#metaaa

This really focuses on S9 E16 - Warrior of Peace through S10 E1 - To Live and Die in Mexico with a few notes from S10 E 4 - Hit List and S10 E6 - Asesinos).

Moseley

Okay. I know that she was brought in as an antagonist figure - someone who was there until Hetty could be retrieved from Vietnam but who could never be Hetty. But man....they made her really hard to empathize with. Like, at all. And for a character who was a mother who would do anything for her son, it's kind of stunning that the writers made her so unlikeable. Like, there is not much there to latch on to.

Perhaps it's the fact that I binged most of the back half of the season in quick succession rather than waiting for it week to week, but seeing her trajectory of vengeance play out made it clear that she wanted what she wanted and she was going to get it - and she either didn't think about or didn't care about the consequences until it was too late. Perhaps she was arrogant and thought she could beat the odds and nothing bad would happen to her or her team, but...boy did she misjudge.

In S10 E1 when Killbride tells her "you got everything you wanted" and her retort is that that makes it sound "like a wish list off Amazon," I found it hard to disagree with him. The fact that Moseley couldn't answer him when he asked her if it was worth the price was incredibly telling - she couldn't say no, because that would devalue Hidoko's sacrifice, and she couldn't say yes because then that would make her seem monstrous.

But she did bulldoze over everyone and everything that stood in her way to get what she wanted. And she got it...but at the cost of Hidoko's life and nearly Deeks' and Callen's. Sam wasn't in that great shape either by the time all was said and done. She wanted to rescue her son from his father because she saw Spencer Williams as a monster (and he was no angel) but she sacrificed a lot of her moral high ground by the time she got Derek back.

Hetty, for all her machinations and behind the scenes dealings does understand the value of cultivating contacts and trust and working with a team when it's beneficial. Then, when you need them, the team will work with you and trust and follow you. Moseley showed why the lone wolf/smartest in the room/dictatorial leadership mindset has huge flaws.

I wrote everything above before I watched S10 E4 and S10 E6 (granted, only up to the cold open of the latter) and now that I have seen those as well...my impression still hasn't changed. Moseley's first instinct is to not trust Callen and the team, not rely on NCIS as an agency at all, but just go pick up Derek herself after hearing about the cartel hit list. This is AFTER everything the team did to get him back in Mexico...sheesh!

Rather than coming off as protective Mamabear, it still has a ring of high-handed, imperious, "only I know best" attitude - and other characters notice it, as evidenced when Ochoa tells her that she "started a personal war" to get Derek back in Mexico and she can't do that all over again. Yet...the opener of S10 E6 has her going lone wolf and killing a cartel hit man, then going off the grid. I'm not sure, maybe Hetty's mysterious disappearance is tied up in what's going on with Moseley, but to this point, it seems like Moseley is just continuing on a path of doing whatever she wants/thinks is best and damn the consequences. Perhaps at this point, it's fueled by fear over what being on the hit list means for Derek, but still...it seems very "it's my way or no way," and it makes it hard to sympathize with her.

I think the writers wasted an opportunity here with the character to give her more to work with and be more fully rounded. It's a shame.

Hidoko

One of the things I had been spoiled on prior to viewing this season was the fact that Hidoko died, and died in rather horrible and unfair circumstances. But nothing really prepared me for how it actually happened. The character and actress deserved far FAR better than that send off.

Sam and Callen

Callen first, actually. Starting with S9 E16 - Warrior of Peace and moving through the back end of the season, Callen experienced a profound shift in personal circumstances (letting his father go through with the exchange for the American photographers in S9 E16), but he never let it shake his cool as team leader.

Chris O'Donnell did a lovely job of expressing Callen's anger and grief in the silent final beats of S9 E16 as he watched his father go. The camera lingers on his face and he used every minute change of expression to mean so much. It was very well done...and though he never explicitly says it, I think that going through that experience is part of why he agrees to help Moseley (other than his sense of duty as team leader - i.e. if anyone from his team is getting involved, it's him). Having experienced the unjust loss of a family member to circumstances beyond his control, he doesn't want anyone else to have to go through that.

