EPISODE 250 - "Mother"

This was a milestone for the show and a terrific accomplishment. And it was co-written by Eric C. Olsen (he of Deeks fame) and was an excellent effort. Writing is tough work, and kudos to anyone who takes on the challenge. Eric had the advantage of knowing the show and the general "feel" of it since he's been on it for 10 years, so that worked in his favor. And although it was a good episode with an excellent cast, I don't think it was one of the best episodes the series has given us over 250.

The opening scene introduced us to Akhos and although we didn't know him, we knew right away that he was trouble. From the intensity of Akhos, we shifted to the intensity of the team playing basketball--a welcome sight that brought out the camaraderie of the agents. It's nice when we see them having fun because it's been rare as of late, and their genuine affection and respect for each other shines through in every scene, but the fun disappeared before Kensi could shoot her second free throw and while Kensi and Deeks would find a reason to be grateful and happy beyond the solving of the case, this would not be true for their team members or Hetty. 

One of the first things I noticed about this episode was the similarity with characters and events we have already seen. That may have been by design on the part of the writers, but I found myself thinking, "Haven't I seen this before?" The plot was a TV-scale retelling (reworking) of Skyfall and the Bourne films, and while that made the episode theatrically dramatic, it also made it less authentic and real. Neither Hetty nor her agents are James Bond or Jason Bourne; they're real people doing a difficult and dangerous job. The damage done by participating in and exposure to violence on a regular basis is a serious subject; I wish it had been handled in a more serious way. The idea of someone coming back into Hetty's life to seek revenge is nothing new, but that it was one of those she'd trained, one of her "children," was. Nathasa, the young Pakistani woman who assisted Akhos, was very similar to Fatima Khan ("Collateral") in both appearance and personal story. Deeks' escape from the warehouse was an updated, enhanced version of Callen's escape from the warehouse in Season 1. We've also seen/heard about Hetty's "children" several times, and this NCIS team has worked with some of them (Hunter & Grace), so their existence--or even the idea that one might go "rogue"--shouldn't be a surprise to Callen or any member of the team. And Hetty had told him in "Ravens and Swans" that there were "a lot." But it wasn't just the similarities to past episodes and the "spy thriller" aspect of the story that made this episode not a favorite. There were also issues with characterization and the plot.

We didn't really get to know Akhos until the end, and that was a problem because a well-developed adversary is a great addition to any story. It's difficult to develop such an adversary in one episode (think Janvier, Tahir, Sidorov who were developed over several episodes), but if we'd spent more time with him--instead of only a few minutes at the beginning and at the end--that might have helped. I'd rather have had the agents--especially Callen--spend more time talking to him than watch Rogers interrogate Nathasa. The method of killing by Akhos also wasn't consistent with his character. Here's a man, a lethal killing machine, who we know kills in a brutal, personal way by the way he kills his first victim, but then he sets an elaborate trap for random agents to walk into and gives them enough time to devise a way to escape? That doesn't fit his character. And why would he do that? If his purpose is to punish Hetty for what she's done to him, it doesn't make sense because she doesn't know that any of her agents are in danger. Contrast that with Janvier who sent agents into a trap and watched Callen as he realized what was happening and that his team had walked into a trap. Janvier was a man who used what he did to inflict emotional pain on his adversary. The booby-trapped warehouse scenario by Akhos did nothing to Hetty, but inflicted emotional pain on Kensi and Deeks who were not responsible for what had happened to Akhos. If Akhos was going to inflict pain on anyone to punish Hetty, it would have made much more sense for him to go after his "brother," Callen. If his purpose was simply to kill the agents, there were simpler ways to do that. But why would Akhos want to kill the agents who were being used just like he'd been used? I'm not sure there is an answer for that, or maybe I just can't think of one.

The story also needed too many things to happen to make it work. This happens when a plot becomes too complicated. For example, OPS had to go dark for Akhos to be able to whisk Hetty out of the cemetery. Who made OPS go dark and who whisked Hetty away? How many accomplices did Akhos have? And why didn't Callen and Sam see or hear the helicopter earlier? A helicopter in broad daylight is neither small nor quiet. It's hard to believe that two trained agents wouldn't notice a helicopter hovering over a cemetery - or sitting on the grounds. And was it Akhos' helicopter that dropped the clothes in Echo Lake or someone else? If it was someone else, how many accomplices did he have? And why didn't Nell contact LAPD to help locate his helicopter?

