Bubba not likey the “slow food”… 😉
Glitter is the devil’s dust ?? uh huh…
Mele Kalikimaka – Merry Christmas
January 3rd ?? I always thought it was January 6th…
Nell-o-saurus ?? Velma ?? Shaggy ?? Do we have to start another “nickname list” here… 😉
Got a workout DVD you wanna sell me ?? ROFL
Do you know the cow’s name ?? – Mac. And he was *big*. 😉
Can I know the plan ?? Go, Lily !!
Don’t suppose you’re sending me to LA ?? Paris ??
What happened to taking them alive? — Your guy’s alive, but he escaped. Is that some kind of big win?
![It was just getting fun. [Insert naughty Callen girl comment here...]](http://www.ncislamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/512_11.jpg)
It was just getting fun. [Insert naughty Callen girl comment here :)]
Where’s Nell when you need her ??
Seems this was the closest to a Neric scene we got in this Christmas Episode…
Secret CIA caches ?? NIIICE !!
You know what they say about aging, Senator. It ain’t for bitches.
Another great bromance scene coming up…
Nell in the field. What’s not to love ??
“Grinch”er mocking the Christmas tree…
Bearded Volture ?? Ew…
Pull up your skirt and drink. Loving the Nell & Deeks banter !!
To Kensi !!
Awesome-est Christmas gift EVER !!??
Loved this episode for so many reasons: Michelle Trachtenberg’s role was written awesomely and delivered just the same, Nell out in the field and her interaction with Deeks, multiple great Callen & Sam banter scenes, the Kensi & Granger storyline gets more and more intriguing every week, nice seeing Erik Palladino’s Sabatino back, Hetty’s witty remarks and her “Not-So-Secret” Santa gifts… What was your favorite scene ?? Love to hear from you in the comments.
MERRY CHRISTMAS NCISLAFamilia !!
I loved the episode. The banter was great and so was seeing Nell out in the field. Loved seeing her role be expanded, and the conversation between Hetty and Callen at the end was a great touch. I especially loved the end scene between Deeks and Kensi, maybe now people will lay off of Hetty.
Though when Sam blew up the car, was I the only one thinking that Hetty was going to be angry about their expense report? Especially when they later had to ditch their phones as well?
Can’t wait to see the recap once you have time to post it.
Looking forward to the pictures too and do enjoy the comments/remarks.
Great episode.
Lily was great….the dialog throughout was really good. Another ‘new’ glimpse of G and Sam using their skills and abilities. Like the way Hetty encouraged the Senator with her confidence in her people.
Grangers, …”Fa la la…” was hysterical.
This show is always so pro-dog….Dogs are people too, type a thing. Sometimes wonder as Grangers character keeps developing if we’ll find out that under it all, off the job and at home, Granger retreats to his sanctuary and is all about his dogs….
The stage is set for Deeks and Nell to maybe provide some very insightful/intriguing conversation….
Really liked the way Eric broached the -Kensi gone- subject with Hetty….
And it’s tough at the top.
The phones Hetty provided prove she is not insensitive to Densi.
Showed nicely that she understands very well what being in command has done to two peeps she cares deeply about. Once upon a time she gave her blessing to Sunshine & Gunpowder, and may have thoughtfully just enforced their vulnerable psyche’s—to not only perhaps help them keep it together in tough situations going forward, but to help them continue to draw strength from each other while apart; Almost as a Matriarch she communicates that a cord of three…is not easily broken.
Well said! Your insights are spot on!
I loved this episode! The banter between Callen and Sam about the Christmas cards was awesome! And I love how Deeks and Eric ganged up on him too!
Loved Michelle Trachtenberg as Lily. Very feisty and enjoyed her and Sam getting on Callen about his eating
Callen’s poor car 🙁 Time to shop for a new one…
Loved seeing Nell out in the field and the Scooby Doo banter between her and Deeks-very cute scene with them around the Eggnog bowl.
The end scenes were just awesome. The sadness on Deeks face when Sam toasted “To Kensi” 🙁 but leave it to Hetty to turn that frown upside down…
Last night I was thinking of Sindee’s picture recap. Since I am so crazy about the show, to stop myself from thinking too much, I put my thoughts in the boxes like notes. Kind of making it close ended. Its just the middle of the week and work is hectic…so can’t be goofy with something on mind :D.
So here’s what I kept ready for you guys.