Sam does explicitly express that sentiment, when he notes that the loss of Michelle is what's driving him to go to Mexico despite his injury - he doesn't want to see another parent (i.e. Moseley) endure grief and pain when they don't have to.

The bantering between them...bickering, really...over whether or not Sam is able to go and able to keep up, is spot on classic Sallen. I particularly enjoyed the moment when they were already in Mexico and Callen snarked something about Sam's cane and Sam just threw it into the underbrush. Oh boys....

But for all of that, the moment when they thought they might die, and Callen tells Sam he can't talk anymore because of his collapsed lung was really powerful and moving. We knew as viewers they'd be okay since the show clearly had been picked up again by the time S10 E1 aired, but the scene was still done really well.

It's interesting that after they returned from Mexico, Sam appeared to be neutral/positive towards Moseley - reassuring her in S10 E4 that she'd find a way to be a good mother again, and offering to keep Derek on his boat for awhile for protection - but privately in conversations with Callen, Sam said that Moseley hadn't cared what happened to them in Mexico and implied distrust/dissatisfaction with her actions. In response, it was Callen who pointed out that she also hadn't asked any of them to actively go there either. Clearly, her actions are still affecting other team members' relationships even after the mission.

Densi

Oh gosh, where do I start?

This was a painful half season for them, but the writers telegraphed it so well and ECO and Dani played it so beautifully. It was clear that they needed to go through a crisis and have some Big Relationship Talks before they could fully get on the same page and really be ready to be married.

I feel like S8 ended with the engagement and they were just riding the buzz of that for the first half of S9, then there was Hetty and Vietnam and by the time the second half of S9 rolled around, Deeks had started having doubts about NCIS as a career path. This started off in S9 E16 when the plan to just offer up Kirkin instead of Callen's father was proposed.

Sam and Kensi were in without a moment's hesitation, but Deeks raised the ethical question of whether consigning Kirkin to the torturous existence that was surely waiting back in Russia, when he wasn't the one that had been requested in the trade, was really what NCIS was supposed to do. He knows Kirkin is no angel and doesn't care for him personally (though Kirkin clearly likes Deeks a lot), but it's still worth asking. But because it's Callen's Dad's freedom at stake and everyone else is in so easily, his objections are minimal and he tucks them away quickly.

But this is where the cracks really start to form...the back half of the season is peppered with commentary in the Densi scenes showing that they are on very different pages about what they want for their wedding. Most of these things are played for humor (they have different ideas about the ceremony and reception, the location, who to invite, haha haha) and are quickly resolved, usually with Deeks just saying he only wants what Kensi wants (which actually just means he's not really participating in the decision-making process). But there are other, bigger, things too.

S9 E17 - The Monster gives us that horrible case with the stitched together people, and at the heart of it, a victim who'd fallen in love with his partner while they were on the job, something that definitely resonates with Deeks...and soon after that, we first start hearing about him wanting to buy a bar. He's so serious about it over the next few episodes that he actually broaches it with Callen before talking to Kensi. Kensi, to her credit, does jump on board with the idea after her initial shock and surprise, and does so pretty quickly. I think she sees that having some sort of post-NCIS plan is important to him, but I think she misjudges/doesn't realize how soon he wants to make post-NCIS life a reality.

By the time S9 E23 - A Line in the Sand rolls around, these things have been weighing on Deeks for awhile, I think, but they keep getting shoved aside in favor of cases and more pressing concerns. I have to think, though, that seeing Sam get shot didn't help his line of thinking at all. And so we get to the point where he can't just follow along with the rest of the team when they insist on going to Mexico. He raises logical points about this being Moseley's custody battle that they should have no real part in. It may be a little cold, but it's not untrue - and unlike Hetty, unlike Callen, Moseley's done nothing to win their trust or allegiance (see her section above).

