"Land of Wolves" (Season 13, Episode 8)

 

It's easy to see that one of the co-writers of this episode, Adam George, was mentored by Frank Military: he focuses on the same characters, those characters exhibit the same heroic traits, and his story drips with drama, at times almost veering into melodrama. One of the ways you know a writer understands a character is by viewers accepting a character's behavior; one of the ways you know a writer doesn't understand a character is by viewers not accepting a character's behavior. And like many episodes the past few seasons, the writers of this episode, like other NCISLA writers, understand Kensi, Deeks, and Sam.

This episode, like several earlier Military episodes, is a showcase for Kensi, and Daniela Ruah gives another excellent performance. She's played this heroic role so often, lately, she could probably play it in her sleep which means there was nothing in this story that provided any new insight into her character. We've seen all of this before: her strength, her survival skills, her protective instincts, her courage. The writers even worked in her disappointment at not yet being a mother. All-in-all, this episode is the Kensi we all know and have seen many times before.

The bulk of the episode is the effort by Kensi (and Rosa, a Mexican teenager), to escape a vigilante group and Sam and Deeks to find her. This ties in to the previous episode (which Dani directed) when Kensi's absence was explained by her being on a special assignment investigating a possible connection between a marine at Camp Pendleton with illegal activities on the border. In the opening sequence, the group of immigrants Kensi is embedded with is ambushed by the vigilantes, and Kensi is shot in the arm but manages to escape with Rosa.

Like every episode, this episode had some problems, and some of the biggest problems were at the beginning. That Callen is the agent of the four main agents who's always absent when the writers want time for the newer agents or guest actors is problematic. It completely disrupts the team dynamic. If he's not the team leader anymore, than simply make that clear; otherwise, the team leader is not the character who should be absent and given second-tier status, especially in critical situations. His absence led to this ridiculous conversation between Kilbride and Sam in Ops:

    Kilbride: Agent Hanna, where's your partner?

    Sam: He had to take care of some personal business.

    Kilbride: I know that. I'm the one who gave him personal time.

Dialogue like this makes me wonder what the actors think when they read lines like that. I mean, wouldn't McRaney be aware that this sounded stupid? Regardless, it's established that Kilbride has given Callen and Rountree personal time.off on the same day, for the same reason (to see their sisters), and yet later in this same scene, he complains about members of the team "taking sabbaticals when they damn well please" which is the reason he is going to run Ops. It seems Kilbride has forgotten that a leave isn't a sabbatical (a sabbatical applies to an extended leave from employment), and that the agents don't "take" leaves without his permission. He also seems to forget that he's the one in charge of OSP and could--and should--call both Callen and Rountree back in to take part in the rescue mission, something that has happened many times in the past when an agent needed to be rescued or there was an emergency situation. No matter the actual reasons Callen and Rountree were both absent in this episode, whether by choice of the writer or the actors, the reason given in the episode is unimaginative and just plain sloppy. Also, the idea that Kilbride can run Ops on his own is laughable. There's nothing that makes someone working in Ops seem totally irrelevant more than having a retired admiral in his 60s able to do that job when no one else is available. It makes one wonder why OSP ever needed Beale and Nell.  And since Kilbride doesn't remember that he can call Callen and Rountree back to work, he has Fatima--the same agent he told in the previous episode to take as much time as she needed before returning to the field--do field work even though she's wearing some sort of boot. So much for giving her the time she needs. We're also introduced to Agent DeLeon who--of course--already knows Sam and becomes Fatima's partner, working the operation back in L.A. But perhaps the biggest problem for me was--What happened to the team Kensi had been working with on this op? They were mentioned in the previous episode, but they simply disappeared in this episode. If Sam and Deeks were going to get intel from anyone on the possible whereabouts of Kensi, the members of that team would seem the most logical source. This seemed to be an instance where a group is mentioned in one episode, but inexplicably disappears in the next, and, unfortunately, this is not the first time something like this has happened during the last few seasons of the show. That, and Callen's absence, bothered me throughout the episode because neither made logical or dramatic sense.

When Sam and Deeks meet up with the Border Patrol agent at the site where the bodies from the opening ambush were found, the agent tells them the attackers were, in his opinion, cartel members. He also tells them the scene's been processed, so they can look around. Sam notices recent ATV tracks; the border patrol agent tells him they followed the tracks but they disappeared after about twenty yards. Deeks sees a bloody handprint on a boulder, and says that could be Kensi's. (Who knew partial handprints were so individualized?) Sam reminds him it might not be, but Deeks says if it's hers, she doesn't have long out here. How he got that from one bloody handprint, with no significant amount of blood on the ground nearby, seems a stretch, but then Deeks is given to exaggeration and often expects the worst, so it's not really out of character for him. He even thinks Kessler might be involved--which is really a stretch--but obviously his imagination is running wild. Sam calms him down, and they decide it would be more effective to conduct an aerial search. (The fact that one of the dead men is Benny's cousin, Raul, who worked with the cartel, suggests that the cartel are likely not the ones responsible for the ambush.)

