The finale of "NCIS" season 13 will go down in TV history as one of the best finales and send-off ever given to a character. While the episode was accompanied with bittersweet tears, it also ended on a positive note. The question now is how the team, and the show, will move forward.

"NCIS" recently concluded its 13^th season with the shocking revelation that former "NCIS" agent Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) died during an attack at her family's homestead. As the team, especially DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), deals with the news of her death, the Very Special Agent received another shocker when he was introduced to Tali, his 3-year-old daughter with his former colleague.

Ziva being killed off-screen was quite the shocker, especially for fans who're used to seeing the character survive numerous dangers. But her death, as well as the introduction of Tali, was the key to making DiNozzo's departure from the team believable.

As showrunner Gary Glasberg explained on Twitter, field agents live dangerous lives and a child certainly changes an agent's perspective.

"Based on all our research, talking to actual federal agents and law enforcement officers, it certainly does change things," Glasberg wrote. "And now Tony would do anything for that little girl. Anything."

This includes leaving the team to take care of his daughter. The agent also has some thinking to do and closure to search for, which is probably why he revealed during the episode that he plans to go to Israel to search for answers and then to Paris, a city that Ziva loves.

As for how the show would move on without one of its pioneering characters, Glasberg reminded Deadline that the show's tone hasn't changed.

"I still have Mark Harmon, and the family is still in place," Glasberg said. "We're actually excited as writers to have some new perspectives, to have some new characters come in, to be able switch it up and change things 14 seasons into a television show."

Two of those new characters are FBI agent Tess Monroe (Sarah Clarke) and MI6 officer Clayton Reeves (Duane Henry), who were introduced in season 13's penultimate episode. Whether the two characters will continue in season 14 remains to be seen as the writers try to figure out what's best for "NCIS."