Merry Evasion, Merry Occasion and Hawala introduction
Merry evasion of being killed and nice rollout of Hawala story for the 5×13 Allegiance story. Granger spoke about Hawala money coming into Pakistan and we got to know the Senator secret account(The money transfer). And the Senator owes the NCIS LA a debt…..so am thinking, it would be nice help from NCIS LA team to Granger’s team in Afghanistan in the next episode.
Otherwise an entertaining episode watching Lily, the senator’s daughters with Callen and Sam. Good knowing that Kensi is replacing the sniper who got decapitated on the same mission earlier. Surprised that Sabatino did not much flirt with Kensi. And Hetty gifts a secure line to Densi. And this time it is Eric who is missing his partner Nell. Awww! But Shaggy and Velma – Not done. Neeks Partnership worked but personally I say no to the Scooby Doo references. I cannot take it anymore about those Shaggy jokes.
Kensi has really a good Christmas with the Christmas Party going on and a chat with her lover-boy on phone who is still stuck on calling her his Partner. Hahaha!!! of course I am not expecting anything…. but still partner is a thing of past now. Oh Wait!! Does that “Partner” mean “Work Partner” or “Life Partner”. Oh No!! he called himself Monty. Awww!! Monty being awkward, moping around the house and listening to Tori Amos (so he cannot get himself to surf ?? or do anything else? Poor guy!). Monty be making Pot Roast in Crackpot for the Holidays if he already did not 🙂
But a word of advice to the writers. Afghanistan is 12 and half hours ahead of Los Angeles and no way Kensi, Deeks and Hetty are in same time zone. They cannot have nights at the same time. Can this be taken care for future episodes? Its an advanced geeky and techie age even for entertainment, so may be we can keep that realism, a little bit. Feel the pain of having a conversation in different timezones. How about Kensi in daylight talking to Deeks at night or vice versa ?
For detailed one
http://ncisla-episodeanalysisbysd.blogspot.com/2013/11/5×12-5×11-for-crew-karen-gaviola.html
I have to test. Sorry. Seems my post went dark like Sam and Callen in yesterday’s episode. Will this go dark again ?
Each year the writers always come up with something different for their holiday themed episodes. This one was really good. Loved the banter between Callen & Sam in the car with Lily as she asked Callen if he knew where his burger came from. Of course he did, it came from McD’s. So funny! And ananova wasn’t the only one who was wondering how Hetty would react to the blown up car & ditched cell phones. That explosion was HUGE!! How clever was it to see a ‘mini-mart’ of everything an agent would need stashed cleverly in an electrical box.
And Deeks was right when he said Nell did a really good job out in the field. She kept her cool, was level headed and as always handled her gun like a pro.
The phone call at the end was pure Densi banter, but with tinge of sadness. Beautifully played by ECO & Daniela. You could clearly see the emotions being played across their faces.
The Kensi storyline, so far, sounds to be very promising. Kensi clearly didn’t believe anything Sabatino & Granger said.
Hi all,
I feel a bit reluctant to say this, seeing all the positive comments, but in my very humble opinion Miss Michelle Trachtenberg acted terribly. Really, really bad acting.
Her poor acting in the opening scene was almost enough to make me stop watching the episode all together. Which would have been a shame, because I liked the chemistry between Troop NCIS LA as usual, and the story line in Afghanistan got really interesting and surprising.
Just like SD stated, I noticed too that the timing during the phone call was off – can’t be night in both LA as well as in Afghanistan… That struck me too.
But hey – Deeks and Kensi spoke again. That was lovely. And Hetty was being all great and wonderful 🙂
Happy holidays!
I loved this episode! There were so many good parts in it (and you captured them well in this post, thank you!).
Lily was great and so was Nell in this episode. Don’t know what to think of Sabatino, but I must say he fits in there, he really does.
The McGyver things of Callen & Sam once again surprised me. Funny that Nell and Callen seem to be the only ones who knew about the CIA-caches, by the way.
And I loved Hetty’s gesture: having Kensi connected to Deeks like this.
An episode that lived up to my expectations, all in all!
Forgot to add this to my previous comment.
Sam was correct. Glitter is the devil’s dust, because it like dog hair is hard to get rid of. No matter how many times you vaccumm it still shows up.
Can I also say how I like Kyle Harimoto. He’s a good writer, and I hope he sticks around. He use to write for H5O, and I enjoyed the episodes he used to pen for that show. He was actually one of the few writers who knew how to write a good episode for H5O.
This was a great episode! Loved how it gave us an opportunity to see deeks and nell partnering up and we got lots of action with callen and sam. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed all of their scenes in this episode :)Lots of great banter scenes as well.
Liked how callen and nell were the only ones who knew about the CIA caches, fit how callen is ex-CIA.
