Category Archives: Review

Blye, K. Pt.2 (3×17) review DENSI-style by @phillydi


Let’s get into tonight’s show…

Kensi is up and running and going after the sniper but she wants to go it alone. It’s been a long wait for her to find out who killed her father and she is determined to see this through without the team’s help. Harris is dead and Granger is missing too? With the help of Calen and Sam, Hetty is going to have his head on a plate! But Granger is able to explain his actions and now he knows who the killer is! The man was the commanding officer of the Black Ops unit. They all though Peter Clairmont was dead, but he had faked his death. Sam and Callen figure out that he probably is the number one suspect in Donald Blye’s murder and the rest of the team. It all comes down to the sniper unit’s final kill of a US journalist. Kensi’s father realizes that Clairmont has gone rogue and killed the journalist for writing an expose on him.

Read the rest of @phillydi’s review including her very special “Densi Watch”.

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Blye, K. (3×16) review DENSI-style by @phillydi


Welcome back to NCISLA Rewind! I haven’t been this excited about a new show since The Debt! Here we have another chance to explore what makes Densi click and maybe take them one step closer to that shipper relationship we all covet. This two part episode has been highly anticipated by all fans since the first hint that the creators were finally going to explore Kensi’s family history. Tonight’s episode was written by perennial favorite, Joe Wilson who along with Jonathan Frakes brings to the screen a dramatic and nail biting first-parter! It’s great to find Frakes back behind the camera again (Ok, I admit it. I had a fan girl crush on Number One since his glory days on Star Trek the Next Generation!). Together with Joe Wilson, he was able to balance just the right amount of tension and angst in this long awaited episode.

Read the rest of @phillydi’s review including her very special “Densi Watch”.

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Crimeleon (3×15) review DENSI-style by @phillydi


Happy Valentine’s Day to my NCISLA family! We get a honey of an episode from the same players that brought us The Job (one of my favorite episodes!). Written by Frank Military and directed by Terrance O’Hara, the team is after a chameleon –like killer who has been able to slip through the hands of multi law enforcement agents by brilliantly changing personas and skipping town. Callen was one of those law enforcement agents trying to track the chameleon down and with Granger breathing down the team’s collective necks; they are tasked to bring this criminal to justice.

Looks like Granger is blaming Callen on this one and if that isn’t bad enough, the guy is stalking the NCIS team. The Chameleon (Where have you been lately Christopher Lambert?) has broken out of prison and Callen has taken it on himself to catch him. Granger is going to be sure to hold his feet to the fire until he does. Callen knows he’s missing something but with Sam he figures out how the Chameleon has been fooling the authorities but they have no idea what he looks like because he can assume so many accents and identities. Callen admits he’s the best he’s ever seen.

Read the rest of @phillydi’s review including her very special “Densi Watch”.

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Partners (3×14) review by @phillydi

When Dave Kalstein announced on Twitter that the title of his new episode was called Partners, (co-written by Gil Grant) a few of us thought it would center on Kensi and Deeks. Dave was quick to put us straight by saying he is very capable of writing for other characters as well. Well of course you are Dave. We all know that. But the Densi crowd can always hope, can’t we? It looks like we’ll have to wait a little longer….

So of course, we now know that the partners featured in last night’s episode are Callen and Sam. Directed by first time NCISLA director, Eric Laneuville, we get to wish the pair a happy five year anniversary as the old partners are faced with one of their biggest challenges yet.

The previews leading up to the show were all pretty intense and I thought Team Callen was going to have a nervous breakdown on Twitter when we watched Sam getting ready to bash Callen’s head in with a tire iron! Will the partners be around to celebrate a sixth anniversary? As the story starts, it doesn’t look promising.

The team is on the search for a missing package (filled with invoices? LOL!) from the State Department and the people responsible for that hijacking. Callen and Sam have little patience for the DSS courier agents who were suppose to be guarding the van. Something fishy is going on here, heh? There’s a whole bunch of cartel activity involved and one or two bent DSS agents thrown in to boot.

I don’t know about you but the final scene was hard to watch and you could tell Sam was reliving every moment of their partnership as he was beating the hell out of Callen. But luckily Sam pulled his punches, at least that’s what he told Callen! Ha!