So. The Conversation. After Moseley's fired him and had him escorted from the building - she really had to rub that in, didn't she? That awful conversation in the parking garage. They're clearly talking past each other - Deeks wasn't trying to tell Kensi "don't be who you are" or "don't believe in what you believe in," and he knows how much the job is a part of her identity. But I think that's what she was hearing - an ultimatum. "We can't be married if you don't give up your job." But I think that what Deeks was really saying was that he wasn't sure that HE could do this anymore, actually, he's pretty sure he can't, and he's trying to remind her that while the job is part of each of them, and part of who they are together, it's not ALL of who they are as a couple.

Hard as it was for Kensi (and the audience) to hear, I think that the "I think we shouldn't be getting married" needed to be said...because they weren't facing up to the different things they wanted before that point. She had to then make him confront the fact she may never want to leave this job, she may never want to have kids (or she might want to and they might be unable), and he was trying to say not "quit this job or I won't marry you" but "we shouldn't be getting married when we're this far apart on some pretty big issues, so let's get that sorted out." Then, of course, there were goons (ahem, Moseley's escort officers) waiting and no time to finish the conversation so they left things in a horrible muddle...

...but of course Deeks showed up for the flight to Mexico anyway because he's "still your partner" and the team is, as Sam ironically put it, "one big happy family."

There was some resolution to the Densi issues in S10 E1, though not quite as explicitly stated as I would have wished. Deeks is unconscious for much of the episode...which gives Kensi a chance to contemplate the fear of losing him for quite a good chunk of time as she's hauling him through the desert. I think that prior to this, even up through their argument in S9 E23, there's a part of her that can't imagine living life any other way - she wants to do this job, and she wants to do it with him. Things have been (mostly) fine despite some of their near misses and scrapes before...they'll always find a way to get out of it, so why shouldn't she keep doing what she loves? But she has a looong time in this episode to think about what it would mean to keep doing that job without Deeks and what losing him would really be like. It's a long, slow, slog through the desert where she contemplates what she really values in life.

She doesn't get much dialogue to support her emotional journey here, but Dani's face said quite a lot in many of those scenes, and there was a piece of dialogue that I think spoke to her state of mind - where she tells him she'd carry him forever if he'd just wake up. This, and their episode closing exchange of vows to each give the other everything in this life, support a shift towards greater unity of purpose and being on the same page/ready to finally be married. They've figured out that each other comes first and they're not willing to put anything - jobs, kids, etc. - ahead of the other. It's just that the show allowed Deeks the dialogue to show this evolution - at the end, he says "I was wrong, I want to marry you." Kensi is not given any dialogue to show that she feels differently except vowing to give him everything. As is usually the case with this show, I want more Densi dialogue!!

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The Good

-The shift for Pride to Belle Chasse and the regional SAC position. It’s the kind of change shows like this often tease having their lead actor make, and then don’t follow through on...kudos to NOLA for actually having him do it. (Though, they do seem find the flimsiest of reasons some weeks to bring him back to the team’s regular HQ). It makes sense that in the wake of his shooting he’d at least attempt to find something more stable - also it was great that they didn’t have him immediately win everybody in his new office over to his methods with a grin and some kouign amann. The change of pace, and the chance to grow into a new role, is actually good for him.

-The episode Tick Tock was incredibly strong from start to finish. Tight, suspenseful storytelling with an ending that was only just a bit predictable - but still pretty effective and emotional for all that.

-Jimmy - In the Blood, the episode where he was introduced, was solid, and I really like that they’ve kept him around.

-Hannah - the actress is a really great addition to the show, and I like that they’ve given her character a bit of a complicated history. They’ve developed it pretty thoroughly too and it’s refreshing that they have her and her husband really struggling with how their marriage works in light of the dangers of her career. It would have been simpler (perhaps) for the show to have them make a clean break, at least after Victor Zelko was dealt with - but it feels more real, and more interesting, that they are continuing to try to work things out.

