McGee, and the FBI agents are able to ambush the escort and rescue Tony before he is killed. Production The episode is written by Lee David Zlotoff and directed by Aaron Lipstadt. NCIS composer Brian Kirk created the 3:31 minute soundtrack used throughout the episode. Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo, who portray the characters of Tony and Ziva respectively, have both described "Under Covers" as being among their favorite episodes. They have differing perspectives on the episode, though both regard it as the beginning of the characters' "Will They/Won't They" relationship. In de Pablo's words, "Michael and I talked about all of those scenes right before we did them. We had a totally different way of looking at it. In our minds, we thought the characters weren't faking anything. They just got carried away. Then all of the sudden after that, they saw each other in a different light." De Pablo, who was new to the series at the time, said, "It's an actor's dream going undercover. You get to play characters within the character. [Weatherly] and I had to go as husband and wife and pretend that we were under covers. That was a lot of fun and working with somebody like Michael is a wonderful thing. My character has sort of this understated flirtation with Michael's character, Tony. She gets jealous, but I think she would never admit it or hook up with someone in the workplace. He scares her to death. He is the epitome of the American man and all of the things that come out of his mouth are brutally stupid." Weatherly later commented, "This episode was so much fun to shoot. Cote de Pablo, who plays Ziva, came to me right before we were shooting the first scene where we kissed, and said, 'I've never kissed anyone on camera before.' I was expecting this timid little bird kiss, like a little peck, but she was like a lioness—she practically ate my head off! This is where TIVA (Tony+Ziva) started. We were told to really have fun with it, they wanted a sexy thing happening, and Cote delivered. I was just sort of along for the ride. And let's be honest, three out of the four letters in 'TIVA' are from Ziva, so what is the 'T' then? The crucible, is it the cross? I don't think so." A similar storyline was later used