship is about,” Glasberg teases.

Adds Sirtis: “There’s electricity. Ziva’s intensity is like a counterfoil to what my character’s feeling. She has a history with Ziva, and it’s kind of mind-blowing.”

But don’t expect Elbaz to be a shrinking flower. “She’s kickass. She’s strong. She’s manipulative. She uses every weapon in her female arsenal,” Sirtis says. “These parts for middle-aged women in Hollywood do not come along very often. I’m thrilled that the producers of the show were brave enough to cast a woman in this role. They’re prepared to take risks. It’s a big gamble.”

Ziva isn’t the only NCIS agent Elbaz rubs the wrong way during her visit to Virginia to investigate a Mossad officer’s death. “She’s supposedly come to the United States to solve a case, but she’s not totally upfront about what’s going on,” Sirtis says. “As you can imagine, [Gibbs] gets very upset that she’s keeping things from him. Let’s just say they don’t start off on the right foot.”

Fortunately for Sirtis, her relationship with Mark Harmon wasn’t so intense behind the camera. “I love him,” she says. “He got me breakfast one day. I said, ‘You can’t get me breakfast — you’re No. 1 on the call sheet. He said, ‘Oh, don’t be ridiculous.’ And I actually thought, ‘I love Patrick Stewart with all my heart, but if I had waited for him to feed me, I’d have died of starvation.'”

Sirtis says Elbaz and Gibbs won’t have necessarily patched things up by the end of the episode, so she expects to be an antagonist when she returns next season. But she thinks the audience will immediately understand her character’s motivations.

“In one episode, we really get to see how she ticks,” Sirtis says. “Not maybe so much what makes her tick, but without even having met her before, she comes into the episode and has a history with the people. It gave me so much to work with. I wasn’t acting in a void or a vacuum. I knew why people felt a certain way about her or not, so it was very, very helpful.”

NCIS airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on CBS.

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Tonight at 8/7c, CBS’ NCIS returns to wrap up Season 10 with the first of four final episodes, following Ziva’s heated pursuit of Ilan Bodnar as it feeds into a season-ending arc that promises to leave viewers — and Gibbs — with many questions. As part of TVLine’s in-depth May sweeps/finale preview special, showrunner Gary Glasberg shared a look at what’s ahead for TV’s most watched (and already renewed) drama.

TVLINE | How would you sum up these last four episodes?
They are a lot of fun. After Eli David got killed in January, we sort of stepped away from that for a little while. But last [episode] we discovered that Ziva has been working on her own little investigation behind the scenes, and that arc really kicks off when we send her off with Tony on a clue trail that leads them to Berlin. The episode is a combination of the Bodnar manhunt and then some really nice Tony/Ziva stuff as well. Then there is a whole storyline that goes on back in Washington, which is Gibbs working with Marina Sirtis, who is playing the new director of Mossad (Orli Elbaz). So, everything is coming together. And this arc connects into the story that becomes the season ender.

TVLINE | You mentioned “some nice Tony/Ziva stuff” — but before that, a reader wants to know if Tony will feel hurt that he was left out of the events of the last episode? Is that a thing?
No, I think he recognizes the pressure that Ziva has put herself under in terms of wanting to figure this out and get to the bottom of it. All told, there are moments, all the way through the remainder of these episodes, where emotions are a little frazzled and people are pushing things a little bit. Tony is there for her and he recognizes what she needs and what he can do. It doesn’t get petty, so to speak.

TVLINE | How if at all would you compare “Berlin” to Tony and Ziva’s Season 7 Paris trip?
The Paris episode was a very specific case; this is more related to the bigger picture of what we’re dealing with. There are terrific Tony and Ziva moments, emotional moments, sweet moments, hopefully things that people will really connect with and latch onto.

