Tuuli Narkle's Evie Cooper and Sean Sagar's DeShawn Jackson have been entertaining to watch together on NCIS: Sydney. This was most recently shown on the 2025 TV schedule in this past Friday's episode, "Fire in the Hole." While speaking with CinemaBlend, Sydney showrunner Morgan O'Neill explained why these characters make such a great pairing, and that included him referencing Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David from the original NCIS.
NCIS: Sydney, which airs on CBS in the United States and can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription, kicked off its second season last week with a major reveal about Mackey's past and some more teases for the big bad will meet later in the season. In Season 2's second episode, Evie and DeShawn snuck aboard a pirate-themed party ship that'd been taken hostage by the Sons of the Sovereign Soil, which had a bone to pick with the United State Navy's presence in Australia. After viewing "Fire in the Hole" early, I asked O'Neill during my interview with him about what he liked most about writing these two characters together, and he started off by saying:
Tony and Kate did indeed have an amusing brother/sister dynamic, though that was sadly cut short when Kate was murdered in the NCIS Season 2 finale. Ziva David inherited her spot on the team in Season 3, and while they too would bicker like siblings in those early NCIS years, their relationship blossomed into something romantic by the time Ziva exited as a series regular in Season 11. Now these two have a daughter and will soon be leading their own streaming-exclusive spinoff, NCIS: Tony & Ziva.
Evie and DeShawn definitely fall under the sibling category in NCIS: Sydney, especially when it comes to the former poking fun at the latter. Morgan O'Neill continued during our conversation:
DeShawn was injured during the events of "Fire in the Hole," but when Evie, who can't swim, tackled the main baddie off the ship before he could shoot JD and fell into the water, he dove into the water to rescue and resuscitate her. Something like that is bound to bring these two closer together, and O'Neill not only confirmed as much to me, but also mentioned that Tuuli Narkle and Sean Sagar get along splendidly:
New episodes of NCIS: Sydney air Fridays at 8 pm ET on CBS stateside, so as Season 2 progresses, we'll see just how Evie and DeShawn become even tighter. Personally, I hope the two of them maintain their sibling-like dynamic rather than come anywhere close to where Tony and Ziva ended up.