Another strong showing from the team. I enjoyed the exploration of what makes a partnership great. But then of course that’s what this show is all about, isn’t it?

Best Lines of the Show:

Sam: Before I got stuck with you, Sam Hanna was an international brand.
Callen: Before I got stuck with you I didn’t realized that people who referred to themselves in the third person really existed in life.
Sam: Kind of like guys who have one letter of the alphabet as their first name.

Nell: Hold on, Kensi and Deeks are psychoanalyzing Callen and Sam? Irony thy name is…this!

Highlights of the Show:

• Got a kick out of Sam saying “BOOM” when he put down the case of beer in front of Callen. I think LLcool j has been spending too much time around Joey Wilson!
• Granger is back! I have no idea why that makes me giddy??? The Hunter slam was pretty funny too.
• Callen’s interrogation of the female agent was illuminating since it reflected how important his partnership is with Sam. There was a mirror turned on both sets of partners. Sam and Callen learned a lot about their partnership by trying to read the motivation of both DSS partners. This study in loyalty was intriguing.

Deeks’ Moments:

• I loved watching Deeks watching Sam and Callen describing their first case together. He was getting such a kick out of watching the tennis match going on between them.

• Oh noooo! Deeks was almost shot again…. I thought we were going to have a sequel to Personal!

Densi Watch:

Kensi and Deeks have a great scene at the winery:

Deeks: Am I the only one having flash backs of Raiders of the Lost Ark?
Kensi: What do you mean?
Deeks: The movie in the last scene where they wheel in the Lost Ark into this giant warehouse. Wait a minute, have you not seen the movie?
Kensi: I’ve seen it!
Deeks: You’re a liar!
Kensi: Why would I lie?
Deeks: Ok, how does the movie begin?
Kensi: I forget. (Deeks gives Kensi the look!) Ok, I haven’t seen it, so what…big deal.
Deeks: You really were raised by wolves, weren’t you?

And here’s another scene with some great Densi banter (It’s got Kalstein’s signature all over it, no? With a little help from ECO it seems! I’d like to think it’s his nod to all us Densi fans out there!):

Kensi: You know I got to hand it to Callen and Sam. Do you think our partnership is going to last five years?
Deeks: I can’t see why not, unless one or both of us dies in the line of duty, or I decide to finally go off and join the circus or your biological clock goes off and you pop out a litter of gifted mutant assassins.
Kensi: Really?
Deeks: But they would be fighting on the side of justice, naturally.
Kensi: Naturally.

Finally! You got to give Deeks an A+ for trying to get Kensi to open up to him again. You keep trying Marty…one of these days she may give in!

It’s your turn ladies and gents. There were a lot more great lines and highlights. So add them to this review and let me know your thoughts….

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Exit Strategy (3×13) review by @phillydi

Last week’s episode, The Watchers is definitely a tough act to follow with such great writing and action sequences. When I heard they were going to do a follow-up to Betrayal, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look back at that episode which first aired back in November, 2011. Written by Frank Military and directed by Karen Gaviola it was an emotionally explosive show that had a lot of fans wondering more about Sam’s private live and how he was able to combine that life with the dangers of being an NCIS agent. Sam returns to the Sudan to track down missing CIA agent Michael Saleh.

The opening scene in Ops is anxiety-ridden as the NCIS team fears that Sam may be the third body found in a field outside of Cartum. Callen’s hesitancy to peel back the body shroud and his relief that it’s not Sam underneath is one of the more heartbreaking scenes filmed this year. It’s also a joy to watch the characters respond in relief when Callen first spots Sam on the streets to let them know he is alive and well.

Although I knew Sam had a family, I was surprised to find by the end of the show that his involvement with Jada was strictly business. Alright, call me a hopeless romantic, but I felt that there was something going on there despite the mission and that he wasn’t just using her. Sam tells Callen that he needs to do this (bring Jada back with him)…despite Callen’s objection. You could see the regret and guilt on his face when he has to betray his feeling for Jada in order to complete the mission. Despite having a wife and family back home (that he loves?), he is torn. Jada risked her life and defied her brother for the man she loved so it was hard to watch this betrayal despite the noble reasons for his actions. Does Sam hate himself when he has to tell her that none of it was real? Sure looked like it. My heart dropped at the end when Callen tries to talk to him in the hanger but realizes it won’t make a difference no matter what he says. He knows nothing will make Sam feel better.