TVLINE | Turning to all that Gibbs is dealing with back in D.C.: Why does Homeland Security, among other agencies, Revengewant NCIS to drop this whole thing, to get off Bodnar’s trail?
That’s a big part of where we end up going as the finale nears. The CIA and a lot of other people have, understandably, been involved with what happened with Bodnar, given the international connections of Israel, how Iran was involved Arash Kazmi’s death [by car bomb in the episode “Shiva”]…. But at the hub of it is the connection of this daughter losing her father and Vance losing his wife. All the dots connect and ultimately lead us to where we end up.

TVLINE | Tell us about Marina Sirtis as the new Mossad boss.
In the real world there has never been a woman at the head of Mossad, so that was something that we wanted to try. Marina showed up and just nailed it. There is a strength and a determination to the way that she plays Orli Elbaz, so I’m thrilled.

TVLINE | Does Orli have any kind of a reputation that precedes her? Or is everybody meeting each other cold?
There is a lot of history between Ziva and Orli, and that will unfold as the episode unfolds. We discover something at the end of [“Berlin”], a nice little twist about the two characters that absolutely will inform us moving forward. There is more to it than meets the eye.

TVLINE | What is going on with Gibbs in these last episodes, that Muse Watson resurfaces in the finale as the late Mike Franks?
As [Tony and Ziva] go off on this manhunt that leads them to Berlin, that gets us to the next episode, which is aptly called “Revenge,” and really gives Ziva fans an opportunity to see a strong, determined, relentless Ziva David that they haven’t seen in a while. People are going to be really blown away by how things unfold in that episode. But that leads us to this scenario where, in the real world there would be an investigation into the Bodnar manhunt, so Colin Hanks (Dexter) comes in as an investigator for the Department of Defense, and the Inspector General’s Office. All of this leads to the end of the season, where we’re presented with a situation where Gibbs has to really question, ‘How far is too far? How far can he push the boundaries? How far can his team push the boundaries? How far can they cross the line?’ In looking at things from a moral stance, in terms of what has happened over the years, things get internalized, and we’re very fortunate to have the conscience that is Mike Franks for Gibbs to interact with.

TVLINE | Going back to Colin Hanks for a second, please tell me there is an on-camera reference to the resemblance between him and Sean Murray’s McGee.
There absolutely is. There is a terrific scene in “Double Blind,” which is the penultimate episode, when McGee and Colin Hanks meet for the first time. And then it comes up again in the finale as well. We’ve gotten a big kick out of it around here. And while the boyish looks and the smile are deceptive and fun, there is a lot of depth to what he’s capable of and who he is.

TVLINE | What all do you have on tap for May 14? Is it the sort of NCIS season finale that leaves someone in professional or mortal peril over the summer?
Yeah, I’m not going to let you down in terms of that, I hope. There are a lot of questions that are left open. We’re absolutely looking at decisions that have to be made and situations that leave us saying, “How is the team going to move forward? How will Gibbs move forward? Will things change within the team?” There is a case that turns out to be very significant and that dovetails to propel us into the season opener for 11. So, hopefully we’ll deliver a finale that leaves people thinking over the summer.

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NCIS (CBS)
Airs: Tuesday, May 14 at 8/7c

The search for the man who killed Ziva’s father and Vance’s wife will actually land Gibbs & Co. in hot water. Leading the federal witch hunt is Department of Defense Investigator Richard Parsons (guest star Colin Hanks), who questions the unconventional methods of Gibbs’ team during their case and ultimately puts some agents’ future in jeopardy. Fortunately, Gibbs will be able to rely on some old friends: JAG’s A.J. Chegwidden (John M. Jackson) will come to the team’s defense and Muse Watson’s deceased Mike Franks will serve as Gibbs’ conscience. “Gibbs is going to face some very tough decisions,” executive producer Gary Glasberg says. “And who better to help him than his best friend?”

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We’ve been patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for NCIS’ Tony and Ziva to finally take their relationship to the next level, but this week’s episode looks more promising due to, among other things, the below picture of the twosome (played by Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo) in each other’s arms.

