Category Archives: 4×24 – Descent

Descent (4X24) Review by Phillydi

Descent

Decent (4X24)

WRITTEN BY: Frank Military

DIRECTED BY: Terrence O’Hara

The wild speculation leading to the final episode of the season has been a very powerful rallying call for the fans of NCIS Los Angeles.  We’ve all been speculating as to what will happen to our crusading heroes after watching all the horrifying trailers.  Images of team members floating in water, crashing through windows and being tortured have been circulating throughout the media sites for days now.  Even Shane Brennan says he can’t watch some of the scenes without grimacing.  We’ve been following the ominous thread all season with the theft of a number of nuclear bombs by a known Russian arms dealer.  The storyline began in Rude Awakening and continued later in the year with the episode Wanted.  As Isaac Sidorov gets closer to selling the weapons, the team tries to match him step by step. Unfortunately, the man keeps eluding them and in the finale the team must stop him from making the sales, locate the weapons and save the world from nuclear annihilation.  Jeez, not asking too much, are we?  To add further angst to the pot, Densi fans who have had to watch the painful pas de deux between Kensi and Deeks over the past couple of episodes, now wonder if they will ever be able to overcome their own personal demons when it comes to resolving their feelings towards each other. Apparently facing an untimely death tends to put a whole lot of things into perspective.

A parade of evil guest stars (including the Chameleon) gather to make this one of the most explosive finales in the show’s history.    To try and fit all this action and emotion into one hour is going to be hard to watch while knowing we will have to wait all summer for the conclusion!

The last show of the season is off and running after a nuclear bomb explodes in a Mexican dessert.  Sidorov wants to prove that the bombs are still functional because he needs to find a buyer.  The team knows the exact man to do business with Sidorov!  I guess we never thought after last year that the Chameleon would return to broker a weapon’s deal and help the people who put him away.  Callen and Kensi partner-up for a trip to Iran to find Janvier.  There’s a new chess game in town and Janvier doesn’t want to play until Callen throws him a poker chip instead….revenge.  He agrees with one condition…that Callen finishes what he started by killing him after the mission.  Callen’s refusal sets up Janvier’s next move on the board.  It will lead to the team’s ultimate destruction.

Meanwhile, Granger orders Sam and Michelle to find Sidorov and reconnect as part of his team. The husband and wife team are able to rejoin Sidorov by playing another dangerous undercover game and helping him set up the eventual deal with Janvier.

Deeks has been assigned as Sam’s new partner during this phase of the mission and Sam is not happy.  What a surprise!   As a side bar, we have been witness this year to Sam’s continuing insults to the team’s LAPD liaison, Deeks. Although his remarks were often funny and seemed to be in good nature, it looks like there was something actually brewing under the surface all along.  Amazingly, Deeks has kept his feelings under wrap for a long but finally loses his patience (a rare occurrence for sure!) and demands an explanation. Sam just doesn’t like different.  How could he find a problem with Deeks character?  Really?  I have a feeling he will regret these words by the time the show is over.  Not sure where the writers are going with this…but it is an interesting reveal about Sam.

Back in the boathouse, Callen instructs Janvier to call Vaziri to find a buyer for the weapons and then convinces Sidorov he will play middle-man and introduce him to Vaziri’s buyer deep in the Mojavi Dessert.  Janvier is going to be the one to broker the deal himself…this time there is another request…a daughter in Paris that he wants the blood money to go to.  Something just doesn’t feel right to Callen.  Yes, the inside of Janvier head is a scary place.  There are so many pieces on this chessboard, my head is spinning.

The deal goes down, Janvier does his job but Callen is still not feeling right about it all.  He doesn’t like being on the same team as Janvier because he feels he’s being played.  The exchange is in process…the gold is good and Sam gets to deliver it to the bank.  But Sidorov has a more sinister idea in mind! Sam and Michelle have been made!   When Sam is pushed into the pool with a box of heavy gold bricks attached to his wrist, Deeks races to the rescue.  Can you just see Deeks used CPR to save Sam….oh boy! Don’t you wish they had filmed that scene!

Descent

Brennan is right; the violence against the team is hard to watch.  First Sam and now Michelle.  Oh no, and now Deeks! I really can’t watch this.  The expression on Sam’s face begging Deeks not to give into Sidorov’s cruelty is heartbreaking.  We end the season with Deeks screaming in terrible agony.  I think I will hear that scream ringing in my ears all summer long.

Callen was right. Janvier had only one purpose in helping NCIS and that was to take revenge on the senior agent….he will  kill everything Callen loves and that includes Sam….sadly, Deeks is collateral damage.  Like I said it’s going to be a long summer, folks.

Show Highlights:

  • The action was intense and the quality of the episode was first rate.  Kudos to Mr. O’Hara and company.  Frank Military also turned in another excellent script.  Can’t wait to see Joe Wilson’s conclusion to the two-part episode next season.
  • Nice to see Deeks finally demanding the respect he should receive from all the members of the team.  About time!
  • Enjoyed watching Callen trying to keep his cool while working with Janvier.  Oooh this so sticks in his claws!  Emotions are at an all-time high!  Janvier may get his death wish yet!
  • Deeks complains about Kensi’s communications skills but unfortunately, he’s also held back from saying what he wants to say due to fear.  Poor man is afraid of what his partner might eventually tell him, I suspect.  Where does that leave us?  Yep, love sucks.
  • The green eyed monster is back again leading to…..THE KISS!!  No need to say more. But did Kensi just act like it never happen? Yeah, she did.  Damn!
  • So I stand corrected.  Deeks has great communications skills!  Densi fans can be heard sighing around the world tonight.  Thank you Mr. Brennan!

