Okay. So, I think that I mentioned - way back in early summer or late spring - that for a variety of reasons, I got way behind on S9 of NCIS: LA. Like, way waaaay behind.
(Partly it was because I moved late last year, partly it was because I left my job and started not one but two new ones, partly it was because what little bits of spoilery stuff I’d heard/seen for “The Silo” led me to believe it would give me the feels and make me probably want to write fic for it and I knew I wouldn’t have time to do that when it originally aired because at that time I was writing two separate oneshots for another fandom that somehow ended up totaling 37K words, etc.).
But I’ve really missed the series and this fandom, and I’m now slowly starting to catch up on S9 - just watched “The Silo” recently. Not sure it actually will inspire fic - or at least not the kind I thought it would - but it did inspire me to do a bit of a meta recap series on the remainder of S9.
If anyone who follows me is still here at least in part for NCIS:LA I hope you enjoy what I’m dubbing the SLSRS - aka Super Late Summer Recap Series (hoping that the amazing @typingtess doesn’t mind my riffing on the concept of her KWIKN series - i.e. Knowing What I Know Now - but unlike her, I will not have previously seen the episodes).
(I’m also still calling it Super Late Summer Recap Series because it technically is still summer till September 22, even if everyone is starting to be in “fall mode”).
Sooo....without further ado (too late!!) here is the SLSRS for “The Silo.”
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.
SLSRS For NCIS: Los Angeles - “This Is What We Do” - 9x08
Ooookay....slowly, but surely, I am making my way through catching up with last season. I doubt I will be fully caught up by the time S10 starts - but I am getting there bit by bit.
Here goes. “This Is What We Do” - a fitting title for the show’s 200th episode - featured an engaging case that took an old enemy (Asakeem) and reintroduced him in a way that didn’t just re-hash what we already knew about him. Rather, it set him up as a thread in a new story arc and did so pretty effectively and efficiently. The episode also touched on two major traumas from S8 - Kensi’s injury/recovery and Michelle’s death - in key, but different ways.
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.
Otis the Sea Lion - Very adorable and charming. Can totally see why he’s Sam’s new drinking buddy. I bet he wouldn’t punch anyone in the stomach.
