The Positively Positive

From the moment I first saw the NCIS LA crossover episodes last year on NCIS, I knew that I was gonna like this new spin-off. The first season has done nothing except prove me right which is cool because, well, who doesn’t like it when they’re right?

Another thing I knew right off the bat was that Callen was going to turn out to be my favorite character. No it’s not just because Chris O’Donnell is cute, though that doesn’t hurt, but because “G.” is a great character. We’ve always known very little about Callen and while it’s not unusual for a show to give us nothing about a character at first, it is unusual for the character himself not to know anything about his past, not even his own name.

In this episode, we follow along as Callen gets some clues to his past – including the fact that he had an older sister. Of course we didn’t get the closure or the happy ending when it turns out that the woman living under his sister’s name is actually another person entirely and his real sister is dead. So even though a few questions were answered, a bunch more have been asked, which sets us up nicely for season 2.

My favorite parts…

The way Callen tried to reach through the cage when he saw there was a file on him and he couldn’t get it out before the place went up in flames. The amount of longing in his eyes was torturous and I just wanted to break down the damn door for him.

Sam sounding insulted that there were no records on him but two whole boxes on Hetty. Oh c’mon, like that’s really a surprise. I’m telling ya, that lady’s got some secrets. I just know it.

Hetty knowing all the answers to all the questions that Callen was ready to ask her. Of course she did have an advantage, since all of the answers were “no”.

Callen getting Eric to tell him what they had on the case before Hetty could officially call and tell him that Callen was off the case. Wow, I don’t know if I would’ve been brave enough to ignore Hetty’s calls like that. Go Eric!

The appearance of Kort (who used to work with Callen? Interesting) and him pointing out that no one calls him by his first name so Callen isn’t missing anything. I love that Callen said it’s because no one likes Kort. LOL, now I’m starting to think that Callen and Tony might get along great. Uh oh….I feel a fanfic idea coming on.

Hetty telling Callen that there’s no point in sending Callen home because it would just move him from is office chair to his office couch. LOL.

Callen working off the stress by going to the shooting range. Somehow that doesn’t surprise me at all. Considering how much stress he’s probably had in his life, it’s no wonder he’s such a great shot.

The way Callen got Nate to get info on the case for him. Pretty sneaky how he kept getting what he needed without technically breaking any rules.

Loved the car chase but I completely lost my cool when Callen’s car flipped over. I totally thought he was gonna end up in a hospital.

Callen in a totaled car, hanging upside down from his seatbelt and STILL able to take out the bad guy. Is that badass or what??

Callen’s adamant declaration that he didn’t have a sister. I just don’t think the he wanted to even acknowledge the possibility because it would mean that there was someone out there who had abandoned him. When he started to remember and the single tear dropped from his eye…..oh man. Killer scene.

Being terrified as Amy/Hannah kept trying to shoot the bad guy but kept missing. Eek.

Callen finally finding out that he has a sister only to find out that she’s dead, then hearing that she always missed him and cried herself to sleep when she was a little girl because she wanted her little brother. When Hannah was nearly out the door, I was practically screaming for him to ask her what his name was. Then he did and I lost it when all he got was “Baby Brother”. Oh, poor Callen….

Nate figuring out that the same person has been filling out the addresses in the book and watching Callen ever since he was a child. HUH???

Hetty once again knowing everything about everything and somehow getting the location where Callen’s sister was buried so he could say goodbye. Then him finding flowers and a card from what looks like a parent?? Is it his and Amy’s parent or maybe Hannah’s? Oh boy, so much to ponder for next year.

Overall a really good season ending with not so much a cliffhanger as a huge question that is ready to be answered in season 2.

Don’t miss out on my next review! Be sure to subscribe to The Positively Positive and get updates straight to your email!

More NCIS: Los Angeles….
NCIS:LA – Season 1, episode 1 “Identity”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 2 “The Only Easy Day”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 3 “Predator”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 4 “Search and Destroy”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 5 “Killshot”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 6 “Keepin’ It Real”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 7 “Pushback”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 8 “Ambush”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 10 “Brimstone”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 11 “Breach”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 12 “Past Lives”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 13 “Missing”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 14 “LD50”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 15 “The Bank Job”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 20 “Fame”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 21 “Found”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 22 “Hunted”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 23 “Burned”

Boy do I love these kinds of episodes. An agent in trouble, left out on his own, a team trying to help but being cut off from doing so. Man, I just eat this stuff up with a spoon.

Five minutes into the episode, Callen finds out that his cover has been compromised. He immediately goes on alert, putting into action a plan that obviously has been worked out for just such a contingency. Soon he finds out that the man behind it all knows more about him than he does himself and Callen has to decide between protecting his friends and getting some information he desperately wants.

