After toying with fans for the last four seasons, NCIS is finally making the most of the relationship between Tony (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva (Cote de Pablo)--or "Tiva," as it’s been dubbed on fan boards--for the sixth season’s multi-part final arc. You can read more about the Tony-and-Ziva developments in TV Guide Magazine’s cover story, on sale Thursday. Here, we spend time catching up with Weatherly for this exclusive bonus Q&A. (Warning: Abandon all reverence, ye who enter here.)

NCIS fans are beside themselves trying to imagine various scenarios that could unfold at the end of this season, with the Tony-Ziva-Rivkin triangle.
How’s it gonna play out? I mean, Ziva being pregnant is prob—… [He makes a tape-rewinding noise.] Did I take it back? Does that mean it didn’t happen? I didn’t say anything. You know what that’s called? It’s called misinformation! The Soviets used to do it a lot.

The tone of the show is so screwy that it’s easy to believe show-runner Shane Brennan when he says we’ll be surprised by what happens.
Tonally, this show is very difficult to explain. For our 100th episode, we were helicoptered in and dropped on a Navy science ghost-ship experiment. It was like a Scooby-Doo episode, where they go into an old abandoned mine. So the show is basically a dysfunctional family crime drama, with some Scooby-Doo elements.

So which Scooby character are you?
Shaggy, unfortunately. Or Scooby. Fred is clearly gay, with the ascot. And then Daphne is Ziva. And then Velma is… maybe The Addams Family works better. Clearly Cote is Morticia. No, maybe The Munsters is really the one I should go with. Or Gilligan’s Island. Ducky’s Mr. Howell. Ginger and Marianne are Ziva and Abby… See, we’re proving right now that we have not copied anyone. Except for JAG, Law & Order and CSI.

NCIS is an underdog. Which seems strange to say about a show that has recently been the top scripted series on TV. Yet that popularity happened gradually, so not everyone noticed. And it definitely doesn’t get the media attention a lot of far lesser-rated shows that have exclusively youthful demographics do.
It’s weird. When I went to Australia two years ago, it was like an episode of The Monkees. You had people screaming out of buses. And the demographic there is 18 to 25--it’s a “young” show. In France, it’s like being in the Beatles. You go down the street, and they think it’s the most exciting thing in the world. It’s nutty! And now in the U.S., partly because of the constant reruns on the USA Network, it’s getting more of that kind of traction. But by no means, like you’re saying, does it have that kind of massive-show feeling. And yet with the numbers and everything else, it is a massive show. The popularity of NCIS is a little bit like when you meet a very, very wealthy person, but he drives a Subaru and insists on parking around the corner instead of using the valet.

I’m sure the producers have wondered about how to advance Tony and Ziva’s relationship without ruining it, because no one wants to fall prey to Moonlighting syndrome.
Oh yeah, you can’t do it. Because we’re not a soap opera. In a soap scenario, like Gossip Girl or Grey’s Anatomy, you’re dealing with a lot of relationships, and the point of the story is, how do people deal with that? But the point of this is, you do not do that. Gibbs’ rule number one is you do not get involved with somebody you work with. But, knowing that’s the first rule, especially for a character like mine, that’s sort of like saying, “Okay, I’m leaving the house now, and there’s a pint of ice cream in the freezer, and I’ll be gone for three hours, but do not take a bite of that ice cream.” It’s like, “Hi, meet your new stepsister, she’s really hot, don’t touch her. Oh, and she sleeps in your room.”