I think Deeks summed up the whole episode when he said: I love these masks, I think they are so interesting because we all wear them at some point, don’t you think?

Switch now to tonight’s episode. Jada Khaled returns in Exit Strategy when an NCIS security detail vehicle she is riding in is ambushed. The NCIS team has got to find her possible assassins before it’s too late. It’s not surprising that Sam is going to have to come to grips with his emotional attachment to the woman once again. Written by NCISLA freshman writer Gregory Weidman and directed by Dennis Smith (Fame), I had to wonder why the producers decided to continue the story if there wasn’t more going on between Sam and Jada. It would be nice to see a Sam storyline that deals with his personal life and the conflicts between his work and his private life, the sacrifices he has to make, and how telling lies and half-truths affect his relationship with his wife and kids. It would definitely make for some interesting character development, don’t you think? (Thanks to MK for this observation.)

With no leads on Jada’s brother (the number one suspect), and with Emslie missing, the team is searching for leads. I enjoyed listening to Callen’s plea to Sam that they did the right thing for the greater good. He promises Sam they will put Khaled in his grave along with all the other monsters who committed crimes against humanity. Sam may be too close to this mission and Callen is wondering how far he’s going to go. (I think you scared the hell out him. In fact you scared the hell out of me.). Of course we find out that it was Elmslie who set up the assassination to save his family being held by Khaled. Just loved the shot of the team on the balcony as they watch Elmslie escape down the road.

Hetty is worried about her two senior agents and she has a right to be. Khaled is living up to his name and his treats against the team are ominous warnings for possible future retaliations. Scary guy.

Yes, Deeks, ask the elephant in the room question! The long awaited reunion of Sam and Jada was heartbreaking and as he tells Jada, their relationship wasn’t part of the plan…. So perhaps there was something there. But Sam remains an honorable man….he had no choice. But this story doesn’t end here. Khaled is still out there and Sam knows that his and Jada’s path will cross again. So stay tuned for the next chapter folks!

There was some comic relief in the form of the girls beating up on our favorite guys. Nell loves to one-up Eric whenever possible. They’re not even married and Eric is already sweetly henpecked. I like the dead arm rules better, I think. (I can’t feel my fingers!) Sorry Eric!

©jacqniv

Best Line of the Show:

Deeks: Put your rear in gear honey, that car ain’t driving itself.
Guard: You need a new job.
Kensi: Tell me about it.

Deeks Moments:

• Deeks in a suit! (Good God do I look breathtaking!)
• Oh a little bondage play? Really…naughty little librarian!
• Callen: He’s got a grenade! Deeks: Oh come on. Who does that?
• You think they would have learned their lesson after Kensi kicked one of their frères in the croissants the last time we met.
• Kensi: Bien sur, mon ami. Pas de probleme. Deeks: I love it when you talk dirty! And he tops it off with that famous Deeks’ smile!

Other Highlights of the Show:

• Loved seeing Hetty turn the jinx game around on Eric and Nell to her advantage.
• Kensi crying (never seen that before) and using her palm to wipe her nose! Now that was breathtaking!
• Looks like Granger is flying under the radar for this episode but looking forward to seeing him make a return appearance.
• Can you get us a shot of the street Eric? Hellooooo! Was there ever a doubt?
• Eric: Just promise me you won’t hurt me if it doesn’t work. Sam: Have I ever hurt you Eric? No but there can always be a first time…

Densi Watch:

Kensi gets one up on Deeks too after he mentions her relationship with her dad again. Once again, great Densi banter this time about Kensi’s tomboy childhood. (Do you think you were born a tomboy or you became one because your dad really wanted a son?) A well hit upper cut to the shoulder has Deeks doubled over in pain. I’m afraid you walked right into that one Deeks, genes or no genes! And Deeks, the businessman and Kensi the timid assistant will probably go down in Densi lore. Brilliantly played, guys!

Ok, it’s your turn…what are your thoughts about this episode?

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