Goodbye Tony Dinozzo

tony1For thirteen years and 305 episodes Michael Weatherly came into our living room on a regular basis and left us smiling. As Very Special Agent Tony Dinozzo he was part of an investigative unit on NCIS that always got their man, at least eventually.

In season 8 of Jag they had two episodes which introduced us to the players in what would become NCIS. This is a device producer Donald P. Bellisario would later use on NCIS to introduce spin-offs, and a possible spin-off. While it was obvious that Gibbs was the hard liner lead Tony was always there to keep things from getting to serious. Wise cracking a flirting Tony always kept things from getting too heavy. As the show progressed it was very obvious that Tony was also a damn good detective and could be really serious when he needed to be. As the show grew so did the depth of Tony Dinozzo. And while it would have made sense for some one with his experience to leave and head up his own team he stayed, and not so much because of comfort level but because Gibbs and Ducky and Abby and McGee and the rest are his family. And while we got to see his real family, his Father played perfectly by Robert Wagner, there was friction there. The team accepted him for who he was. As did we. He could tackle bad guys when he needed too, get confessions and then two scenes later throw crumbled up paper balls at McGee. Tony made us feel at ease. He was the guy to relax with and the guy to cross the world and get taken prisoner and be tortured to get his teammate back.

tony3When Ziva left it left Tony with an empty spot inside. This would eventually lead to his farewell.

 

 

Spoilers ahead.

 

 

Seriously, I am spoiling the last episode.

While tracking a rouge CIA agent as he murders a bunch of people a bomb goes off in Israel. Ziva has been killed. So much for my theory that Tony and Ziva go off together and have a Hart to Hart type show of their own. What we do discover is that Ziva had a little girl and it’s Tony’s. When this took place and the little girl walked in I cheered. The reasons for Ziva not saying anything worked for me and Tony leaving to raise his daughter makes perfect sense. The only thing that would take him away from his NCIS fsmily would be… family.

tony2Whoever come in to take his place on the team has big shoes to fill and chances are I will find a lot to not like with them because they are not Tony. I look forward to Michael Weatherly’s next show, I dig him as an actor, but I will miss Tony and the show will not be the same for me.

Happy trails Tony, and thanks for 305 amazing episodes of television.