I jumped on the phone last week with Executive Producer Gary Glasberg to find out just how close Tiva will get in “Berlin,” as well how much newcomer Marina Sartis is going to mix it up with Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and how the upcoming addition of Colin Hanks is going to rock our team.

TV Fanatic: Let’s jump right to it. In the “Berlin” episode, is Ziva going to find resolution, or is this just yet another piece of the puzzle?

Gary Glasberg: It definitely adds to the clues that she’s collecting, and it’s a big part of understanding how this all comes together. In January, Eli David is killed, we stepped away for a little while and then in “Chasing Ghosts” we discovered that she’s had this private investigation going on of her own. This propels her to going with Tony on a manhunt of their own that brings them to Berlin.

The cool thing about this episode, and I’m really pleased with the way it came out, was there are story elements to what’s going on with Bodnar that are happening here in Washington. So Gibbs and McGee are focused on that and dealing with the new Mossad director, Orli Elbaz, who’s played by Marina Sirtis.

So that’s happening here, and then simultaneously you’ve got Tony and Ziva going off to follow this trail that leads them to Germany. The great thing that happens there is you’ve got this sort of backbone of this continued search and then at the same time these terrific Tony and Ziva moments that are also happening and we sort of take their friendship and their relationship to a different level. So there’s a lot going on.

TVF: So is it safe to say we’ll see Tony and Ziva go to a place they have yet to go in their relationship? Is that safe to say?

GG: By the end of the episode, yes.

TVF: Vance also lost somebody in that big January episode. Is his resolution tied in with Ziva’s or does he kind of have his own thing going on we maybe don’t know about yet?

GG: No, no, it’s all very much connected. There’s a real sort of silent understanding going on between Vance and Ziva in that he’s giving her his blessing to go out and do this. And that blessing, although sort of private and between them, will ultimately come back to haunt him in a way because sending Ziva David off to basically take care of business can open everyone up to ramifications that come later. So, no, he’s a big part of this, and although he can’t run off and do the manhunt himself, he’s absolutely sort of there and involved.

TVF: Is all that going to basically be leading into Colin Hanks character who is coming soon?

GG: It all connects, and yeah. Standard procedure, in the real world, too, is that anytime that you’ve got a case like this is you’re going to have an internal investigation that goes on from the Inspector General’s office. Colin Hanks plays a character named Richard Parsons, who is an independent investigator who’s brought in to sort of dot the i’s and cross the t’s, and of course, that turns into more as well.

TVF: You’ve called him a pit bull in other interviews so it made me wonder is he somebody we should trust or is he possibly a nemesis to these guys?

GG: That’s the fun of Colin Hanks. Part of why I was so excited about it, in casting him, is behind those boyish looks and that smile is someone who’s smart and manipulative and a go-getter and interested in things for his own reasons as well. So I would say, as we move forward, people have to really kind of look for what he’s after as well.

TVF: Talk to me about Marina Sirtis a little bit and of her character coming in.

GG: She plays a big part in this episode, in the “Berlin” episode. In the real world, there’s never been a female director of Mossad, so Marina stepped in and totally brought it to life. She’s strong and determined and focused, and I kind of love it. You can imagine who she was in her younger years and who she is now and she really stepped in here and the cast embraced her and her character works really well. I look forward to seeing where she goes, hopefully bringing her back at some point next season as well.

In this episode, in addition to everything else, at the end, there’s sort of a revelation that happens as to what her connection is to Ziva and that there’s more to their relationship than just sort of animosity and there’s a lot going on. She was terrific.

TVF: She’s dealing with Gibbs a lot in “Berlin.” How does that go?

GG: There’s a lot of complexity that’s going on. They’re both playing kind of political dances, and it’s a lot of fun. He is both intrigued and sort of wary of her simultaneously. So both those themes came out very well.

TVF: Is there a potential for romance there? Gibbs has been kind of lonely for a while…

GG: No, no, that’s not really what we were going after or what it’s about. But you can’t pull the wool over Gibbs’ eyes so he recognizes who she is and what she tries to do and how she tries to manipulate things and he’s up for the game, up for the challenge.

