NCIS: Los Angeles Review: The Innocence of Children

It’s not something we like to talk about, but we can’t deny the horrible growth of child soldiers in the world. This week’s case on NCIS: Los Angeles is a particularly emotional story as the team works to save a brainwashed 11-year old, and that’s not even the most shocking moment of the hour for two members of the team in particular.

The OSP team is called to investigate when an 11-year old child is killed in Pershing Square. He and his twin were wearing suicide vests and trying to get away from al-Qaeda terrorists. The boy who died was hit by a car, which triggered his suicide bomb to go off. NCIS believes they have identified the boy, but they are able to get a physical confirmation of his whereabouts since his father works for the Israeli government. Nevertheless all of the boys’ resemblances are too similar to be a coincidence. By tracking where one of the boys was born, the team is able to determine that the parents went to a doctor in India for surrogacy. Unfortunately the doctor wasn’t trustworthy since he is under investigation for implanting underage women with more embryos than is medically safe. This means that the surrogate gave birth to identical triplets, and two were stolen to be sold on the black market, and subsequently brainwashed by al-Qaeda to become suicide bombers.

Callen and Sam find the other boy, Nadir, submerged in a tank of water. Callen tries to reason with the boy, but he has become so indoctrinated with terrorist teachings. It takes DNA proof for the parents to believe two of their babies were stolen, and it takes seeing his other brother for Nadir to realize how badly he wants to meet his family. Unfortunately the bombers were very thorough in creating multiple fail-safes so Nadir couldn’t escape. Plan B is to find the bombers and shut down Nadir’s bomb from there, but when they get to the residence they find three other brainwashed young boys strapped with suicide vests. This is where Sam’s skills as a father and a student of the Koran come in handy. Sam explains the true teachings of Allah and talks the boys out of blowing themselves up. And while Sam works to reunite those boys with their families, Callen reunites Nadir with his. Because Callen is the first person Nadir really trusts, Callen allows him to be the first to call him by his newly discovered name, Grisha.

This week’s case is particularly sensitive for Densi. Deeks finds a magazine for mothers in Kensi’s bag. At first Deeks is startled, but he and Kensi quickly start seriously considering what their lives would look like if they started a family. They cover the big topics like how they would have to stop being partners if they had a child together, as well as smaller topics like Kensi’s preference for a home birth. After the long day they’ve had, Kensi and Deeks don’t really have any concrete answers. What they do know is that they want to be together. Deeks may not be all in on having a child with Kensi at this time, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get married. I’m pretty sure my face looked a lot like Kensi’s during Deeks’s unofficial proposal.

Should Callen start using his first name more often? Should this be the year Deeks and Kensi cement their relationship in the bonds of Holy Matrimony?