"MWD" (season 13, Episode 16)

 

The doctor is in and he's having a session with Callen--FINALLY. It's taken the writers until the 13^th  season to get Callen into the doctor's office, and I won't say it was worth the wait—only because it should have happened much, much sooner and I would’ve liked a longer conversation—but their conversation made the episode special because the case certainly didn't. It's not that the case was "bad." It just wasn't anything special even though it was related to the military and involved a dog, a military working dog, to be precise. Based on this season's episodes, it seems that Gemmill sees the cases as mere vehicles to explore the characters and their personal growth and relationships. Most of the episodes have a very specific theme or focus; mental health is the theme of this episode, for instance. The lack of focus on the case may explain why many of the cases are poorly written, but that's still not a valid excuse for poor writing. It's not that a well-written, tight, well-conceived case couldn't have a focus and also be a vehicle for character development and exploration. Most well-written episodes of shows do that. But the cases for NCIS:LA now seem so unimportant that details aren't given the attention by the writers they were given in earlier seasons. Sometimes, this lack of attention doesn't affect the episode much, but at other times, it's so noticeable it’s jarring and creates its own problems with continuity, characters, and storylines. While this episode does explore and move some character-related stories forward with this theme, it also has its problems. 

Here’s a brief recap of the case before a deeper dive into the character-related stories. Mary Smith, a former Marine, returns home to find her home has been broken into and her dog, Boomer, is missing. It turns out Boomer is retired Marine Staff Sergeant, a former military working dog who now lives and works with his handler, Mary, who's retired from the Marine Corps and is now a reservist with the sheriff’s department where she works with Boomer to identify illegal drugs, something they’ve been successful doing. That means there are lots of potential culprits. OSP is handed the case and since Callen has been sent to talk with Nate about Hetty and Deeks is giving a deposition at court, Sam and Kensi take the lead. Fatima and Rountree are sent to the crime scene while Sam and Kensi interview Mary. During their interview, Sam gets a call from his dad and has to leave, so Kensi continues with Fatima and Rountree. Luckily, Kilbride's assistant, Shyla, is back in L.A., so she handles Ops while the three remaining agents work the case. Shyla discovers a bounty has been placed on Boomer and when Rountree gets video of the vehicle used to transport Boomer, Shyla ties it back to a career criminal. The three agents apprehend the kidnapper but don't find Boomer. The payment he received yields fingerprints that lead them to some Aryan bad guys in Barstow who've been arrested for running a dog fighting ring. Kensi calls Callen back, and the four agents bust the bad guys and rescue Boomer and the other dogs. Not a scintillating plot, but the character stories were the real focus of the episode.

First, there's Rountree's story. After the introduction of Mary, the scene shifts to OSP where Rountree is in the firing range going through boxes of ammo (which is not cheap). Fatima enters and tries to engage him in conversation, but his responses are terse. He's still upset about his run-in with LAPD and hasn't put it behind him. I get that the writers may be using his experience to illustrate the problems with racial profiling, but Rountree is a character. In fact, he's the character who just last season urged Sam to calm down when all evidence pointed to Sam's daughter, Kam, being a victim of a kidnapping. So, Sam should remain calm when his daughter is missing and may have been kidnapped, but Rountree's still dealing with being pulled over by the LAPD days—maybe even weeks—later? This is not to make light of his experience which was both frightening and traumatic not only for him but for his sister, but compared to what Sam and Kam experienced, it was less traumatic. True, racial profiling occurs more frequently than kidnapping, and Rountree may just be feeling the weight of all the victims of it, but that begs the question if he should be working as an agent. There also might be something in his past, but right now we don't know if there is. In addition, he mentions that what happened is someone else's legal problem. What that means exactly is unclear since his involvement would make his job as an agent with OSP more difficult given the added news coverage and public attention, and if his sister is the one bringing legal action, Rountree would undoubtedly be called by the defense. By the end of the episode, Rountree asks Fatima if he could see Nate. Part of this is about being a role model for his sister so that she’ll get the help she needs to deal with her issues. I get that, but it's evident by other actions of hers—staying all night with a male friend and partying before a final—that she's not a shrinking violet but a fairly independent woman and she has friends, not to mention teammates and a coach. Still, some people have a problem asking for help and there remains a stigma about mental health issues. Maybe the writers will pursue this storyline later this season or next or maybe not.

After Rountree's storyline, we're introduced to Sam's storyline involving his father. Callen enters the bullpen to find Sam already at his desk. They banter a bit before Callen asks Sam what's wrong. Sam shows him an ad for Michelle, his boat. He tells Callen he's selling it to buy a house because his father can no longer live alone. This is the first we've heard of Sam's father not being able to live alone. Later, when Sam and Kensi are interviewing Mary, Sam gets a call from his dad who's confused and disoriented, so Sam leaves to find him. One thing that stood out to me in the call between Sam and his dad was the complete lack of patience by Sam. If you're dealing with someone who's confused and disoriented, it's not a good idea to yell at them. Another thing that stood out: Katherine is obviously out of Sam's life since Callen thought Sam had picked up a woman when they were out. Living with his father could be an interesting storyline for Sam.

