"Sundown" (Season 13, Episode 6)

While there were still some bumps in the storyline, this episode was cohesive overall and related to the military. Like the previous episode, this episode didn't involve solving a crime; it involved preventing one--and the result was more positive than last week's effort for a number of reasons, mostly because the story was simple and straight-forward and the characters behaved more true to their personalities and training. While Brennan was able to keep complicated, longer story threads untangled, Gemmill--the showrunner since season 8--hasn't shown the same knack. Also, a few on-going storylines were updated, raising more questions and providing some progress.

When the episode opens, we're on LA city streets in a bus. There are only a few riders and one, in particular, attracts the ire of the others because of the music loudly blaring out of her mini boombox. Eventually, an off-duty LAPD officer gets up and "suggests" the passenger shut off her music by flashing his badge, and she reluctantly agrees. The bus stops and a man boards carrying a bag and brandishing a gun. The man, Gary, shouts for everyone to move to the back. The officer makes an attempt to take his gun--a pretty feeble attempt, to be honest--and is wounded in the process. The credits roll and when we return to the episode, we're in the boatshed with Callen. 

Callen's at the table going through some papers when Sam enters carrying two coffees. He hands one to Callen and asks what he's looking at. Callen tells him the papers are from Katya's safe deposit box (nice to see the Katya storyline moving forward). The papers are more than 5 years old since Katya hadn't visited the box since before her arrest, but there is one interesting piece: a receipt from a company that handles fine art. Callen's going to have Fatima check it out since there's an inventory number. Sam then slides in a comment about Callen's sex life with Anna: "You never know when you might need some good leverage on a Russian." Cute.

Back at OSP, Rountree's at his desk when Fatima enters. She's still using crutches after being shot in the previous episode and cautions him against making any "peg leg" comments. She also wonders how Callen came back after being shot five times in one sitting, and Rountree wonders if that's why he's cranky sometimes. (If that explains Callen being cranky, Kilbride must have been wounded by a few dozen grenades.)

The scene cuts to Kensi and Deeks sitting in their car. Kensi is watching couples through binoculars, and it turns out that she's checking out the "competition": they're going to an orientation for couples wanting to adopt, and Kensi is worried that she and Deeks aren't as "good" as the other couples. Deeks reassures her with his special brand of humor, calling one couple "flat-earthers." As they exit the car and prepare to go in, there's a call from OSP. Deeks will return to work while Kensi attends the orientation.

We learn that Gary's daughter, Kyra, who was a Marine and served in Afghanistan, committed suicide recently. She had been discharged with a dishonorable discharge after she reportedly fell asleep while on guard duty and several fellow Marines were wounded and a cache of weapons stolen. Gary is demanding that the military clear her record and prove that she was murdered by sundown or he will blow up the bus and the hostages.

From here, the episode is straight-forward, shifting between various locales: Sam and Rountree (who we learn took a hostage negotiating course at the FBI) go to the site of the bus hijacking, Callen and Deeks meet with Gary's wife at the boatshed and then Kerr (a civilian who was in Afghanistan with Kyra), and Fatima remains in OPS with Kilbride while Kensi spends the majority of the episode in the orientation. (What I didn't understand was why Kensi made up an excuse for the texts. Why not just say it's a busy day at work instead of lying? Also, it's unusual to attend an informational orientation after submitting an application.) 

When Callen and Deeks speak with Kerr, we learn that Kerr and three others were involved in the theft of the cache of weapons in Afghanistan and that Kerr drugged Kyra to make the theft easier, but she woke and a firefight ensued. Meanwhile, Fatima discovers footage that proves Kyra did, in fact, commit suicide, and when Sam relays this to Gary, Gary becomes distraught and lets the hostages go but remains behind. Rountree refuses to leave him, and during their talk, a sniper opens fire. Sam tells the LAPD captain to call off the sniper, but she tells Sam the sniper isn't LAPD. The sniper is Kerr's boss who planned the weapon theft in Afghanistan. Sam, notified by Rountree that the liquid explosive is leaking and in danger of being ignited by sparks from the sniper's bullets, uses two protective shields to rescue Gary and Rountree from the bus that explodes soon after they exit it. On the roof, the sniper is taken out by Callen and Kensi. Gary is arrested (in slow motion), but before he's taken away, Sam tells him that he was right about Kyra not being derelict in her duty; she had been drugged. We then have a few final scenes to wrap up the episode.

Back at OPS, this day has made Kensi and Deeks realize (again) how their jobs play havoc with their lives and they wonder (again) how this will affect their effort to raise a child ("child" is not synonymous with "baby"). The conversation also made me wonder if Kensi and Deeks think daycare is a bad thing. Anyway, the scene ends with them thinking seriously about becoming foster parents, a tie-in to an earlier conversation between Callen and Deeks, and I won't be surprised if they foster a child in the second half of the season.

Callen and Sam, meanwhile, are at the boatshed, out on the deck (it only makes sense it would have a deck), talking about the case and drinking beers when Kilbride finds them. He tells them he's spoken with higher ups and Kyra's discharge has been changed: she's been posthumously promoted in rank and awarded the highest medal for nonactive service. Callen asks Sam if he'd do what Gary did for either Aiden or Kam, and Sam replies that he doesn't know. Kilbride says that a parent is willing to do anything for a child. (I can't help it: I have zero interest in Kilbride or his backstory.)