-Rufus Nero - a delightfully aggravating match for Doc Wade. Whether he becomes a love interest or not, it would be great to have him recur - LeVar Burton is always wonderful and he made a great sparring partner for Loretta. The episode that introduced him, X, was also really strong and well-paced.

-Sebastian has proved to be surprisingly resourceful this season and has really developed as an agent. From cozying up to spies to translating rich-kid speak for Gregorio and geeking out with Oliver Crane - not to mention buying a house! - it’s been a good season for him so far.

-Isler! I had the epiphany that it would be him tailing Pride just a few seconds before he showed his face. I hope we’ll see more of him by the end of the season - and I’m sure with his tie-in to the Apollion plot, that we will - but it’s great that they brought him back now.

The Not So Good

-It would be great if they found more of a use for Jimmy plot-wise, other than just turning the Tru Tone into the place to be any night of the week. There is potential in his relationship to Pride and their respective memories of Cassius that has yet to be tapped. They got into it a bit shortly after they introduced the character, but then it was buried and hasn’t really come up again. Jimmy seems to have accepted a lot of things that bothered him earlier, and Pride had some things it seemed he wanted to say to Jimmy as well...and I would’ve liked to see some on-screen resolution of all of that.

-Kinda regret that they killed Cassius off. He spent so many of his other appearances on the show incarcerated that it seemed like the chance to do some really interesting things with him now that he was out and that Jimmy was in the picture was wasted. I mean, when you have Stacy Keach, you should really make the most of him!

-Avner - his motives in Survivor were shoved into the narrative out of nowhere, and that uninvited shoulder rub he gave Hannah in the episode’s flashback was a bit creepy. She certainly didn’t seem to welcome it, and it made me wonder if we were meant to think there was more to their relationship than just the collegial - or if Avner only wished there were.

-The Gregorio and Sebastian as roomies thing. Not sure it really develops either character in any way, and was only mentioned once for humor after they started living together and then has been largely dropped.

-Gregorio in general just feels like she’s “idling” a bit this season. Other than Desperate Navy Wives she hasn’t really been the anchor of any episode so far, and we haven’t seen much non-work life development for her in quite awhile. She deserves better!

-The episode set in the tiny town of Bovis - that the entire town would be in on that meth operation seemed like just a biiiiiit of a stretch.

The Puzzling And/Or Meh

-LaSalle has been a bit of an “idler” this season too...but the one centric episode he had, where he was trying to clear up his father’s tax issues, brought in a character (the accountant for his father’s company) that I thought we’d see/hear more of, probably as a love interest for LaSalle, but she’s disappeared. Why not weave her in more? (I’m not saying I want the show to replace Percy as his love interest...but if they’re going to tease this other character, why not follow through?).

-The Patton-centric felt a bit flat to me this season, probably because they spent so much time that episode with that NOPD cop. I thought that actor overplayed that role quite a bit - everything was too hammed up.

-Sutter/The Angel - started off as a cool concept, got ragingly irritating after awhile (since the audience could just tell that Pride was never going to take her hand), but then became heartbreaking when it turned out that she was sticking around for Cassius after all. Can’t really figure out what I feel about her in the end.

-The woeful underuse of the terrific Reggie Lee as ASAC Thompson - I’ve loved his work since he was the snarky, Sergeant Wu on Grimm. He’s barely been a presence, and didn’t have much to do other than scold pride when he has been around. The fact that the Apollion mission file was found in his office makes me think that there might be something we haven’t yet unraveled about Thompson and his connection to all of that...but we’ll see!!

The Upshot

-Most things have been good this season: additions of new lead, secondary, and guest characters (Hannah, Jimmy, Rufus, etc) who are interesting; old connections resurfacing for good or dubious purposes (Oliver Crane, Isler, this coming week, Elvis Bertrand); personal/life growth for Pride, and, to a lesser extent, Sebastian.