Also great to learn more about kensi’s assignment and why hetty wanted kensi to go; to find a leak. Christmas gift was great too :)Glad the dog was okay in the end. This might be one my favorite episodes!
P.S. Anyone else notice how now everytime callen drives his car, (or even drives in general, like in Lohkay) it ends up getting damaged/totaled/blown up? Suprised hetty hasn’t threatened another traffic school visit again…
I really liked the episode. I may be imagining things, but I’ve noticed more light-hearted bantering in the Christmas episodes, and MUCH bigger smiles from our Callen. And we usually get to see someone reunited with loved ones at the end. It seems the writers know just what we need to see at during the holiday season.
Yep. Had the same thought about the car. In fact, when they were being shot at with automatic weapons, I said out loud, “Hetty’s going to stop getting nice cars for Callen to drive.” And that was even before the explosion.
I liked Nell in the field, for a change. I did not think she was trying to replace Kensi in any way. She was just sweet Nell (Okay. Sweet Nell with a gun.)
The “Spy Stash” of goodies was fun! Of course Callen would know. He was once with the CIA. But little Nell? You go girl! But just think about it. She’s has been made privy to information and passwords that no one else has. If she keeps it up, I’m going to start calling her “Baby Hetty.”
Oooohhh. I think we may be beginning to see just a little more of why Kensi was chosen for this assignment. If there is a leak, who better than a person with undercover skills to go along with her marksmanship. But poor Kensi. Having to spend Christmas with the Granger-Grinch. (Loved the “Grinch-er” reference.)
The “secret phones” at the end… perfect!
Oh. Forgot to mention how special it was for them to toast Kensi at the end.
And sorry about all the typos in the above comments. Should have looked over it before clicking the button. Got sort of excited.
I think Kensi is send to Afghanistan because Granger already knows that Jack is the white ghost. He thinks (hopes) that kensi’s head will not be chopped off and that this will give him the advantage to bring the white ghost down. Off course for Deeks it’s food for thought that Kensi kills her ex fiancée in cold blood…
I had to wait for the picture recap because this is so much fun.
I like the episode very much due to many reasons.
The banter was great so much fun and hard laughs e.g. Mac and it was a big one…
A lot of action with bullets und fights and insights of the spy world and our super heros won again (though it seems a bit odd that they never get hit by a bullet only the bad guys).
What I also loved was the Callen/Deeks thing at the beginning. It shows that Callen has nothing against him at all. And Callen even borrowed his sweater to Deeks (Callen had the same one on in “Exit strategy” 3.13). So they are close 😉
What I don’t like unlike many others is Nell in the field. It just doesn’t seems right. She is not ready (made the mistake with the gun pressing it in the back of the bad guy though Sam showed Dom in seaon one that this it the way to determine where the gun is and go for it). And Eric seems lonely. So in my opinion she should go back to ops and Sam/Callen/Deeks should swap partners from time to time.
I am wondering if there will be some deep undercover episode again some time this season. This is something that I really miss. We haven’t seen Callen undercover for a looooong time.
So this episode was great fun to watch and a beautiful holiday episode.
I guess I’m in the minority in that I didn’t exactly love Lily. She was okay, but I got a much bigger dose of that character than I really wanted.
It’s weird to see how Kensi’s absence cascades thru all the pairings on the team. Deeks misses Kensi and works with Nell, Eric works alone and misses Nell. And somehow Hetty ends up in the field interviewing the senator. The only stable factor was the Bromance, which I liked, but too often Lily got in the way and disrupted the dynamic (maybe that’s why I didn’t like her.)
I’ve had enough of the Shaggy jokes and the pull-down-your-skirt comments to Deeks. Now Nell is joining in? Come on writers, come up with some new go-to lines.
I’m cautiously curious about the Afghanistan arc. I absolutely don’t trust Sabatino, and even though I think Granger is not showing all his cards, I don’t think he is the traitor. But Kensi’s situation is a lot more tenuous than just going in as a sniper to assassinate the bad guy.
On the subject of Afghanistan, two things: 1) time difference! and 2) how did Deeks, who supposedly doesn’t know where Kensi is, still know to comment on discos in the Hindu Kush (or was he just guessing)?
Hetty really redeemed herself by sending the 2nd secure number to Kensi and giving Deeks the sat phone. I hope we’ll see at least one Densi scene in each of the remaining episodes that Kensi is away.
Overall, the episode had a season one feel to it: Lots of Callen and Sam (despite Lily’s presence), many things that go boom, and a bunch of other characters whose relationships seemed a little random or at least not well fleshed out. Hardly enough to tide me over during the hiatus, but still a good episode.