Still on the run, Kensi and Rosa have stopped briefly. Kensi's wrapping Rosa's ankle, and during their conversation we learn that Rosa's mother is dead. She asks Kensi if she's a mother, and Kensi tells her that she wants to be but hasn't been that lucky. Rosa replies that she hopes Kensi's luck changes (which opens the possibility of fostering Rosa later).  Meanwhile, in Seal Beach, Fatima and DeLeon find illegal immigrants--victims of human smuggling--at the home of Benny Gomez, the marine Kensi and her "missing" team thought might be involved in human smuggling with the cartel. Fatima and DeLeon question the immigrants about Kensi and learn about the American "soldiers" who hunt people. (If the team Kensi had been working with hadn't disappeared, I'm sure they would have provided some details about Kensi's location, as well as more useful information.)

Back in the wilderness, these "soldiers" find Rosa and Kensi, who had left to find help, comes back and is captured (these "soldiers" wear a patch that resembles the Three Percenters, an actual far-right, anti-government militia group), and the group is named the Eleven (for the 11 Confederate states). Sam and Deeks continue their air search and find the fire Kensi has made from a discarded cigarette butt and her knife she left before returning to Rosa. She also carved "11 militia" into the dirt, giving the team the information they need to focus the search. Fatima and DeLeon have returned to Ops and discover a connection between the Eleven and an earlier far-right militia group based in Arizona. Once this connection is made, the leader of the Eleven is identified--a woman--who happens to have a cabin near the current location of Sam and Deeks. Given that information, they head off in that direction. Kensi and Rosa are in the cabin, their hands bound together behind their backs, while the militia members stand outside debating what to do. During this time alone, Kensi and Rosa stand up and walk to a window. Kensi breaks a window and grabs a piece of glass with her teeth. Visually impressive, but the idea that she could use that broken glass to cut the rope binding them--and not cut their wrists so badly in the process that there would be blood all over the floor--is so farfetched that the writers didn't even try to show it. But, of course, she does just that and she and Rosa escape, so when the bad guys re-enter the cabin, their captives are gone (and the floor is spotless). Not long after, Sam and Deeks arrive at the cabin but everyone's gone. 

Kensi and Rosa are cornered not long after they escape, and when the militia leader decides to kill them, one of the militia members objects and is shot by another. This gunfire alerts Sam and Deeks who arrive before either Kensi or Rosa are harmed and a quick gunfight ensues in which the militia leader and two other militia members are killed and the remaining ones arrested. Deeks introduces himself to Rosa and then everyone's back in L.A. with congratulations all around, but Fatima is disturbed by something. It turns out that she's feeling insecure and unqualified, but a few choice words from Kilbride, and she feels better. (Maybe it's a millennial thing, but I found it weird that she would breakdown in front of Kilbride. I can't imagine whining to my boss after knowing him for only a year or two, especially one who can be as prickly as Kilbride, but then he's been particularly solicitous toward her. And Fatima isn't straight out of college; she's been a successful actor, worked in naval intelligence as an analyst, completed FLECT training.)  There's also the obligatory Densi scene in which they express their love and commitment and raise the possibility of fostering Rosa if no relatives are found.

I thought the episode would be more exciting and there would be more tension, but it seemed familiar and I never had any doubt that Kensi and Rosa would be rescued. Having Sam and Deeks partner up had been done before and they work well together. (When Sam told Deeks they'd find Kensi, it made me think of all the times he told Callen they'd find his father, and yet Sam never did anything to help him do just that.) Agent DeLeon was okay, but it would have made just as much sense to have had Fatima work with Agent DesChamps. 

The biggest problems for me were the absence of Callen--which made zero sense, the comments by Kilbride about the absence of Callen and Rountree which made me question his being in charge of OSP, and the inexplicable absence of the team Kensi had been working with. To not include elements or characters because the writer can't figure out how to fit them in to the story s/he wants to tell is a problem, especially when the writer provides no reasonable explanation for their absence. 

I understand that writers want viewers to appreciate their efforts, but writers who write for major TV productions are--or should be--judged more by the work they produce rather than their effort. And while this episode was, understandably, enjoyed by many of the fans--especially the fans of Densi, Kensi, and Deeks--it could have been much better.