As mentioned earlier, the episode was fairly straight-forward but not without problems. One issue was the absence of Deeks when the agents were first being briefed on the case. Even though he was driving back to OSP, there's no indication that he was part of the briefing. And the final moments of the episode had several problems, some of them major. How did Kensi get from the orientation to the site of the hijacking when Deeks took the car? (They drove to the orientation together.) Does she carry her sniper rifle with her because if not, she either had to go back to OSP or track down Deeks and their car. The reason for the sniper wasn't clear. Since the investigation into Kyra's actions and death had already begun, what was his endgame? Was he just there to kill Gary and add murder to the other charges he'd face after his arrest? Nothing about the sniper made sense. And then there was the whole issue of SWAT. There's no way SWAT, already on-site, would've waited for NCIS agents before taking out the sniper, and there's no way SWAT wouldn't have located the sniper before Callen and Kensi arrived. The other problems were less noticeable but still present. Why was Sam the only one going to the bus with the shields to rescue Rountree and Gary? What happened to the LAPD motto "To Protect and Serve" or was it just an opportunity to demonstrate Sam's strength? (I did wonder why the sniper didn't aim for the legs.) Why would Callen, seeing the sniper putting up his rifle, identify himself as a federal agent before the rifle's in the case? Why not wait until the rifle's in the case and the case closed? And since the bus had exploded and everyone was safe, the capture of the sniper was one of the most anti-climatic captures of a bad guy I can remember. Some of these problems arose because characters (Kensi and Callen) were in the final sequence but really had nothing to do and their presence didn't make sense in the context of the situation. Sometimes, it's better to let the story unfold logically than create scenes simply to get characters in on the action.

Rountree played his role of reporter convincingly (his surprise at being the "reporter" was unbelievable because it was so obviously Sam's plan for him), and Sam was an effective negotiator. It was also nice to see two agencies working well together (which happened often in earlier seasons). It's also nice to see Callen partner with other team members. In "Sorry for Your Loss" he partnered with Kensi and here he partners with Deeks. One of the best scenes was the one between Callen and Deeks when Callen tells him that, speaking as a foster kid, he'd kill to have parents like them. That seemed to shock Deeks, but what gave it emotional weight was the blunt honesty in Callen's voice. It also brought to mind all the miserable foster situations he'd lived through. Sometimes, it doesn't seem as if his teammates understand or appreciate the trauma Callen's lived through. From being shot five times to his foster experiences to losing his father to the hunt for Katya to finding out he was Subject 17 and everything in between, Callen keeps his trauma clutched so tight that those around him often forget what he's gone through in life.

So, even with these bumps, it was a nice episode and much better than some of the other ones this season in terms of structure and character behavior. Where does the season go from here?

The issue that nags at me the most is the question of Anna. Yes, she's been mentioned a few times but not once by Callen. In "Subject 17" when Sam told Callen that finding Katya would eliminate a threat to him and Anna, Callen didn't acknowledge his comment; instead, he changed the subject. We have no idea about the status of Callen's relationship with Anna at this point. We don't know if they're living together or if there are problems in the relationship. They haven't had a meaningful conversation about their relationship since "Missing Time," and even that conversation didn't include an admission about romantic feelings for one another (Saying you'll stand by someone is something a person could say to a lover or to someone they care about in a familial or platonic way. Callen was willing to stand by his father and has stood by Sam.) In 5+ seasons Callen and Anna have NEVER verbally expressed their romantic feelings for one another. So, what's going on? Where does their relationship stand right now? Why hasn't Callen asked Anna to marry him? Is he having second thoughts? How does Anna feel about him, about them? I like Callen and Anna as a couple and would love to see Callen and Anna navigate the emotional rapids that come with being in a serious, intimate relationship, but more than that, I simply want the writers to do better with this relationship. If the lack of Callen making any mention of Anna is simply an unintentional slip by the writers, then shame on them for being so sloppy even though it wouldn't be the first time this has happened with this relationship (I was as surprised as Sam when Callen told him in season 9 that he and Anna weren't seeing much of each other anymore.) Brennan gave Gemmill all the ingredients to move forward and create a relationship as complex, intense, and interesting as the two characters themselves, but Gemmill tossed that recipe away and instead has created an unfinished mess. It's past time he cooked up something worthy of Callen and Anna.

What do I hope to see in January and beyond? I hope to see a continuation of the Subject 17 storyline and Callen finally getting some help in dealing with the stress and trauma of his life. I hope to see Hetty and Anna and Katya. I'd also like to see Callen and Anna in a serious conversation about their relationship and move forward together. (Even if it turns out that Gemmill decides that their relationship won't be permanent, he should give Callen and Anna onscreen time to let us see what happens and not simply hear about it.) I'd like to see Beale and Nell, too, even if only for one episode. What do I not want to see? I don't want to see Joelle appearing in any episode with Callen and Anna (in other words, I want the writers to get over their Joelle fixation). What am I pretty sure I'll see? The Kessler and Katya storylines brought to a conclusion, Kensi and Deeks become (foster) parents, a Sam storyline that doesn't involve either Kam or Aiden, more of Rountree and Fatima in the field, and more of Kilbride's backstory (which interests me not at all). I admit it: I'm not a Kilbride fan. He seems like a man with something to prove or maybe trying to atone for something in his past. To me, he seems bitter, and I'm not interested enough in his character to care why. Some find his sarcasm and crustiness charming. I might if he didn't so often belittle and mock others, particularly members of the team, and just plain bitch about things. It's telling that many viewers seem willing to give Kilbride a pass when so many were unwilling to give Mosely a pass even after learning about her son. (And Mosley even shared "classified" information with the team.) Double standards never sit well with me.

Wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving and a restful Christmas, Hanukah, or simply a winter break.