TVF: Watching the “Chasing Ghosts” episode, I felt like maybe we were leading up to the finale where our team could be disbanded for what they’ve done. Am I reading into that correctly?

GG: That’s very perceptive of you, Jim. It’s one aspect of it. The big question that comes up is, and this is sort of what you’re alluding to, is not only with this case, but with multiple cases over the years, and a long career of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, boundaries are pushed, lines are crossed, people are watching. He’s got a whole Defense Department behind him that, in theory, people are sort of keeping an eye on things. At some point, that catches up to you and is this case the one that sort of pushes it over the edge?

NCIS airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on CBS.

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PRE-FINALE EPISODES | When last we tuned into TV’s most watched drama, “We discovered that Ziva has been working on her own little investigation behind the scenes,” to hunt down the man who killed both her father and Vance’s wife Jackie, says showrunner Gary Glasberg. Starting April 23, that arc “really kicks off, when we send Ziva off with Tony on a clue trail that leads them to Berlin. The episode is a combination of the [Ilan] Bodnar manhunt and then some really nice Tony/Ziva stuff as well.” Meanwhile back in D.C., Gibbs must contend with new Mossad director Orli Elbaz, played by Star Trek: TNG’s Marina Sirtis. (“In the real world there has never been a woman at the head of Mossad and that was something that we wanted to try,” Glasberg explains. “Marina showed up and just nailed it.”)

MAY 14 SEASON FINALE | Feeling heat from not just the Mossad but his own government, as Ziva and others chase a man some would prefer left alone, Gibbs’ “world gets rattled a little bit at the end of the season,” Glasberg says. And in such a way that he’ll need no ordinary lawyer – cue guest star John M. Jackson, reprising his role as JAG’s A.J. Chegwidden. “There is a case in the finale that turns out to be very significant, that sort of dovetails in right at the end and propels us into the Season 11 opener,” Glasberg shares. “Hopefully we’ll deliver a finale that leaves people thinking over the summer, where a lot of questions are left open. We’re absolutely looking at decisions that have to be made and situations that leave us asking, ‘How is the team going to move forward? How will Gibbs move forward? And will things change within the team?’”

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Please tell me the names of the guest stars on the April 17 show on NCSI. –Suzan
If by “the April 17 show on NCSI” you mean “the April 30 episode of NCIS,” which has yet to release a guest cast list, I can confirm that that hour marks Oded Fehr’s first episode back as the elusive Ilan Bodnar.

Is it too late to ask for more NCIS scoop? That promo for next week’s episode has me very excited to see the finale arc kick off. –Cheryl
Ever since I broke the news of Marina Sirtis’ casting as new Mossad director Orli Elbaz, several have wondered if Eli David’s successor is familiar with his feisty daughter. “There is a lot of history between Ziva and Orli,” show boss Gary Glasberg confirms. “We discover something at the end of the [April 23] episode, a nice little twist and a surprise that absolutely will inform us moving forward about the two characters. There is more to [their relationship] than meets the eye.”

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THE NCIS TEAM IS QUESTIONED BY A DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE INVESTIGATOR REGARDING THEIR RESPONSE TO THE BODNAR CASE, ON “NCIS,” TUESDAY, MAY 7

Colin Hanks (“Dexter”) Guest Stars as Department of Defense IG Investigator Richard Parsons

“Double Blind” – A Department of Defense investigator scrutinizes the NCIS team’s response to the Bodnar case involving the murder of Ziva’s father and Vance’s wife. Meanwhile, the team examines whether a Petty Officer is suffering from paranoia or if his claims of being followed are tied to a matter of national security, on NCIS, Tuesday, May 7 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Colin Hanks (“Dexter”) guest stars as Department of Defense IG Investigator Richard Parsons.

CHEAT TWEET: The NCIS team is under the microscope as a DOD Investigator ?’s the Bodnar case #NCIS 5/7 8pm ET/PT