Michael Aaron Rivkin (מיכאל ריבקין) was a corrupt Mossad Officer who worked in the Kidon unit of the Israeli agency and who was also Ziva David's former boyfriend and partner.
He was also responsible for the deaths of the members of the terrorist cell located in Los Angeles.
Biography[]
Michael Rivkin was a Mossad Officer assigned to the Kidon Unit with close ties to Eli David, the Director of Mossad, and as such, had a romantic relationship with Eli's daughter Ziva David.
He made his debut episode in the NCIS Season 6 episode, Last Man Standing (episode) where Rivkin and Ziva worked on an undercover operation in Morocco to catch a mole within NCIS and stop corrupt Naval officers from selling secrets to terrorists.
In Episode:Legend (Part 1) and Episode:Legend (Part 2), the episodes which would serve as a spin-off for NCIS: Los Angeles, Rivkin played a major role.
In his hunt for Saleem Ulman, who had killed his officers, Eli sent Rivkin to Los Angeles so he could infiltrate one of Saleem's offshore cells and recover information of his whereabouts while killing the cell's agents in the process which unfortunately meant that NCIS could not arrest or interrogate them. Eli later revealed in the NCIS Season 6 finale episode, "Aliyah" that this had been done so that the terrorists could not come after the Mossad agents responsible.
Rivkin's mission fell into jeopardy when both Special Agents Lara Macy and Leroy Jethro Gibbs recognized him. Gibbs later personally confronted Rivkin with Gibbs himself ordering Rivkin to leave the country. Despite this, Gibbs chose not to arrest Rivkin and let him go.
Eventually, he left for Tel Aviv with a stopover in Washington D.C which Abigail Sciuto revealed during a talk with Anthony DiNozzo and the last scene in "Legend Part Two" showed Ziva in bed with him, suggesting that they had slept together.
Rivkin re-appeared in the NCIS Season 6 episode, Semper Fidelis (episode) where after DiNozzo realized that Rivkin was responsible for the death of an ICE agent as well as the handler of the terrorist cell located in Los Angeles, he headed to Ziva's apartment, seemingly hoping to find her there but instead found Rivkin instead.
DiNozzo then informed Rivkin of his intent to arrest the Mossad operative for the deaths of the terrorist cell handler, Abin Tabal and ICE agent Tom Sherman but Rivkin refused and as such, the two got into a massive brawl with each other which left Ziva's living-room in a state. Tony who had suffered a fractured arm attempted to reason with Rivkin one last time but was forced to shoot the other man in self-defense after Rivkin tried to stab Tony with some glass despite Tony desperately urging the Mossad operative not to.
Seconds later, after hearing the gunshots, Ziva entered the apartment and attempted to save Rivkin while ignoring Tony the whole time. Despite her best efforts, the extent of Rivkin's injuries were so severe that he later succumbed to them and died a few hours later during the Season 6 finale episode, Aliyah (episode).
With the whole affair having caused a major international incident, Eli David contacted Leon Vance and ordered that he, Gibbs, DiNozzo and Ziva head to Israel immediately as Mossad wanted answers into Rivkin's death.
Hours later, Vance granted the request, informing Gibbs and Ziva that they along with DiNozzo were to pack their bags as they had all been booked to go on a C-130 which would take them to Tel Aviv.
The four later arrived in Israel with Rivkin's body being brought with them for burial.
During his interrogation by Eli in Tel Aviv, Tony managed to dodge his accusations and forced him to reveal that he had sent Rivkin back to the US, while also claiming to have been protecting Ziva. Eli told Vance about Rivkin's true mission: to find and locate the leader of a terrorist network based in Somalia.
After Gibbs left her behind in Israel, Ziva then rejoined Mossad and took Rivkin's place on the Kidon Unit to complete her "Aliyah" and went to kill Saleem. But she was captured, held prisoner and tortured for several months in North Africa before NCIS, believing she was dead came to rescue her with Tony leading the operation and Gibbs and McGee providing support. Ziva who was later revealed to be alive was eventually saved by NCIS with Saleem dying of a single gunshot wound to the forehead thanks to Gibbs and the four of them escaped, returning to America.
These random turn of events prompted Ziva to permanently resign from Mossad and become an NCIS Special Agent instead.
Known Kills[]
- Rafi Zayid- (stabbed).
- Nasim Boutros- (stabbed).
- ICE Special Agent Thomas Sherman- (accidental; died of a stroke while being held in a choke-hold).
- Abin Tabal- (presumably force-fed him a suicide pill, killing him, later stole his laptop and managed to get all the intel Tabal had).
Attempted[]
- Haziq Khaleel- (intended to kill but failed).
- Jumah- (also intended to kill but failed).
- NCIS Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo- (attempted to stab with some glass but DiNozzo shot him first).
External Links[]
- Michael Rivkin on the NCIS Database