The CBS hit show NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the television drama returned for its seventh season last night. The action begins several months after last season ends.  The show starts and we find Tony (Michael Weatherly) has been taken prisoner by a terrorist in Somalia. After being injected with a truth serum Tony reveals that he came looking for Ziva who no one has seen for months. What brought Tony to the Horn of Africa is not fully explained at this point but through his interrogation by his captor it seems he is on some type of rouge mission.

Back at NCIS headquarters they spend much of the episode interviewing replacements for Ziva, believing her to be dead.

Curious to find out what happened to her, they do some investigating and are able to discover her last known whereabouts. It turns out that she was on a mission to take out the terrorist Salim Ulman, the very same man who has Tony captured.

The terrorist reveals that he has Ziva as a hostage and threatens to kill her if they don’t reveal the names of all the NCIS agents in the region. The episode flashes back and forth in time and before Salim can kill her, Tony unexpectly tells Salim he’s going to be dead in 30 seconds.  At that moment Gibbs takes him out with a single sniper-shot through the window from a hill outside. The NCIS agents rush in and kill the other guards holding Ziva, Tony and and another agen, freeing them.

Overall, this was a very good NCIS episode that is full of thrills light humor, danger, and suspense.  It was exceptional because of how the episode is pieced together: flashing backward and forward in time  and not revealing everything that is taking place. In the end you don’t have a clue that a rescue attempt is even in the works which makes the ending a great surprise.