-But...though I think it was a good (and totally understandable) move for the character given the trauma he endured at the end of S4...moving Pride to Belle Chasse and into the SAC position has fundamentally changed the nature of the show. The past seasons have thrived on the tension between Pride’s out-of-the-box leadership style and his team’s varying levels of willingness to go along with his ideas (LaSalle usually was on board, Percy often questioned him, and Gregorio could go either way), as well as how all of that clashed with the much more straitlaced, protocol-driven directives out of Washington.

That kind of thing couldn’t go on forever, or every season would hinge on the same type of major conflict (i.e. Pride-vs-team, and Pride-and-team-vs-DC) and get repetitive...but remove Pride from the day to day life of the squad, and give him a position of much greater authority, and it makes it less necessary for the team to question him or disagree with him and less probable that they will. He’s no longer their direct boss - they’re having those conversations where everyone’s arguing their points on a more equal footing with Hannah (and several episodes have shown Pride looking thoughtful over having been displaced from this and other aspects of the team’s life). They then look to him for support or a new bit of perspective, but he’s less likely to be the source of conflict with the team. (Side note: he comes to the squad more than any other SAC we’ve ever seen...have we even seen another SAC on the show? But where that type of character would usually be an opponent, he’s usually there as a supportive force, meaning no/little conflict).

He’s also less likely to be the source of conflict with the DC brass - though he doesn’t fully conform to Belle Chasse’s expected norms, he is on their management-level team now...and it has only made sense for him to adapt to that role and get better at it, meaning that the more he fits in, the less there is to mine for conflict in the dynamic with DC. It’s realistic, but it minimizes the potential for drama.

It’s all good development for the characters - and exactly what they should be doing. Growing, evolving, expanding...but while it’s felt like a season of personal, individual growth for Pride, Khoury, and Sebastian...as a team, it feels like they’re in sort of a holding pattern...and Gregorio and LaSalle (and to some extent Patton and Wade) feel like they’re not really moving forward at all. I don’t know what I’d do differently...just that for all the good that the new structure with Pride in Belle Chasse has brought, it has leeched some of the dramatic tension out of the squad room.

What I’d Hope To See

-Further exploration of Pride and Jimmy’s dynamic and their respective histories with Cassius.

-A satisfying end to the Appollion storyline.

-Some meaty, fully fleshed out development for LaSalle and Gregorio (as individuals and/or as friends) outside of the casework.

-More Jimmy, more Rufus, perhaps a bit more of Sebastian’s spy flame Carmen.

-Definitive progress between Hannah and her husband.

-A new love interest for Gregorio (and/or some more non-work friends...she could actually reconnect with some of those ladies from Desperate Navy Wives).

-A season ender with a satisfying cliffhanger that doesn’t involve Pride’s life hanging in the balance.

What I know I Won’t See, But Can’t Help But Hope For

My initial gut reaction is that this was an episode that had roughly two great scenes, and that most of what came in between them was filler.

Is my view harsh? Perhaps.

Am I Densi-biased (because the two great scenes, to me, were the Densi phone call just before Kensi destroys her phone and the final scene on the rooftop)?

Maybe...but I don’t think so in this case. I love all of the other characters as well (eh, jury’s still out on Moseley, but I really love everyone else), and I’m as happy with a great Callen and Sam scene, or a Neric scene, or a Hetty and Callen scene, or a team action sequence as I am with Densi scenes.

It’s just that, in this case, most of what was going on outside of the two Densi scenes was either bland and forgettable (i.e. having Moseley repeat nearly the exact same information over and over about how telling the team anything about Kensi’s mission would be risking national security/their lives/etc.) or it was fairly nonsensical (i.e. having the FBI agent in charge strictly instructing Kensi that she was NOT to act as an agent on the case, just to try to reach Kevin on an emotional level, and then treating her as if she was an agent the entire time she was there).

And as far as the case itself went, there was a fair bit more nonsense in the writing there as well. Plus a big question was raised for me - Kensi supposedly dated Kevin for “three months ten years ago, it meant nothing” as she tells Deeks. Yet, the FBI found no other connections/relationships/friends/etc that he had made in ten years other than Kensi and his own sister?! Was he living so solely for his service to have had no one else in that entire time that would mean as much as a brief relationship over a decade ago?

