He has done it again. The man who pens the most intensely dramatic
episodes, who takes the characters to the darkest of places and manipulates
emotion - Frank Military. His last
outing as writer meant the end for Sam’s wife Michelle and his first episode of
season nine once again places a
character in a life or death situation and is character driven, focusing on
Special Agent Kensi Blye.
Kensi had some incredible
storylines last season as she struggled to recover from a potentially career
threatening injury and had a dramatic return to the field, where she struggled
to escape the evil clutches of Sullivan.
Deeks and the team were able to save her last time, despite her strength
in adversity. This week Kensi is sent away
from the team on a top secret mission.
She arrives at a missile silo to find she is not there for her
particular skill set as an elite federal agent, but as one of two people the
FBI could find that know Air Force Captain Kevin Miller - Kensi dated him for
three months, ten years ago. Miller is one
of three officers who’ve taken over two nuclear missile launch centres and are
reprogramming a number of nukes to launch at non-predetermined targets.
At first it seems that yet again
Kensi is being defined by her love life.
Twice now her former lover Jack (who abandoned with PTSD years ago) has
come back in to her life, both in very dramatic ways. She is one part of “Densi”, the romantic ship
of the show although that rarely gets in the way of her independence and self
assertiveness. Quickly though, Kensi
demonstrates that her tactical and strategic skills may not be required but she
can employ manipulation skills to
build empathy with Miller’s sister Tiffany, to calm her down and get her
talking with her brother. Those ‘manipulation’
skills are essentially lies. Kensi tells
his sister that she loved Miller, implying she still has fond feelings for
him. When Tiffany says she has a two
month old baby Kensi says she has a four month old. Later she guides her in into manipulating
Miller to reminisce over their childhood and to talk about his nephew. Finally there are the empty words she says to
Tiffany about getting Miller out alive.
The other important element in
this episode is how Deeks reacts emotionally to Kensi being placed in a life
threatening situation, and it also demonstrates that he is not ready to become
an agent. Kensi was able to force
herself to separate mentally from Deeks once she had made her goodbye
call. She proves that being a federal
agent is more than her job, it’s her life.
It defines her. Deeks is fragile emotionally
and fraught with anger issues. not understand. Later in the closing scene, he admits to Kensi
that he can’t go through what Sam went through, he couldn’t cope if he lost
Kensi. As has
been seen in the past, when a female he cares about is in danger, he reacts
with violence. In this case he throws a
chair in the armoury after Kensi ends her farewell call. In earlier scenes he seems to be the only one
who does not realise that Kensi is potentially sacrificing herself. Other characters share looks that Deeks just
does not get - although maybe he is choosing to deliberately ignore them.
The writing of the episode is
tight and quick paced and tension is build from the near five minute exposition. The sense of urgency around the case is
exemplified with the use of ‘shaky’ handheld camera shot which is jarring,
giving scenes a sense of immediacy and slight panic as characters try to build
a picture of what is happening. The
camera technique is very noticeable as it is out of the norm for NCISLA which
is not always to the liking of some. The
tension continually builds as the episode progresses and Kensi’s efforts are
interspersed with the team’s efforts to track down any common denominators
between the three traitorous Air Force Officers. The height of the tension arrives with
Kensi’s journey through an eighteen inch pipe, the claustrophobia enhanced by
the camera angle and tight fit which shows Kensi’s elbow crawl to the end. Her resolute determination to succeed results
in the death of both Miller and his partner in crime with Kensi not hesitating
to throw the grenade that kills them.
The tension is edge of the sofa stuff!
With the exception of Deeks, the
rest of the team are pretty much surplus to requirements as no matter what
action they take, they had no influence at all over the immediate threat. If this is a story arc which continues then
there is significant relevance to the team uncovering a college professors
psychology tests which identifies potential military personnel with radical
right wing beliefs. These men and women
are recruited in to the Patten Project,
a “military within the military” who believe in violent and aggressive
action. This includes the destruction of all Muslims including the innocent,
ably exemplified when Sam stating his religion.
Radical far right beliefs and home grown domestic terrorism make a
refreshing if not frightening change from the usual Middle Eastern or Far
Eastern villain.
There is not much in the way of
light relief even in the opening - albeit short - lived bullpen scene. Kensi and Deeks have had an argument over
grilled cheese and neither is happy, in fact Kensi seems furious, prompting Callen
to take great pleasure in observing that the row seems to be about so much more
than grilled cheese. The only other
moment when Sam chuckled after their suspect (professor) ran from him, Callen
and Deeks. They remained still as the
professor ran straight in to Hidoko, who took him out by hitting him in the
throat. Hidoko has proven to be a great
asset in the field and hopefully this means Nell (who looks least convincing),
can remain the Intelligence Analyst in Ops.
Mosely too showed another facet
to her character - her more human side.
She admitted it was SECNAVs decision, not hers to withhold case
information from the team. Callen once
again started to challenge her authority and to her credit, Mosely let enough
slip through ‘hypothetical’ scenarios for Callen to understand the severity and
necessity of secrecy. Crucially, she
could see Deeks’ turmoil and admitting that he had a better chance of
persuading Kensi to leave than she did through her official contacts. Is that a move Hetty would have made? And in keeping with his stoic support of the
team, Callen tells Deeks to stay in Ops to persevere in trying to speak with
Kensi.
The final scene is a
revelation. Firstly that the Mission has a roof top. Secondly because of how Military explores the
reunion and emotions of Kensi and Deeks.
And even here tension is created.
Deeks is leaning over the rails, looking out. Kensi is leaning against the rails looking
in. There are times when Deeks cannot
even look at Kensi - even here tension is created. There were times during their open and frank
conversation that Deeks might have called time on their relationship. How many more times can he cope with
witnessing Kensi go through life threatening scenarios because of her career? Deeks admits he cannot fathom how Sam gets
out of bed every day, having lost his wife.
Deeks literally asks “What are we doing?” Their romantic relationship will continue to
be a struggle to survive all the while they are both in life threatening
roles. It remains to be seen whether there
will be a defining or decision making moment for them. Kensi has proven just how good she is.
The Silo is undoubtedly the best
episode of season nine so far. The
writing, character development, constant building of tension is a lesson to
many others in how to write and direct a procedural. NCIS Los Angeles knows how to create
immensely strong female characters, with male counterparts that are more than
comfortable with this. Kensi deserves such
an episode to be centred around her and Daniela Ruah has continued to rise to
the occasion with whatever the script throws at her - just like Kensi.
What did you think of the episode? Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.