NCIS: Los Angeles Season 13 Episode 20 Review: Work & Family
Was there a case there somewhere?
It was hard to tell on NCIS: Los Angeles Season 13 Episode 20 as team members got pulled in multiple directions by personal issues.
At one point, a case came in, but only Kilbride and Shyla were there to handle it.
We finally know why Kilbride brought Shyla out to L.A. He needed someone who gets his cantankerous self.
Shyla knows how to take his crap and dish it right back at him. The rest still aren’t sure how to take him, even after a couple of years.
So, let’s dispense with the case of the week expeditiously.
A couple of moron burglars managed to blow themselves up after an aborted break-in at a military base. So that by itself suggested they were amateurs, not professionals.
After Kilbride gruffly managed to rally the troops, Fatima and Rountree naturally got dispatched to the crime scene, doing the grunt work of finding anything they could about the break-in. That didn’t yield many results.
That bungled break-in didn’t say much about the abilities of those behind it. But while the break-in was botched, they did a pretty thorough clean-up afterward.
They hired a slick lawyer to represent both the unconscious, hospitalized burglar and the dead one to stonewall law enforcement.
Then they managed to sanitize and boobytrap the dead burglar’s RV, likely the staging area for the break-in. What was Kilbride thinking sending in Fatima and Rountree to check out that RV without first having the bomb squad make sure it was safe to enter?
That miscalculation took them out for the rest of the brief action. But Shyla’s sweep of the burglar’s social media brought the team to that most topical of villains after Jan. 6: the Q-Anon-fueled redneck militia.
So six of the team would bring down an unspecified number of the Trumper army? That was the plan?
That might have worked had Kensi and Deeks not gone charging into a trap without backup.
It was great to see Kilbride and Shyla go flying into action in place of the concussed Fatima and Rountree, Even if Shyla’s gun appeared taller than she was.
Of course, they got off the chopper before it flew over the compound. And don’t you know that Kilbride enjoyed blowing away the militia chief with the missile?
And it was a hoot to watch a tied-up Kensi still managing to take down that zealot woman left to guard her and Deeks.
So the relatively quickly-dispatched case left lots of time for all the personal melodrama.
An episode can’t go by without the storyline of Kensi and Deeks wanting to become parents. It’s almost like watching the process in slow motion.
To make things more complicated, how about they adopt two teen girls depending on the fouled-up U.S. immigration system to grant them asylum?
Rosa’s aunt took ill, so her asylum application was suddenly in jeopardy. Pilar was facing a similar challenge.
So Kensi had the brainstorm of her and Deeks adopting both of them, if nothing else to give them more time for their asylum requests to crawl through the system.
Deeks, the driving force in this parenting crusade, suddenly had cold feet. Because two teens would be more complicated than one nonspecific foster child?
Rosa was undoubtedly enthusiastic about the concept. Maybe they’ll get around to informing Pilar of their plans next episode. That would leave the finale to tie up everything with a bow.
After meeting Raymond, it helped explain how Sam is how he is. It was viewing a picture of how Sam will be 20 years down the road.
This new housing arrangement will prove difficult both for Sam and Raymond. Sam’s father bristled at being told what he could and couldn’t do.
It will be interesting to see if we get to view any interaction between these two and Raymond’s caretaker or if much of the Raymond difficulties will be happening offscreen. And wouldn’t it be fun to see Kilbride and Raymond get together and swap war stories?
It was hilarious that Raymond found a way to work around Sam’s orders by having furniture and beer delivered to him. Maybe the caretaker will help Sam to control that behavior.
Also, how much will dealing with Raymond interfere with Sam’s work at OSP? This storyline is a chance to illustrate a struggle many viewers are dealing with, juggling work life with caring for an aging parent.
Callen took time out from his Katya problem to deal with his other current goal: Marrying Anna.
Since Arkady was seemingly ducking Callen’s calls, Callen went to him to get his blessing to marry Anna. Only Arkady refused to give it, telling Callen their marriage would be cursed if they went against his wishes.
Why is Arkady opposed to them marrying? Is he aware of Callen’s current predicament? Or does he think that Anna is too stubborn to settle into domestic life?
It will be fun to see Anna’s reaction when Callen brings up this problem next episode.
To revisit Callen’s relationship with Arkady, watch NCIS: Los Angeles online.
How will Anna react when she hears of Arkady’s edict?
Should Kensi and Deeks adopt both girls?
How well will Sam and Raymond get along living together?
Comment below.
Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