I know it was probably a plot hole in the writing, but it (perhaps unintentionally, perhaps intentionally) set Kevin up to be an incredibly lonely, closed-off individual, and while it made sense that he’d then be primed to be sucked into the plot that the faction was trying to carry off, it also made me incredibly sad for how lonely he must have been. And then to meet the end that he met just seemed like it was really piling on the sadness.

All in all, I wanted more nuance in that whole section of the episode - more of the sister (Tiffany), more of how she and Kevin related to each other and the bond that was forged between her and Kensi while they tried to reach out to him. Though the ending moment at the silo, where they’re looking at each other and Tiffany just knows that Kensi was responsible for her brother’s death, even if Kensi really wished she could’ve prevented it - that was a well-done gut punch.

But agh...what this episode did right, it really did right.

That phone call had all the echoes of the “Blye, K.” phone call in season three, but with so much more depth and meaning behind it now - all of the nuanced evolution of their relationship was in Deeks’ panicked babbling and Kensi’s amused/frustrated “just stop talking.” 

He knew, I think, before the call ever connected, what she was going to do. And she knew he knew it. Didn’t make it any easier on either of them.

(And if ECO keeps getting to toss chairs around, that’s fine by me - he looked damn good doing it).

It’s this moment, I think, where the tiny fractures in their relationship really start - this is the beginning of what will form the larger cracks and fissures that appear by the season finale (which I’ve seen hinted at in spoilers from later in the season).

Before now, any time Deeks talked about walking away from the job, doing something safer, maybe having kids, etc. it was always couched in a smile, a joke, a feeling like “there’s still time to talk about it later.” Now, they’re both starkly facing the fact that there might not be any more time, and up against a do-or-die deadline, they want decidedly different things.

Which leads to that final, heartrending conversation on the rooftop. They’re pretty bluntly honest here (”How long do we keep doing this?” “You tell me, you’re the one that wanted to stay in.” “I don’t know.” “Well that’s just...great.”), and the writing and performances in this scene are absolutely amazing.

It’s a frank discussion of very serious issues for their relationship and neither the actors nor the writers shied away from showing every little micro-detail of how hard it is. They’ve outlined the crossroads they’re at, but they don’t know where to go from here. It’s very important, I think, for where I’ve heard that they will be at in their relationship later in the season that this conversation raises a TON of issues for them, but offers no easy answers.

Heck, it doesn’t really offer answers at all.

Yet, at the end, as everything fades to black, they’re wrapped up in each other...which gives me hope for the long run. It’ll be a bumpy road, but they’ll get there.

Eventually.

Callen’s ex, who turns out to have had her real identity completely scrubbed by the CIA more than 20 years ago (a move Callen seemed surprised by, and that he noted is rarely done) comes bursting back into his life after escaping from being bound and blindfolded in a dungeon-like room and tormented by a group of men who she thinks belong to the rogue CIA group she also once was in.

They later turn out to actually be part of a nefarious business syndicate that was simply working with dirty/compromised CIA agents who would protect the syndicate’s interests in the Middle East by providing both intel and muscle in difficult situations. They’re trying to convince her to go back in with them on their next op - if by “convince” you mean kidnap and torture.

It takes a good deal for Callen, and by extension the team, to believe that she’s telling the truth - but eventually they do, and the race is on to protect Jane/Beth/Joelle’s husband and son from the syndicate’s armed thugs. I’m going to gloss over recapping the specifics of the op because I want to focus more deeply on the relationship and character development “nuggets” sprinkled throughout the episode.

It’s pretty much a given that the team will succeed at getting the “innocents” - i.e. Mr. Joelle and the couple’s son - to safety anyhow. The details of how are not exactly important. Except for one - in order for them to be safe, they have to think that Joelle (or, as they knew her, Beth) died trying to put an end to the syndicate.