And then there was the Densi scene in the warehouse which had no relation to the overall plot: it had no relation to Hetty and her role as "mother," it told us nothing new about Kensi and Deeks, it told us nothing about Akhos--it was basically to provide suspense without any relevance to the main story. That scene could have occurred in almost any other NCISLA episode after they'd become a couple, and it would have worked. It made a point that their jobs are dangerous, but that's been pointed out repeatedly, especially with these two, so that was nothing new, but Kensi finally confessed that she wants to have kids with Deeks (who knew?). The rescue took far too long for trained agents. I'm not an NCIS Special Agent and I thought about hitching the door to the Audi about 2 min. in because it was obvious that the door was the only exit from the room, so either remove the door or remove the window in the door. It was as obvious a move as handing Deeks the phone to talk directly to Sam about the bomb--which also didn't happen.

The Callen conversation scenes worked best for me because we finally heard from the man himself or had Sam ask questions that really need to be answered because they could provide some insight into his emotional wheelhouse--a place the writers almost never visit. But, the thing that really didn't work for me was any sort of suggestion that Callen and Akhos were alike in anything but the most superficial way--their relationship to Hetty. Callen has had a much lonelier life by all accounts since he wasn't "taken in" by Hetty until he was 15 and Akhos was when he was much younger. And there's no indication in any of the stories that Callen ever worked black ops. He worked undercover, but undercover and black ops are very different, and in "The Patton Project" Callen told Ochoa quite forcefully that he and his team were not assassins. That kind of work goes against everything Callen believes. After all, NCIS is a law enforcement agency, not a spy agency. So, the "connection" between Akhos and Callen is tenuous, at best. (And then there was Akhos' name and the fact that he was "given away" because there was something "wrong" with him which suggests that Hetty took a budding psychopath under her wing.) The problem in Callen's life isn't just being exposed to violence because all of the agents have to find ways to deal with that--and his life was violent long before he met Hetty--but it's also what he's missed along the way: his childhood, a family, lasting friendships, a life partner. And unlike any other character, including Hetty and Akhos, Callen has known the lasting consequences of violence since the age of 5.

For me, there wasn't nearly enough of Hetty in this episode or Callen, given their "special" relationship (she has yet to tell him that he is like a son to her).  A longer conversation between Akhos and Hetty would have been nice, and a better scene between Akhos and Callen could have been powerful (Callen blithely walking around a blind corner was unbelievably stupid given his training). And I'd love to have heard Callen press Hetty on why she began adopting her "children." He learned in "Ravens and Swans" that there were "a lot" like him, so maybe he wonders why, what their stories are, and what--if anything--makes him different. She's never told him that he's special, and I wonder if she ever will.  I would not like it at all if she waited until he was near death to tell him how much he means to her (just speculating). It would have been interesting if she'd asked him how he has dealt with the violence of his job; although he explained why he does the job, he didn't really talk about the emotional cost of doing the job--and that would have been interesting to hear. He seems to handle that aspect of the job well--he's the only agent we've never seen in a session with an operational psychologist--but maybe this will be explored later in the season.

Overall, it was a decent episode with excellent acting all around and terrific direction of a fast-paced plot, but the addition of a subplot that had no connection to the main story, the minimal scenes between Ahkos and Hetty, and addressing a serious issue with a spy thriller-type plot keeps it from being up there in the top five episodes of the series for me. 

Some after thoughts:

• Callen's comments to Hetty at the end--which I really liked--seemed at odds with his comments in the most recent episodes about staying too long in one place and not wanting to connect to people. I wonder if these "conflicts" for his character are planned or the result of the writers not knowing where they're going with his character. (Regardless, that was my favorite scene.)
• I wonder if Kensi and Deeks ever discuss the question of kids when they're not in a life-threatening situation because, lately, that seems to be the only time the issue comes up, and that doesn't seem to be the best time to be making life-changing choices.
• Why didn't Kensi and Deeks go with Callen and Sam to the cemetery to make sure Hetty was safe? Four pairs of eyes are better than two.
• Sam's needling of Callen is starting to bug me. For someone who told Callen in the premiere that he was "very damaged," Sam is sure pushing a lot of buttons--and not doing much to help his partner deal with all the issues that have been piled on his plate.
• The spellings "Ahkos" and "Akhos" both appear in the Press Release from CBS.