Chad Mazero has written a fun episode which features numerous call outs to past
episodes and known character traits as well as gently moving on the Callen /
Katya storyline. It is very much a team episode, even with the team split up to
work different angles. Sam is working out with Rountree and giving out life
lessons, something which Sam denies. When Rountree jovially claps Sam's arm,
Sam returns the favour a little harder. Apart from showing his natural
strength, it is a great opportunity for gentle humour. Even
Rountree spends the episode working with Sam, a natural continuity of them
working out together at the start.
Kensi and Deeks are together in the bullpen with
conversations which do not involve pregnancy or adoption. Neither do they refer
to Kessler. Instead they discuss the lighter topic of divorce, delightfully
talking at cross purposes with Deeks getting their neighbour's name wrong.
There is no explanation as to why they do not continue working as partners
during the episode, particularly when Callen is out on his own at first. Callen
visits a woman (Angela) who turns out to be Katya's ex-girlfriend, albeit under
her alias of Kate Miller. It seems he's running his own operation and is
unsuccessful in convincing the woman to assist him locating Katya. The end of
the episode though, sees Callen revisiting as she's had a change of heart and
remembered a safety deposit key Katya left with her and has seemingly forgot.
Sam picks him up and asks how it went. On the face of it, Callen has been
shared his side-line investigation with Sam, until he responds by saying he's
not holding his breath (on the woman providing anything useful). So Callen has
reverted to type and withholding information from his partner and best friend.
Again.
Somehow then and for reasons unknown, Callen and
Kensi end up partnering on the case NCIS has taken from the ATF involving
stolen weapons. There is a call out to last week's episode with the ATF being
short staffed due to the deaths of the agents in the field. This time there is
no militia or corrupt high ranking military officials in play, just a simple
case of greed, revenge and a crime family fall-out. They work well together and
share the same facial expressions and body language when dealing with the weird
and rather unlikable Corey the Coroner, first introduced in an episode
co-written by Mazero and Jordana Lewis Jaffe in season 9 (Mazero also featured
Corey in S11 High Society). Even Corey's colleagues don't like him.
Deeks has the most fun on the case, demonstrating
his (special) investigative skills with the step-mother of the dead suspect.
Their scenes together are engaging from the start, when Miriam Sivac mistakes
him for the pool boy. They bounce off each other in scenes, including the final
one, when she ends up in the interrogation room. There is a slight undercover
aspect when Kensi, Deeks and Callen attend the funeral of the dead suspect.
Again the banter flows, with
Deeks gets involved in and sliced in a brief knife fight but the real action is
left to Sam and Rountree, who's investigations have led them to a warehouse.
Here, director Eric Pot utilises slow motion to emphasise the physicality and
the choreography of the fist fight the pair have with the bad guys. Rountree,
continuing with the running joke of the episode, continues to be a touch late
to the party, finished by slam dunking his bad guy after Sam made the same move
slightly earlier to incapacitate his guy.
There is a great level of symmetry with the episode between character
interactions and revisiting comments and scenarios from earlier. For example
Rountree suggested Sam starts his speech with a joke, something which Callen
repeats when they're in the Charger at the very end - their only scene together
this week. Mazero clearly has a solid understanding of the character's
personalities and has put together, with Pot, a thoroughly enjoyable episode.