It was interestingly ambiguous as to whether Callen was the only one on the OSP team that knew she’d lived - Sam might be clued in, but we don’t see Callen tell him, and it was filmed/framed in such a way that I’m leaning towards him not knowing. Moseley might, but I’m not sure that Callen would have filled even her in (her new office may have transparent walls, but Callen likes to keep things opaque).

In S8 I had convinced myself for awhile that the show was going to do something super-interesting and dark and have Michelle be part of the rogue CIA group and have been long-conning Sam, whom she may (or may not) have come to truly love over time, and that her death would have been faked as part of a larger, long-term story arc. They didn’t end up doing it, and while I’m glad on the one hand that they didn’t make Michelle into a villain, on the other, I still would have very much preferred her alive even if it meant she’d turned out to be a rogue agent. The ending she got was very very much a Do Not Want for me.

This plot with Joelle/Beth/Jane sketched in how such a plot for dark!Michelle could have been done, if the show had decided to go that route. It’s just some interesting food for thought.

In fact, though it’s Callen’s ex-girlfriend that drives the plot action of the episode forward, Joelle’s past connection to the team also intertwines with Sam (and Michelle), given that they were the ones who first introduced her to Callen - and Joelle knew Michelle first, before either Sam or Callen had met her. It’s possibly what gives Joelle the chutzpah to bring up Michelle with Callen when they’re doing surveillance on Mr. Joelle and their son (i.e. when she makes the comment about “is that what you told Sam after Michelle died?”).

Callen looks appropriately pissed - but I cannot imagine the deep reserves of stoicism and patience it took for Sam to allow Callen to hide Joelle, even temporarily, on his boat - to let her into what has become his new home, and act like it didn’t ruffle him at all. That’s next level zen, right there. (Compare and contrast to Callen, who was crankier than usual for the entire episode, especially whenever Joelle brought up Michelle, Anna, or his now-demolished dining room table).

It’ll be interesting to see what - if anything - happens with Joelle/Jane/Beth, her family, and the syndicate in the coming episodes. I’m assuming that the unresolved nature of this arc is because something bigger is being set up for further along in the season, but we’ll see.

First, Asakeem’s very presence in the episode’s plot sets alarm bells ringing for Kensi. The look on Daniela’s face the instant Kensi realizes who’s at the center of this week’s case was utterly devastating. She shutters her expression almost instantly, putting her professional, “agent-face” back on - but for a split second, there was nothing but rage, undercut with a little bit of panic, in her features. Kudos to Daniela for conveying a great deal of emotion with the briefest of looks.

Asakeem’s inclusion in the storyline was tee’d up earlier though, and not just in the “previously on” segment, but also by Mama Deeks. During the World’s Most Awkward breakfast with Densi, Mama Deeks, and Trainer Guy, Mama Deeks casually mentioned that Kensi “almost got herself killed last year...” The moment was almost glossed over, because the scene almost immediately goes off in another direction and focuses on Deeks’ embarrassment over his mother’s relationship with her trainer, and his clear desire to get out of the restaurant immediately and at all costs. But right there is another little reminder of what Kensi and Deeks almost lost in that operation when Asakeem escaped. It’s another little pebble on the growing pile of Densi’s unresolved issues and feelings about how their personal and professional partnerships intersect.

[Side note: I am very happy to see that the writers are giving Deeks and Kensi a fairly well-paced, well-written story arc here. They’ve undergone major traumas in the past several seasons, some of which haven’t yet been fully dealt with but have simmered away under the surface of their relationship. What happened with Asakeem was part of it, but it goes further back, all the way to the White Ghost, really. If they’re going to find a way to work together and be fully in this relationship, they’re going to have to actually work through their individual and joint issues from the past. It seems they are going to be doing a fair bit of that this season. Fingers crossed.]