And then there was Callen's storyline, the most interesting one in the episode for me. After his conversation with Sam in the bullpen, Callen is called up to see the admiral. It turns out that the FOIA request Callen submitted (he was filling out the paperwork in "All the Little Things") has been denied on "national security" grounds. Kilbride tells Callen he wasn't involved in the denial. He also tells Callen that NCIS HQ, MTAC, and cyber have been pursuing his deep fakes and they've put a security perimeter around his digital life so that if Katya tries anything, they'll catch her. Callen thanks him and is prepared to leave when Kilbride wants him to go see Nate. Callen hesitates, but Kilbride tells him that Nate's been working with Hetty in Syria, profiling some of the terrorists she was going to meet. Callen agrees to go see him. When he gets there, they make small talk before Callen sits down. Nate tells him what he knows about Hetty while Callen shares what he knows (that Keane is with her and that he sent a foreign operative to find her). When Callen gets up to leave, Nate asks him about the deep fakes and Katya. Callen tells him he's heard nothing from her since recovering the film from her vault and that the deep fakes have gone quiet, as well. He thinks the film might be the key to tracking her down, but Nate suggests she may be regrouping to prepare a larger response. That's not the kind of reassuring response Callen expected. He gets up to leave again, and Nate asks him about Drona. Callen asks what he knows about it, and Nate admits he doesn't know as much as they both wish he did. Callen then asks him how he knows about it, and when Nate admits that the admiral told him, Callen realizes the reason he's really seeing Nate is to be assessed. He eventually sits back down, and their real conversation begins. That Callen sits back down reveals how much Callen has grown. In an earlier season, when Nate tried to talk to Callen and find out how he was doing, Callen turned the question back on Nate and ended up giving Nate a taste of his own psychiatry. (But Kilbride still has to trick Callen into meeting with Nate by using Hetty as a reason, so Callen still has difficulty admitting he needs help.) Maybe because of everything that's happened in his life recently, especially learning about Drona, Callen now seems ready to talk with Nate, at least a little. As Sam would say, baby steps. He tells Nate that he has bits and pieces of images coming back, but he's not sure what is real and what isn't. Nate tells him that memories are notoriously unreliable. He tried to get information about Drona, but like Callen, he couldn't. He also tells Callen that Kilbride is just concerned about the team and him most of all. When Callen asks why, Nate hesitates before replying and when he does, he tells him that Kilbride is worried about him melting down when he finds out he's the guinea pig of his adoptive mother. Harsh words, but it sounds like something Kilbride would say. When Callen asks Nate what he thinks, Nate replies, "I think you deserve to know the truth of your own existence." Nate then tells Callen that while the idea of repressed memories is controversial, it might be something worth exploring. When Callen asks Nate if he can help him remember things he's forgotten, Nate replies that he can try, but he also cautions Callen to give it serious thought because some memories are forgotten for a reason. Their conversation ends with Callen leaving to help Kensi, Fatima, and Rountree in the field. I, for one, can't wait for their conversation to continue.

So, what didn't work in the episode?

• Mary didn't seem either a former Marine and or the handler of a working military dog. All Marines don't have to be like Gibbs, but military working dogs--especially if they're still working in law enforcement--are not simply family pets. It was strange when she called 911 that she didn't immediately identify herself as a reserve sheriff. And the idea that the sheriff''s department wouldn't be working closely with NCIS to find a dog worth thousands of dollars who was part of their force and had led to a significant quantity of illegal drugs being confiscated was unbelievable.
• When Fatima and Rountree visit the initial crime scene, they don't find any evidence, but they figure out the crime through simple theorizing. Evidence would be nice.
• Contrary to what people might think, there are not empty shopping carts on every residential street in L.A., so where did the kidnapper get his? If he stole it from a nearby store, there might be video. Also, a lot of average size men could carry a 50-70 pound dog without a problem.
• When Fatima and Rountree are going to be Kensi's backup at Jones' business, why does she tell them to wait outside? Would an experienced agent enter an unknown building with an unknown number of occupants, possibly armed, alone? And why don't Fatima and Rountree, at the very least, unlock the padlock? Doesn't backup mean they'll be there as soon as they're needed? (I also found Kensi's threat unrealistic.)
• As for the asking price for Sam's boat, that's a little high. One of the things about boats is that they can be moved easily, so if you find a boat at a good price in Oregon or Florida, you can buy it and sail it to L.A.
• Since everyone seems able to handle Ops, why were Beale and Nell ever hired? The idea that Shyla can simply step in and handle things is absurd, especially since Callen, Sam, Kensi, and Deeks can't. Why would the most senior agents not be trained to work in Ops but others (Fatima, Aliya, and now Shyla) are?
• Sorry, but the idea that Shyla or Kilbride were ever in the field made me laugh. I can see Hetty, Granger, Chegwidden, Sterling, and Langston, but Kilbride—not for a minute.