Highlights….

Cracking up at the fact that Callen’s current cover is as an insurance salesman. Well that’s one way to keep people from asking about what you do.

Sam and Kensi’s discussion about the guy who came on to her the previous night and him running the “game” on her. LOL.

Hetty ordering them to go dark when the Eric couldn’t get control of the virus, leaving Callen on his own. Whoa.

The way Callen was able to fast-talk his way through the meet with people he’d never met and acting like someone else. Damn, he’s good.

Hetty calling in Renko to give them a hand. I was wondering when he’d be making another appearance.

Sam and Callen meeting at a rally point they picked out five years ago. It’s so cool to see how much history these guys have together.

Hetty knowing that Sam had met Callen without even needing to ask. Gotta love her. She’s always at least three steps ahead of all of them.

The look between Eric and Nate when Callen’s phone started to ring and neither of them wanted to answer it. OMG that was hilarious! Loved it.

Jumping a little when Renko got hit. I forgot he had a vest on and for a second there I wondered if we were going to lose another agent. Whew.

Callen offering to take himself off the case because he can’t be sure whether his personal feelings are going to get in the way.

Eric telling Hetty that the entire NCIS agency had been compromised, and her immediately ordering Callen back on the case, personal feelings or not.

Eric telling Callen that being asked to put the virus back online was akin to committing “technological malpractice”. LOL.

Hetty pointing out to Callen that he might be losing his one chance to find out about his past if Keelson decided he’d rather die than be caught.

Eric getting a positive match on the face of Keelson, only to find that he doesn’t exist anywhere in cyberspace. Uh oh.

Callen lowering his gun when he was asked if he could live the rest of his life without knowing what “that ‘G’ stands for”…..but still being able to take the guy out when he had no other choice. Man, I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for him.

Hetty asking Callen how he felt about knowing the man who hired Keelson was still out there and his reply that he wouldn’t be able to answer that until he tracked them down.

Eric running up saying that the case wasn’t over. Aha! I had a feeling this one was going to be a two-parter. Looks like this show is following in the original NCIS footprints by having a two-part finale.

Overall an exciting episode that looks to be leading us into a very exciting first season finale.

Want to know every time I add a new NCIS Los Angeles review? Be sure to subscribe to The Positively Positive!

More NCIS: Los Angeles….
NCIS:LA – Season 1, episode 1 “Identity”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 2 “The Only Easy Day”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 3 “Predator”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 4 “Search and Destroy”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 5 “Killshot”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 6 “Keepin’ It Real”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 7 “Pushback”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 8 “Ambush”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 10 “Brimstone”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 11 “Breach”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 12 “Past Lives”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 13 “Missing”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 14 “LD50”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 15 “The Bank Job”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 20 “Fame”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 21 “Found”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 22 “Hunted”

In this episode, many of the characters were not only dealing with Dom’s recent death, but also the reminders that his passing brought up of others they have lost. Kensi reveals that not only has she now lost Dom, but also her father, an ex boyfriend and her ex partner. That is quite a bit of hurt for one person to carry around and makes me better understand why she’s so tough. She simply can’t afford to let anyone in for fear of causing herself even more pain.

Meanwhile Sam is also dealing with a few difficult issues himself. Trying to take the blame for Dom’s death (like everyone else on the team), he’s also got the problem of his surrogate brother’s part in it. Moe helps them out with finding the man actually responsible for Dom and the two brothers eventually mend their relationship.

The one taking Dom’s death the hardest is Hetty, as evidenced by the fact that she gives Vance a letter of resignation. More than ten years ago she lost another agent named Sullivan and she decides she’s not cut out for the life. Personally I doubted that Linda Hunt was planning on actually leaving the show (especially since I couldn’t find any hint of it online). But I admit I still did wonder whether or not it was going to end up being like the end of season 4 of the original NCIS, with Hetty leaving for a few episodes to get her head on straight.

In the end though, Callen quietly convinces her that she is right where she belongs (with a nice bit of pick-pocketing, I might add).

Overall an episode that showed us how the team is dealing with Dom’s death and how they are moving forward from it.

Want to know every time I add a new NCIS: Los Angeles review? Be sure to subscribe to The Positively Positive!