Descent

Another thank you goes out to Massi Furlan (Mikhail Andros) for being our final guest star interview of the season and talking to us about his career and the explosive season finale.  Massi will be sharing some exclusive photos with us…so check back later this week.  It was a real treat to talk to Massi and we invite him back any time to NCISLA Magazine.

I also would like to thank all of the incredible readers who have read and graced this review with their comments and remarks about the show over the last 24 episodes.  I’ve had a great time and I can’t wait to do it all again next September!  Have a wonderful summer and I’ll see you back here then!  Let’s hope we can all make it to Season Five without any more casualties!  Take care!

Follow me on Twitter  @phillydi

Exclusive Review

 

Interview with Massi Furlan

massi ficoThis is our final interview for the season and we couldn’t have picked a more delightful or talented guy to end the year.  Throughout the course of our time together, Massi Furlan had me smiling and laughing constantly with his wonderful stories and comments on the world in general and in particular his time spent on NCIS Los Angeles.  Massi plays Mikhail Andros, one of a bevy of bad guys that the show has brought together for the explosive season finale.

A Renaissance kind of guy, Massi has dipped his toes in a number of different vocations, including time spent as a stand-up comedian, chef and flying helicopters…but his heart was calling him elsewhere.  Massi finally decided to pursue a career in the performing arts and he’s never looked back again.  With his ruggedly handsome looks and piercing stare, this Italian actor has managed to play his share of bad guys but would love to do more comedy as well.  According to Massi he enjoyed keeping LL Cool J laughing between scenes as the two spent a lot of time working on the finale together.   Let’s find out more about Massi…

Growing up in Italy, what pulled you towards the performing arts and how did you get started in the business?

In Italy I did many jobs.  I was in the Army flying helicopters and then I was a stand up comedian.  I was doing stand up for 30-40 minutes and my specialty was impersonating people, like actors, or a famous singers or the Pope.  That was part of my routine.  Then I moved to Miami in 1998.  I had my brother in the restaurant business and I went there to help him out but I got tired of the business and I decided to go back to my passion which was to work in the entertainment business.  So I did a couple of movies in Miami and I realized there wasn’t much going on in Miami and the right place to be was Hollywood.  So I’ve been working since I moved here.  I can’t complain.  I’m very excited to be here.

You were in Dark Knight Rises, part of the Batman franchise…what was it like working with Christian Bale, and Tom Hardy, to name a few?

Tom Hardy is a super nice guy.  It was my first big movie so I tried to be professional but he was always joking around with me.  We had a great time. He is a nice person, great actor and beautiful human being.  Alon Moni Aboutboul who was also in this picture worked with me in the final episode of NCISLA.  He played the scientist in Dark Knight Rises and he is a very nice guy.  He is from Israel and he told me that he is a big celebrity there and people always stop him in the streets but here no one knows him and it’s a big change for him.  But he is a very talented actor.  We have a scene together in the finale of NCISLA and have recurring roles in the show.

You have an interesting background as a stand-up comedian, chef, helicopter pilot and now actor.  Seems like you live life to the fullest!  Anything else you want to accomplish?

I want to sky dive!  All my friends have done it including my brother but I haven’t done it yet!  I would also like to shoot a movie in Australia and work with my number one, favorite actor, Sir Anthony Hopkins.  On the female side there is Meryl Streep because she broke the mold.

Without giving any of the plot away, can you tell us about the character you play in your upcoming guest appearance on NCISLA?  Who in the cast did you work with? 

One detail I am very proud of is that the description of my character in the script was he was 6 foot tall, 2 inches, and Russian.  My manager says that’s how good an actor Massi is because they were looking for a 6 foot tall Russian and he is a 5’11” tall Italian!  I don’t know why but I play a lot of Russians.  I work with Sidorov who is the wonderful, fantastic actor, Timothy Murphy and we have a very similar path in our career.  He’s Irish and he plays Russians all the time too.  So we have that in common.  The guy is so good!  I’m one of his men, Sidorov’s group of men.  I also worked with Eric (Christian Olsen), LL Cool J, Christopher Lambert and they will never forget me.  You will see how it ends…it is very epic!  I had such fun making LL Cool J laugh.  I told him I was a comedian!

Massi Fulam, center

Massi Furlan, center    @cbs


What was your experience like on the NCISLA set and can you share any great stories you took away with you working with the cast and crew?

It was great!  Everybody was very nice from the first PA to the Director.  They were all working together with the writer…fantastic writer, Frank Military, and he was on set working constantly with the producers and the director.  Some directors want to make all the calls but working together with Terrance O’Hara was beautiful. He would always ask if we wanted to change anything and this crew has all been working together for many years on the set so the chemistry between everybody was fantastic.  In fact on the last day he gave me a hug and it was nice to be appreciated that you did a great job.  That was the first time a director ever hugged me!  I have a quote I live by: It’s a sign of mediocrity when you demonstrate gratitude with moderation.  He really appreciated your work and showed it.  Everyone was super cool.

What’s up next for Massi?  Tell us about your next projects.

I am funny and I want to do more comedy.  I would love to do a show like Modern Family because it is a very funny show too.  But finally after five years I have a big audition tomorrow with another very big show. (More to come about that later!).  I also have a movie coming out called Blood of Redemption, I play a Serbian guy and it looks great.
We would like to thank Massi for the delightful time he spent talking to NCISLA Magazine and we wish him well as he follows his dream of one day working with Anthony Hopkins!  We hope to see him return to our pages soon!

You can follow Massi on Twitter: @Massi_bos
Or on his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/massifurlanactor

Diane Interview