Episode 260 - "Knock Down"

This is a very brief commentary because I found this episode utterly worth forgetting. It's remarkable that someone can be closely involved with a TV series as a producer for 7+ years and still lack a clear understanding of the characters, and yet, Jordana Jaffe is that person. All of her recent efforts as a writer have been abysmal failures, and "Knock Down" (which is, evidently, what she wanted to do to viewers) is no exception.

The opening scene previews the train wreck taking place over the next 40 minutes. Callen, who left for a one week vacation with Anna at the beginning of "Fortune Favors the Brave," returns in the opening scene, and when Sam tells him that Nell, the intelligence analyst who's been with the team for 10+ years, has taken an extended--perhaps permanent--leave, he has no reaction, no comment. This is so unbelievable it's beyond belief. Callen, who has always looked out for Nell, is the team leader. Yes, he has just spent a week with the woman he loves. That doesn't make him a love sick puppy or somehow uninterested in what's happening to his team or its members. And not even a quick question to Beale about how he's doing or an acknowledgement that Callen knows what he might be going through? Freaking odd. Equally odd is that Sam, his partner who has always been interested in Callen establishing a permanent relationship with someone (to the extent that he arranged a blind date for him and encouraged him to look for Anna in "Answers") is now less than interested; he's positively rude when Callen shows a willingness to share details of his week. That Callen is open to answering questions Sam might pose of a personal nature is unusual and out of character, but his taking a week off to spend with the woman he loves is something he hasn't done since the series began, so his uncharacteristic enthusiasm to share personal details with his partner is not entirely unbelievable. Sam's callous disinterest, however, is.

And then there's the Deeks and Beale encounter. As already mentioned, it's been a week since Nell's surprising departure, but that doesn't stop Jaffe from creating a scene where Deeks confronts Beale about his less than obvious feelings of loss that he's been "dealing with" for a week. This entire scene is forced and strange and makes Deeks seem not so much a caring co-worker as a hovering, prying pseudo-therapist trying to force Beale into vomiting his feelings while at work. No wonder Beale looked uncomfortable.

Why Jaffe has such difficulty creating characters who are mature and professional is a question only she can answer, but the idea that in order to express emotions a character must become an extreme caricature is the mark of an immature writer. And it wasn't only the men characters who suffered this fate. FBI Agent Rush was an embarrassment, not only to the FBI but to women. I sometimes wonder if Jaffe realizes that in 2020, most women in the workforce would not be shocked or ogling a fellow woman who needed to use a breast pump. (The use of the breast pump was itself a gimmick, another characteristic of Jaffe when creating characters.) And Rush's behavior throughout was ridiculous and far beneath the professionalism one would expect from a seasoned FBI agent, man or woman. True, her character recently gave birth, but real women in a variety of careers, including law enforcement and government positions, do this and yet still manage to somehow maintain a semblance of normalcy when they're at work. Who knew? And would Kensi sit and watch a fellow woman law enforcement officer being berated by her superior as though it was entertainment? And then there's Fatima. I liked her when she first appeared in the series, but I'm rapidly beginning to dislike her character. One of the things I liked most about Dom's character was that he was part of the team, but he was also still learning. He knew it and the team knew it, and that didn't detract from his character's innate intelligence and drive. Fatima is beginning to act as though she knows it all, that she doesn't need to learn anything more from the team. It's not that she should be deferential to the team members, but just because she was captured doesn't make her suddenly as experienced and as capable as the men and women she's working with who together have more than 50 years of experience between them. There's nothing demeaning about knowing that you don't know everything and need to learn from others.

The plot was as awful as the characterizations. Involving the FBI in an asylum case made no sense since no crime had been committed; this case would have been handled by the State Department which has its own security service. The red herring arson cases were ridiculous. Why would Callen and Sam even be at the large building that was burning when it was not an FBI safe house? That's an investigation for LAFD & LAPD. Jaffe has an unfortunate tendency to include a lot of empty filler scenes that take up screen time and provide little of interest to either character or plot  development, and this tendency continued in this episode. While most of the bar scenes in various episodes have been worthwhile and enjoyable, the scene at the bar in this episode was just annoying. Sam butting in when Kensi asked Callen about his week, rolling his eyes as though he didn't want to hear more (even though he had refused to hear anything) just continued his uncharacteristic behavior, and Deeks stubbing his toe on another case on the floor was predictable and unfunny. And the final scene between Sam and Katherine? Sam has had an entire week without Callen around, and yet he doesn't have time to listen to his partner because he has a sudden urge for sex? What was he doing the entire week when Callen was gone? And if the showrunner can bring in Moon Bloodgood for a 2-minute spot, why can't he bring in Bar Paly? It would have been great to have given viewers a scene of Callen and Anna at the beach at the end of "Fortune Favors the Brave." After all, this final scene had NO relationship to the storyline. At least a beach scene between Callen and Anna would have had more meaning to that episode than the scene between Sam and Katherine had to this one.