Happy Holidays.
Hello people!! episode charm me the different dynamics that were there was great seeing sam, silent and lily on one side and the new duo deeks nell brilliant!! kensi granger in Afghanistan and now I’m more concerned hetty kensi remote to find out who is leaking in there?? the traitor?? sabatino me is suspect?? his fellow sniper, was killed and beheaded and told to kensi?? I do not like?? Maybe the final scene kensi deeks deeks and looked half drunk by the punch and kensi was happy to hear his voice! were spoken! deek face surprised and face kensi of love! It was the perfect Christmas gift for all fans!!! simply thanks!!
Hello Jan,
Nice catch there about the “Hindukush” mountain reference. 😉
It was lovely feel reading everyone’s comments.
Thank you Sindee.
Happy Holidays.
Finally, I’m writing the comment!!
I loved that episode and it doesn’t surprise me at all that this one had the highest ratings.
Lily was great…ok,she had moment she started talking to Bubba.What can I say I love to see that there are some crazy dog persons out there 😉 Thanks to her we finally got some real Sam/Callen banter!
I would have liked to hear what kind of answer G would have given her to the “What’s your story?” question……
Anyhow, Lilly,the Senator and Bubba can come back anytime they want.
Nell in the field:
She was good. It’s just that I sometimes don’t like the way she approaches people…like asking the Senator about Lily.I know she had to ask and I know she apologized but I wish she would have asked a bit more delicately.
Next time Nell has to leave the bag in the car! It was a “magic bag” to put in Lily’s words but seriously what I kind of field agent cares a bag around when questioning people? (Yes,I’m a pain in the a$$)
The Neeks banter was great. I think Nell can learn a lot from Deeks. He is a great operator and I liked that the wasn’t reluctant to take her with him.
– Question: Nell knew about the CIA caches because she ..accidentally… read about them but why did only Callen know about them as well and not Sam? He seemed pretty surprised and Nell specifically said “Callen has to know” not “the guys”.
-The Afghanistan story:
– I liked how Kensi nagged Granger about “walking 10 Miles in the snow to get to school”
– YES! I was right Kensi is not only there as a sniper!
– Granger’s comment about the decoration making everyone homesick made me think because I don’t believe that he was only being “Grinch-er”.Especially, after reading some of your comments.I also pictured him as a lone wolf,single, no kids,no pets but what if he has someone? Before that I thought he might have an ex-wives clan like Gibbs does.
I totally supporting the idea of him having a pet.It’s just that I’m not sure how having a pet and being and Assistant Director would work out. He obviously travels quite often….who takes care of the pet when he’s away?…So maybe there is someone? Many questions coming up here.
-The different time zone-talking on the phone aspect something they need to work on.
Just wondering…did Deeks just sing because he felt like it or was it Nell’s eggnog? Probably both 😉
Hi LasiaMsinred, to answer your question Callen knew about the caches because he used to be CIA and they were set up by the CIA for field agents. My only problem with that scene is that he was there years ago, you would think they would have changed the codes by now.
Hi Ananova!
Thank you for replying. I remember that Callen was CIA (I still wonder how many people must have recognized him as “Clara’s kid” especially the old guard )
I should have put my question the way you did.Why or How did the know the codes? Because as you already mentioned it’s been a few years.
Plus, these are CIA caches they most likely don’t want other federal agencies to know about them or agents using them.
Here is my guess of how Callen knew the code.
He was a field agent of the CIA and maybe they get one individual code -ike a PIN- to open these caches. I guess each CIA field agent has a different code and the CIA hasn’t deleted Callens code. They probably never delete a code of any former CIA field agents. But that is just a guess. I don’t really know anything about it.
And for Sam, he only worked in joint-operations with them. Sam was never a field agent of the CIA so that is why he didn’t know about these hidden caches.
Unfortunately Australia has gone onto summer vacation programming on TV, so it will be two months before we get new episodes again. However, I have enjoyed readying about this episode and thank you sindee for these picture recaps. The snippets of video, info and images have shown great banter between Callen and Sam (like we saw back in season 1), which we love so much. I am looking forward to seeing how Nell goes out in the field and seeing a very happy Callen. The writers on this show have done an awesome job creating a dual storyline for Kensi while Daniela has her baby. And of course we all know that although Hetty acts all stoic and ruthless sometimes, she see her people as family and is a big softy inside. So I for one am glad but not surprised that she organised for Kensi and Deeks to chat on the phone.