Before I get to my review of this week’s NCIS: Los Angeles, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the episode that didn’t air, which has been pushed to next week instead.
The episode which was originally supposed to air this week featured storyline involving ISIS terrorists and their influence. The content is still too raw after Friday’s attacks in Paris, which is why CBS decided to postpone the episode out of respect. Crime procedurals don’t work unless they are true to current events, but I think we can all agree this was all just too much. That doesn’t mean that we should be silenced. At its core, good television is about the stories; the stories that need to be told, the stories that rally us, the stories that inspire us. The world is scary, the good guys don’t always win, and the fight is certainly not over. However, if we are to let evil dictate what we will and won’t watch, that is when we are hopeless. We should be proud of the stories and continue to tell them.
In place of the aforementioned episode, this week’s storyline revolves around a blast from Sam Hanna’s past. Jada Khaled, the woman who fell in love with Sam while he was undercover, returns to Los Angeles. After testifying against her brother, Jada’s transport van is ambushed and she is forced to run. The men who went after Jada were a part of the Molina drug cartel, paid to take Jada alive on her brother’s orders. NCIS knows that her brother only wants her back so that he can kill her himself. They need to track down the current head of the Molina cartel, the heir apparent, Alex Molina. Luckily, NCIS has an in with an asset who has already infiltrated the Molina cartel, none other than Talia.
Talia returns to help NCIS with their investigation by teaming up with Kensi. Together, they infiltrate a cartel party where bikinis are a mandatory dress code. It’s a degrading tactic that neither of them are comfortable with, but it comes with the territory when it’s needed for the job. The two of them don’t actually last too long inside the party before they are forced to blow their cover. The only useful information they get is a good look at Alex Molina’s face.
Callen and Deeks track Jada’s handler Drew Grohler in the meantime. Grohler is the only friend Jada has, except for an old tie to the Sudan. Jada calls a man named Wayne Morris, who tells her that her brother wants her home to make amends. Grohler arranges for Morris to get Jada a fake passport to get back to her brother. Nothing anyone can say will change Jada’s mind. Even if there is a small part of her that knows she is signing her own death warrant, she would rather be there briefly than alone for the rest of her life. Not to mention, NCIS, more particularly Sam, shattered her trust years ago.
Granger gives Sam first dibs at Diego Salazar, the man who was wounded in the ambush against Jada. It gives Sam the emotional outlet he needs while keeping the chances of him running into Jada minimal. What they find out too late is that Sam has been interrogating the real kingpin Alex Molina this whole time. With a team of fancy lawyers in place, he’ll be released, but Sam assures him that he should be sleeping with one eye open from here on out.
[Photo credit: Monty Brinton/CBS]
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