A retrospective post about the mysterious man we only know as ‘G’ is… ‘complicated’, to say the least. After all, we’ve utilized so many items for Callen’s Corner already.
We could discuss, that the lead agent speaks fluent English, Russian, Spanish, Polish, German, Italian, French, Romanian, Mexican, Spanish, Czech and Chechen. Not too sure if he simply poses as such, or if he is really able to read Arabic [Predator | #1.03]… But are those the facts we want to consider?
Looking back through the years, we have been fed small tidbits about this mysterious family that Callen belongs to. Just enough to keep us guessing and debating, but not enough to actually reveal much about the team’s stoic leader. Because of this, we’ve decided to focus on G’s family life in this post.
Hetty: Oh I know my family, Mr. Callen. Believe me when I say, sometimes I envy you *not* knowing yours. [Callen, G | #1.24]
FAMILY TREE
What do we really know about Callen’s family? Over the past five seasons, the writers of the series have revealed some family tree intrigue.
The tragedy is that the majority of the information, comes from people who: first pose as a family member (his sister, his father), are trying to kill him (Alexa Comescu, Vasile Comescu, Keelson) or are hiding secrets from him (Hetty Lange, Hannah Lawson and even Arkady Kolcheck)…
George Callen (Callen’s Grandfather)
It was from Alexa Comescu [Lange, H. | #3.01] we learnt about Callen’s grandfather: G. Callen. G. for George. While making soup, Alexa explains to Hetty how the ‘Callen’ blood feud began.
Back in World War II, Alexa’s grandfather was doing everything to keep his own family safe from the death camps. Later in that same war, there was a government power shift in Romania. Before, the Comescus were someone the government relied on. After the ‘coup’, the new government despised the acts of the Comescus (he had been co-operating with Hitler and was considered a fascist).
The government of King Michael asked the American OSS (now the CIA), to help to overthrow the fascists regime. George Callen worked for the OSS and came to help hunt down war criminals. He killed the head of the Comescu family, and two of his brothers.
It took two years, but the Comescus finally found George Callen. By that time, he had met and married a Roma girl and they had a child – Clara. George Callen was killed by Alexa’s father, but his wife and daughter, Clara, escaped to America. Clara came back, in 1966, also working for the CIA…
What do you think – would Clara called her boy after her father?
Clara Callen (Callen’s Mother)
Henrietta Lange met Clara Callen in 1966 while working for the CIA. Clara was posing as a college student in Romania, and Hetty was Clara’s handler. Everything was fine the first year, but shortly after Clara disappeared. Six years later Clara resurfaces and contacts Hetty. She was desperate to get out of Romania with her two children. They agreed to meet each other on the beach so Hetty could extract the reclaimed operative and her two children. At the last minute Hetty was given orders to abort the mission.
It was the Comescu family [‘my father swore on his father’s grave to end the Callen bloodline’-Alexa Comescu] who killed Clara in front of her son on the beach. Two years later Hetty found Clara’s son, G, placed in an orphanage in America. Hetty removed him and managed to put the ‘challenging G’ in foster care.
Hetty: You asked me why I went off on my own to face the Comescus. I did it… because of your mother.
Callen: You knew my mom?
Hetty: Sit down. I’ll tell you everything I know.
Callen: Why now?
Hetty: Because you’re safe from the Comescus now. And because I can’t hold on to these secrets any longer. Please Mr. Callen. Where do I begin?
Callen: What was her name?
Hetty: Clara… Her name was Clara.
[Backstopped | #3.03]
Amy Callen (Callen’s Sister) (Born on July 11,1967 and died August 25, 1978)
When a man named Keelson says he has all the information about Callen’s past and family, Callen is pulled into a wild goose chase, doing what Keelson wants. In return Keelson promises to give Callen information about his life [Burned, #1.23].
All they find after Keelson is killed, is a security tag key for a warehouse filled with boxes of files. As G desperately searches, he finally comes across the box labeled, ‘Callen, G.’. With the warehouse rigged to explode in moments, and the box of files unreachable, the team grabs the material on a desk and escapes… barely.
The material they have is about ‘Taylor, A’ and inside it is a book that has all of the places that Callen stayed in when he was in foster care. It only takes some time before Eric finds out that ‘Taylor, A’ is in fact Amy Taylor – maiden name ‘Callen’.
When Callen seeks out Amy Taylor in an empty orphanage, he asks her who she really is. She tells him that she is his sister. At first, he denies that he has a sister. (Such a sad thing that traumatic things in life do this to even the sharpest agents one can imagine!)
This is probably what makes the woman tell him that her real name is Hannah Lawson. She knew his sister – Amy Callen. They were friends. To prove that she is now telling the truth, she tells him about Amy pushing him in red cart and how he would tell her to go faster. One day the cart fell over and he got hurt, he didn’t cry but Amy promised that she would take care of him, always. Hannah tells G. that Amy loved him and cried every night for him. Memories slowly come back for G.
Callen: What’d she call me?
Amy Taylor: Baby brother.
Callen: No. I – I mean…
Amy Taylor: Just ‘baby brother’
[Callen, G | #1.24]
Hannah Lawson goes on to tell him the story of how she came to have Amy’s identity. When both girls sneaked out at night, Amy slipped and fell into the river. Amy couldn’t swim, and Hannah couldn’t save her. Hannah went back and, because of how much they resembled each other and how little the orphanage workers paid attention, decided to switch names. She was afraid the men that killed her father would come back for her. When the body of the girl was found, Amy Callen was buried as Hannah Lawson.
Strangest thing is that when Callen visits this grave, he finds flowers with a note ‘For my daughter, always in my heart’.
Now wait… who put that there?