More NCIS: Los Angeles….
NCIS:LA – Season 1, episode 1 “Identity”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 2 “The Only Easy Day”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 3 “Predator”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 4 “Search and Destroy”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 5 “Killshot”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 6 “Keepin’ It Real”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 7 “Pushback”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 8 “Ambush”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 10 “Brimstone”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 11 “Breach”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 12 “Past Lives”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 13 “Missing”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 14 “LD50”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 15 “The Bank Job”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 20 “Fame”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 21 “Found”

Well they did it, they actually killed off Dom. I guess deep down I knew that was going to happen, but I was still sort of surprised when it actually happened. I figured that Adam Jamal Craig was still leaving the show but for a little while there, I wondered if the character might actually live through his ordeal.

The team gets a lead that Dom is being held by a group of terrorists threatening to execute him if their demands aren’t met. They then go about doing anything and everything they can to find him, including some scare tactics that were very effective, like threatening to throw a man into the ocean handcuffed to a brick. When everything leads to one man that they cannot take into custody by normal means, the team decides to take their threats to extreme measures, causing everyone to decide between saving Dom’s life and their careers.

Meanwhile Dom is trying on his own to escape, not content to just sit idly by when he knows his time is running out. An NCIS agent to the bone, he works every angle he can to get out of his prison – from using a broken mug handle to break out of his handcuffs to befriending one of his captors (who turns out to be Sam’s old friend Moe, the boy he took back from Somalia after killing his father).

In the end, it turns out that Dom is being held not in some faraway land, he’s right there in LA in an old theater. The team finally finds him, just as Dom has broken free and is looking for a way out of his prison.

The saddest part of this show is the fact that the team actually does find Dom and for all intents and purposes, does rescue him. But in the ensuing firefight, Dom gets in the line of fire while protecting Sam and is fatally wounded.

Watching Sam and Callen desperately try to bring Dom back while the rest of the team watches helplessly (most of them miles away and watching via cameras), I felt the first tears fall. Then as Callen had to pull Sam off, telling him that they had never given up on the younger man, even more came.

The closing song at the end was the final straw for me, I can’t think of anything more perfect for the sadness of that scene than Peter Gabriel’s “Grieve”

Overall a sad but extremely well done episode.

Farewell Dom.

Want to know every time I add a new NCIS LA review? Be sure to subscribe to The Positively Positive!

More NCIS: Los Angeles….
NCIS:LA – Season 1, episode 1 “Identity”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 2 “The Only Easy Day”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 3 “Predator”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 4 “Search and Destroy”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 5 “Killshot”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 6 “Keepin’ It Real”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 7 “Pushback”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 8 “Ambush”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 10 “Brimstone”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 11 “Breach”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 12 “Past Lives”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 13 “Missing”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 14 “LD50”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 15 “The Bank Job”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 20 “Fame”

Alright so I know there might be some people out there who disagree with me, but I’m okay with Dom being replaced by Deeks. I actually thought he was just going to the team’s LAPD liaison but I guess I should’ve known better. Turns out that Hetty has been secretly watching him for a while and wants him to be a full member of the team.

I don’t really have anything against Dom as a character or Adam Jamal Craig as an actor. It’s just that Dom’s character wasn’t that strong so I can’t say that I’m too surprised they are replacing him. Deeks is a bit more interesting. He’s got a grittiness about him and comes with some baggage, all things that are needed in a drama like NCIS: Los Angeles.

This week’s episode did a great job in setting up Deeks, showing how he might work with the team in the future. The truth is that it wasn’t a perfect fit, but that’s okay. He doesn’t immediately get along with everyone, there is disagreement with how he handles a tricky situation with a suspect holding a gun to a woman’s head, etc. But that’s all part of the fun. If Deeks stepped in and everything was hunky-dory right from the start, how interesting would that be? Not much.

After seeing clips from next week’s ep (there I go, watching previews again, darnit), I’ll admit that I did something I normally never do. I went hunting for spoilers. Well for those who want to avoid them, have no fear. Cuz I came up with nothing. The truth is that I have no idea what will happen to Dom in next week’s ep, other than what we saw in the previews. But if I had to bet, I’d say that Deeks will be back soon.

Overall a good episode that gave this new team a chance to start working out the kinks of their (sure to be complicated in the future) relationships.

Want to know every time I add a new NCIS: Los Angeles review? Be sure to subscribe to The Positively Positive!

More NCIS: Los Angeles….
NCIS:LA – Season 1, episode 1 “Identity”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 2 “The Only Easy Day”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 3 “Predator”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 4 “Search and Destroy”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 5 “Killshot”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 6 “Keepin’ It Real”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 7 “Pushback”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 8 “Ambush”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 10 “Brimstone”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 11 “Breach”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 12 “Past Lives”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 13 “Missing”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 14 “LD50”
NCIS: LA – Season 1, episode 15 “The Bank Job”