Cote de Pablo's secret 'NCIS' return: The crew 'clapped as I went in ... It was great'

Since leaving "NCIS" in 2013, Cote de Pablo has met many fans who love her and her character, Ziva David. And the interactions inevitably lead to the question: "Are you ever coming back?"

That changed after a surprise reunion between Ziva and NCIS team leader Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) in May's season finale, which leads to the former Mossad agent's return in Tuesday's 17th-season premiere of the CBS drama (8 EDT/PDT).

Now, "it's, 'You're coming back!'" she says of the reaction to Ziva's reemergence, which had been hinted in an earlier episode. "Fans have been watching the show going on 17 years, so it's an exciting thing for them."

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De Pablo's Ziva appears again in the Oct. 1 episode and is scheduled for two more episodes in December and January.

The return wasn't inevitable, says de Pablo, who didn't expect to be back after deciding to leave TV's most-watched drama in 2013 after eight seasons.

"When I walked out, I thought it was over and that was it," she says.

De Pablo, 39, who has since appeared in the film "The 33" and the CBS miniseries "The Dovekeepers," still won't reveal why she departed. She says it wasn't because she felt the show didn't treat a character she loved with proper respect, as she said in a 2016 interview.

"I think that was taken out of context at a certain point, and people start writing that to justify the idea of leaving," she says. "But I'm not ready to talk about that yet. I will someday. But I didn't leave because I wanted to go or because I was ready or because I was tired. I didn't really have an option."

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In the 2016 season finale, the last episode for special agent Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), Ziva was presumed dead following a mortar attack in Israel. DiNozzo then left NCIS duty to care for Ziva's daughter, Tali, when it was revealed that he was the child's father.

"NCIS" hinted about Ziva's return in a Super Bowl commercial last February, before another agent discovered evidence she was alive in an episode later that month.

Executive producers Frank Cardea and Steven Binder contacted de Pablo while writing that episode and the discussion evolved into Ziva's return.

"She decided to come out and actually meet with us. We had a clandestine meeting with Steve and I and Mark Harmon," also an executive producer, Cardea says. "It was like she had never left."

De Pablo's appearance in last season's finale, in which she warns Gibbs his life is in danger, was similarly shrouded in secrecy. A bare-bones team remained on set and de Pablo arrived late into the night.

"They were waiting for me, standing up, and they clapped as I went in," de Pablo remembers. "I think I said something along the lines of, 'Woo-hoo, I'm back!' It was great."

Producers withheld footage of the scene. "We showed the cut to the network on FaceTime," Cardea says.

To explain why the young mother would remain out of sight so long, writers had to come up with a significant storyline: A deep-undercover assignment superseded by a threat to those closest to her.

"Whatever takes her out of this undercover operation has to be monumental," de Pablo says. "If (Tony) and Tali are not going to be there, then the only person that she would ever do this for would be for Gibbs."

Reuniting with Harmon was easy, she says, and the two are on the run together in Tuesday's season opener, "Out of the Darkness."

"When you know somebody that well, you could just show up to set and there's that trust," she says. "It really felt like just slipping back into a really comfortable slipper."

As for whether Ziva will reconnect with Tali or Tony, de Pablo says that's up to the writers. (Weatherly is busy shooting 'Bull'" across the country in New York.)

"We're very well aware of the Tony-Ziva connection and the fans' desire and response to it," Binder says.

But you can bet on a mother-and-child reunion.

"Speaking as a parent, it would be awful for that not to happen, and we're not an awful show. We deal with dead bodies in cases, but we try to have a little light at the end of the day," he says. "So I can't imagine that not being something we're going to see."

(Producers declined comment about misconduct charges against Weatherly that led CBS to pay a $9.5 million settlement to actress Eliza Dushku.)

With four Ziva appearances already scheduled in Season 17, could there be more?

"We have no idea," de Pablo says. "Really have no idea."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'NCIS': Returning Cote de Pablo is still mysterious about her 2013 exit