There were wonderful, small moments throughout the episode that dealt with Kensi’s (and, more tangentially, Deeks’) reactions to Asakeem’s reappearance. Namely, the post-briefing check in near the start of the episode, and the scene on the beach near the end when Kensi and Deeks watch Asakeem pray. The pain is evident on both of their faces, but Deeks’ voice quietly resolved when he says “Baby, you gotta let it go.”

The questions are - how can she/they? Has Deeks done so already? If so, how? How do they both move forward from this moment?

Stepping away from Densi for a moment and turning to the episode’s other painful plot thread - let’s talk about Sam for a minute. I can’t even begin to imagine how cripplingly and utterly complete the pain of dealing with his first anniversary without Michelle must have been in order for him to get as drunk as he did and call out sick. Both of these things are uncharacteristic of the quiet, strong person the show has proven him to be - the person who might normally find a way to work through the trauma.

But there are some things too big to work through. Sometimes they just stop you in your tracks and punch you in the gut (and sometimes it’s your partner who punches you in the gut - I have to say, Callen’s approach to fixing Sam’s hangover was...aggressive). I thought that, punch aside, Callen took just the right approach with Sam - he was firm and forceful without being unkind. He didn’t show Sam any pity, just got him up and working which I think he realized was the best thing he could do for Sam at that point.

I can’t help but thinking that Sam had a different kind of gut punch coming later in the episode though, when he had to go undercover with Moseley as his “wife.” Just the very fact of being in that scenario, right on/around his anniversary, must have been incredibly painful. Not to mention the fact that Moseley called him by his full first name at one point during the op - and it was done in such a way as to seem/sound fairly intimate and personal. It was all for the benefit of the guys they were trying to fool - but for Sam to be in that position given his circumstances? It was most likely excruciating.

Minor Character Roundup:

Hetty - Doesn’t really belong in the Minor Character category, but is here because her screen time in this episode was so brief. Linda Hunt made the most of it though, delivering her defiant lines with gusto and making it clear to her captors that they don’t have the better of her, even if they think they do.

Sidney Jones - Loved all of her interactions with Nell, from the snarky to the sweet. (Hearing about their childhood Nancy Drew detective games made me smile - I pretty much devoured the Nancy Drew books when I was a kid). And I got a chuckle out of her calling Eric “Chicken Legs.” Would love to see more of her as a recurring character - great way of expanding the show’s universe.

Moseley - Again, putting her here is more due to screen time than actual overall character status. She was surprisingly good with kids - and then, when she revealed the existence of her own son, that became less surprising. She was solid going undercover with Sam as well.

Chegwidden - Had a great little moment with Callen at one of Hetty’s many homes that helped reveal a bit more of the motives and methods for her recent disappearance. Nice exchange between them near the end of the episode - would have liked to see more of him in the episode, and hope we will in future.

Okay. So. 

Realizing that it’s probably fanciful, wishful thinking that Michelle is still alive...but hoping that perhaps she is...this crackiest of crack theories was born...

What if she really isn’t dead...and it’s not Tahir who’s hijacked the coroner’s van, but Sabatino?

Remember, he swooped in and shot Sharov in the leg to help “prove” that he was still an ally to NCIS and reliable to Sam...but that whole thing, in and of itself, seemed hella shady. We also see, in the commercials for the upcoming episode, a scene where Sam has him in a headlock. So, obviously, he’s done something to upset Sam further than he already is. Stealing the van with Michelle’s “body” might just do it.

But why would he steal it? Perhaps to swap out the still-alive Michelle with a dummy, or dose her with something that makes her appear dead...so that when the van is “found” and they take her “body” to the morgue, it seems like it’s real, but it’s not.

Why?

Well...there are a few possibilities, but my favorites are:

Michelle is the uber-mole (and has been playing a long game for her entire marriage to Sam) and this is her ultra-creepy exit plan. Sabatino’s working for/with her in order to get her out of there via helping her fake her own death and stealing her “body.”

Michelle, Sam, and Hetty somehow set this faked death up and the hijacking is just part of that plan - maybe they, with Sabatino’s help are trying to draw out the mole so they can finish him off.