The episode is written by David North and Jesse Stern and directed by Leslie Libman, it received generally positive reviews and was seen live by 21.04 million viewers.

Described as a "companion piece" to the season premiere,[2] "Truth or Consequences", it reveals the events leading up to her being taken hostage by an Islamic terrorist through a series of flashbacks.

The storyline serves as a catalyst for Ziva's choice to resign from Mossad in favor of becoming a full-time NCIS agent, culminating in the events of this episode.

When Ziva's application to become an NCIS agent is denied, Director Vance informs her that, as a result of the discovery of AWOL marine Daniel Cryer's (Erik Palladino) remains off the coast of Tanzania, her account of Mossad's operation to take down Saleem Ulman has been called into question.

Ziva is reluctant to discuss the events surrounding her captivity, which become dubious when the Navy salvages Damocles and discovers that the entire crew has been shot dead.

[3][4] Vance continues to pressure her for more details, but her team leader, Malachi Ben-Gidon (TJ Ramini), appears at NCIS demanding that Ziva return to Mossad's control.

He urges her to tell him what happened, and she relents: a shot had been fired, erupting chaos on the ship and leading to the shootout.

[3] Gibbs, DiNozzo, and Abby, meanwhile, deduce that Malachi is lying; the shooter missed twice at short range before hitting Cryer, illogical for Ziva.

Ziva, in turn, realizes that her former team leader is acting under orders from her father, who opposes her leaving Mossad.

[3] Gibbs encourages Ziva to disclose what happened afterwards, and she reveals that she had gone to Saleem's camp alone to protect the surviving team members, who were both injured.

On October 13, 2009, then-executive producer Shane Brennan discussed the episode's purpose: "We're filling in the blanks.

"[2] Cote de Pablo discussed the development of her character as well as the storyline's impact: When you first saw her come in [during season 3], she didn’t really know who these people were.

[5][6] This episode was dedicated to the memory of Robert James "Bob" Bryan, an agent with the real-life NCIS, who died at age 50 on September 21, 2009 from complications of pneumonia.

"[10] Glenn Diaz from BuddyTV opined, "While the episode featured Gibbs and Vance heavily, it was probably Ducky who did the most significant progress on Ziva.

"[11] Steve Marsi from TV Fanatic wrote, "For the past two episodes NCIS, while always superb, has felt like it's delaying the inevitable.

Her mind was somewhere else...The 20,000-ton elephant in the room – the cargo ship that brought Ziva to (and went down off) the Horn of Africa, was recovered, as was a dead marine who was on board.

"[12] As a result of Eli David's conscious decision to have his daughter set up as a scapegoat for the marine's death, many viewers began to see his treatment of Ziva as abusive and manipulative.

[10][13] This was amplified by apparent inaction during Ziva's captivity and torture; though she was assumed dead, it became a common opinion that Eli had left her to die in the desert.