Nikita Aleksandr Reznikov | (Callen’s Father)
It must have surprised Callen when he suddenly finds out that his father was ‘found’. For a while, we also believed that [Reznikov, N. | #5.04] ‘Callen we have your father’, is scrawled in blood all over the walls of a residence in California.
The discovery that his father is alive, and that he has been captured by the Cosmescus, has G going ‘lone wolf’ once again, and in his blind rush to find the one family member who is still alive, being captured. He now has to face one of the surviving Comescus, Vasile, Dracul’s brother. Vasile forces the older man to say ‘My name is Nikita Aleksandr Reznikov. I am your father.’ Vasile proceeds to shoot the man, right in front of Callen.
Heartbreaking to see the ever stoic agent in charge getting so emotional…
Soon Callen discovers that the man who was shot and died was NOT his father. Hans Schreiber, or, as he called himself Michael Reinhardt, came from East Germany with some help from a major in the KGB. Because of that help, Schreiber kept an eye on the boy Callen and his sister. The real Nikita Aleksandr Reznikov, officer in the Soviet Russian army, got arrested and was sent to a labor camp in Siberia back in 1974.
Tears for Callen, tears from Callen, as we all witnessed the loving pictures of a baby-Callen, his young sister Amy and his father. True, right?
And now what… should we call G. Callen ‘G. Reznikov’ from now on?
THE ‘OTHER’ FAMILY
Throughout all of the seasons, we see that Callen has definitely found another kind of family: his team. It starts with Macy and Gibbs [Legend, part I]:
Callen: Did you and Gibbs work on a case together?
Macy: Why do you want to know?
Callen: Just looking out for my family.
Macy: G, you don’t have any family.
Callen: That’s cold, Mace.
Macy: But true.
Callen: Gibbs is family. You, too.
There’s this very special relationship Callen has with Hetty. She might consider him to be a surrogate son. However, she is also the one who willingly kept him in the dark as to the facts she knows of his family.
Callen: You owe me some answers.
Hetty: Is that so? Answers to what specifically?
Callen: What happened in Romania. Why I knew that beach. Who my mom was. All of it. You knew things you never told me. Why?
Hetty: If I didn’t tell you something, it was for your own good. To protect you.
Callen: I deserve the truth.
Hetty: Ah, the truth. It’s not always so simple. I don’t have all the answers you think I do. The last thing I ever wanted to give you was false hope. I know how much it all means to you.
Callen: Do you? Something tells me everything I want to know – everything I deserve to know – is right here. Am I right?
Hetty: No. But go ahead and open it if you don’t trust me. [He hesitates; she smiles kindly at him; he looks at the file in his hands – and faces her]
Callen: I will find out who I am and who my family was with or without anyone’s help. [He stands up, throws the file back into the suitcase, closes it and leaves.
Hetty (sighs heavily): Yes, you will, Mr. Callen.
[Cyber Threat | #3.02]
His partner and best friend Sam is a kind of brother. Or maybe a kind of mother too?
Callen: You know what, I slept in.
Sam: With who? You barely sleep.
Callen: There’s nobody.
Sam: Come on – I think it would be great for you to be in a relationship.
Callen: Sam, how many times are we going to have this conversation? You’re my partner! Not my mother!
Sam: I just want you to be happy and find a good girl!
[Chinatown | #1.16]
It is the other way around too, because it is his large friend mentions:
Sam: You know what really scares me?
Callen: You mean besides clowns?
Sam: Losing my partner.
[Little Angels | #2.05]
FAMILY OF HIS OWN?
For Sam’s kid(s?), Callen is ‘Uncle Callen’. Sometimes he’s spoiling her, and sometimes Callen is just teasing his partner.
Callen: Well, maybe Santa will bring it to her.
Sam: Maybe I’ll tell her Uncle Callen said he’d get it for her. “It’s okay baby girl, Uncle Callen didn’t mean to let you down.”
Callen: You wouldn’t.
Sam: Ho ho ho.
[Higher Power | #3.11]
Callen shows a softer side for kids. Remember that touching scene from Purity, where he comes to see Alex in a foster place? [Purity | #4.20]:
Callen: How’d you sleep last night?
Alex: Okay, I guess.
Callen: If you sleep well the first night, it means you’re in a good place.
Alex: How do you know?
Callen: I just do.
We all remember ‘my little sister’, Alina Rostov. The little girl who, when she grew up, was supposed to warn Callen that he was in danger (Arkady Kolcheck had arranged that). Sadly he did not recognize her when that moment came.
Alina felt guilty about being too late and wanted to revenge the shooting [Legend II]. Unfortunately, she was killed herself [Pushback | #1.07]. Callen remembers the Rostov’s as being best foster home he stayed. It is the very same place Hetty arranged to buy – Callen’s home nowadays.
Then there is this little boy, Michael. The one who might be Jason Thedrow’s (a.k.a. G. Callen’s) little son. Those of us who know how to calculate just a tad and who pay attention to the looks of people, really believed, like Callen himself does, that Michael might be his son.
Did you notice the pang of disappointment, or perhaps disbelief, when Kristen Donnelly tells him that he is not?
What do you think – Will Callen have a family of his own – one day?!
Now, this was just ONE part of a retrospective that could have been stretched to several books about the mystery man we know as G.
What do you want to discover about Callen in season 6 and what do you wish for him to happen? Do you think he will try to find his father?
Thank you for all of your input, especially to Fern, & Sunshine. However, this post could not have been written without the other partners in crime who had our backs, trusted us to stay focused and kept us updated ChrisDaisy, Mary, Vicki, Bee and sindee !
A shout-out to a great source for scrolling through all of the series: www.ncis-los-angeles.hypnoweb.net
Thank you!
