NCIS: Los Angeles Review: Granger Danger…Times Two

Months after first teasing that the Assistant Director of NCIS could be a father, it is finally confirmed in this week’s Granger-centric episode. NCIS: Los Angeles picks up where it left off during the holidays with a father-daughter reunion not to be missed if only for all the political complications. Granger is reunited with his daughter in order to save her life,  but was she willing to go that far for him?

NCIS responds to a surfer murdered on the beach whose name was on a list, dubbed the Hobbs list after the man smuggling in the agents, of foreign agents being picked off by a North Korean spy. The body hasn’t even gotten cold before Granger is already en route to Washington. Granger handles the transfer of Jennifer Kim, the North Korean spy who he first met at Christmas. On the plane Jennifer has a fun time needling Granger until the conversation turns serious. He doesn’t know her real name, or where her mother is, but he does know that the girl who calls herself Jennifer is his daughter. She has also known this her entire life. She explains how she ran away to “spy school” at the age of twelve after watching her mother at work in her government job for years. Granger has actually tried to see his daughter in the past, but Jennifer refused to see him growing up. It’s not that she hates Granger for abandoning her, it’s just that her mother and her training was enough for her.

Back in LA, Sam and Callen try to track the shooters while Kensi and Deeks track the movements of a spy named Han Choi, who is also on the Hobbs list. Unfortunately Choi is the one running the operation, not the one being targeted for termination. Their real target is Jennifer. Granger isn’t willing to risk his daughter’s life, so he and Jennifer decide to go dark on this one since NCIS still has a mole. They change their final destination en route without telling anyone. They are attacked upon arrival at Burbank Airport, and it is only the dire circumstances they are in which makes Granger trust Jennifer with a gun. She is after all still a North Korean spy. Jennifer is overpowered by one of men hunting her, but is able to stab him long enough for Granger to put him down. Father-daughter teamwork at its best.

Granger’s strange behavior does not go unnoticed. Eric finds it strange that Granger would escort Kim back to Los Angeles in the first place where a bunch of assassins are lying in wait. Everyone asks Granger, and then Hetty, for answers to no avail. When all is said and done Granger insists on taking Jennifer to the safehouse himself. Father and daughter take a walk on the beach and have a serious conversation about the future. She no longer wants to be in the spy game, but she’ll need her father’s help to do it. Granger wholeheartedly agrees to do whatever it takes to get Jennifer out safely, turn her into an American asset, and find Jennifer’s mother as well. You can tell by the look in her eyes it’s the first time in a long time she has felt safe, safe enough to tell her father her real name, Yujin.

Also in the episode, Callen mentions spending more time with Anna while Kensi and Deeks casually discuss ‘future’ wedding plans. Could we see an official proposal by the end of the season?

What did you think of the Granger-centric episode and the bond with his daughter?